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We Have No More Neighbors, We Feel Alone On An Island

A report from the Wall Street Journal. “When William Mark decided to get back into investing after the 2008 financial crisis, he looked past stocks and bonds. Needing to play catch-up with his retirement portfolio, the piping engineer decided to bet on a complicated product he hoped would deliver double-digit annual returns. Mr. Mark bought a leveraged ETN issued by UBS AG that bet on companies that invest in the mortgage market, known as mortgage real-estate investment trusts. He eventually poured $800,000 into the investments, called leveraged exchange-traded notes, or ETNs. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, he lost almost every penny.”

“‘I’m 67 years old and I’m basically bankrupt in just two weeks,’ Mr. Mark said.”

From Next City on Nevada. “With the coronavirus pandemic causing untold economic damage again, state housing advocates are preparing for another potential wave of foreclosures. Last month, as the state’s unemployment rate soared past that of the Great Recession, the Nevada Affordable Housing Assistance Corporation, a group that administers the state’s Hardest Hit Fund, announced that it was relaunching a program that helps people on unemployment pay their mortgages.”

“‘The numbers are staggering,’ Verise Campbell, the CEO of the Nevada Affordable Housing Assistance Corporation, said last week after the program relaunched. ‘For example, we turned our phones on yesterday, and within 17 minutes we had 260 calls.'”

“Rather than keep the phones on and pile up applications that will take a long time to process, the organization shut them off. It’s accepting only a few hundred calls each day, in order to be able to respond to applicants more quickly, Campbell says.”

The Madison Park Times in Washington. “We have the first data in from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service since the stay home order was implemented, and, as we expected, the market experienced a slight dip but certainly not the free fall that some predicted. In looking at Seattle as a whole: Sales of homes over $2 million dropped from 66 from March 1, 2019, to May 25, 2019, to 51 during the same time period in 2020. The average price of these sales was $2,898,699 in 2019 and $2,678,041 in 2020 for that time frame.”

“No matter how tight the inventory, pricing and presentation will always be the key principles to a successful transaction. Take this time to make your home market ready; first impressions count. Having an experienced broker who will analyze the micro-neighborhoods and the most recent sales data will help you price your home competitively. If a home goes on the market even a bit too high, it can sit, and that may result in a larger price reduction than if the home had come on the market at a reasonable listing price.”

The Idaho Press. “Measures necessary to slow the spread of COVID-19 pushed Idaho’s unemployment levels to a record high, but many local developers are moving ahead with major projects anyway. Even though the country is in a new stage of economic uncertainty, the vast majority of Boise’s major development projects currently underway will continue as planned. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t questions about the future. Developers say lenders have tightened up their requirements for projects.”

“Clay Carley, general manager of Old Boise LLC and developer for several major downtown Boise projects, said the pandemic has not slowed the demand for housing in the area. He still plans to break ground on his two-building, 60-unit development on Sixth Street in downtown Boise. Carley said days before the final deal was going to be sealed with two of his financers, they backed out due to the pandemic, so he had to scramble and find other financing.”

“‘Someone on their loan committee asked for more security in these projects,’ he said, about the lenders who backed out. ‘Usually that means you think the market is going to go down or this project isn’t going to absorb and pay the debt, but I can’t imagine why they would think that in this market, in this location.'”

From Socket Site in California. “While the pace of home sales in San Francisco has started to rebound, new listing activity continues to outpace the number of new purchase contracts being written. The number of homes listed for sale across the city, net of new sales, ticked up another 7 percent over the past week to 930, representing 44 percent more homes on the market than at the same time last year and another 9-year seasonal high in terms of inventory levels.”

“At the same time, the percentage of listings with at least one official price cut – which doesn’t include properties that were withdrawn from the MLS and then re-listed with a lower ‘original’ list price – has ticked up to 19 percent.”

The La Jolla Light in California. “In the weeks following the state’s stay-at-home coronavirus order in March this year, some communities saw a break in the turnover of short-term rentals. Gordon and Maureen Dunfee, who have lived in the same Barber Tract home for 30 years, said short-term rentals took over their street.”

“‘We had a beautiful neighborhood, beautiful community with kids and families,’ Gordon Dunfee said. ‘Things change, which is natural. But with the short-term rentals, things changed drastically and negatively and it became a hotel zone. We were surrounded by short-term rentals; we have no neighbors now. Every two or three days … we would have new people come in and celebrate something like a graduation, bachelor party, etc.'”

“But during the pandemic, Maureen Dunfee said, ‘we have enjoyed peacefulness in our neighborhood. But it has also profoundly shown us that we have no more neighbors in our neighborhood. We feel alone on an island, so to speak.'”

The Associated Press on Hawaii. “Hawaii County has processed nearly all of its short-term vacation rental applications, but it could be months before the units are allowed to operate as a result of the coronavirus. Under emergency health restrictions issued by the state, the rentals can be used only to house tenants who were already there when the restrictions went into effect or workers for essential businesses or operations, such as first responders.”

“Vacation rental occupancy statewide was 5% in April, the first month after Democratic Gov. David Ige’s March 26 mandatory 14-day quarantine for travelers. Hotels that were allowed to remain open had an occupancy rate of 8.9%, according to data provided by the Hawaii Tourism Authority.”

“Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell estimated there are 800 legal vacation rentals on Oahu and another 8,000 operating illegally. ‘As we come back to new normal, (they) should be in resort areas and not in our neighborhoods,’ Caldwell said. Maui Mayor Mike Victorino said he would like to keep visitors in the resort areas of his county without ‘utilizing our residential facilities.’ Hotels and resorts should open first and reestablish themselves, he said.”

“‘We have a large number of illegal vacation rentals, and many are closing them down,’ Victorino said.”

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This Post Has 131 Comments

  1. ‘Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell estimated there are 800 legal vacation rentals on Oahu and another 8,000 operating illegally…‘We have a large number of illegal vacation rentals, and many are closing them down,’ Victorino said’

    Is 8,000 a lot?

    ‘we have enjoyed peacefulness in our neighborhood. But it has also profoundly shown us that we have no more neighbors in our neighborhood’

    That’s some shortage.

    2. Here we go again – another MONSTROUS inventory of STRs shows up in one particular town. You can’t tell me all these people were making money. NOPE. They were all speculators, hoping to catch a bunch of appreciation while hoping the STR rents would pay the mortgage. FAIL.

  2. ‘Last month, as the state’s unemployment rate soared past that of the Great Recession, the Nevada Affordable Housing Assistance Corporation, a group that administers the state’s Hardest Hit Fund, announced that it was relaunching a program that helps people on unemployment pay their mortgages’

    ‘The numbers are staggering…For example, we turned our phones on yesterday, and within 17 minutes we had 260 calls’

    Note the NV UHS will insist price are to the moon Alice! What a crock.

    1. And this:

      …It’s accepting only a few hundred calls each day…

      A few hundred people in mortgage distress every day. And if the anarchists and looters in Vegas keep at it, the tourists won’t return and this situation will get worse.

  3. ‘Sales of homes over $2 million dropped from 66 from March 1, 2019, to May 25, 2019, to 51 during the same time period in 2020. The average price of these sales was $2,898,699 in 2019 and $2,678,041 in 2020’

    Jumbo loans are poof. Good thing everybody put 20% down.

    ‘If a home goes on the market even a bit too high, it can sit, and that may result in a larger price reduction than if the home had come on the market at a reasonable listing price’

    Translation: that BMW payment ain’t gonna make itself!

    1. Good thing everybody put 20% down.

      I thought I found a potential replacement property for the 1031 exchange until I got access to the MLS again yesterday. The owners (one a financial planner) bought in 2016 with 20% down but took that 20%+ out in 2018 then more in February 2020. The outstanding loans total more than the comparables.

      1. I suspect this is where most of the Teslas you see around that area come from.

  4. ‘He eventually poured $800,000 into the investments, called leveraged exchange-traded notes, or ETNs. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, he lost almost every penny’

    ‘I’m 67 years old and I’m basically bankrupt in just two weeks’

    It’s only money Will, cheer up! We’re all in this together!

    2. leveraged

      I get it that the return on a safe investment is a pittance, but the word leverage is a red flag that says you could lose everything.

      1. I don’t quite get this. Are ETNs in themselves leveraged and just go down to 0 and disappear? Or did Mr. Mark leverage (borrow) $800K to buy these ETNs? Or both?

        1. “Are ETNs in themselves leveraged and just go down to 0 and disappear?”

          Yes, they in themselves are leveraged. An, yes, they can go down to 0 and disappear, as can all financial investment vehicles. If the financial vehicles is leveraged then the trips down happens a lot faster.

          ‘I’m 67 years old and I’m basically bankrupt in just two weeks’

          This guy was just plain stupid. I like to think of this is a form of Darwinism, financial Darwinism.

          1. …they can go down to 0 and disappear, as can all financial investment vehicles

            Except physical PM’s, perhaps! Though the cool kids don’t think of them as worthwhile investments. I’m okay with not being cool. 🙂

          2. It could be worse… At least his “investment” didn’t go negative like houses do.

    3. “Needing to play catch-up with his retirement portfolio, the piping engineer decided to bet on a complicated product he hoped would deliver double-digit annual returns.”

      Hope is not a good financial plan.

      1. He probably spent his whole life saving up that 800K and a la Southpark: “And it’s gone!”

        Had he converted it into an annuity, along with Social Security, he probably would have done fine. No BMWs or beach vacation house, but he would have been just fine.

        1. No BMWs or beach vacation house, but he would have been just fine. None can really “be fine” until they have multiple BMWs and BVHs, preferably more than the Joneses next door.

          1. That still would not be enough; It will never be enough.

            For these people there is no such word as enough. There is a hole in their … in their soul (for lack of a better word) … that cannot be filled but nevertheless they spend a lifetime trying to fill this hole with stuff and take enormous risks in the process but eventually the odds catch up to them.

          2. I love the Joneses. They always have cool stuff to sell for cheap in times like these.

        2. Well, whatever Wall Street company sold him that “complicated product” sure laid some pipe on ole William. Ouch!

        3. They work in EPC firms such as Jacobs, Bechtel. Mainly in Engineering and construction side designing/building/ expanding refineries, power plants and chemical plants. Quite a large field and separate from mechanical engineering. Their main code is ASME B31.3.

          1. ASME B31.3

            I know about that having spent 40 years as an engineer in refineries and chemical plants. Sure, piping can be your specialty, but it’s not a degree AFAIK. ME or ChE is.

          2. Mech E’s design pipe arrangements, supports, restraints and pumping systems…. and for firms big and small.

            Trivia time- The genesis of the letter B in ASME’s standards is an initial for what?

          3. the letter B

            I’m not a “piping engineer”, although I do like single malt scotch. I’m more of a thermodynamics guy, so I’ll just take a wild guess.

            Does Boiler and Pressure Vessel get an honorable mention?

          4. Bechtel.

            As I understand it, they developed all the testing procedures and lab data on pipe materials during the 1920s and 30s.

          2. The depreciation schedule on Euro trash is astounding.

            Yeah it is. I bought mine for half price at only 3 years old thinking the worst was behind me but it quickly went effectively to zero for the reason In Colorado mentions. The young guys love picking them up dirt cheap but unless you like pick-and-pull and doing *everything* yourself it’s 4 figures every time you pull into a shop. The people who like dirt cheap cars just don’t have that kind of extra money.

            Having said that, the performance potential of some of them right now is amazing. I got in on it when it started getting good and it just keeps getting better. I might not be able to resist a dirt cheap 2020 X3M in a few years for a family small SUV/beater. The performance per dollar will just be too good to ignore. Same with the new M5s if they depreciate similarly. They might not, though.

      2. how do you retire on 800k?
        3% net of inflation is a good number these days
        24K plus ss?

        1. With the Fed’s debasement of the currency, $800,000 in a few years might be the going rate for a can of beans.

          1. a can of beans

            This wacky system we’re in doesn’t seem to improve worker’s wages, so I can’t see how a can of beans is going to cost a lifetime of wages.

        2. With an annuity you would get more than $24K per year. More like 66K, assuming the annuity is amortized for 15 years (@3%). Of course, you won’t leaving anything to your heirs.

        3. how do you retire on 800k?
          3% net of inflation is a good number these days
          24K plus ss?

          Since my divorce I think about those numbers quite a bit. I think the solution is to live cheap enough to live off the SS. Let the next egg continue to grow and use it for emergencies and special occasions. That might be the only way to hedge against the dollar going to zero and ending up like one of those Russian pensioners in the 1990s.

          1. Since my divorce I think

            I’m down that road ahead of you Carl. I got my living expenses down below SS benefits quite before I retired. I use my savings for the occasional indulgence, like a vehicle, a trip, a boat project or a gift.

            I can still earn a modest living doing fun things if I needed to.

          2. I got my living expenses down below SS benefits…”

            +1 Well done!

            FWIW, you can’t survive in a costly Metro today on SS even if you’re debt free; you have to move to the periphery or further, and it’s much easier if do your planning beforehand.

          3. you have to move to the periphery or further

            I know health care and local politics can always be a big question mark. But I like Penang or Phuket, my wife would like to stay closer to the coffee industry and maybe go with Panama or nearby. As an American I trust central American political stability less than SE Asia. But the pull of family is strong, I may always be somewhere in the USA.

        4. how do you retire on 800k?
          800K x .04 = 32K per year
          add in social security..
          he’d woulf have over 50K per year + partner SS and 401Ks

          that’s plenty… got greedy

          1. he’d woulf have over 50K per year + partner SS and 401Ks

            If he was a well paid engineer he would already be able to get over $3K a month from SS, and would be about $4K if he waits until he’s 70. As I mentioned above, with an annuity he could turn 800K into $5K month until he dies. So he could have pulled in $9K a month. He could retire very comfortably on that. But as I mentioned, he probably wanted more. He probably wanted luxury cars, a second house, frequent overseas trips, fine dining, etc.

            Fortunately he still has SS coming, so he won’t be destitute, but he will be a lot less comfortable than he could have been. So instead of Benzes and Beamers he’ll be driving a beater.

        5. Per the average life expectancy of an American male, the guy only has about 10 years left. $800k is WAY more than he needs.

          1. only has about 10 years

            Ironically, if you make it to 65 you supposedly have 20 years left.

          2. Ironically, if you make it to 65 you supposedly have 20 years left.

            Weird, because the local obits are full of men dying in the 66-80 range.

          3. Weird, because the local obits are full of men dying in the 66-80 range.

            Sure, it’s a median number. Half die before, half die after.

          4. It is interesting how some people in their 60’s look great and seem to have plenty of energy, while other are wrecks.

          5. It is interesting how some people in their 60’s look great and seem to have plenty of energy, while other are wrecks.

            Diet, exercise, genetics…in that order. And I say that as someone who is just ok in all 3 areas. If I really want an enjoyable life 25 years from now I need to put in more effort.

          7. “It is interesting how some people in their 60’s look great and seem to have plenty of energy, while other are wrecks.”

            When you have a vivacious woman on your arm nobody asks, “How you are doing?” They know how you are doing!

    6. How long did this guy expect to live? 800k would easily carry him into his 90’s. Now he’ll probably be dead in a few years from the stress.

      1. Exactly. This guy had more than enough. He got greedy and now he has zero. I can’t shed a tear. I’d laugh first.

    8. Leveraged ETFs or ETNs are bad, bad news. I have swing traded mREITs where I realize a 10% profit but mREITs are a huge risk unto themselves. A leveraged ETN in mREITs is ungodly stupidity.

      I’ve traded mREITs for 8 years and I will tell you they are not for the faint of heart. I currently only own one mortgage REIT but it’s less than 2.5% of my portfolio. When you own a mortgage REIT you have to watch primary mortgage rates, MBS and repo rates for activity.

      mREITs use repurchase agreements, preferred shares and common shares to fund their purchases of MBS, mortgage servicing rights, excess mortgage service rights, TBAs and CMBS. Mortgage REITs also use derivatives like interest rate swaps, caps and floors to hedge their interest rate risk.

      The financial statements for these entities are extraordinarily complex. Then you add a leveraged ETN and that adds a guarantee decay of capital. This man made a huge blunder buying an mREIT mortgage ETN. Mortgage REITs are massive risk but a leveraged mortgage REIT ETN is stupidity.

      I actually never knew such a leveraged mortgage REIT ETN even existed!

  5. $hities are bernin’
    Bowell is going to have to take a huge dump, $tocks to the moon!

    1. ‘Federal authorities have arrested and charged an Illinois man who allegedly traveled to Minneapolis to take part in protests in response to the death of George Floyd. He has been accused of distributing explosives while encouraging others to throw them at law enforcement officers.’

      ‘Matthew Lee Rupert, 28, was arrested in Chicago on June 1 and charged with civil disorder, carrying on a riot, and possession of unregistered destructive devices, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).’

      “They got SWAT trucks up there…I’ve got some bombs if some of you all want to throw them back…bomb them back…here I got some more…light it and throw it,” Rupert said, according to the complaint.’

      He is depicted handing someone an item with a brown casing and a green wick.’

      “We come to riot, boy! This is what we came for!” Rupert can be heard saying in the video. “He’s throwing my bombs. He’s going to bomb the police with them.”

      “Good shot my boy,” Rupert is heard saying after an explosion in the background, according to court documents. A woman, who identified herself as Rupert’s girlfriend, told police in an interview that the 28-year-old told her he traveled to Minnesota with several people to “riot,” reported NBC Chicago.’

      https://www.theepochtimes.com/illinois-man-charged-after-allegedly-distributing-explosives-at-minneapolis-protest_3373138.html

          1. Smiley is about to find out the feds take a dim view of unregistered destructive devices.

          2. He’ll do some serious time for possession and distribution of explosives. Unless of course he gets a jury of his peers.

          3. Those teeth will be kept busy taming the penitentiary’s water moccasins for a few years.

        3. Doesn’t look like one of them entitled liberal suburban types. They have way better teeth.

  6. Vancouver, WA Housing Prices Crater 19% YOY As Portland, OR And Seattle Housing Markets Meltdown Under Weight Of Toxic Mortgages

    https://www.zillow.com/vancouver-wa-98684/home-values/

    *Select price from dropdown menu on first chart

    As a noted economist stated so eloquently, “A house is a rapidly depreciating asset that empties your wallet it every day you own it.”

    1. Events like a murder by a Cop are used to unleash the narratives that have been brewing for a long time.

      China unleashing of a virus on the World should bring discovery of foul play, but no the narrative is it’s being racist to call it a China Flu.

      Don’t look at how USA jobs got transfered to Communist China in which the Globalists raked in money as a result. Get the Americans to burn down their own cities by the racism narrative..

      When Communist take over I guess this is when the brainwashed Moran’s will find out how little they will get under a Communist regime.

      2. will find out how little they will get under a Communist regime

        I recall stories from Iron Curtain countries about how if you saw a line form at a store, that you would join it without asking any questions, as it meant that maybe you could purchase something of value, like toilet paper or a pair of shoes.

        1. Please don’t tell me that the so called peaceful protestors, with their hands up gesture, are innocent.

          By sheer numbers the fake peaceful are making it impossible for the cops to manage the criminals mixed in with them.
          If the peaceful where decent citizens they would disperse so law and order could be obtained. But no ,they are standing around watching the mayhem getting a thrill out of the mayhem.

          2. No doubt they want to see everything burn, they just don’t want to get their hands dirty.

          3. It’s called the right of association. Its an essential component of the First Amendment.

            Freedom to associate with groups according to the choice of the individual, and for the groups to take action to promote their interests, has been a necessary feature of every democratic society. Because freedom of association necessarily recognizes pluralistic sources of power and organization, aside from the government, it has been a primary target for repression by all dictatorial societies.

          4. Yeah, because blocking cop cars from going down the street, robbing and setting fire to businesses and attacking innocent bystanders is “freedom to assemble”. Too stupid for words.

            Funny how a fat, meth addicted lifetime criminal gets killed in the process of resisting arrest for passing fake money gets turned into a saint upon dying. Your heroes are losers, or, as you would spell it, loosers.

        2. It’s very instructive to read about the history of the Bolshevik Revolution and the Red Terror unleashed by Lenin and Stalin. Especially when you learn who financed the “Russian” revolution, who were the strategists and tacticians for the Reds during the Russian civil war, and who were the most vicious torturers and executioners among the Chekists, as well as being the brains of the operation. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn had a lot to say on that subject, for those who care to dig a little. The parallels with what’s happening today in America are uncanny, and are following the same game plan.

          2. On that topic while watching “The Crown” and some related shows I learned the British royal family were cousins with the Russian royal family and “summered” together prior to all that ugliness and then wouldn’t give them asylum in England until it was too late. Not my kind of people, I must say. I’d honestly rather scratch out a living on Rocky Top with a Scots-Irish family. At least they’d have my back when TSHTF. And not try to use bankers to screw me six ways from Sunday.

          6. Each section has an introduction and each chapter has a summary. Well worth reading even if you don’t have time for the whole book.

      3. I’d rather not be taken over by commies. Whatever leader they have will see me as a kulak in a Maryland minute and treat me accordingly.

    2. In broad daylight with 20 cops watching and no arrests LOL.

      The first guy coming through the window was a bit ungraceful on the backflip but lands perfectly on both feet. He could have been an Olympic gymnast, so much wasted potential…

      1. In broad daylight with 20 cops watching and no arrests LOL.

        I’m sure they were under orders by hizonor Mayor Robert Garcia to not arrest anyone.

          2. Via the taxpayer?

            Eventually, you run out of other people’s money to spend.

            The local Dems want to put a prop on the November ballot to repeal the Gallagher amendment, which would allow property taxes to skyrocket in the Centennial state.

            I’m sure homeowners, especially the ones in forbearance, will be chomping at the bit to vote for higher property taxes.

            Maybe the Dems think that the riots will persuade homeowners to vote yes.

      2. I liked the white chick Soros employee setting the pick so the Black Looters Matter folks could make a clean getaway with their stolen merchandise.

    4. A month ago those same porkers would have gone full stasi on a lone paddleboarder in the water but now they cant be bothered to do anything other than compare pedicures in their tacticool gear, paid for by the taxpayers getting their businesses destroyed. They probably are charging triple time (ok’d by the commie mayor) to make sure their pensions are mid 7 figures when they retire at 55.

      Military needs to start dropping nukes on the cities. Theyre too far gone. America can be rebuilt from the rural folks who still know which gender they are.

      1. Military needs to start dropping nukes on the cities

        That’s not a recommended cancer treatment.

  11. Question – is mortgage forbearance available even to those who take on a mortgage TODAY?

    I would think it applies only to the mortgages that were signed pre-COVID19… but I could be wrong!

    1. Hurry up and buy a house out there in Roseville and Folsom. All the people from San Francisco that work from home are moving there since they drive to office once a week.
      you gonna lose on the take. Buy NOW, you freeze you lose.

      1. Bay Area people don’t like being out in the sticks and hot summer temps if they can avoid it. I could see them coming halfway here, though, as close to Napa as they can afford.

        1. yeah, those are the DINKs or same-sax couples, bro tech coders…

          But the families with children want to move into those 4bd houses with the yard.. can’t get that in the bay area. I already know a few moving over there.

  13. “Mr. Mark bought a leveraged ETN issued by UBS AG that bet on companies that invest in the mortgage market, known as mortgage real-estate investment trusts.”

    So a hydraulic engineer decided to swim with the investment sharks?

      1. Real estate seemed like a sure thing up until around the end of March 2020.

        End of January for the alert ones. There was already a lot of bad data out of China by then.

  15. Well ain’t this rich. Ever since globalists made “diversity” the chief criteria for hiring or promotions, police departments have been saddled with unqualified Affirmative Action and diversity hires who were completely incapable of fulfilling their duties. Now that the rioting has reached liberal enclaves like Santa Monica, these progressive municipalities are discovering first hand the consequences of hiring and promoting based on gender or ethnicity rather than merit, experience, and demonstrated competence. Burn, baby, burn!

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/santa-monica-police-chief-petition-resign-looting

    1. Why even have cops if they just allow people to rob, loot and torch businesses and city buildings? What purpose are they even serving being there? Every single one of them should be fired and ashamed of themselves.

      1. What purpose are they even serving

        Shaking down well behaved and law abiding citizens.

        Anarcho-tyranny

        1. Shaking down well behaved and law abiding citizens.

          Yeah, I was going to say…I think they’re there for YOU.

  16. Needing to play catch-up with his retirement portfolio, the piping engineer decided to bet on a complicated product he hoped would deliver double-digit annual returns.

    Another rube gets fleeced by the Wall Street-Federal Reserve Looting Syndicate. Next!

  17. “Rather than keep the phones on and pile up applications that will take a long time to process, the organization shut them off.

    From the movie “Clerks”: This would be a great job if it weren’t for the customers.

  18. ‘Usually that means you think the market is going to go down or this project isn’t going to absorb and pay the debt, but I can’t imagine why they would think that in this market, in this location.’”

    Better start mapping out your area food banks, Clay.

  19. Things change, which is natural. But with the short-term rentals, things changed drastically and negatively and it became a hotel zone. We were surrounded by short-term rentals; we have no neighbors now.

    Die, speculator scum.

  20. “Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell estimated there are 800 legal vacation rentals on Oahu and another 8,000 operating illegally.

    Gosh, Kirk, how was it that 8,000 STRs were operating illegally, and openly, on your Island? Oh, right – there hasn’t been a Republican elected in that corrupt state since the 1940s.

    1. Gosh, Kirk, how was it that 8,000 STRs were operating illegally, and openly, on your Island?

      I’m sure brown envelopes were involved.

      Now that their progressive communities are burning down, where will all these progs go with their ill gotten cash? They can’t all move to New Zealand, can they?

      1. Did anyone tell them that New Zealand brought down the ban hammer on immigration? Kiwis don’t truck with asylum nonsense.

    2. I tried to get a solid estimate of the number of STRs in Hawaii, I could not. I did read some article back in 2015, likely written by someone with a fifth grade education stating that there were possibly 20K+ rentals, but it didn’t state if that include LTRs, legal/illegal, Oahu or the entire state. Like I said, fifth grade writing.

      A couple of years ago each of the counties started cracking down on the illegal ones. I suspect the brown envelopes were distributed from the hotels.

    1. The Tell
      Why the stock market is due for ‘consolidation’ as Trump takes aim at China
      Published: June 1, 2020 at 12:37 p.m. ET
      By William Watts
      Consolidation would present ‘entry-point opportunity’: Canaccord’s Dwyer
      President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping may be headed for a showdown over Hong Kong.
      AFP/Getty Images
      This article was originally published on May 29.

      After a sharp run-up for U.S. stocks, rising tensions between Washington and Beijing could spark a round of near-term consolidation that could prove to be an entry point for investors, a prominent Wall Street bull said Friday.

      “Escalating tension with China as the global economy attempts to find its footing, coupled with such strong recent gains, opens the door for potential consolidation,” wrote Tony Dwyer, chief market strategist at Canaccord Genuity, in a note.
      …

    2. The Financial Times
      Coronavirus business update 30 days complimentary
      Opinion Markets Insight
      Why Wall Street is calm in the face of US unrest
      Investors can point to history for examples of stock market rallies through social upheaval
      Michael Mackenzie
      Wall Street remains confident of an economic recovery this year, even as protests engulf many big US cities
      © FT montage; Getty Images
      Michael Mackenzie
      8 hours ago

      Financial markets have a history of looking through bouts of civil and political unrest. Today, investors are focused on the reopening of economic activity in the US, rather than the turmoil engulfing many American cities since last week’s killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in police custody.

      Investors can point to history to justify their calm. At the end of a bloody 1968, the S&P 500 finished nearly 11 per cent higher on the year, including the reinvestment of dividends, despite the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F Kennedy, actions that triggered civil and political turmoil. The S&P also finished 1992 in positive territory after riots following the acquittal of Los Angeles police officers who had beaten Rodney King, another black man.

      Towards the end of the last century, the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton was accompanied by the S&P 500 rallying more than 20 per cent in both 1998 and 1999. More recently, the Occupy Wall Street protest that started in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park in late 2011 was accompanied by a 4.5 per cent climb in the S&P 500.

      These examples illustrate how equity prices reflect a focus on the underlying economic and corporate earnings narrative at the time, rather than societal or political upheaval.

      “History shows markets look through many sorts of tumultuous events and have done so for decades,” says Nicholas Colas at DataTrek Research, which provided the annual S&P figures. “That may seem counterintuitive, and perhaps not even fair, but it’s absolutely true.”

      Wall Street’s confidence in an approaching economic recovery this year, vindicating a sharp rebound in asset prices from their lows in March, suggests that the worst of the Covid-19 shock is behind us. Market sentiment is tied up with long-term expectations for growth and, in spite of skyrocketing unemployment and intense pressure facing small businesses, investors are intent on getting ahead of an expected new business cycle. Hence a stock market that has rebounded by a third in value since late March, leaving the S&P 500 within 10 per cent of its February peak, despite cumulative US jobless claims filings exceeding 40m.
      …

      1. Why Wall Street is calm in the face of US unrest

        I think a nuke could be detonated and the market would hold steady. That would have been a good line for Battlestar Galactica: Cylons nuke Caprica, stock market hits new highs.

  24. The horseshoe shape of Pearl Bank Apartment may “catch the wind”, but it
    also amplifies the noise on the inner side. I’ve stayed there
    for a short time, it’s noisy.

  25. Wulf
    Massive human depopulation must happen, there is too much useless human trash in the world.

    THX1138
    You should run to the front of the line, you won’t be missed.

    Wulf
    You won’t be able to pass the IQ test to survive

    THX1138
    I’ve already survived longer than you will.

    Wulf
    I’m sure you can go to Israel, all jews have the right of return

    THX1138
    The communists plan is to replace the police departments with ANTIFA community safety administrators, similar to what the Nazi’s and Hitler created with the Brown Shirt Hitler youth. Paid for by the UNNWO ( who is behind all this ) and no longer a public department, but a private entity of cultist communists.

    Wulf
    Don’t be comparing Brown shirts to Marxists The Brown shirts killed communists and ran them out of Germany

    THX1138
    Brown shirts were Marxists, Hitler based his entire belief system on Marxism, you really need to get your head out of your ass when pertaining to the real truths of history and quit buying into your skin head doctrines of delusion.

    Wulf
    There was nothing Marxist about German politics when he assumed power

    THX1138
    Hitler spent his time in prison studying Marx. Try learning some actual history.

    Wulf
    You lie. He wrote Mein Kampf

    THX1138
    No shit, his inspiration came for the writings of Karl Marx. But you leftists are all the same, facts are to much for your delusions to accept.

    Some_Dude
    Wulf, you realize Nazi are national socialist, right? They were just a lighter, low calorie version of communists.
    I’m not a leftist and you don’t know anything. Schopenhauer was more of a guiding force than Marx

    Wulf
    I’m not a leftist and you don’t know anything. Schopenhauer was more of a guiding force than Marx

    Wulf
    NASDAP was founded before Hitler assumed leadership of the party. All the Socialist members were put to death or brought to the vision of Hitler

    THX1138
    Keep believing what ever your skin head brethren tell you to. The only difference between communism and Nazism is the spelling.

    THX1138
    You do realize that to encourage purity of the Nazi race, inbreeding was required among the culture ? Of course you do, your a perfect example of the result.

    Wulf
    Let’s see in Soviet Union Communism the government owns all land and buildings there is no private property and everyone get paid equally. In National Socialist Germany it was a capitalist society and people owned land and businesses, that were regulated for the peoples benefits. That’s a big difference

    THX1138
    Your delusions run deep. The only people allowed to own property in Nazi Germany were the politically connected and the wealthiest elite, but keep believing what you’ve been conditioned to believe. By the way the word “NAZI” stands for “The National Socialist German Workers Labor Party”. The goal of socialism is communism.

    Wulf
    It’s historical fact. People had private property in Germany at that time.

    Wulf
    Also I told you earlier that the party was founded before Hitler took leadership and the Marxists were purged from the party and eventually all of Germany

    Wulf
    Have you ever heard of The Red Front Fighters League? It used the same clenched fist logo as the modern day commies use

    THX1138
    Their all based on the doctrines of Marxism.

    Wulf
    You’re just a jewish agent stirring up hatred for National Socialists

    THX1138
    Ha, Ha, your stupidity is only surpassed by your ignorance.

    Wulf
    jew

    THX1138
    Your leftist is showing.

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