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We Were Living In A Time Of Superlatives, Sailing Freely On The Wind Of Tourism

A weekend topic starting with Eugene Weekly in Oregon. “The Eugene City Council heard a range of testimony in favor of and against a proposed ordinance requiring short term rental (STR) operators to obtain a business license. Mike Grudzien, who identified as a U.S. Marine Corp veteran and owner of both long-term and short-term rentals, said he was against the ordinance. ‘It’s really overreaching, heavy-handed, and almost a little draconian,’ Grudzien said. ‘I don’t want to be a crusty old Marine, but you don’t kill flies with grenades.'”

“Eugene resident Stephanie Mclaughlin said the mechanism for revoking licenses was a ‘real liability for hosts who have neighbors staunchly opposed to the STR concept.’ She said she is hoping to be an STR host and that she will need the income from her rental ‘to keep a roof over my head.'”

From Business Den in Colorado. “In Riverfront Park, one short-term rental startup is out and another has moved in. Austin-based The Guild, which leased 44 units within the AMLI Riverfront Green apartment complex at 1750 Little Raven St., has opted to exit the Denver market. San Francisco-based Kasa is taking over control of the units, the heads of both companies confirmed. ‘Following COVID-19, we reduced our number of locations, and unfortunately we were not able to include Denver in our post COVID-19 portfolio,’ The Guild co-founder Brian Carrico said.”

“Both The Guild and Kasa — along with other competitors, such as Mint House and Sonder — lay claim to large blocks of apartments, and then rent them out to those desiring an Airbnb-like experience for as little as one night. They’re not subject to the ‘primary residence’ requirement for a short-term rental license in Denver because they apply for a different license, the same one a hotel would get. Another competitor, Stay Alfred, said last month it was shutting down.”

From Mortgage Broker News in Canada. “In Canada’s top housing destinations, long-term residential supply has noticeably improved as Airbnb and similar services have scaled back ever since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in mid-March. The number of short-term rental properties has exhibited a clear January-April drop in Vancouver (down 18.5%), Toronto (down 20%), and Montreal (down 22%), according to analytics firm AirDNA.”

“‘We are seeing an incredible new amount of inventory of furnished units come onto the long-term rental market over the last few months,’ said Andrew Harrild, co-founder of Condos.ca. Harrild pointed at Ice Condos in Toronto as emblematic of the phenomenon: From February to June, the number of Ice Condos units listed on the long-term market has grown by 234%. ‘At Ice Condos, for example, there are now 147 units available for rent, which is unbelievable,’ Harrild told The Financial Post.”

The Iceland Review. “Rates in Reykjavík’s competitive rental market are on the decline, a development that observers largely credit to an overabundance of unused short-term rentals for tourists, RÚV reports. According to Registers Iceland, rental prices have dropped by 4.3% in the last three months. Vignir Már Lýðsson, an economist who works for the rental guarantee service Leiguskjól, says that the decrease can be attributed to the large number of Airbnb apartments that entered the rental market when the COVID-19 pandemic began and tourism was halted.”

“‘These apartments are generally fully furnished, which indicates that these are Airbnb apartments,’ explained Vignir. ‘The parties who are renting them out have an entirely different and higher required rate of return on their owner’s equity, so these low rental rates won’t last long – these apartments will rather be sold if the tourism market doesn’t right itself.'”

The Dubrovnik Times in Croatia. “It took years to build and only a few weeks to destroy. I think the real story starts in around the year 2003, yes I am pretty sure it was 2003, four years before the global financial crisis. Tourism and indeed the real estate market started to boom in Dubrovnik. Half of the Old City was sold as the exodus to Lapad began. Cruise ships had discovered Dubrovnik. The pearl of the Adriatic soon became the emerald of the world’s media.”

“You could smell the expectation in the air. Yes, 2003, when the tsunami of tourism rose on the Adriatic and crashed into those iconic ancient walls. The city could do no wrong. The City of Dubrovnik had so much cash they didn’t know what to do.”

“Airbnb brought competition and suddenly everyone with a garage had a ‘luxury apartment in King’s Landing.’ Apartment owners grew like mushrooms after the rain. What should have been an extra form of income, a bonus, soon turned into the main source of income for many. 7,000. 9,000. 12,000. 14,000. The number of apartments climbed like a soaring seagull.”

“Hotels pumped prices like a bodybuilder pumping steroids. Monaco looked like a cheap hotel option. Airlines were queuing up. Euros, pounds, dollars, yen. Money flowed into the city from all angles. And records continued to fall. Most people on the city walls ever. Most number of overnight stays in history. Record profits. Highest ever revenues. We were living in a time of superlatives. Sailing freely on the calm Adriatic with the wind of tourism easing us towards the horizon.”

“The government even tried to handcuff businesses in 2013 with the introduction of the fiscal cash register. Like the Sheriff of Nottingham demanding more gold from his subjects. But even this electronic inconvenience was circumnavigated like a pothole in Gruž. Capitalism was alive and well, and was an unstoppable force. Or was it?”

“After almost two decades of raking in the cash, like salt in the pans of Ston, we hit a bump in the road that couldn’t be avoided. Five letters, and two numbers, that people would remember for the rest of their lives – Covid-19. Two decades of business destroyed by two months of closure. Business scurry to the city for bailouts and help, the City scurries to the bank for a 60 million overdraft, the banks scurry to the government for support, the government scurries to the EU for cash and the EU runs to the World Bank for a loan!”

“Again two decades of record profits, that saw apartments paid for in cash, destroyed by two months. And don’t forget ‘Winter is Coming’ very soon.”

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This Post Has 228 Comments

  1. ‘The city could do no wrong. The City of Dubrovnik had so much cash they didn’t know what to do’

    Economics 101 says the excess, the mistakes made during the business cycle high sets the conditions for the following recession.

    ‘Apartment owners grew like mushrooms after the rain. What should have been an extra form of income, a bonus, soon turned into the main source of income for many’

    OK, so how are these people going to pay bills? That’s the recession. Booms go bust every time.

    1. OK, so how are these people going to pay bills? That’s the recession. Booms go bust every time.

      Right now we have a FED trying to paper over a recession by printing money. And we have the most generous unemployment benefits in history. I suspect the largesse, all told, will be breathtaking. It already is, and they’ve just started.

      1. “…FED trying to paper over a recession by printing money…”

        What are the long-term ramifications of the Fed’s present rapid balance sheet expansion?

        1. Business
          Economy
          How Jay Powell’s Coronavirus Response Is Changing the Fed Forever
          Powell in the boardroom at the Federal Reserve in Washington on May 13 Powell in the boardroom at the Federal Reserve in Washington on May 13
          Gabriella Demczuk for TIME
          By Christopher Leonard
          June 11, 2020 6:23 AM EDT

          On March 11, a group of traders inside the New York Federal Reserve Bank had the chance to watch, in real time, as financial markets spiraled downward. The market was in a panic that day. Stocks were down about 20% from their high in February, and the bottom didn’t seem within view. As the novel coronavirus pandemic was starting to roll across the country, markets were trying to price in the near biblical damage it might cause. The traders inside the Fed had the unenviable job of trying to make sense out of the chaos. They met around a conference table, nursing their coffees, taking notes and speaking to their colleagues throughout the country. The New York team was the central bank’s eyes and ears in the market, and their reports were grim. Even ultrasafe markets were seizing up. Buyers and sellers were having a hard time even determining a price for key assets. This was a crisis.

          The information gathered in New York was ultimately passed on to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome “Jay” Powell. Before the markets closed on March 11, Powell made a breathtaking announcement. The Fed was willing to print half a trillion dollars the following day, to provide short-term loans for distressed borrowers on Wall Street. The day after that, the Fed would offer another $500 billion in the short-term loans (called repo loans) market. A trillion dollars, offered over two days, was the central-bank equivalent of a “shock and awe” campaign. There was every reason to believe this would work. The Fed’s superpower rests on the simple fact that it is the only institution on earth that can create U.S. dollars out of thin air (that thing we call a “dollar” is, in fact, a Federal Reserve note). But on March 12, the Fed was outmatched by the coronavirus. Even a trillion dollars didn’t soothe the nerves of traders. They worried that all the printed money in the world couldn’t give people the courage to go back to Chipotle or the movie theater. Printed money couldn’t keep open the businesses along Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Markets continued to crash.
          …

          1. The Fed was willing to print half a trillion dollars the following day, to provide short-term loans for distressed borrowers on Wall Street. The day after that, the Fed would offer another $500 billion in the short-term loans (called repo loans) market.

            Good forbid that we let the Wall Street sociopaths pay the price of their recklessness and greed.

        2. The Feds Main Street Lending Facility may very well be the kick start of the inflation we’ve all been expecting.

          1. start of the inflation

            People and businesses are being strangled by debt. More debt may not help them keep going down the desired path.

  2. ‘The parties who are renting them out have an entirely different and higher required rate of return on their owner’s equity, so these low rental rates won’t last long – these apartments will rather be sold if the tourism market doesn’t right itself’

    Like in Canada, they paid too much. This STR thing was very much part of the bubble.

    1. su·per·la·tive
      /səˈpərlədiv/
      noun
      plural noun: superlatives

      ‘an exaggerated or hyperbolical expression of praise.’

      1. And Toronto has 20,000 airboxes being delivered this year. That’s the problem with these false demand issues. The people gambling with borrowed money were willing to pay more based on STR income. (How did that appraise?) The high prices send a signal to build more. Then recession hits. And that’s all this CCP virus is, a recession that would have happened eventually.

        1. Not a one probably thought about the prospect of the masses of people engaged in travel would dry up completely so quickly at a global level.

          You have to admit, it’s kind of spectacular to watch.

      2. No bailouts are forthcoming. STR landlords are too small to rescue. And besides, they have crowded out local housing opportunities for productive workers. Screw ’em.

        1. The REITS will swoop in to keep those filthy poors from gaining a fragment of ownership.

          1. Yep. The whole Ownership Society concept doesn’t work well with so many QE-funded oligarchs on the loose in a desperate search for yield.

    3. i just dont understand – how could there have been so many tourists and biz travelers. The hotel industry was continuing to build new …

      So what happened

      1. I’ve constantly wondered that myself – where did all these additional travelers come from in the last decade? What were the ‘fundamentals’ behind them?

        1. I’ve wondered this as well. Plenty of oversupplied hotel markets, AND airbnbs too? $1000 hotel rooms? Who are all these travelers?

        2. “What were the ‘fundamentals’ behind them?”

          It’s not a fundamental, but a lot of new travel has been created out of the massive wedding industry bubble – I know of people who travel out of town for a weekend for occasions that used to be just just a night out in their own town, ie, bachelor/bachelorette party, wedding shower, destination wedding, baby shower, anniversary, vow renewal, etc. No idea how people pay for it, but I heard a podcast with an ad for loans for wedding event down-payments, so debt I guess.

          1. Speaking as someone who has intimate knowledge of Airbnb travellers, there was a price point that made it possible for a whole new group of folks to travel. The PhD who was attending a conference, the guy just trying to escape the torrid heat of a Phoenix summer and or the Chinese couple combining a vacation with business development opportunities. All of these folks could now afford to travel. Hotels are VERY expensive.

          2. Hotels are VERY expensive.

            They can be. The same online revolution that made AirBnB possible did have a major effect on hotels too. I remember about 10-11 years ago on a road trip with my first iPhone and the Expedia app realizing that I could just drive with no reservations and then just pull out the phone and look for a last minute cheap deal about an hour before I was ready to stop. Sometimes those expensive hotels were only 50 bucks or so by mid evening. Worked as long as you weren’t pulling into a town that was sold out for some major event.

    1. DATE EVENT PRICE
      6/18/2020 Price change $1,200,000 (-51.9%)

      2/29/2020 Price change $2,495,000 (-2.2%)

      10/22/2019 Listed for sale $2,550,000

      The front exterior suggests drug use.

          1. From confidential remarks on MLS: non-distressed auction on July 9 @ 12pm; no buyer premium (not sure what that means); submit loan or cash offer to stop the auction; listing agents related to seller.

          2. The auction sites can charge a”premium”, which can be hefty. Of course, they are waiving that these days.

      2. In California, drug use is mandatory, and each house is issued a hobo to poop on driveway.

        1. Comin’ into Los Angeles
          Bringin’ in a couple of keys
          Don’t touch my bags if you please, mister customs man

    2. “Happy fathers day hbb 🙂”

      Unfortunately in some households today is the most confusing day of the year.

      2. On a cold and gray Chicago mornin’
        A poor little baby child is born
        In the ghetto (in the ghetto)

  4. “They’re not subject to the ‘primary residence’ requirement for a short-term rental license in Denver because they apply for a different license, the same one a hotel would get”

    Don’t let the door smack you in the @ss on the way out, parasites.

    1. https://www.wehoville.com/2020/06/19/wehos-planning-commission-reluctantly-approves-short-term-rentals-at-8500-sunset/

      These city guberments cry 24/7 about affordable housing while they continuously work to destroy it.

      A humor piece:

      PROPOSED ORDINANCE WOULD MEAN TOUGHER SHORT-TERM RENTAL PROVISIONS IN SANTA FE
      “But we’ve always made money pushing families out of their neighborhoods!” whine Scrooge-esque landlords.’

      https://www.sfreporter.com/fun/7days/2020/06/17/7-days-138/

      1. WeHo’s Planning Commission Reluctantly Approves Short-Term Rentals at 8500 Sunset

        “Reluctantly” my ass.

        2. It’s getting to the point where I can’t even read these articles anymore, the stench of corruption is so pervasive. 6-1 vote? Yeah that’s real reluctant. Break the law by operating an illegal hotel, so what happens? You get a license to keep doing it for the next 10 years??

          This “luxury” monstrosity should never have been allowed to be built in the first place and now they’re propping up its monumental failure by rewarding flagrant violations of the law by granting special privileges allowing the lawbreaking to continue. G’damn.

          “6-1 vote, West Hollywood’s Planning Commission reluctantly agreed to amend the zoning code to allow residential buildings in commercial zones that have been illegally renting residential units with short-term leases of 31 days or longer to legally continue doing so for the next ten years.”

          1. And what the actual f#&$ is this?

            “Buildings wanting to offer these short-term rentals must provide copies of leases to prove they have already been doing illegal short-term rentals before they can get the required administrative permits to allow them to now do short-term rentals legally… Buildings that have NOT been doing illegal rentals are ineligible to apply for permission to offer short-term rentals.”

            So if you weren’t already breaking the law, you don’t get to legally break it now and become competition for the people who DID break the law, who now get a government-sponsored monopoly. Entities have to prove they broke the law to be entitled to continue breaking the law? I don’t even have words to describe this.

          2. So if you weren’t already breaking the law, you don’t get to legally break it now and become competition for the people who DID break the law, who now get a government-sponsored monopoly.

            Exactly. Everything is fraud and graft these days. Top to bottom. It does not pay to abide by the rule of law, because those who are breaking the law are eating everybody else’s lunch.

        3. Oh yeah that monstrosity. I run by it every day. From the outside it has all the charm of Soviet bloc apartments

  5. Is Mr Market to be found
    tripping the light fantastic in La La Land after drinking too much of the Fed’s Unlimited Quarantinive Easing punch?

    1. Beware the prognostications of Buffett buffs.

      In One Chart
      ‘La la land?’ The stock market is ‘insanely disconnected’ and due for a ‘reckoning,’ Warren Buffett buff warns
      Published: June 20, 2020 at 8:31 p.m. ET
      By Shawn Langlois
      Are investors in “La La Land”… ? Everett/Lions Gate

      Those betting against this “absurdly overvalued” stock market are about to get paid, if Kevin Smith, Crescat Capital’s chief investment officer, has it right in his gloomy assessment.

      “Speculation is rampant and being championed by a bold new breed of millennial day traders,” he said. “The mania is based on a widespread hope in Fed money printing. The catalysts for reckoning are numerous as a major cyclical economic downturn has only just begun.”
      …

      1. The FED can repeatedly pump this pig ad infinitum – as long as the US dollar is still the reserve currency and people continue to have faith in it.

      2. They used to make fun of my dad’s frugality in my neighborhood saying he’d drive 30 miles to save a nickel on shoe laces. A bank CD was a risky investment to him. He called me not too long ago and said he wanted to take a portion of his retirement money and play the stock market on dips because “they” would never let the stock market go down again.

        1. Isn’t that just it though?

          The average guy has watched all this long enough to determine that “the fix is in” when it comes to the markets. They’ve been worn down to the point where they think “might as well… if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em”

          1. The Wall Street masters of the universe won’t pull the rug out again until the maximum possible number of greater fools have joined this Come to Jesus moment.

    2. Worried about the incessant drumbeat of bears talking up the possibility of another leg down in the stock market?

      Don’t worry: A closely watched pot never boils over.

      1. Get Ready: 10 Reasons a Second Stock Market Crash Is Coming
        Equities have had a ferocious rebound from the March 23 lows, but a bounty of negative catalysts remains.
        Sean Williams (TMFUltraLong)
        Jun 20, 2020 at 5:51AM
        There’s little question that when 2020 comes to a close, investors will not soon forget it.

        For a nearly five-week period, beginning Feb. 19, panic and a record amount of fear regarding the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic sent the broad-based S&P 500 to its quickest bear market descent in history. Before it was over, the benchmark index had shed 34% of its value.

        Over the subsequent 11 weeks following the March 23 bottom, the S&P 500 bounced more than 40% off of its lows and got within sight of an all-time high. In fact, the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite did hit a record high of more than 10,000. All of this was accomplished as the unemployment rate hit levels not seen since the Great Depression, nine decades earlier.

        While there’s no question that the stock market has a history of bottoming out well before the U.S. economy does, there’s a veritable laundry list of reasons to believe that this rebound rally in equities has come way too far, way too fast. I present to you 10 reasons why a second stock market crash is coming.
        …

        1. I would not be surprised to see the DOW blow past 30,000 on its way to 40,000. The FED is pumping trillions. That moves markets.

        2. There’s a bit of a discussion going on right now as to whether this can go on as long as people has confidence in the dollar, or whether there’s a natural limit to how much can be lent. So are we going to be Japan or Argentina?

  6. “Somebody just screwed up the comps.’

    And by doing this they destroyed millions of dollars of their neighbor’s equity wealth.

    Oh the pain!

  7. “Eugene resident Stephanie Mclaughlin said the mechanism for revoking licenses was a ‘real liability for hosts who have neighbors staunchly opposed to the STR concept.’ She said she is hoping to be an STR host and that she will need the income from her rental ‘to keep a roof over my head.’”

    Because apparently Stephanie can’t figure out any other way to earn a living and adding wealth to the economy apart from rent seeking.

    And, of course, these folks dumping all of their STR properties on the market when they’re no longer profitable and distressing the comps for everyone else isn’t their problem either.

    1. Because apparently Stephanie can’t figure out any other way to earn a living and adding wealth to the economy apart from rent seeking.

      There are millions of Stephanies out there. They’re not super bright. But they know enough to know that they have no marketable skills that can bring in even close to the money that rent seeking using almost free Yellen bucks can bring in. The problem is that eventually they start to think they are entitled to that money…and they change their name to Karen.

      1. But they know enough to know that they have no marketable skills that can bring in even close to the money that rent seeking using almost free Yellen bucks can bring in.

        There’s another factor I don’t see talked about much:

        There just aren’t enough (good/needed) jobs to go around anymore. The relentless pursuit of efficiency, via automation and other means, has pushed production high enough that we don’t need everyone (able) working to keep our civilization humming along and growing.

        But we’ve structured our world so that each person’s (or family unit’s) survival depends on either a) having enough capital/wealth to live off of, or b) that person has sustained employment. We have some sorts of ‘safety nets’ in the form of transfer-payment social programs, but even with a growing percentage of people relying on them, there’s still not enough for the rest. So we have an explosion of people with ‘non-important’ jobs .. i.e. people producing products and services that aren’t really needed – i.e. luxuries and entertainment, which are subject to the whims of the larger economy.

        With a surplus of people needing jobs, you get a ‘race to the bottom’ effect with people willing to take less to have something at all. Globalization has played a huge part in this,

        The people who have what are currently ‘must have,can go anywhere skills’ are a minority. The rest are Stephanies, where what they do have get devalued and suffers more competition from lower-bidders every passing year.

        1. There just aren’t enough (good/needed) jobs to go around anymore.

          And the ones that pay a decent wage require a skill set most people lack the IQ to master. It really isn’t surprising that many resort to flipping or STRs, hoping to make crazy money on the appreciation.

          1. And the ones that pay a decent wage require a skill set most people lack the IQ to master.

            Very politically incorrect, but true.

            I grew up an hour outside of Detroit, in a small town where my father grew up. We were just talking about this the other day – how in his day, many people would get married right out of High School and get a factory job, often union, working in the automotive production food chain, and how those jobs paid enough for a decent lifestyle (not getting into lifestyle inflation since then)

            Those jobs aren’t there anymore. unskilled and semi-skilled labor is not needed like it used to be. Not just factories – think of office work in the 1960s and entire floors filled with clerical and accounting types. Necessary then, but so much has been automated, computerized, and even made self-serve since then.

            I survive by being able to do stuff most people cant, and choosing that stuff to be relevant to what’s being made today. So I get paid well. Even so though, job security is pretty much a unicorn.

          2. One way to solve this is to return to 1958, where one spouse had the good income and the other spouse stayed home with the children, basically cutting the labor force almost in half. Of course, I don’t think we’ll ever return to those days.

          3. Many of the rioters/reparations crowd does not meet that IQ threshold, hence the “burn it all down” ethos on display. The work ethic of this country is nothing like it was just 2 decades ago and many are “over it” watching pigs at the govt trough getting fat while doing little to nothing.

            The whole robinhood day trade crowd seems to be pretty nuts too. Lots of emotion, not much rational analysis applied to their “investing”. I expect many will get crushed.

            Also seeing more used cars for sale by the side of major roads/highways in my area. Same thing happened in 2007-8 prior to housing coming down bigly. Toys go first.

          4. Also seeing more used cars for sale by the side of major roads/highways in my area.

            Not seeing that in my neck of the woods, at least not yet. I’ve also noticed that the cars Hertz is selling are about 20% more expensive here that in other parts of the country, which I find very odd.

          5. Even so though, job security is pretty much a unicorn.

            So true. We just had a layoff in our “hospitality” business unit. I know many of our customer are SaaS, and when those customers fold or shutdown, revenue streams dry up. I believe that the management at that business unit isn’t expecting things to turn around quickly, so the layoff ax fell.

          6. Maybe “burn it all down” is not such a bad idea. Wasn’t “creative destruction” a buzz word recently.

          7. Maybe “burn it all down” is not such a bad idea.

            As long as it’s not your property, it’s a great idea.

          8. Yeah, burn down all the existing infrastructure. Well guess what. This little virus has done more creative destruction than you ever will. This little virus (along with a LOT of help from Silicon Valley) has just creatively destroyed most of the motivation for anyone to live in a city and maintain your butt. So go ahead, burn down the existing system and live off the scraps until those scraps are gone, just like they tried to do in Haight-Ashbury.

          9. “Also seeing more used cars for sale by the side of major roads/highways in my area.”

            I’m seeing them too, but none of them say “Take over payments,” not yet.

          10. “…many people would get married right out of High School and get a factory job, often union, working in the automotive production food chain, and how those jobs paid enough for a decent lifestyle…”

            +1 That included buying a home too in sunny Milpitas, CA back in the 50s and 60s when Ford and GM had auto assembly plants in the area.

          11. “Take over payments,”

            Is that something that can still be done? In other words, can a reassign a car loan to someone who is willing to take it over, without the bank’s approval?

            I remember during the previous crash that a credit union (First Tech) had a few cars parked in front of the local branch that were repos for sale.

          12. That included buying a home too in sunny Milpitas, CA back in the 50s

            In 1950 the Golden State had a mere 10 million inhabitants.

            In 1960 Milpitas had 6572 inhabitants. Today it’s 84,000

            And no housing bubbles as far as the eye could see.

          13. As long as it’s not your property, it’s a great idea.

            Right, it makes yours even more valuable.

        2. “automation and other means, has pushed production high enough that we don’t need everyone (able) working”

          A lot of things that we think are automated are actually just outsourced to poorer countries. It’s still a job and it’s still done by hand, just not here. Two examples off the top of my head: fashion, and aircraft maintenance.

          “clerical and accounting types”

          In the EU, a lot of those back office clerical jobs for the financial centers of London/Paris/Frankfurt still exist, they just have been outsourced to Poland and the Czech Republic for much less money.

          1. A lot of things that we think are automated are actually just outsourced to poorer countries.

            That’s been going on for a while. And as you pointed out, some of those jobs are skilled.

          2. A lot of things that we think are automated are actually just outsourced to poorer countries. It’s still a job and it’s still done by hand, just not here.

            True, but in large we’ve made those people much more productive with technology and communication advancements, and we just don’t need as many of them for a given amount of work as well. Squeezed from both sides if you will…

          3. And a lot more of that “automation” is just outsourced to the customer. Self-checkout, ATMs, check-in kiosks, self-serve lockers, apps and software online, you name it.

      2. almost free Yellen bucks

        Those are Powell bucks now. His money-printing makes Yellen and Bernanke look like pikers.

    1. Although no guests tested positive for antibodies or showed signs of a fever, Prasad said he and his roommates were prepared to turn people away if they had.

      Presumably if they have antibodies, they would be immune. So why would you turn away a person with immunity? And another thought, where did he get accurate 10-minute antibody tests? They don’t sell those at CVS. Did he just help himself to supplies from whatever health-care facility he works at?

          1. Donated antibodies seem to be an effective treatment, so, probably yes. But I don’t think there’s much research in that space yet — at least not published.
            Maybe the party doctor is looking for people with active but asymptomatic infections.

          2. “Antibody – a blood protein produced in response to and counteracting a specific antigen. Antibodies combine chemically with substances which the body recognizes as alien, such as bacteria, viruses, and foreign substances in the blood.”

            If a substance that the body recognizes as alien is encountered then the body (if it can) will create an antibody to destroy this alien substance. If a person’s body has created an antibody then the presumption is he has already been exposed to the alien substance and has successfully fought it off. The body then keeps copies of the antibody on hand in order to efficiently ward off any future exposures to the alien substance.

            So, yeah, the presence of an antibody will guarantee (assuming anything in this world can be 100% guaranteed) immunity to this particular alien substance.

          3. Life in the time of corona
            ‘Are you immune?’ The new class system that could shape the Covid-19 world
            Experts suspect – but there is no proof – that antibodies will confer immunity. The implications could be wide-ranging
            Miranda Bryant
            Wed 10 Jun 2020 05.30 EDT
            Last modified on Wed 10 Jun 2020 14.41 EDT
            Dr Anthony Fauci, the US’s top infectious diseases expert, has said that immunity certificates on the basis of a positive antibody test are ‘possible’.

            Scrolling through Airbnbs in Brooklyn, one listing stands out. “IMMUNE HOST,” claims the heading in caps. Among photos of rooftop sunsets and interiors, lies something else unexpected – a picture of a positive antibody test.

            Host Martin Eaton says he got tested a few weeks after getting sick with what he suspected was Covid-19 in March. When the results came back positive, he decided to include it in his profile to attract reservations.

            “If I was having to travel to New York I’d prefer staying with somebody who had the antibodies versus somebody who didn’t,” says the 48-year-old writer. So far, he adds, “it’s proved pretty successful”.
            …

          6. Thanks for saying that, Skye. The common cold is 4 coronaviruses and 200+ rhinoviruses. Even then, I think the immunity for those only lasts 3 months. Even if you had permanent immunity, there are enough colds to last a lifetime. For COVID, a recent study measured the antibodies in recovered patients over two months, and antibodies were stable over that time, not decreasing. So immunity will last longer than that. FYI, it is believed that immunity to SARS-1, a very similar virus, lasted ~18 months.

          7. You can’t simultaneously argue that antibodies don’t confer immunity while pushing a vaccine.

          8. I imagine any immunity certificate would have to be renewed every several months. And they are too easy to forge.

          9. I imagine any immunity certificate would have to be renewed every several months.

            Oh well, I guess I won’t be travelling overseas anytime soon.

            Viking River Cruises must be having conniptions over this.

        1. I’m questioning everything now. In fact, I’ve become so skeptical that everything seems like BS. The lies and deceit became too prolific.

          1. The mask debacle is darn near criminal, and Fauci needs to be sued over it. As far back as 1918 we knew that cloth masks had at least some protective effect. But in 2020, they said masks didn’t work just to save face. How is this any better than China covering this up?

  9. ‘Because of the pandemic, 52% of people said they are routinely concerned about making their mortgage payments and 47% said they have considered selling their home because they are unable to afford their mortgage payments, a new poll from 72Point and the National Association of Realtors revealed.’

    ‘The poll also said that 35% of homeowners either skipped or missed a mortgage payment during the period from the beginning of the pandemic in March through June.’

    ‘Out of those who said they were financially insecure, 35% said they were worried about losing their homes. Unexpected financial distress as a result of the pandemic was experienced by 81% of homeowners, according to the survey.’

    ‘Cutting back on expenses to be able to afford their mortgage is what 56% said they had to do as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the pandemic began, 47% of homeowners said they have sought out alternative ways to make money – 64% said they started a side project and 53% said they sold personal items.’

    “The swift and unprecedented impact of COVID-19 left many people in a financial emergency and we want to make sure struggling homeowners know they have relief options, especially during Homeownership Month,” NAR President Vince Malta said in a statement. “Realtors and lenders can identify programs and aid designed to help meet loan obligations. Acting quickly may help homeowners stay in their homes and keep the money they have already invested into it.”

    https://www.housingwire.com/articles/even-with-mortgage-assistance-47-of-homeowners-have-considered-selling-their-home-due-to-pandemic/

    1. ‘we want to make sure struggling homeowners know they have relief options, especially during Homeownership Month’

      ‘June is Homeownership Month and we’re celebrating Americans who are #CreatingHome. By becoming homeowners, they are one step closer to the American Dream and sharing their experience can help others to do the same. Join us all month long as we celebrate the new era of homeownership and recognize the people, policies, and programs that are #CreatingHome now and into the future!’

      ‘We’ll be offering expert advice to help Americans navigate their way through the homeownership experience and highlighting how homeowners are shaping their communities.’

      ‘Celebrate With Us. Are you a homeowner? Did you help your children save up for their first home? Are you balancing student loans while trying to save for your dream home? Then you are #CreatingHome and we want to hear from you!’

      https://homeownershipmatters.realtor/homeownership-month-2020/

      1. It’s alot when it’s clear that we haven’t lost 52% of jobs. Maybe most of those lost jobs were the second job in a two-income household, which is enough to not pay the note.

        1. It was a small sample size and they could has skewed the wording to up the clickbait factor / viral spread of the article.

  10. Still waiting for the listing agreement from the bedridden surrogate transaction coordinator. Potential replacement property isn’t showing pending despite an offer. They know my listing is imminent and aren’t thrilled with the existing offer. 🤞

    1. Hubby’s in the dog house after his cleaning crew completely emptied the house not realizing it wasn’t a normal turnover but my mother’s house we still had some things to move out, like the African violet from my grandmother’s funeral 5 years ago that wouldn’t grow in our Poway rental because of the tinted windows, a sentimental glass pitcher as well as jewelry and a myriad of accessories in the master bedroom closet.

  11. In Toronto – there is the amount of international students. If they stay home since most universities and colleges will do remote first term.

    Remember – Canada will give you a 1year work permit if you graduate and that turns into permanent residency. But now you dont have to show up for the 1st year of your degree program

    “‘We are seeing an incredible new amount of inventory of furnished units come onto the long-term rental market over the last few months,’ said Andrew Harrild, co-founder of Condos.ca.”

    1. “Kozlowski said ‘chief’ is used as ‘a racial epithet, and it turns into a microaggression.'”

      We live in amazing times.

        1. While they are renaming things perhaps a little New York history lesson is in order as The Duke of York and his slave holding exploits might be considered. From Alinksy: RULE 4: “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”

          Idea from the new WRSA site at https://westernrifleshooters.us/ or westernrifleshootersassociation.com/

          2. None of those incidents matter to BLM people unless they involved white police officers shooting at black suspects.

          3. “60 Shot, 9 Fatally, So Far This Weekend in Chicago”

            As usual I don’t expect to see this in the sewage presented daily by the Real Journalists of the MSM. Nor do I expect Nancy Pelosi who was 8 feet from Angela Underwood Jacobs when she addressed Congress and didn’t bother to walk 8 feet and offer her condolences to comment on it.

            Sister of slain federal protective officer tells Congress calls to defund police ‘ridiculous’

            June 10

            The sister of a federal protective officer in Oakland who was fatally shot during a protest for George Floyd that turned violent told Congress on Wednesday calls to defund the police are “ridiculous”.

            https://www.foxnews.com/us/sister-slain-federal-protective-officer-defund-police-ridiculous

          4. 60 Shot, 9 Fatally, So Far This Weekend in Chicago

            Not newsworthy. Now, if some of them would have committed suicide by hanging, the media could turn that into a “suspected lynching.”

        3. and that many will continue to be moved by the power of advocacy for racial justice

          Translation: we need to get a reparations bill passed before something else (say a covid surge) steals the lime light.

          3. With a $54 billion budget hole, how will California pay for theirs? And what do they even mean in a state that didn’t exist until near the very end of the slavery era?

          5. With a $54 billion budget hole, how will California pay for theirs?

            I’m pretty sure they’re expecting Uncle Fed and his supermagical money creation machine to pay for it.

      3. ‘chief’ is used as ‘a racial epithet

        The Indians do not own that word, it’s French. Captain and chef are from the same Latin word for “head”.

      1. Stupid is as stupid does.
        — Forrest Gump’s Mama

        His mama sure did care about his education.

          1. Still, an apt little commentary on how the world really works, vs how we teach our children it should work.

        2. Mama went that extra mile to get her Forrest a quality education. Of course, that was before Common Core turned all the kiddies into dolts.

          2. Mama went that extra mile to get her Forrest a quality education.

            Extra few inches anyway.

    3. Chief seems like a silly, out of date title, but offensive?

      I know someone at the USDA who has that title. When I saw it in LinkedIn, I burst out laughing.

        2. Isn’t el jefe a cognitive for “the chief”?

          Jefe is not a formal title I’ve ever seen used in Mexico. People will refer to their boss informally as “el jefe”.

          1. I meant to say “cognate”:

            cog·nate
            /ˈkäɡˌnāt/
            adjective

            (of a word) having the same linguistic derivation as another; from the same original word or root (e.g., English is, German ist, Latin est, from Indo-European esti ).

            I’m guessing that “jefe” and “chief” have a common ancestor on the linguistic tree.

          2. ’m guessing that “jefe” and “chief” have a common ancestor on the linguistic tree.

            I just checked. They do.

  13. When they started resorting to faulty lending , which was followed by bailing out the criminal culprit Banks and investments firms, it set the stage for rigged and corrupt markets to continue. They refused to correct the causes of the 2008 meltdown.

    What was different with 1929 was that nobody got bailed out and they conducted trials to determine what happened.
    Out of these investigations came the Glass Steagal Act that was needed and served the USA well for 70 years. The Politicians got rid of Glass-Steagal in 1998, and it only took 7 years for everything to crash and burn.
    So rather than bringing back Glass Steagal Act ,the Politicians bailed out the culprits and insured that fake markets getting the money changers rich would continue.
    So any false narrative that keeps people from knowing who is screwing them is peddled.
    The Globàlist don’t want. their money train to stop either.

    The solution is going back to pre 1998 policies in USA , becoming a productive Nation again with jobs and manufacturing returned, with balance of power between Employer and Employee.

    Getting rid of the corrupted welfare State might be good, because it hasn’t worked out so well. If your Country provides good paying Jobs than welfare would be short termed or reserved for the disabled. IMHO we have to go back to the past because no other choice.

    1. “So any false narrative that keeps people from knowing who is screwing them is peddled.”

      You use what works. If the population has been dumbed-down far enough these false narratives will work and hence they are used.

    2. IMHO we have to go back to the past because no other choice.

      There seem to be a lot of people with other ideas lately about how to fix things rather than going back to what worked before. From each according to his ability…

        2. I don’t know. Since he was a Caucasian, isn’t there a chance that at least someone will claim he was a racist and either tag the statue or tear it down?

          1. Since he was a Caucasian

            It’s worse, he was one of those dreaded meddling Russians.

        1. Actually reinventing the wheel would work . These crazy rigged markets and Globalist Looters creating this class warfare, mislabeled as racism, must stop.

          Jobs, jobs, jobs float all boasts. I mean good paying jobs along with prices tracking with average wages.

  14. For those who say the drop in San Diego home sales doesn’t matter because prices are still high, I note that 1991 was near the beginning of a five-year slide in prices that didn’t end until 1996 or so.

    Of course, this time is different, due to Unlimited Quarantinive Easing…

    1. Also noteworthy: The drop off in sales is much more rapid this time than in the 1990-1991 episode, as the recession back then began in July 1990, and January 1991 was six months later. For a relevant comparison, pay attention to where San Diego home sales are in August 2020.

      Business
      San Diego home sales plummet to level not seen in nearly 30 years
      The median home price in San Diego County is $590,000. This was a home for around that same price on Watson Way last summer.
      The median home price for a house in San Diego County is now at $590,000. This was a home for around that same price on Watson Way last summer.
      (John Gibbins/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
      San Diego home sales continued to slump during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sale price remains about the same.
      By Phillip Molnar
      June 18, 2020
      2:38 PM

      Housing sales in San Diego County had their biggest annual drop in nearly 30 years in May as COVID-19 brought the market to crawl.

      There were 2,327 home sales in May, down 40.7 percent from the previous year, said CoreLogic data provided by DQNews. Analysts point to a lack of consumer confidence and sellers pulling homes off the market to wait out for a better selling time as reasons for few transactions.

      It represents the biggest annual drop in home sales since January 1991 when sales were down by 41.5 percent.
      …

      1. When Biden gets elected, expect a significant spike in H1B and Chinese “students” to help fix that situation

    1. “for the buyer who wants a great deal on the nicest house in this neighborhood”

      That’s not a good thing. The air quality has to be pretty bad too that close to the 405.

    1. ‘Sorry, tour not available’

      ‘Redfin is currently unable to show this property due to our minimum price limit.’

      WA?

      ‘Does Redfin have a minimum price limit?’

      ‘Yes, though this price will vary depending on which part of the country you’re in. If you’re interested in a home with a list price under our minimum price, we’ll connect you to a local Partner Agent who can help you tour the home and make an offer.’

      https://support.redfin.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001433192-Buying-FAQ#minimum

      Back to the shack:

      $511,5443 bd2 ba1,221 sqft
      840 W 130th St, Gardena, CA 90247

      Pre-foreclosure Foreclosure Estimate: $511,544

      https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/840-W-130th-St-Gardena-CA-90247/20986136_zpid/

      2/26/2020 Home in default $15,875 past due
      12/7/2006 Loan issued $371,925

      Cash out refi strikes again!

      There’s a ton of pre-foreclosures in California. I’ll be out there next weekend scouting some, if my flight doesn’t get cancelled.

      1. “$371,925”

        I don’t know much about cash-out refi. Does the FB choose how much cash to give out, like, “gimme $350K and work it out.” Or can you just say, “gimme the maximum.” Because $371,925 sure sounds like a computer-calculated maximum.

      2. I’ll be out there next weekend scouting

        Do you buy, rehab and sell or hold and rent? California has becoming insanely pro-tenant in the last year.

          1. Case in point: La Jolla tenants with million-dollar view unilaterally halving rent with no recourse given COVID.

          3. The virus is not cooperating with reopening plans.

            The Financial Times
            Emma Boyde 37 minutes ago
            US Sunday infection toll jumps to highest since April

            The surge in infections in the southern and western parts of the United States shows no signs of abating as the country reported 27,465 new infections — the second highest total for a Sunday ever recorded.

            The number was surpassed only on April 12 at the height of the pandemic in the US when 27,900 cases were reported, according to data from the Covid Tracking Project.

            The number is a steep rise on the 21,486 cases reported a week ago and the 19,307 recorded on Sunday two weeks ago. The true number of new infections is probably much higher because reported caseloads tend to be lower on the weekends due to delays gathering data.

            Research from the Covid Tracking Project shows the sharp rise in the number of cases is concentrated in states in the south and west of the US.

            It said the rise in infections is being driven by a jump in the number of cases in California, which reported 4,515 new cases on Sunday, followed by Texas, with 3,866, Florida, Arizona, North Carolina and South Carolina. California is the most populous state in the US.

            The overall death rate in the US has continued to fall, however, with the Covid Tracking Project researchers saying that Sunday’s reported total of 297 was the latest in a declining trend indicating that the death rate in the US had now fallen to levels last seen in March.

            A total of 113,749 lives have been claimed in the US by Covid-19 since the pandemic took hold.
            …

          4. Health and Science
            U.S. reports more than 30,000 coronavirus cases two days straight, the highest number since May
            Published Sat, Jun 20 2020 4:41 PM EDT
            Updated 4 hours ago
            Emma Newburger
            Key Points
            – The U.S reported more than 30,000 new coronavirus cases on Friday and Saturday, the highest daily totals since May 1, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
            – New cases across the country are surging faster than ever, especially in states in the South, West and Midwest.
            – Seven states hit record cases on Saturday, including Florida and South Carolina, which had their third consecutive day breaking single-day records. Missouri, Nevada, Montana, Utah and Arizona also hit records.
            …

      3. “I’ll be out there next weekend scouting some”

        Which part? A lot of CA HBBers around are probably up for a meetup (which my county now calls “social bubble” gatherings.)

          1. Can’t see how Stockton could be considered a good place to invest. Some of the north side neighborhoods look OK at first glance but upon closer inspection don’t provide the quality of life needed to justify decent prices.

  17. 1) A weekend topic starting with Eugene Weekly in Oregon “Eugene resident Stephanie Mclaughlin said the mechanism for revoking licenses was a ‘real liability for hosts who have neighbors staunchly opposed to the STR concept.’ She said she is hoping to be an STR host and that she will need the income from her rental ‘to keep a roof over my head.’”

    2) From Business Den in Colorado. “Both The Guild and Kasa — along with other competitors, such as Mint House and Sonder — lay claim to large blocks of apartments, and then rent them out to those desiring an Airbnb-like experience for as little as one night. They’re not subject to the ‘primary residence’ requirement for a short-term rental license in Denver because they apply for a different license, the same one a hotel would get. Another competitor, Stay Alfred, said last month it was shutting down.”

    3) The Dubrovnik Times in Croatia. “Airbnb brought competition and suddenly everyone with a garage had a ‘luxury apartment in King’s Landing.’ Apartment owners grew like mushrooms after the rain. What should have been an extra form of income, a bonus, soon turned into the main source of income for many. 7,000. 9,000. 12,000. 14,000. The number of apartments climbed like a soaring seagull.”

    “Hotels pumped prices like a bodybuilder pumping steroids. Monaco looked like a cheap hotel option.”

    “Again two decades of record profits, that saw apartments paid for in cash, destroyed by two months. And don’t forget ‘Winter is Coming’ very soon.”

    4) Ben Jones
    June 21, 2020 at 5:29 am

    Article: ‘The city could do no wrong. The City of Dubrovnik had so much cash they didn’t know what to do’

    Ben: Economics 101 says the excess, the mistakes made during the business cycle high sets the conditions for the following recession.

    Article: ‘Apartment owners grew like mushrooms after the rain. What should have been an extra form of income, a bonus, soon turned into the main source of income for many’

    Ben: OK, so how are these people going to pay bills? That’s the recession. Booms go bust every time.

    – I’m not a fan of STRs. Never have been.
    – Local zoning laws would separate Hotels/Motels away from residential areas, as they should. What happened? Central iquidity happened. Local governments couldn’t resist the brown envelopes and easy tax revenue, and so looked the other way.
    – Hotels have resources to weather the INEVITABLE business downturn/recession. Mom & Pop, and other small, hotelier-wanna-bees, not so much. Using STR money as primary source of income.
    – Globalization and financialization completely turned the world economy on its head. With the promise (the big lie) of a better life. Instead, good paying manufacturing jobs were offshored and many of the remaining jobs now subject to global labor arbitrage. Service economy can’t replace a manufacturing economy with the same level of income and wealth. “Who stole my cheese?” Financial slight-of-hand by the globalists and oligarchy has been slowly and steadily impoverishing and destroying the middle class for years. Real estate was promoted as the new economic engine as the globalists were looking for something to replace the vacuum left by the loss of manufacturing base. MUST have a solid manufacturing base, savings, productivity growth via cap-ex. (not stock buybacks) for a healthy economy. What we have now is a hollowed-out shell of an economy, but are told “all is well” and “the greatest economy ever!” Is it rally any surprise that wealth and income inequality are as bad any time since the Great Depression? Reality bites as the pandemic rips off the band-aid of the thin veneer of economic stability. Potemkin village all the way down. Now with the real economy exposed as a sham and the temporary income of real estate STRs and speculation suddenly stripped away by the virus. What’s left after the government and the Fed reach the finite limits of stimulus and money printing? We’ll find out very soon, but I doubt we’re going to see the fabled “V”-shaped recovery. After over 10 years of easy money and artifical/stimulus-generated “growth”, the rebound isn’t likely to be rapid.

    Ben: Economics 101 says the excess, the mistakes made during the business cycle high sets the conditions for the following recession.

    1. Corollary: The more extreme is the central bank’s encouragement of mistakes during the boom, the more severe will be the reckoning during the subsequent bust.

  18. “Eugene resident Stephanie Mclaughlin said the mechanism for revoking licenses was a ‘real liability for hosts who have neighbors staunchly opposed to the STR concept.’

    There’s a reason people who value their neighborhoods oppose STRs, Stephanie. And if you need paying guests to cover your mortgage, then clearly you can’t afford to buy a shack.

    1. There was a window of opportunity created by tech companies like AirBnB that got ahead of regulation and government. But they’re catching up and that window is slamming shut for most of the Stephanies out there.

  19. ‘At Ice Condos, for example, there are now 147 units available for rent, which is unbelievable,’ Harrild told The Financial Post.”

    Vanilla Ice for President! If there’s a problem, yo, he’ll solve it.

    1. Pfft. His one hit song was ripped directly from Queen. Like, obviously. The only useful thing the guy ever did was renovate some houses for the Amish.

      1. “The only useful thing the guy ever did was renovate some houses for the Amish.”

        He was more useful than Kap, then. 🙂

  21. Bullion coins are mostly sold out at online retailers, and US Mint 1 oz bullion coin sales for June are up sharply. That’s usually a pretty good fear gauge and no-confidence vote in the counterfeiters and racketeers at the Fed.

  22. I’m thinking more automatkon of meat processing to support social distancing among workers and less employment of human labor in the meat processing industry may be the way forward.

    1. The Financial Times
      Coronavirus business update 30 days complimentary
      Coronavirus pandemic
      Abattoir outbreak triggers surge in German coronavirus infections
      Meat production conditions in spotlight after more than 1,000 workers test positive
      A soldier outside the Tönnies abattoir: the German army has set up a coronavirus test centre
      © Ina Fassbender/AFP /Getty
      Martin Arnold in Frankfurt 17 minutes ago

      Germany’s coronavirus infection rate has shot up to its highest level for weeks after more than 1,300 abattoir employees tested positive for the virus, sparking a debate about working conditions in its meat processing industry.

      The army has been deployed to the abattoir at Rheda-Wiedenbrück, in the industrialised North Rhine-Westphalia region, to help with testing, tracking and quarantining its 6,500 workers.

      The high level of infections among workers at the slaughterhouse, which has been closed for two weeks, was the main factor pushing up Germany’s coronavirus reproduction rate — or R-rate — to 2.88 on Sunday, from 1.06 on Friday.

      The R-rate is the average number of new cases generated by an infected individual. If it is above 1, an outbreak expands exponentially. An R-rate below 1 — as has now been achieved in most European countries — means the outbreak is contracting.
      …

      1. Slaughterhouse sounds much more pleasant in French.

        ab·at·toir
        /ˈabəˌtwär/
        noun
        a slaughterhouse.
        synonyms: slaughterhouse, butchery, knacker’s yard, shambles, butcher-row

    2. Jun 21, 2020, 3:40pm EDT
      Is Eating Meat From Meatpacking Plants With Covid-19 Coronavirus Outbreaks Safe?
      Victoria Forster,
      Contributor Healthcare
      Cancer research scientist and childhood cancer survivor.

      Meatpacking plants have been frequent outbreak hot spots of the Covid-19 pandemic in the U.S. As of June 16th, over 25,000 processing plant employees from 238 plants in 33 states had been infected with at least 91 deaths according to tracking data from the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting.

      Today China suspended all imports of poultry from Arkansas-based Tyson Foods and products arriving in Hong Kong were being seized on arrival in the country. Germany also reported a huge outbreak with over 1,000 workers infected at an abattoir owned by Tönnies, the country’s largest meat-processing company. In the U.K. a poultry processing plant in Wales reported 75 cases among its workers today. All of the companies are quarantining their remaining workers to try and contain the outbreaks.

      These outbreaks, both in the U.S. and elsewhere, have resulted in widespread criticism of working conditions at the plants where employees often work in extremely cramped conditions where physical distancing is impossible. Although these plants briefly close for cleaning after big outbreaks, undoubtedly much of the meat that has been handled by people infected with Covid-19 will have made it into the food chain. But is there any risk from eating this meat?
      …

    3. “I’m thinking more automatkon of meat processing to support social distancing among workers and less employment of human labor in the meat processing industry may be the way forward.”

      – Robots are getting pretty good at tasks requiring balance and agility. Just give this one a set of Ginsu knives (and stand back). 🙂 This is “the way forward,” IMHO. It’s coming, if not already here. Re-train the touch labor to program them. That’s a better job hands-down. BTW, let’s avoid the whole artificial intelligence “signularity” thing and avoid The Terminator/Skynet outcomes.

      https://twitter.com/i/status/1273795240818810880

      1. Most importantly, so far as I am aware, robots neither contract nor spread COVID-19.

  23. Somebody paid too much for a rapidly depreciating asset….. A whole herd of somebody’s🤣🤣🤣

    But if you’re wondering who…. Then it’s likely you

    1. Don’t expect a peep about this story from the MSM.

      Or about our modern day slavery of human/sex trafficking.

    1. I got this same email a couple weeks ago. It’s the only email I ever got from Zillow.

      That said, that is an amazingly cute house in the picture.

  27. an African American woman named Charlotte Scott of Virginia. Using her first $5 earned in freedom, Scott kicked-off a fund raising campaign among freed blacks as a way of paying homage to the President who had issued the Emancipation Proclamation that liberated the slaves in the Confederate States.
    https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/dc87.htm

  28. 88-year-old liquor store owner who shot alleged thief no ‘little old lady’

    By Dana KennedyJune 20, 2020 | 6:20pm

    Tough-talking, alleged shoplifter-shooting, 88-year-old Nashville liquor store owner May Boyce wants criminals to know “I’m fed up and I’m not taking it anymore.”

    The octogenarian was back at work Saturday after being charged with aggravated assault for shooting a man she said was trying to steal whiskey.

    “I did what I had to do, and I hope word gets out on the street that I’m fed up and I’m not taking it anymore,” she told The Post Saturday from her store, where supportive customers lined up. “You’ve got to stick up for yourself sometimes.”

    https://nypost.com/2020/06/20/liquor-store-owner-88-who-shot-alleged-thief-no-little-old-lady/

    1. If I lived closer to Nashville, I would give that store owner some of my money!

  29. Muhammad Ali Jr: My dad would call Black Lives Matter a ‘racist’ movement

    By Matthew Allen -June 21, 2020

    During an extensive interview with The New York Post, Ali, 47, said that Black Lives Matter, which doubles as both a slogan and a decentralized activist group, is “racist” and that protesters are “devils.”

    “It’s a racial statement,” he said. “It’s pitting black people against everyone else. It starts racial things to happen; I hate that.”

    “It’s not just Black lives matter. White lives matter. Chinese lives matter. All lives matter. Everybody’s life matters,” Ali said. “God loves everyone — he never singled anyone out. Killing is wrong, no matter who it is.”

    https://thegrio.com/2020/06/21/muhammad-ali-jr-denounces-black-lives-matter/

  30. Bad virus!

    WHO reports largest single-day increase in COVID-19 cases; Brazil had highest spike, followed by U.S.
    Coronavirus
    by: Associated Press
    Posted: Jun 21, 2020 / 02:41 PM PDT / Updated: Jun 21, 2020 / 02:41 PM PDT

    The World Health Organization on Sunday reported the largest single-day increase in coronavirus cases by its count, at more than 183,000 new cases in the latest 24 hours.

    The UN health agency said Brazil led the way with 54,771 cases tallied and the U.S. next at 36,617. Over 15,400 came in in India.
    …

    2. 183,000 new cases

      Typical News Consumer: “That’s a big number!”

      Walter: “”It’s part of something called a Ratio. It has another part, called a Denominator.”

      TNC: “What’s the denominator?”

      Walter: “Mostly we do not discuss that. It’s kind of a secret. So you don’t know if it’s a big number or not actually.”

      TNC: “Why is it a secret?”

      Walter: “That’s the rest of the story.”

    1. We’re not out of the woods, but the nexus of COVID-19 is shifting south of the U.S.

    2. We’re not out of the woods, but the nexus of COVID-19 is shifting to the south of the U.S.

      1. This part is interesting to watch because it seems like it disproves the hope/theory that heat would kill it. I was honestly thinking that it would, and that we would be mostly free of it through the summer. Unless it’s because people are actually staying inside MORE in the affected areas.

      2. I saw an editorial in a Mexican newspaper yesterday lamenting that Mexico isn’t flattening out and the daily numbers are growing. They’re already into 4 digit daily death counts.

        1. After my post just above earlier today, I saw multiple articles saying what I was guessing: The heat helps if all else is equal, but the problem is that above a certain temp everybody starts to stay inside with each other (and the virus). They were showing a really high correlation with staying indoors, whether it’s winter or summer. Either the virus loves indoor conditions or it hates Vitamin D.

          1. It hates Vitamin D. There’s some (anecdotal?) research to back this up. Indonesia found that a Vitamin D deficiency increased your chances of death astronomically.

    3. Live updates: More than two dozen states report coronavirus surges as Trump administration prepares for possible second wave
      By Katie Shepherd,
      Jennifer Hassan and
      Rick Noack
      June 22, 2020 at 5:03 a.m. PDT

      A White House adviser said Sunday that the Trump administration is preparing for a possible second wave in the novel coronavirus pandemic this fall, as 29 states and U.S. territories logged an increase in their seven-day average of new reported cases after many lifted restrictions in recent weeks.

      White House trade adviser Peter Navarro disclosed the preparations for the possible second wave but rejected the suggestion that a second wave had already taken hold.

      “We are filling the stockpile in anticipation of a possible problem in the fall,” Navarro told Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.” The United States had reported at least 2,270,000 cases and 118,000 deaths as of late Sunday.
      …

      1. I won’t believe any of this “filling the stockpile” nonsense until I can buy more N-95s at Home Despot.

      2. an increase in their seven-day average of new reported cases

        Doing all one can to forward the narrative.

          1. Notice how there’s no longer any discussion of deaths, no more video footage of covered bodies being removed from hospitals? Just cases, only because more people are getting tested.

            They’re not even trying to make the lie convincing any longer.

          2. LOL, look at the front page of CNBC now (10:00AM EST) — the photo accompanying the headline about “cases”.

            This is Pravda-grade hilarious.

          3. What part is a lie? The virus isn’t fake. What I think we’re seeing is masks and social distancing giving lots of people mild or asymptomatic cases. And there’s the possibility that the virus itself is mutating to be weaker. Ugh, we need more medical news.

          4. The lie is news sites posting photos of caskets being lowered into the ground in June, while the fatality rate is decreasing, and the number of cases is increasing only because more people are being tested.

            This is pretense masquerading as “journalism”.

  32. Still wrestling with your FOMO? Why fight a herd of raging bulls buoyed by a tsunami tide of financial liquidity, when you can safely surf the wave to ever increasing stock market wealth?

  33. Another shooting in the Seattle CHUD Zone last night.

    Even Seattle Reddit is beginning to reluctantly admit that CHUD is a problem, LMFAO@ a thread on there of residents of other neighborhoods throughout Seattle complaining that the police aren’t responding to *ANY* calls.

    1. Huge lack of supply. No deals.

      Media price sq/ft epic high. Median rent price epic high.

      No crash yet, unfortunately.

  35. I was thinking last night how boring life would be if everyone was equal. The fact that each person has the freedom to thrive or not is much more interesting.

    Equal drones is just so anti life. Hearing people talk the same speak is just so cult like trans. I think that this idea from Communist that everyone should be the same and get the same and somehow everyone being like cattle but equal is anti life. It’s almost like a force that wants to keep people down.

    The fact that they want to get rid of history, words and now even Science is like Mao and the Great Leap Forward.

    The big lie is that some how the new Commies will do it right, when all the other examples are a disaster. Bernie Sanders can call it democratic socialism, but it’s still a flawed concept.

    The real truth is that the Politicians sold out free market capitalism to Globalist Looters , rigged markets, price sitting monopolies,

    1. “I was thinking last night how boring life would be if everyone was equal.”

      There was a science fiction story where all women are gorgeous, and this frustrated man finds comfort in the friendship with a modest and not arousing woman. Ray Bradbury, IIRC.

      1. Not to suggest that my wife is unattractive looking, but in the long run it is inner beauty that sustains a relationship.

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