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What Are Overripe Bananas Worth? Nothing

A report from the Real Deal on Florida. “The co-founder of a blockchain company paid $5.2 million for a unit at Regalia in Sunny Isles Beach, well under its previous trade price. The 5.5K sf unit last sold for for about $7M in 2014.”

The Gainesville Sun in Florida. “Hundreds joined in the hearing at various times, and speaker after speaker said development regulations that allow student encroachment into historic neighborhoods must stop. ‘It’s disgusting that the … city has continued to put UF students who are going to be here for four years over Gainesville city residents,’ said Marian Mohamed. ‘There are not even enough students to fill in all of the luxury apartment complexes we have in Gainesville.'”

“Darry Lloyd, a Florida Housing board member, said the corporation has been unable to find a buyer for affordable housing and has been paying about $30,000 a year in property taxes. ‘One thing we all did not want was student housing, and that’s part of the reason why the property stayed dormant for this long,’ Lloyd said. ‘We were certainly hoping that it was going to be a development. It didn’t happen — there was no money, nobody could find any money.'”

From Forbes. “Colleges and universities have been preparing for some form of hybrid learning re-opening in fall 2020, more or less, since the start of the pandemic in March. One campus senior leader with whom I spoke, reflecting on his recent walk across campus, said he looked up at of their new classroom buildings and residence halls and said, ‘My god, what if we built these all wrong?’ wondering about the future needs of his university.”

The Jewish Voice on New York. “Momentum has swung back in favor of renters, and so landlords across New York City are giving and giving in the hopes of renting and renting. ‘May also saw the largest year-over-year increase in new listings in nearly four years, with the number apartments listed for rent in Manhattan jumping 34%, to 7,420,’ CNBC reported. ‘There were more empty apartments on the market last month than at any time since real estate appraiser Miller Samuel started collecting the data in 2006.'”

From Patch New York. “Long Island City rents are dipping as landlords struggle to find tenants during the coronavirus pandemic, and prices could keep dropping for the rest of the year. The extent of the discounts signals that lower rents are on the horizon, according to StreetEasy economist Nancy Wu. ‘The growth in rental discounts is a strong indication that demand for apartments in NYC is declining overall,’ Wu wrote. ‘Though they’ve been rising for years, we could see NYC rents falling soon.'”

The San Mateo Daily News in California. “Rent costs are down in San Mateo, Redwood City, San Bruno, South San Francisco and other Bay Area locales from the year prior, according to a June report from Zumper. The price reductions are in line with trends across the nation. ‘The fact that we’re seeing rents decrease at a time when growth normally speeds up is reflective of the continued uncertainty and economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic,’ said Chris Salviati, analyst with online database Apartmentlist, in a report tracking dropping prices across the nation.”

“Median housing sales prices in San Mateo County dropped from $1.76 million in May last year to $1.64 million to the same time this year, marking the only instance this year in which costs were reduced from 2019.”

From KPIX 5 in California. “The decrease in Bay Area rental prices has been significant this year, especially in the most expensive cities. Some median prices have even dropped by double-digit percentages. New numbers show there’s been an exodus of residents who have better options. Renters are simply walking away from their leases. ‘All of the normal things that we see as driving demand for rental housing in San Francisco have pretty much dried up,’ said J.J. Panzer, President of Real Management Company.”

“In June, rent prices year-over-year dropped more than 9% in San Francisco, Mountain View more than 15%, and Cupertino down 14% according to Zumper.”

The Union Tribune in California. “Within the next week, David Marino will list nearly 300,000 square feet of sublease office space in Sorrento Mesa that current tenants no longer need. For Marino, a principal at the Hughes Marino commercial real estate brokerage firm that specializes in representing tenants, these subleases are an early wave of what he expects to be a tsunami of unwanted office space flooding the market in coming months in the wake of COVID-19 shutdowns.”

“Social distancing, plunging revenue and layoffs already have wreaked havoc on certain commercial real estate sectors, such as hotels, malls, movie theaters and non-essential retail. Office space could be next. That could create ballooning supply starting this summer — a surplus that might make the Tech Wreck of 2000 and the Great Recession of 2008-09 ‘look like a rounding error,’ said Marino. ‘This is going to be much more like the early 1990s when we had the Savings & Loan crisis and over-development of office buildings and foreclosures,’ he said.”

“Renegotiating existing lease terms is more difficult. Lenders typically must sign off before a landlord can offer significant lease modifications. ‘Banks and insurance companies are generally willing to be reasonable about reviewing renegotiated leases, and to even modify loan terms in some cases,’ said Norm Miller, the Hahn chair of Real Estate Finance at the University of San Diego School of Business. ‘But the commercial mortgage-backed securities money, that is thousands of investors that bought this pool of mortgages, and it is pretty much impossible to modify those loans.'”

“If employees must spread out because of the pandemic, there is less utilization per square foot. ‘It’s like overripe bananas at the store,’ said Marino, the tenant broker. ‘What are overripe bananas worth? Nothing. Tenants who were willing to pay $4 or $5 per foot for something …. right now see very little value to those leases. They are in contracts that they wish they could get out of.'”

The Deseret News in Utah. “At the beginning of 2020, Utah housing experts were predicting the median home price in Salt Lake County would top $400,000 for the first time. Now three months after the state first shut down businesses in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, one economist is rethinking those rosy metrics from the state’s once red-hot economy. ‘The COVID-19 recession will cut residential construction and existing home sales by 8% to 10%, depending on the type of housing,’ James Wood, Ivory-Boyer senior fellow at the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, said.”

“Wood said the cost to rent in Utah is likely to decrease due to tenants being forced to relocate because of income and job losses. ‘The rental market is bound to see higher vacancy rates. Over the last four or five years, the vacancy rates in Wasatch Front markets have consistently been below 4%,’ he explained. ‘In recent months, however, rates had started to move higher due to the completion of several new projects. The increasing supply of rental units, combined with a rising unemployment rate, will put pressure on the market and inevitably push vacancy rates higher.'”

From Community Impact in Texas. “ApartmentData President Bruce McClenny has served with the company for the past 25 years. The organization, which has been in business since 1986, has a call center based in Houston that works to reach out to every apartment complex in its database on a monthly basis. How has COVID-19 impacted rental rates across the industry?”

“‘The absorption is down. There’s less people moving around. They’re staying in place. So we’re not seeing as many leases happen so because of a lack of demand, people staying at home, in place—that directly impacts rent, so we’ve seen rents come down, especially in the [Class] A spaces where there’s a lot of availability. There’s 21,000 [Class A] units across Houston that are in the leasing stage, so that brings pressure on the rents in the A spaces. We’re starting to see the Class C—the affordable, workforce housing—rents flatten out.'”

The Journal News. “The National Multifamily Housing Council recently surveyed its 11.5 million professionally managed apartments and the results are giving us a look at the effect of COVID-19 on performance. The data is showing that the price buyers are willing to pay is lower than the price sellers are willing to take, creating fewer transactions when compared to pre-COVID-19 levels. Although we have few transactions to evaluate, we are seeing a discount of 5% to 10% on pricing compared to what we saw prior to the pandemic on larger apartment assets.”

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This Post Has 130 Comments

  1. ‘There’s 21,000 [Class A] units across Houston that are in the leasing stage, so that brings pressure on the rents in the A spaces’

    How’s that 5% cap rate looking now Bruce?

  2. ‘One thing we all did not want was student housing, and that’s part of the reason why the property stayed dormant for this long…We were certainly hoping that it was going to be a development. It didn’t happen — there was no money, nobody could find any money’

    But QE? Nobody wants to throw money down a rat hole Darry.

    ‘a surplus that might make the Tech Wreck of 2000 and the Great Recession of 2008-09 ‘look like a rounding error,’ said Marino. ‘This is going to be much more like the early 1990s when we had the Savings & Loan crisis and over-development of office buildings and foreclosures’

    Where are all the “I don’t think it’s gonna be worse than 2000 whatever” posters?

    1. unable to find a buyer for affordable housing

      Lol, right. The only market out there is for homes that people can’t afford.

      1. More like, unable to find a buyer willing to make next to no profit. By the way, all you unfettered capitalists, this is why private sector supposedly “does better than government in everything.” Private sector gets to choose the plum jobs while government is stuck providing for the dregs.

        1. Private sector gets to choose the plum jobs while government is stuck providing for the dregs.

          Government was never supposed to supply jobs. It’s not its purpose.

        2. The homes that are being built don’t have to be unaffordable.
          There was a time when they built entry level.

          The government didn’t fix that problem — they created it by distorting the financial markets.

          1. Yep, installing water meter now 4x what it cost 10 years ago. Mandated solar panels on house – +20K. Developers have to do an EIS to see if any native species impacted, plus a set aside for “workforce housing” (read: future slum) and if there’s no school nearby, they have to pay for that too. Right there youre talking 30% increase to build over 20 years ago and people are making 30% less than they were then when you factor in offshoring, illegal labor and currency debasement.

          2. Mandated solar panels on house – +20K.

            Don’t forget the mandatory sprinkler system, brought to you by the sprinkler system installer’s lobby. The corporations and special interests have captured the politicians. The fix is in.

          3. Panel systems are often installed for free by the utility.

            Sprinklers? $2500
            Neptune meter? $200 anywhere else. x4 gets you to $800.

            Where we at now…. $55 a square foot?

            Sonoma, CA Housing Price Crater 21% YOY As Mortgage Fraud And Depopulation Accelerate In Northern California

            https://www.movoto.com/sonoma-ca/market-trends/

            A California broker commented, “Housing prices are cratering and demand is collapsing.”

          4. a square foot

            Just cost to the builder. Specuvestors are happy to pay 10 or 20 x that just for the privilege of getting on the gravy train. Until they’re not.

  3. ‘as landlords struggle to find tenants during the coronavirus pandemic, and prices could keep dropping for the rest of the year. The extent of the discounts signals that lower rents are on the horizon, according to StreetEasy economist Nancy Wu. ‘The growth in rental discounts is a strong indication that demand for apartments in NYC is declining overall,’ Wu wrote. ‘Though they’ve been rising for years, we could see NYC rents falling soon’

    Rents and prices in NY have been sinking like a turd in well for years Nancy.

    1. If you are a home owner or business owner in a long term controlled city, you are in trouble.

      Restaurants, bars, etc. closed due to COVID power mad mayors. Looting and rioting. Degraded city services. Defunded police. Streets not safe.

      The tax base has been voluntarily destroyed. But pensions will be paid. Your property taxes are about to go from insane to ludicrous.

      Those that can get out are gettin out. To the outer suburbs or small to mid cities with some sanity left.

      There is low to no demand to buy in a big city now. It will only get worse too. Very hard to sell a house without significant price cuts.

      The most truly in trouble are those who purchased expensive and/or fixer upper with all life savings homes in “gentrification” neighborhoods expecting that sweet equity.

      1. Just learned that some restaurants where my team would go out for morale building lunches in Boulder have announced they won’t be reopening.

        1. Doh, which ones? Stuff on Pearl Street? The biggest thing I miss in Boulder in Turley’s. I was really surprised when that didn’t sell when the owner was ready to retire.

          3. All three had the same owners. Since I no longer have a local team, the paid outings ended.

      2. ‘Existing home sales, which make up about 90% of U.S. home sales, decreased 26.6% on a year-on-year basis in May, the largest annual decline since 1982’

        Wowzer.

        BTW, when I clicked that NAR link, I got “page not found.”

    2. One thing I have never understood about the NAR.

      Why not publish median *and* mean prices?

      The NAR argument is that median prices are more accurate because mean prices can be swayed by a few high end sales.

      Yes NAR, but. What about a lot of low end sales? The knife cuts both ways ‘ya know.

      Especially important in a declining market.

    3. I mean, I’m a bear and all, but this is sales for signings in primarily March/April when everything was shut down. Mortgage applications have popped up dramatically since then, I wouldn’t take comfort in this.

        1. More from that link:

          “Longtime community activist Andrew Holmes also held a media briefing following the toddler’s death Saturday.

          The community needs to “take care of home base” because multiple children have been shot recently in Chicago, including a 5-year-old boy on Thursday and a 9-year-old girl on Wednesday.

          “This baby had a family,” Holmes said of Mekhi. “What I’m asking, come on out here and protest on this West Side. Shut this West Side down until we find out who discharged that weapon and took the life of this baby.” ”

          Will BLM come and help with that?

    5. Did someone leave a voicemail saying that that was MAGA country? If so, might be Jussie calling.

  7. ‘Another 723,000 homeowners became past due on their mortgages in May, pushing the national delinquency rate to its highest level in 8.5 years’

    ‘There are now 4.3 million homeowners past due on their mortgages or in active foreclosure — including those in forbearance who have missed scheduled payments as part of their plans — up from 2 million at the end of March’

    ‘Serious delinquencies are on the rise as well, increasing by more than 50% over the past two months’

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/black-knight-mortgage-delinquencies-increase-130000375.html

    2. That doesn’t include the millions who are temporarily saved by foreclosure moratoriums still in effect.

  8. ‘Median housing sales prices in San Mateo County dropped from $1.76 million in May last year to $1.64 million to the same time this year’

    Eat yer crowz Thornberg.

    1. Reply to yesterday: good luck on your trip to San Joaquin County, Ben, hope the flight doesn’t get cancelled. I’m sure some of us Bay Area readers would enjoy a meet-up when your foreclosure-scouting gets closer to the coast!

      1. I’ll get out there and we’ll have a time. Right now nobody wants to catch a falling sword.

  9. How are the Summer of Love body counts and skyrocketing crime rates going in those Democrat run cities so far?

    Shootings surge in NYC amid disbanding of NYPD’s plainclothes anti-crime unit

    By Tina Moore, Larry Celona and Amanda Woods
    June 19, 2020

    Shootings are surging this week in New York City, with 28 incidents and 38 victims reported since Monday — the day the NYPD disbanded its plainclothes anti-crime unit, The Post learned on Friday.

    By comparison, the same week last year there were only 12 shootings for the entire week.

    https://nypost.com/2020/06/19/nyc-shootings-surge-after-nypds-anti-crime-unit-disbanded/

    1. Unpossible.

      I saw a video linked from the Huffington Post titled “Riots Built America.”

      1. More than 100 shot, including slain 3-year-old boy, in violent Chicago Father’s Day weekend

        by: WGN Web Desk, Kelly Davis, Patrick Elwood
        Posted: Jun 22, 2020

        CHICAGO — This Father’s Day weekend was the most violent of 2020 with over 100 shot, including a 3-year-old boy.

        Between 6 p.m. Friday through 6 a.m. Monday, at least 106 people were shot — 14 fatally.

        https://wgntv.com/news/chicago-news/more-than-90-shot-over-a-dozen-killed-in-violent-fathers-day-weekend-in-chicago/

        1. Between 6 p.m. Friday through 6 a.m. Monday, at least 106 people were shot — 14 fatally.

          But Black Lives Matter?

  11. “The co-founder of a blockchain company paid $5.2 million for a unit at Regalia in Sunny Isles Beach, well under its previous trade price. The 5.5K sf unit last sold for for about $7M in 2014.”

    Still cheaper than renting!

    1. “By this time, big companies should have adopted anti-discrimination policies, issued statements against racism, and beefed up their charitable contributions to organizations on the front lines fighting for racial justice.”

      If they had beefed up their charitable contributions maybe these “young men” would have their own debit card and could have bought their own sneakers.

      https://youtu.be/5-eAr9h_jO0

      1. If only there had been more charitable contributions maybe this 31 year old man would only have fifty arrests instead of over one – hundred.

        Randomly attacked 92-year-old woman now terrified, no longer feels safe in NYC

        Jun 16, 2020

        https://youtu.be/6jfN1kXPiak

        1. Convenient means to virtue-signal while donating to the Democrat party and getting a tax deduction.

        2. Minnesota Freedom Fund spent $200K on bail despite millions in donations

          By Lia EustachewichJune 16, 2020

          The Minnesota Freedom Fund said it’s spent “well over” $200,000 in bailing protesters out of jail — despite receiving more than $30 million in donations.

          “We are working on doing more,” the fund tweeted on Monday.

          The backlash over the unused bailout cash was swift.

          “Return the money to people NOW. Before we find a way to take it back anyway,” one person responded. “Raised 35 million and only 200k went to bail funds? Absolutely no justification for that.”

          Another person tweeted, “Nah, we want receipts. You received millions.”

          https://nypost.com/2020/06/16/minnesota-freedom-fund-spent-200k-on-bail-despite-millions-in-donations/

          2. Yep. And plenty of taxpayer dollars going to Planned Parenthood ends up with Democrats too.

  15. It didn’t happen — there was no money, nobody could find any money.’”

    In oligarch-looted America, that’s getting to be a common refrain.

  18. Chinese Energy Company Defaults on Dollar Bonds

    Hilong Holding, with $165 million in bonds that came due Monday, joins list of Chinese companies defaulting on offshore debt this year

    ‘With offshore dollar bonds, Chinese companies account for nine of the region’s 12 defaults this year, ANZ credit analysts said in a June 12 note. Hilong has told creditors the pandemic has delayed payments from its customers, and that China’s foreign-exchange controls prevent it from sending onshore cash abroad, according to a memo of an investor conference call reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.’

    ‘Chinese companies can move cash offshore to repay bonds only if it registered the plan to do so with the authorities before first issuing the debt, said Zhou Hao, an economist at Commerzbank in Singapore’

    ‘The failure to repay will trigger a cross-default on $200 million more in bonds due in 2022. Those bonds, which carry an 8.25% coupon and were trading at above par as recently as mid-February, were quoted at 30.75 cents on the dollar Monday, according to Tradeweb.’

    ‘FactSet data shows the company has total debt of 3.2 billion yuan ($452 million), with short-term debt of 1.7 billion yuan.’

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinese-energy-company-defaults-on-dollar-bonds-11592818049

    1. If there was any risk of cascading defaults, I’m sure the CCP regulators and enforcers would sound the klaxon.

    1. It just goes to show that all these “gentrified” neighborhoods were nothing more than a thin layer of paint over the ghetto. Anyone who stays behind and tries to rebuild will get just get more “vibrancy”

      Makes me think of the recent Eddie Murphy skit on SNL where Mr. Robinson steals from his newly gentrified neighbors who are terrified of him.

    2. The guy in the article photo smashing the window has some really fresh looking new shoes.

      I’ll be visiting NE Ohio in a few weeks and will not be traveling into Cleveland unarmed.

  20. R u worried the Fed’s QE2Infinity Unlimited Quarantinive Easing program might precipitate a sudden collapse of the dollar?

    A former research analyst at the Federal Reserve Board thinks so.

  21. How do you reconcile rising new U.S. COVID-19 cases with plummeting deaths?

    The Financial Times
    Emma Boyde 3 hours ago
    New cases in US top 25,000 for fifth straight day
    Peter Wells in New York

    The US reported more than 25,000 new coronavirus cases for the fifth straight day, underpinned by increases of more than 2,000 in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia and Texas.

    A further 27,928 people in the US tested positive for the disease over the past 24 hours, according to data compiled on Monday by Covid Tracking Project, up from 26,386 on Sunday.

    New cases have topped 25,000 since June 18, and Saturday’s toll of nearly 32,000 was the biggest increase since early May.

    California (4,230), Texas (3,280), Florida (2,926), Arizona (2,196) and Georgia (2,119) had the largest one-day jumps in new cases.

    Georgia’s increase was a record for the state; the other four have all had record increases since Friday.

    Mississippi (1,646, a record) and South Carolina (1,008) were the only other states with more than 1,000 new cases. Figures are often expected to be lower on Monday owing to a slowdown in reporting over the weekend, before ticking up again on Tuesday.

    Fatalities are trending lower, though. A further 285 people died in the US of coronavirus since Sunday, according to Covid Tracking Project, down from 297 and to the lowest since March 25.
    …

    1. If you’re looking for an actual answer, here are some theories:

      1. True case count isn’t really increasing. The increase in testing is just catching milder and milder cases. Remember in March/April there were thousands(?) of mild cases that were not tested and therefore not counted.

      2. Masks and social distancing. The infections are getting through the masks but the viral load is so low that what would have been a serious case is a mild case.

      3. Better treatments in hospitals. It’s a blood/inflammation disease, not a lung disease. They now treat with anticoagulants and steroids instead of ventilators.

      4. Sunlight and Vitamin D. The virus can spread during summer, but the Vitamin D helps to fight it off. Again, mild cases. In addition, countries with new cases such as Brazil are more equatorial and soaked in Vitamin D.

      5. Case distribution. States are mass-testing and isolating in areas with vulnerable populations such as nursing homes. New cases are shifted toward younger and healthier people = more recoveries. In addition, countries with new spread are younger and healthier than, say, Italy. Lower death rate.

      6. Countries with new spread (Indonesia) are still testing and employing HCQ as a treatment –> lower death rate.

      1. Thx.

        Except I’m not about the “actual answer” part. What other kind of answers were you considering?

        1. Your posting style is to ask some kind of rhetorical question and then answer with a long article and link. So I wasn’t sure if your question about declining deaths wanted an answer, was a rhetorical question.

          Anyway, I see that some of my answers don’t apply to your question, since the article is about US deaths, not worldwide. However, better treatments, vitamin D, more testing, younger patients, and masking/SD are still decreasing the case fatality rate.

          And another reason: 7. The new cases are so new that people aren’t at the death stage yet. But aren’t AZ and Houston close to filling their ICUs? Some of those will be deaths (but not as many because of the advances in treatments).

    2. 297 and to the lowest since March 25

      It’s been a long three months hasn’t it? Back in March the Experts were telling us millions and millions of deaths. Now the daily death toll is 1 out of 1 million. Arizona is a study. Their # cases has gone exponential but their death toll is down to 1 out of a million, just like the national average, and it’s being reported as the hotspot of the country.

      Arizona is big news in Canada and is a factor in keeping the border locked down, which keeps my First Mate from cruising with me for now.

    1. in Birmingham’s “Little San Francisco” district

      Not sure if that’s a good thing. And the only thing I like about that house: the house next door.

  25. Ouch. A semi friend/acquaintance of mine, (whom I once tried to hire way back when) just got cancelled in a very public way today for unwanted advances accusations. 25 years making a big name for himself in the industry and now I wonder if he will ever find employment again.

    2. If I worked in such a capacity/industry/environment, I would refuse to ever, and I mean EVER, be alone with a female co-worker. It’s simply not worth the risk. Your whole life could be over because she wants it to be.

      1. These accusations are of getting women drunk at industry events / conferences and taking advantage of them in their wasted state. The workplaces usually are set up such that there is much risk of being left along with co-worker where you can’t be watched – I guess that’s the single upside of the open office floorplan.

        Right now a few of us old timers who know him are pinging our peer network to figure out how true it is. The accusations are from earlier in the decade. When I knew him best it was ~20 years ago and I just couldn’t imagine him being like that then.

        The industry has gotten very ‘woke’ and all that stuff, though there still are plenty of pockets of ‘bro-ness’ like Riot games (though that’s changing due to exposure).

          1. Multiple its said, but one in particular has decided to speak out after some 5? years.

            Apparently there has been an explosion of harassment allegations in the last 24 hours or so. It’s exploding today. Check out gamasutra.com or gameindustry.biz if you’re curious. And bring a bucket of popcorn.

          3. Ben may be done for the night so I’ll post this without a link.

            Multiple accusers and multiple accused. Sounds like a real systemic corporate and/or industry problem. Tech bro culture is pretty well-known.

          4. @RR – I’m putting the fault for CA’s behavior squarely on himself – that text convo was cringy.

            As for “Tech Bro Culture” in the game industry, it varies widely from studio to studio and is almost always set by the people at the top. In the early days for first person shooters, there were some real frat houses (saw first hand). When I worked at Aperture Science for the G-Man, it was incredibly inclusive with a zero-tolerance policy for harassment and the like (got a story of an incident on company vacation south of the border – got got drunk, and only took him a single (very unsuccessful) attempt at being bad to find himself on a plane back the next morning, out of a $300k job).

          5. that text convo was cringy

            Didn’t see that.

            is almost always set by the people at the top

            Hence my systemic corporate problem comment. Given the issues in the entertainment industry as well as the tech industry, I’m not at all surprised that the gaming industry would have similar problems.

          6. Hence my systemic corporate problem comment. Given the issues in the entertainment industry as well as the tech industry, I’m not at all surprised that the gaming industry would have similar problems.

            I agree that the nature of the industry easily creates situations where the imbalance of power can be exploited. I’m certainly not denying that it happens – look at the reports of Riot Games execs behavior and the fallout from that – just that it’s not a monolithic industry. There are some truly great work environments / company cultures out there along with the shi**y ones.

            There’s also enough instances of the current men-are-bad culture being exploited by the ladies in the industry. The last decade has seen an explosion of small & independent studios come into existence as the barrier to entry fell to nearly zero, mostly run and made up of Gen Y/Z aged people, and ruthlessness and sociopathy knows no gender bounds. Besides high profile people like ZQ, AS who get coverage, there are many lesser knowns that know the situation and take full advantage of it, and if anyone were to call them out on it they’d risk the immediate wrath of being accused of all the ‘wrong things’.

          7. The last decade has seen an explosion of small & independent studios come into existence as the barrier to entry fell to nearly zero, mostly run and made up of Gen Y/Z aged people, and ruthlessness and sociopathy knows no gender bounds.

            VCs have richly rewarded ruthlessness and sociopathy in the last decade.

    3. I have a former math professor, now deceased, who went through something similar with an older female student of his, who accused him of making “unwanted advances.” The experience damaged his good name towards the end of his working career.

      Funny thing is, the guy always struck me as sexually inert, or possibly even closeted homosexual. (I shouldn’t stereotype, but what percentage of men who sing in choirs are straight.)

      I’ve long wondered if the woman made the story up as revenge for him not giving her something she wanted. It seems like the female side of these situations generally gets the benefit of the doubt unless highly paid attorneys are involved to support the male side.

      2. what percentage of men who sing in choirs are straight

        Same as violin players?

        I’ve sang in the choir.

        1. I wasn’t trying to suggest all male singers are gay. But my uninformed observation is that they are overrepresented compared to their population share.

          Not sure about violin; most male violinists I know are straight, though back in the day I had a 2nd violinist in my string quartet who was gay. (Sadly I think he died of HIV…)

  26. Is it safe to assume that any drop in stocks from here on out is merely a prelude to greater gains?

  27. Do people who try to explain the stock market’s recent moon shot without ever mentioning activist central banks do so out of ignorance or complicity?

    1. The Economy Is A Mess. So Why Isn’t The Stock Market?
      By Neil Paine
      Graphics by Julia Wolfe
      Filed under Stock Market
      Published Jun. 19, 2020

      We’ve said it before: The stock market is not the economy.

      Usually, this simply means that fluctuations in the markets may have little to no real bearing on the underlying realities we think of as making up the economy. Or that there are many important structural factors that make the markets’ outlook different from how ordinary citizens view the country’s overall economic health.
      …

    2. I loves me some good buzzkill.

      Day trading for fun is a ‘losing proposition,’ Princeton economist and author Burton Malkiel warns
      Theron Mohamed
      Jun. 23, 2020, 12:27 PM
      YouTube / The Center for Retirement Investing
      – Many day traders are betting on stocks like they’re sports teams and will likely end up poorer, Wealthfront’s investment chief Burton Malkiel said in a recent MarketWatch interview.
      – “To go and day trade and think that you are investing, that’s what I think is absolutely wrong and is likely to be simply disastrous for people,” the Princeton economist and author of a “A Random Walk Down Wall Street” said.
      – Speculating for fun is the “diametric opposite to investing” and will be a “losing proposition” in the long term, he added.
      – Malkiel also said that index funds aren’t leading to smaller companies being neglected, and central-bank stimulus has boosted stock prices.
      …

      1. ‘Hertz shares will likely fall to $0, according to Morgan Stanley, leaving the car-rental company’s shareholders with nothing.’

        “We are now more concerned that there is a potential risk of a NYSE de-listing, or potential liquidity shortfall where the company may exhaust available cash to run the business by the end of 2020, potentially leaving the equity with little or no residual claim,” said Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas.’

        ‘Hertz has been in the spotlight because thousands of small retail investors piled into its cheap shares after the company declared bankruptcy at the end of May, sending the price skyrocketing.’

        https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/topstocks/hertz-shares-are-likely-going-to-dollar0-morgan-stanley-says/ar-BB15QaRG

    3. Whoever figures out how best to surf the financial liquidity tsunami waves and navigate their aftermath, wins.

      Reuters/Mike Blake
      The best bid or offer.
      BUY THE DIP
      How the retail trading boom is shaking up the US stock market
      1 hour ago
      John Detrixhe
      By John Detrixhe
      Future of finance reporter
      From our Obsession
      Future of Finance

      New technology is upending everything in finance.

      Ordinary people are piling into the stock market, snapping up shares of well-known companies like Tesla and Apple with a few taps on their phones. The influence of these app-wielding investors on the $30-trillion US stock market is still being debated, but in the meantime they are proving to be very lucrative for professional traders.

      Brokerages reported a swell of new account openings as much of the global economy went into lockdown, causing stock markets to swoon. Several factors may be underpinning the surge in new retail traders:
      – Buying and selling securities has never been easier, with slick smartphone brokerage apps just a download away.
      – Late last year a price war between companies like Charles Schwab and Robinhood drove commission charges to zero, as brokerages lean into other, more controversial, ways of making money.
      – Interest rates have plunged as central banks like the Federal Reserve do everything they can to keep their economies churning. With so little money to be made on bonds, the stock market may seem like the only way to go.
      – Some investors likely saw the downturn as a chance to get stocks on the cheap.

      Does the herd of retail traders partially explain the US stock market’s rally? Equity prices are seemingly defying gravity as the deepest recession since the Great Depression unfolds: After falling off a cliff in March, the S&P 500 Index of big US companies has climbed back up and is trading at about the same level as it was in November.

      The conventional wisdom is that the institutional money—pensions, insurance companies, and the like—drives the stock market. But there are signs that retail traders have increased their influence. “It’s probably getting close to the scale of institutional trading, but not quite there,” Phil Mackintosh, chief economist at stock exchange operator Nasdaq. He noted data showing that hedge funds have also been using leverage to amplify their bets, and suggested that their investments, plus that of the retail set, have probably given the market a tailwind.

      There are millions of new retail traders. Brokerages Charles Schwab, Interactive Brokers, and TD Ameritrade added more than 1 million new accounts in the first quarter, a 4% increase from the previous period. A year ago that increase was about 1%. Robinhood, a popular brokerage app, said last month that it has added 3 million customer accounts this year, bringing its total to more than 13 million.

      Small-time investors who are trading from their sofas might account for some of the uplift in stock prices. But there are also other powerful forces at work. The US government has unleashed more than $2 trillion of support to boost the economy, and economists like Mackintosh think the tab could rise to $4 trillion or more before the crisis is over.

      It’s not just the US Congress that’s propping up the economy. The Federal Reserve has prevented the pandemic disruption from spiraling into a financial crisis by stepping up as the lender of last resort. The central bank slashed interest rates, bought trillions of dollars of securities, and has backstopped the corporate bond market for the first time. The scale of fiscal and monetary aid is just about unheard of.
      …

    4. We’ll see what this former Fed insider says in five years, if we all are still paying attention.

      Economics
      The Fed’s Risky Business Is Worth It
      Saving the U.S. economy matters much more than the health of the central bank’s balance sheet.
      By Bill Dudley
      June 23, 2020, 3:30 AM PDT

      This is the second of two columns examining the extraordinary actions the Federal Reserve has taken to support the economy during the coronavirus pandemic, and the consequences for the central bank’s financial condition and balance sheet.

      The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet is expanding extraordinarily rapidly and by yearend may exceed $10 trillion. This is against a capital base of only about $39 billion, which implies a leverage ratio of more than 250-to-1. What balance-sheet risks is the Fed taking? Could the Fed conceivably become insolvent?
      …

      1. What does “insolvent” mean? I understand it on a micro-scale, but it seems to mean something different on a macro scale. I thought the Fed has been insolvent for decades.

      2. The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet is expanding extraordinarily rapidly and by yearend may exceed $10 trillion.

        Why not $100 trillion? Then $1 quadrillion? It’s limitless, right?

      3. I’m sure somebody somewhere has plotted the FED’s historical balance sheet on a graph along with the stock markets’ paths, right? I’d like to see that.

  28. ‘Saudi Binladin Group failed to pay thousands of employees as the construction giant reels under the impact of coronavirus and restructures about $15 billion of debt.’

    ‘The conglomerate missed some salary payments in April and May. It’s not clear yet whether the company, which employs about 100,000 staff, will be able to pay those employees in June, people said, asking not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.’

    ‘Existing problems at the construction firm – for decades Saudi Arabia’s go-to developer for mega-projects such as airports and holy sites – have been compounded by the impact of the coronavirus, which has halted developments and forced the company to burn through cash without any new project mandates.’

    ‘Some unpaid staff have taken to Twitter to voice their anger over the delays. One user said her family feels defeated after her husband didn’t receive a salary for May, while another said: “Do not tire yourselves. We’ve been in this situation for 6 years and nobody gave us face.” Others asked: “When will we get our salaries?”

    ‘Even before this year’s crisis, Binladin was still suffering from the oil-price slump in 2015, which forced the company to cut more than 50,000 jobs in 2016. The layoffs prompted a rare show of labor unrest in the kingdom and forced the government to put up the funds to pay salaries.’

    https://gulfnews.com/business/saudi-arabias-binladin-group-has-been-missing-salary-payments-1.1592910589840

  30. Somebody said last night that the peaceful protestors want take down Jesus Statues also. I guess these protestors don’t believe in democracy or voting on something.

    When I look at Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden ,who represent the Dem party , the word senile and not qualified for governance comes to mind. A total lost of reasoning. Notice how the Globalist Looters aren’t talked about and now it racism that’s the problem.
    Great diversion from the Globalist Looters.

          1. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/arts/design/roosevelt-statue-to-be-removed-from-museum-of-natural-history.html

            A Roosevelt family member released a statement approving the removal.

            “The world does not need statues, relics of another age, that reflect neither the values of the person they intend to honor nor the values of equality and justice,” said Theodore Roosevelt IV, age 77, a great-grandson of the 26th president and a museum trustee. “The composition of the Equestrian Statue does not reflect Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy. It is time to move the statue and move forward.”

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