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Stuck Like Dummies, Holding The Bag

A report from the Wall Street Journal. “After the coronavirus pandemic shut many businesses this spring, the three major credit-ratings firms placed about 2,400 bonds tied to pools of corporate loans on review for possible downgrades. The potential wave has turned out to be more of a dribble. Many worried the downgrades would rattle the $700 billion market for collateralized loan obligations, or CLOs, which have drawn comparisons to the subprime mortgage-backed securities central to the financial crisis.”

“Worries persist over whether ratings accurately reflect the risk that investors are taking on when they buy CLO debt. A review published in the Journal of Structured Finance found that ratings firms are inconsistent in how they apply their methodologies to CLOs and may be deviating from the criteria, which govern how grades are supposed to be assigned.”

“‘What do the ratings mean when the ratings firms are not following their methodologies or deviating from them?’ said Gene Phillips, a former Moody’s analyst who co-wrote the report. ‘It can become very difficult for a user to make heads or tails of it.'”

From Bisnow New York. “As investment sales have come screeching to a halt in New York City, buyers and sellers remain oceans apart when it comes to pricing. Right now, commercial real estate buyers in the New York metro area have price expectations that are 27% below what investment property owners want, according to Real Capital Analytics and the MIT Center for Real Estate Price Dynamics Platform.”

“‘There will be a reckoning at some point on the income shortfalls [owners] are facing — and that may force some hard discussions with their lenders that could lead to some distressed sales,’ said RCA Senior Vice President Jim Costello. ‘We aren’t there yet, but that should be coming … There will come a point where owners cannot count on forbearance to come from their lenders.'”

“This week, Ashford Hospitality Trust announced that it had sold its Embassy Suites by Hilton Hotel in Midtown, in order to meet demands from lenders. It first defaulted on payments in April and was issued an ‘acceleration notice’ from Wells Fargo, the CMBS servicer, in May.”

“Plus, many sales deals that were in the works were put on ice as a result of the pandemic, and brokers told Bisnow this week scores of contracts had to be renegotiated and asking prices reduced in many cases. B6 partner DJ Johnston said of the 30 listings his team is now marketing, there is an average of between 5% and 10% discount on each.”

From WBUR in Massachusetts. “On a Monday evening in the last full week of August, a landlord held an open house for a two-bedroom condo rental in Dorchester. The price: $2,000 a month. Many renters would tell you that’s a steal in this city. But this unit has been on the market since July, and it’s still empty.These days, landlords said it’s not surprising to find a vacant apartment, something that would have seemed almost unthinkable at this time of year in summers past.”

“Sept. 1 — the start of many new leases in the city — is usually marked by moving trucks lining and blocking Boston streets as students arrive and residents move into new digs. But as with so many things, the date Bostonians affectionately refer to as ‘Allston Christmas,’ may be different this year because of COVID-19. ‘This is probably the longest we’ve had our place on the market,”‘ said Mindy Wright, owner of the yet-to-be-rented Dorchester condo. ‘It usually rents pretty quickly.'”

“The result is that fewer students are looking to rent across the city, according to economist Joshua Clark, who analyzes rental markets for the real estate website Zillow. ‘We have a whole new situation now,’ he said. ‘The city of Boston and the metro area is usually getting ready right now for a flood of students to come on down to town and take up a huge amount of the demand and need a lot of supply that we see around the city.'”

“A smaller influx of students isn’t the only variable affecting demand. There’s also increased unemployment. And it’s having an impact on rental prices, according to Clark. ‘Right now, if you are making money in Boston, if you are a lucky person who’s been able to keep their job — and I know that’s less common these days than normal — but right now is a great time to find deals,’ he said. ‘The amount of promotions available right now are very great.'”

“Mindy Wright, the owner of the condo in Dorchester, said if no one moves in on September 1, she’s hoping to find a tenant for September 15. If not, she said she and her family might be able to afford to go without a tenant for six months. After that, she’s not so sure. And Wright said she knows other landlords may not be able to wait that long.”

From Seattle PI in Washington. “As the coronavirus pandemic continues, Seattle is seeing its rent prices dropping, according to a new study. The report from ApartmentList found Seattle has had the ninth biggest rent decrease among large cities since the start of the pandemic. According to the study, some of the most expensive markets — such as Seattle, San Francisco and New York — were seeing the most significant drops in rent prices.”

“‘Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen shelter-in-place ordinances put a halt to normal moving activity, combined with staggering job losses as huge segments of the economy were put on pause,’ the study said. ‘These unprecedented forces have dampened the demand for rental housing across the country.'”

The Washingtonian. “It’s been a surprisingly full summer of restaurant openings around DC. But the reality is we haven’t seen the true crushing impact of Covid-19 on new restaurant development yet. The vast majority of places popping up now were in the works long before this pandemic began. It could take a year or more before we see what the damage really looks like. ‘We’re starting to smell the smoke from the fire. Either that fire is going to get put out, or it’s a going to be a blaze by the end of the year,’ says veteran real estate broker John Asadoorian.”

“Rents in red-hot neighborhoods like 14th Street and Georgetown are coming down, and some landlords across the city are willing to offer more aggressive deals, but that’s not the norm, Asadoorian says. ‘From the landlord side, the world hasn’t ended yet, so they’re not throwing in the towel,’ he says. ‘Some people are still in a little bit of denial.'”

“Over the last few months, Aaron Gordon, who owns Chevy Chase bistro Little Beast and 14th Street pizza place Red Light, quickly converted a Glover Park tavern into a ‘ghost food hall’ called Ghostline where five different chefs will operate 10 different concepts for takeout and delivery. (There’s also a patio, but no indoor seating.) The buildout cost $300,000, a fraction of most restaurants, and a ‘Covid discount’ from the landlord helped. But Gordon says most landlords are ‘stuck pre-pandemic, almost like dummies.'”

From Eater Los Angeles on California. “The restaurant industry is in the middle of a massive reset. After years of an ever-expanding market, the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a correction to the industry not just in Los Angeles, but nationwide. When cities began issuing stay-at-home orders in mid-March, bars and restaurants were left with little to no business beyond meager takeout sales, yet often faced rents that remained at pre-pandemic levels.”

“This situation became untenable for scores of restaurants and led to a wave of closures hitting every tier of the industry — from smaller mom and pops, to corporate chains like the Cheesecake Factory and even buzzy fine dining spots. Now, with a sea of new vacancies, a standstill in new leases, and remaining businesses operating at a fraction of their previous levels, restaurants are being forced to adapt to a new landscape, and landlords are facing a reckoning of their own.”

“Heading into March 2020, rents for restaurant spaces in LA were riding a decade-long wave upward. Over the last 20 years, the number of restaurants in the US grew at twice the rate of the general population, while the rate of middle-class ($45,000-$75,000) job growth in the industry was triple the rate of the overall economy’s growth since 2010.”

“By the start of 2020, restaurant operators were being squeezed to their limits. ‘Anything up to February 2020 was a leasing market with a never-ending peak,’ says Francesco Zimone, owner of L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele in Hollywood. To recoup costs and turn even the slimmest margins, restaurants relied on various tactics to increase margins (urging more alcohol sales, offering higher-margin small plate menus, and generally increasing prices). But there is a natural limit to this growth, and ‘it makes it really, really tough,’ Zimone continues. ‘No matter how hard you try, no matter how much money we’re making, and how good we are, the profits are not there.'”

From Bloomberg. “U.S. Real Estate Pain Leaves Foreign Investors Holding the Bag. Foreign investors who backed real estate projects in return for U.S. visas are emerging as losers in the pandemic-driven commercial property crisis. In Manhattan, Chinese investors who helped fund Related Cos.’ Hudson Yards have called for arbitration to pressure the developer into returning their money. On Long Island, a separate group assumed the lease to the Nassau Coliseum, after billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov’s Onexim Sports and Entertainment decided to walk away from the project.”

“The investors, who backed development deals through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ EB-5 program, aren’t the only ones getting hammered by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has kept mall-goers, hotel guests and office workers home, pushing commercial-property owners into delinquency. But EB-5 investors, who cared more about coming to the U.S. than financial returns, have less leverage than most.”

“At Hudson Yards, roughly 2,000 EB-5 investors poured $1 billion into the Manhattan project through a series of deals, according to a demand for arbitration filed recently by Chicago lawyer Doug Litowitz. The investors were unsophisticated about U.S. real estate, according to Litowitz, and were told by the Chinese firm that helped Related raise money that they would be repaid following approval of their work visas, known as green cards. But the funding was structured as a preferred equity investment, not a loan, and there was no fixed timetable for returning the money.”

“‘The Related deal is interesting because the terms given to the Chinese are so bad that it’s almost like a test case for how bad a structure can be and still be legal,’ said Litowitz. ‘Dostoyevsky said, ‘If murder is allowed, everything is allowed.’ That’s how I feel about this case.'”

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This Post Has 85 Comments

  1. ‘This week, Ashford Hospitality Trust announced that it had sold its Embassy Suites by Hilton Hotel in Midtown, in order to meet demands from lenders. It first defaulted on payments in April and was issued an ‘acceleration notice’ from Wells Fargo, the CMBS servicer, in May’

    Another one bites the dust Larry.

    1. Bring down that purchase price point, and you bring down the room rate. Then creativity becomes possible.

      “Right now, commercial real estate buyers in the New York metro area have price expectations that are 27% below what investment property owners want.”

      Just 27 percent? How much had it gone up?

  2. ‘Mindy Wright, the owner of the condo in Dorchester, said if no one moves in on September 1, she’s hoping to find a tenant for September 15. If not, she said she and her family might be able to afford to go without a tenant for six months. After that, she’s not so sure’

    Not sure? Sure of what? DOn’t screw up the comps Mindy!

    ‘And Wright said she knows other landlords may not be able to wait that long’

    Wait for what? Oh, right, you owe a sh$t-load of money on these things. How the mighty have fallen.

  3. ‘At Hudson Yards, roughly 2,000 EB-5 investors poured $1 billion into the Manhattan project through a series of deals, according to a demand for arbitration filed recently by Chicago lawyer Doug Litowitz. The investors were unsophisticated about U.S. real estate, according to Litowitz, and were told by the Chinese firm that helped Related raise money that they would be repaid following approval of their work visas, known as green cards. But the funding was structured as a preferred equity investment, not a loan, and there was no fixed timetable for returning the money’

    ‘The Related deal is interesting because the terms given to the Chinese are so bad that it’s almost like a test case for how bad a structure can be and still be legal…Dostoyevsky said, ‘If murder is allowed, everything is allowed.’ That’s how I feel about this case’

    Mainland Chinese RE investors are the dumbest on the planet. They’re even worse than the real housewives, and that’s saying a lot.

    1. Mainland Chinese RE investors are the dumbest on the planet.
      But are they DUMBER than Hollywood “celebrities?”

  4. ‘Anything up to February 2020 was a leasing market with a never-ending peak’

    You Californians. Enjoy the bust.

    ‘The sun don’t shine on the same dog’s ass all the time.’ Catfish Hunter

  5. ‘We’re starting to smell the smoke from the fire. Either that fire is going to get put out, or it’s a going to be a blaze by the end of the year’

    ‘Rents in red-hot neighborhoods like 14th Street and Georgetown are coming down…most landlords are ‘stuck pre-pandemic, almost like dummies’

    Did somebody mention taxpayer? Eat yer crowz!

  6. ‘What do the ratings mean when the ratings firms are not following their methodologies or deviating from them?’

    Credit raters caught lying at the worst possible time? Check!

    Notice how Fitch and Moodys and S&P didn’t say boo about the WSJ report on CRE appraisal fraud?

  7. “After the coronavirus pandemic shut many businesses this spring, the three major credit-ratings firms placed about 2,400 bonds tied to pools of corporate loans on review for possible downgrades.

    These would be the same ratings agencies that gave AAA ratings to toxic-waste trash bundled into mortgage-backed securities and sold to “investors” (bagholders) while regulators and enforcers turned a blind eye.

    If you haven’t watched the movie, “The Big Short” it is an eye-opener as to the level of complicity and corruption by policymakers, regulators, enforcers, and (especially) the feckless whores in the corporate media. A WSJ Real Journalist point-blank refused to report investigators’ findings of massive and systemic fraud in mortgage underwriting.

      1. Does the Powell Unlimited Quantitative Easing Put ensure against a repeat of The Big Short?

        Or does it bake in The Bigger Short, thanks to giving reckless gamblers the misleading impression that they can gamble as recklessly as they choose, with a guarantee of Unlimited support?

    3. “These would be the same ratings agencies that gave AAA ratings to toxic-waste trash bundled into mortgage-backed securities and sold to ‘investors’ (bagholders) while regulators and enforcers turned a blind eye.”

      (sigh) The good old days.

    4. did they ever identify the reporter? Given his ‘caution’ corruption, i am guessing that he is now a regular on cnbc or bloomberg

      —
      “A WSJ Real Journalist point-blank refused to report investigators’ findings of massive and systemic fraud in mortgage underwriting.”

      1. I don’t know. The WSJ reporter was a college roommate, as I recall, of one of the finance guys that was betting against the housing bubble. They met with him and explained the magnitude of the fraud they had uncovered, i.e. strippers buying five houses, but he flat-out refused to touch the story – said it was too hot to handle. They didn’t explicitly identify him, but let’s face it: all Real Journalists are basically that same guy.

  8. A review published in the Journal of Structured Finance found that ratings firms are inconsistent in how they apply their methodologies to CLOs and may be deviating from the criteria, which govern how grades are supposed to be assigned.”

    Such dastardly and fraudulent acts would surely attract the attention of our ever-vigilant enforcers, public servants of impeccable moral character and professional rectitude. They would move decisively to counter such systemic threats to the soundness of the financial system, and severely punish the malefactors responsible.

    I slay me….

  9. Progressives are starting to panic as the past three months of rioting and looting have driven home to millions of Americans the true character of the Democrat Party, and how incapable they are of providing governance or public security. Michael Moore warns that enthusiasm among Trump’s 60 million strong support base is “off the charts,” while the senile corporate stooge who can’t bring himself to denounce violent rioters is getting lackluster support even from among his core constituency of parasites and criminals.

    https://www.facebook.com/mmflint/photos/a.10150288227701857/10157178473831857/?type=3

    1. ‘Michael Moore
      1d ·
      ‘Sorry to have to provide the reality check again, but when CNN polled registered voters in August in just the swing states, Biden and Trump were in a virtual tie. In Minnesota, it’s 47-47. In Michigan, where Biden had a big lead, Trump has closed the gap to 4 points. Are you ready for a Trump victory? Are you mentally prepared to be outsmarted by Trump again? Do you find comfort in your certainty that there is no way Trump can win? Are you content with the trust you’ve placed in the DNC to pull this off? The Biden campaign just announced he’ll be visiting a number of states— but not Michigan. Sound familiar? I’m warning you almost 10 weeks in advance. The enthusiasm level for the 60 million in Trump’s base is OFF THE CHARTS! For Joe, not so much. Don’t leave it to the Democrats to get rid of Trump. YOU have to get rid of Trump. WE have to wake up every day for the next 67 days and make sure each of us are going to get a hundred people out to vote. ACT NOW!’

      ‘the past three months of rioting and looting’

      “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” — Napoleon Bonaparte

      2. “Are you mentally prepared to be outsmarted by Trump again?”

        They are called Dumbocrats for a reason.

      3. ‘Sorry to have to provide the reality check again, but when CNN polled registered voters in August in just the swing states, Biden and Trump were in a virtual tie.

        I bet the “virtual tie” doesn’t account for the fact that the silent majority who have been bombarded for the past four years with Orange Man Bad media vitriol and had the corporate stooges of the MSM proclaim that all Trump supporters are racist hicks, that a sizable number who consent to speak to pollsters will deliberately obfuscate their intention to vote for Trump, and instead claim to support Biden or be undecided.

        Another middle finger in the face of the globalists on Election night, along with more priceless videos of caterwauling, traumatized special snowflakes and livid Red Guards, would make my day.

      4. Head-to-head matchups don’t tell the whole story. In 2016, Dems who supported Hillary on the phone peeled off and did something else on Election Day. They won’t do that this time. Has anyone polled the Libertarians?

        1. Most libertarians are anti-authoritarian. Since early 2020, they’ve watched collectivist control freaks show their true colors, ostensibly to combat COVID. Trump has been a severe disappointment to me personally, as a libertarian-conservative, but even with Trump’s flaws, shortcomings, and failure to live up to his campaign rhetoric, a vote for senile globalist Quisling Biden and the corrupt, crony capitalist status quo would be unthinkable.

    2. Great post but sorry can’t do Fakebook links. Requiring a login to read, or on most corporate Real Journalist websites, to comment? No thanks. Fakebook pays me (it’s a component of the S&P 500) but I don’t pay them.

        1. Opinion on polls.

          Gone are the days when the Canadates just puts forth their platforms and the best platform wins.

          No, they have to poll so they can figure out what to say to get your vote, but it’s so bogus. That’s why I never tell them what I am thinking so they can lie to me.

          I use to hear Trump on the radio 15 years ago saying the same things he is saying now. Biden/Harris on the other hand want to avoid policy and play the Trump bad , racism, and Covid 19 card. Now they have to change their lies because the polls told them to change their lies.

          Bidens “Build America back better”, is the new line. Pretty close to Trumps line.

          4. “Build America back better”

            “Build Back Better” with America implied. I read somewhere that the Clinton Foundation supposedly used this slogan in Haiti but haven’t independently confirmed.

          5. Ok , “Build back Better” was the line from Biden.
            Remember the “No More Malarkey*, that Biden started out with on the side of his bus.

            My point in the post is that polls are used to see what is getting traction verses any kind of a core belief that the party is running on.

          6. polls are used to see what is getting traction verses any kind of a core belief that the party is running on

            Agreed.

  10. ‘ fraud in mortgage underwriting. ‘

    And they got bailed out by our corrupt government.

    And in the aftermath of Covid 19 what crazy bailouts the Gov does will have the same moral hazard that that the lending fraud bail out had..

  11. “On a Monday evening in the last full week of August, a landlord held an open house for a two-bedroom condo rental in Dorchester. The price: $2,000 a month.”

    http://archive.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/11/09/poverty_concentrated_deepening_in_mattapan_dorchester_and_roxbury/

    “Poverty has deepened in Boston’s poorest neighborhoods, widening the gap between the city’s wealthiest and neediest residents, a report being released today finds.”

    “The study points to concentrated need in Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury, where 42 percent of children live in poverty, the densest cluster of childhood poverty in the state, according to the study sponsored by the Boston Foundation.”

    So they are trying to rent for $2,000 per month in one of the few areas of metro Boston where the poor have been able to live. That’s $24,000 per year.

    This isn’t an indicator the Boston is going to hell. It is an indicator that Boston had previously gone insane.

  13. NPR headline: Police Declare Portland Protests A Riot But This Definition Could Be Rooted In Racism

    “It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.”
    ― George Orwell, 1984

  14. The CFTC’s latest Commitment of Traders as of August 25 is out. It shows Commercial Speculators, aka the Fed’s bullion bank accomplices in rigging the gold and silver markets, increased their already massive short position in gold (394,711 contracts for 100 Troy ounces each) by a further 3,429 contracts. However, they reduced their massive silver shorts by 4,043 contracts of 5,000 oz each. Looks to me like the bullion banks are planning another orchestrated smash down of gold, but since late 2019 each of these smash downs has required more manipulation to produce less of an effect, and the physical gold market isn’t buying it at all – retailers just tack on higher premiums over spot, but still are still selling out of physical bullion coins.

    https://www.cftc.gov/dea/futures/deacmxsf.htm

  15. “I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I wanna have my kicks before the whole sheiathouse goes up in flames” – Jim Morrison

  16. ‘What do the ratings mean when the ratings firms are not following their methodologies or deviating from them?’

    More Unlimited Quantitative Easing bailouts are expected?

    1. If Kyle doesn’t walk free, there is a possibility that peaceful protestors could break him out of jail and hang the judge that kept him there, all a very hypothetical, non-glowie, scenario, one that isn’t encouraged here or likely to happen, just acknowledging its possibility.

      Listen to your Real Journalists.

        1. Epstein was a pedo and deserved
          to be taken out, just like other pedos. For Kyle, he was just a poor misled kid, but there is too much video, unfortunately.

        1. This kid took action because elected Democrats disallowed the police from enforcing the law and protecting innocent citizens. His attackers weren’t good Samaritans trying to prevent an incipient mass shooting – which, clearly, wasn’t the teenager’s objective. When lack of effective law enforcement causes a void, vigilantes appear.

          Nailed it. The whole article nailed it. Thanks for posting.

          1. “The teens, who claimed they were just panhandling, were all injured and Ramseur, who had been holding a screwdriver, lapsed into a coma.”

            Note to panhandlers: You will most likely make more money panhandling with a screwdriver in your hand than panhandling without one.

          2. Rather than using a screwdriver panhandlers might want to consider this tip given by Al Capone:

            “You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.”

  19. Well the housing is not tanking yet in Sacramento and Placer counties. Homes pending in week or less. Multiple offers over asking price. WTF is buying with record unemployment?

    2. Nope, not Private Equity. It’s all the Bay Aryan Locusts fleeing the expense of SillyCon Valley, and driving up housing prices further afield. They bring their politics with them too. All-around vermin.

      1. NJGeezer ok so what are they going to do when COVID ends and they have to commute 4+ hours daily to their bay area office tech jobs? Doubtful that tech managers will let these kids skate in cushy work from home forever jobs. Managers like to keep tabs on people in the office. Also when layoffs take place, out of sight means first cut and laid off.

        1. Nobody will be back on office full time in tech companies. Silicon Valley Commercial RE is going to CRATER in early 2021. Now people realize they don’t need to spend $1.5M on a shack to SURVIVE. I think residential RE will drop in mid 2021.

        2. I have made so much in OT over the years because i usually am the one who lives the closest to work……

        3. The tech companies will be happy to take the Zucker route and allow people to work@home for less pay. Save on salaries, save on office rent. Managers be dammed, they have Microsoft Teams.

          You should keep this in mind if you’re thinking of buying a house in Sacramento.

          1. Sacramento?

            Nah, 5 years from now vast majority of “tech” workers will be buying houses in Pune or in Bratislava.

        4. NJGeezer ok so what are they going to do when if COVID ends and they have to commute 4+ hours daily to their bay area office tech jobs? Doubtful that tech managers will let these kids skate in cushy work from home forever jobs. Managers like to keep tabs on people in the office.

          First level tech managers have had quite a run the last few decades. But they don’t always get what they want…not if it reduces money flowing to the layers above them.

          Also when layoffs take place, out of sight means first cut and laid off.

          True, at least in the old paradigm. But nobody knows for sure yet what the new one will look like. In the meantime it’s best to make allowances for the possibility that the new isn’t going to look like the old. That’s what the people who are voting with their feet are doing…taking a chance that things have truly changed. I hope they are right…but I have no plan to compete with them for houses.

    3. How old are you? Your daily posts whining about prices not falling immediately demonstrate total ignorance of economic cycles and 21st century bailout the VIPs politics. Go read a book and get back to us when you finish it. Try extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds by Thomas Mackay. Library has it, or $17 on Amazon.

  22. “Right now, commercial real estate buyers in the New York metro area have price expectations that are 27% below what investment property owners want, according to Real Capital Analytics and the MIT Center for Real Estate Price Dynamics Platform.”

    Sounds like a market on the brink of a MAJOR correction.

  24. “The result is that fewer students are looking to rent across the city, according to economist Joshua Clark, who analyzes rental markets for the real estate website Zillow. ‘We have a whole new situation now,’ he said. ‘The city of Boston and the metro area is usually getting ready right now for a flood of students to come on down to town and take up a huge amount of the demand and need a lot of supply that we see around the city.’”

    There’s a Harvard undergraduate in my personal circle who is going on an LDS church mission this fall in lieu of attending Harvard via Zoom from San Diego.

    I’m guessing other students are similarly postponing their college educations until the return of class meetings in person.

    1. There’s a Harvard undergraduate in my personal circle who is going on an LDS church mission this fall in lieu of attending Harvard via Zoom from San Diego.

      I’m guessing other students are similarly postponing their college educations until the return of class meetings in person.

      Sure, if most of what you were paying for was a lottery ticket for a chance to get into the big club. Everybody else has to get on with life.

  26. The Wall Street Journal
    U.S.
    Hawaii Is No Longer Safe From Covid-19
    More than twice as many people have been infected in the past month as between March and late July
    Aug. 28, 2020 9:00 am ET

    After largely succeeding in shielding itself for the first four months of the pandemic, Hawaii is being hit hard by Covid-19.

    Thanks to its nearly 2,500-mile distance from California and a mandatory 14-day quarantine for new arrivals, Hawaii had fewer than 2,000 cases of Covid-19 between March and late July, one of the lowest infection rates in the nation. In the past month, it has reported more than 5,500.

    Among its 1.4 million residents, Hawaii has a total of 7,260 confirmed cases, 5,549 of which occurred within the last month, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. From mid-March to mid-June, the state saw an average of 7.9 new Covid-19 cases a day. Last week, an average of 219 new Covid-19 cases were reported daily.

    The sudden surge threatens a public health crisis and could extend how long it will take the state to revive its tourism-dependent economy, which has been decimated by the drop in travel.

    In July, Hawaii had the seventh-highest unemployment rate in the U.S. at 13.1%, up from 2.7% in February. Visits by tourists were down 91% in the first 10 days of August from a year ago, at 23,000, according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority.
    To Read the Full Story
    Subscribe
    Continue reading your article with
    a WSJ membership

    1. “The sudden surge threatens a public health crisis and could extend how long it will take the state to revive its tourism-dependent economy, which has been decimated by the drop in travel.”

      At least the governor has the moral satisfaction of knowing their burgeoning COVID-19 caseload is not due to reopening their economy to California tourists.

      1. could extend how long it will take the state to revive its tourism-dependent economy, which has been decimated by the drop in travel.”

        Hawaii will not return to pre-COVID levels of tourism in the next decade.

  27. Larry doesn’t want to admit there’s a socialist sh$t-hole in NYC:

    ‘Mayor Robbin’ Hood

    ‘The ship of New York is sinking, but Mayor de Blasio is fixated on punishing those jumping in the lifeboats. “Help me tax the wealthy. Help me redistribute wealth. Help me build affordable housing in white communities if you want desegregation,” de Blasio railed on a Friday radio show.’

    “If you just talk about it and feel self-satisfied, God bless you,” de Blasio lectured a caller. “That’s not actually going to change things. What changes things is redistribution of wealth.”

    https://nypost.com/2020/08/29/why-dems-and-the-liberal-media-minions-are-running-scared-goodwin/

    1. Building affordable communities inside wealthy communities will crash the house values, which will crash the property taxes deBlasio so desperately needs. Regardless of the color of the residents in either type of housing.

      1. I think i might have told you this years ago. My father was a bricklayer mason and the city rallied around to build affordable housing people thought it was civic pride, lots of donations the union worked for almost half pay, businesses sold appliances for cost or less, close to 200 apartments. Well you can screen for income, but not for Behavior ( its rascis) within 2 years it was a dump windows doors broken lots of break ins, no one really thought they would treat it as crap…there were no bars on the windows or front door. Well needless to say that was about the last affordable housing built in my city, and it came in way under budget, My father said no more working for less then union pay….everyone was so offended by the residents behavior and lack of pride.

    2. The redistribution of wealth is already occurring, on a grand scale.

      “Most CLOs enable their managers to trade loans in to and out of CLO portfolios. The rising market enabled managers to clean up their books by selling lower-rated triple-C loans at higher prices, or cashing in on loans they bought at a discount earlier this year.”

      They sold. Who bought?

      No one, and I mean no one, has been more critical of New York’s past fiscal decisions than I have.

      https://larrylittlefield.wordpress.com/2018/12/20/sold-out-futures-by-state-the-sold-out-future-ranking-for-2016/

      But socialism? Really? That isn’t what it is. It’s Generation Greed, the executive/financial class, and the political/union class cashing in at the expense of the serfs.

      https://larrylittlefield.wordpress.com/2017/11/26/the-executive-financial-class-the-political-union-class-and-the-serfs-redux/

  28. ABC This Week grilled Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and challenged everything he said followed by allowing Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota to spew all the propaganda she could fit in one segment (Orange Man Bad he killed 180,000 people and is responsible for all the peaceful looting and riots) we need Joe Hiden’s leadership, he has a plan (that he’s evidently been sitting on for 47 years).

    The internal polls must have shook them up though because she did repeat Mr. Slow Joe Hiden’s better 3 months late than never new line…

    Looting and rioting is vewy vewy bad. 🙁

    1. OK, now the same show has something called a round table discussion with some Democratic strategist who is a CNN contribute, Rahm Emanuel, Chris Christie the host and some other clowns.

      Among other troubling things, the Democratic strategist is allowed to say unchallenged…

      The problem is in Kenosha we have a white kid with a long gun who just shot two people is brushed off by police (motions with her hand allowed to pass) and then we have a black man the police have by the shirt who is shot seven times in the back.

      No mention that the police were called their by a woman who had just been sexually assaulted by the “black victim” no mention that he had fought with the police, no mention that he was obviously not complying as he walked to his car door as they followed yelling commands with their guns drawn and no mention that he reached into his car for what easily could have been a gun and actually was a knife.

      These race baiters pushing this Cr@p are dangerous people. All 3 of these video captured riot inducing police killings that have been pushed by the Left and their counterparts in the MSM as racist police killings were the result of criminal activity that citizens called law enforcement to deal with and upon the police arriving were met with men who fought them, resisted arrest and in 2 cases used weapons against them.

      This Kenosha victim’s father has been on the news screaming about his son being shot in the back seven times with the usual racist drivel that follows. Watching him makes me remember my father telling me early and often when I was growing up…

      If you are dealing with police for any reason you say yes sir, no sir (I’m 60 so no lady cops when I was a kid) and do exactly what they say.

      That advice given by the fathers and heeded by our 3 African American victims would have saved this country a whole lot of trouble.

  29. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm

    “Table 3 shows the types of health conditions and contributing causes mentioned in conjunction with deaths involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death. The number of deaths with each condition or cause is shown for all deaths and by age groups.” (emphasis added)

  30. San Diego, CA »
    Local News
    Cancellations of physical RNC, DNC highlight San Diego Convention Center losses
    San Diego alone has had to cancel hundreds of events and trade shows this year with the convention center projecting a $1.2-billion loss in regional revenue.
    Author: Lemor Abrams
    Published: 10:14 PM PDT August 27, 2020
    Updated: 10:14 PM PDT August 27, 2020

    SAN DIEGO — The fourth and final night of the RNC on Thursday attempted to portray the same enthusiasm as a normal presidential year would. But the cancellation of physical conventions for both the RNC and DNC highlights the economic fallout of the pandemic.

    San Diego alone has had to cancel hundreds of events and trade shows this year. And while officials are already booking future conventions, they’re also calculating major losses.

    Consider this for economic toll:

    • The regional impact of each political convention is about $200 million, according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association.
    • Comic Con’s impact: $166 million
    • And for all of 2020, the San Diego Convention Center is projecting a $1.2-billion loss in regional revenue from cancellations.

    President and CEO of the San Diego Convention Center Rip Rippetoe said he’s had to resort to layoffs and furloughs to offset the losses.

    “The longer this lasts the more unpredictable it becomes, the more challenging it becomes, and I don’t know anyone who isn’t concerned,” he said.

    Current staff members of the convention center are helping operate its temporary homeless shelter now housing about 1,000 people as they await housing.

    Officials meanwhile are laying the groundwork for the future.

    “We have confirmed shows on our calendar right now that go deep into 2030s,” said Rippetoe.

    “We and the tourism authority can spend six to eight years courting and working with organizations to convince them that we are a great destination,” he said.

    There’s no doubt San Diego has appeal. But the challenge will come down to, reopening safely.

    To do so, Rippetoe has brought together 14 convention centers up and down California. The coalition has submitted to Governor Gavin Newsom’s office a set of strict COVID-19 guidelines.

    “It’s about distancing it’s about screening it’s about wearing masks,” he said.

    The precautions are in place, but the reality is unpredictable.

    “We have to have this realistic optimism that there are better days ahead,” Rippetoe said.
    …

    1. “It’s about distancing it’s about screening it’s about wearing masks,” he said.”

      Check the picture by clicking the link from the “Get Your Knee Off Our Necks” rally at the National Mall in Washington D.C., that was cheered by the MSM as a special blah blah blah with people almost arm in arm event the very day after they went off on 2000 people on the White House lawn at the Republican convention.

      https://countercurrents.org/2020/08/thousands-march-in-washington-d-c-with-the-rallying-cry-get-your-knee-off-our-necks/

      CNN’s Jake Tapper Denounces Trump’s RNC ‘Super-Spreader Event’

      “I’ve been talking to health officials across the country who are just abjectly mortified by what they’re seeing from the South Lawn,” the CNN anchor said of Trump’s RNC speech.

      Matt Wilstein
      Senior Writer
      Aug. 27, 2020 11:18PM ET

      The idea that 2,000 individuals with no mass testing, no social distancing, very few of them wearing masks, coming together. Forget the Hatch Act violations, we’re getting into a matter of life and death here,” Tapper added. “It’s really alarming. And I have to say that the idea of this happening while this pandemic is going on, and the president and the White House are trying to convince us that it isn’t, is just otherworldly.”

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