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For Owners, Just About Everything That Could Go Wrong Is Going Wrong

A report from the Review Journal in Nevada. “Las Vegas’ housing market is defying logic. It has heated up with fast sales and a monthslong streak of record prices despite the bleak economy, raising the question locals often ask: Is the market in a bubble?”

“Las Vegas’ unemployment rate, nearly 15 percent as of September, is the highest in the nation among large metro areas, and yet house prices have never been higher. ‘It makes no sense,’ Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices agent Christina Cova-Simmons said. ‘I think about this daily.'”

From Vegas Slots in Nevada. “Local developer Michael Ochoa has bought a stretch of land near the Las Vegas Strip at an unexpectedly low price. The sellers of the 12.1-acre piece of land set the price of the property at $42.3 million in 2017 but finally sold it this year at only $12.5 million. Listing agent Mark Anthony Rua added that his clients wanted to unload the land this year. ‘That was the best price they could get with a buyer that would close this year,’ he said. The sale closed last month and the sellers were Chinese investors.”

“Ironically, the land is near a property that sold last year for a hefty amount of money. The owners of Southern California real estate firm 3D investments, the Daneshgar family, purchased close to 60 acres of mostly vacant real estate in the area for $130 million.”

From The Oregonian. “Carl and Mitsy Dunlap invested their savings into purchasing a fourplex in Southeast Portland in 2008. They bought a triplex nearby four years later. They hoped the modest rental income from the seven units would enable them to live comfortably in their retirement. Instead, they’ve lived in a state of anxiety for the last eight months. The residential eviction moratorium has been extended twice and now runs through the end of the year. Similar moratoriums are in place at the federal and local levels.”

“‘We’re just trying to keep our heads above water,’ said Carl Dunlap, 83.”

From Real Estate Weekly on New York. “5,641 new leases were signed in Manhattan in October – a 33.2 percent increase on the same time last year. They were listed at a discount that was more than double that offered in October 2019. With just over 60 percent of all leases signed with concessions, the result was a drop in net effective media rent to $2,868 compared to $3,409 at this time last year. Despite a 15 percent drop in year-on-year rents, the Queens rental market remains in a slump, according to the report.”

“According to appraiser Jonathan Miller, ‘Northwest Queens is one subway stop away from Midtown – but it’s not seeing the uptick in new leases yet like Manhattan is. The lack of activity shows that pricing likely has to adjust more before more renters are pulled in.’ Last month, Elliman reported that first-time buyers drove the new development market in Manhattan as discount there rose to. The average $3.6 million asking price for a new Manhattan condo ultimately closed at $2.37 million.”

The DCist on Washington DC. “Apartment rents are down more than 11% in the District compared to last year, according to Zillow. Ashley, the buyer in Deanwood, didn’t plan on purchasing a house right now, but the pandemic changed her plans. She attended a virtual event for first-time homebuyers with a friend and discovered buying was doable. Low-interest rates helped spur her decision, too. ‘It still hasn’t sunk in that I’ve bought a house in a pandemic,’ she said. ‘I hope I don’t lose my job or anything!'”

From Patch Maryland. “Tom Clancy’s penthouse is headed for auction. The author of died in 2013, and while his Chesapeake Bay estate sold for less than $5 million in August, Realtor.com reports this has been on the market since 2015. Initially it was listed for $12 million, but now the Ritz-Carlton mega condo — which is three penthouses combined — has dropped in price and is listed for $5.9 million. An auction with no reserve is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 5. Created over the course of two years at a cost of over $15 million dollars, three penthouses were successfully combined to reflect exquisite tastes and quality craftsmanship.”

The Miami Herald in Florida. “Since the pandemic, locals have been trading sky-high living for sprawling space. To keep them from leaving, landlords have been lowering rents. And rents may go even lower. Median rents decreased for two-bedroom units between January and September in 11 cities in South Florida, according to the recently published Apartment List suburban rent rebound report. On the list are Coconut Creek, Davie, Doral, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Miami Beach, Miami, North Miami Beach, Pembroke Pines, Plantation and Pompano Beach.”

“‘Since the pandemic, there has been less demand for city living,’ said Chris Salviati, Apartment List housing economist. ‘When you have people leaving, landlords are going to lower the rent to draw more people.'”

From Houston Public Media in Texas. “Average monthly rent at downtown apartments, for instance, has fallen by more than 14% in the past six months. Another factor is new apartment construction. ‘Construction in the Inner Loop, it’s just a double whammy,’ said Bruce McClenny, president of the Houston-based data firm. ‘You’ve got a lot of construction, very little absorption.'”

The Dallas Morning News in Texas. “Now that the holidays are approaching, sellers are more motivated and ready to deal, according to Allie Beth Allman & Associates. The firm believes that November is a good time to buy your next home. Here are four properties with recently reduced prices.”

The Los Angeles Times in California. “There’s indoor-outdoor living, and then there’s the Holt House by Hal Levitt. The architect to the stars built this Midcentury gem in the 1960s. Location: 1163 Calle Vista Drive, Beverly Hills, 90210. Asking price: $26 million. About the area: In the 90210 ZIP Code, based on 30 sales, the median price for single-family homes in September was $4.518 million, down 27.1% year over year, according to CoreLogic.”

From The Guardian. “Record numbers of residents have been leaving California in recent years, but in 2020 the growth of remote work, the lure of cheaper housing and a summer of unprecedented wildfires has accelerated the trend. As a result, the moving business in San Francisco’s Bay Area is booming. Even at U-Haul stores – the rental truck retailer with the largest fleet across the US – trucks are in short supply. With so many trucks departing the Bay Area, the exodus has left an imbalance of returning vehicles. The shortage has sharply driven up truck prices for one-way trips out of town.”

“‘Two households are moving out of California for every one moving in,’ says Mark Perry, a professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan who has been studying the US migration market over the past few years.”

The Huffington Post on Canada. “Add yet another to the many imbalances in Canada’s pandemic economy: Renters are catching big breaks as rental rates drop, while condo owners ― particularly investors ― are looking at potentially rough times ahead. In fact, for condo owners, just about everything that could go wrong ― from bad construction and rising insurance costs, to rental rates that can’t cover mortgage payments ― is going wrong.”

“Toronto led the decline, with one-bedroom apartments down 17.3 per cent in a year, to an average of $1,922. Two-bedroom apartments fell by 14 per cent, to $2,531. Rent rates are now down from a year ago in most major cities, including Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa. ‘We continue to see an increase in listings nationally, which tells us that supply is outpacing demand,’ said Matt Danison, CEO of Rentals.ca.”

“Add to that the many apartments for sale and rental markets when Airbnb busted out, and record high numbers of new condos headed for the Toronto and Vancouver markets in the next few years, and you have a recipe for falling condo prices ― something real estate agency Re/Max warned is headed for Toronto. That piles on the bad news for condo owners. Many, especially in more expensive cities like Toronto and Vancouver, weren’t able to break even renting out their condos even before the pandemic, and falling rental rates will make matters worse.”

The Georgian Straight in Canada. “A Vancouver mansion sold not only below its 2020 B.C. Assessment value. The South Granville luxury home also absorbed nearly a $3 million price reduction before the deal got sealed. The residence at 5811 Churchill sold on November 5 for $8,152,381. Luxmore Realty listed the five-bedroom-plus-den and seven-bath house on October 8 for $10,990,000. The listing was terminated on the same day, and new one came up also on the day for a reduced price of $9,980,000. Compared to its original tag of $10,990,000, the final selling price for the property represents a $2,837,619 reduction.”

The Daily Mail on the UK. “Homeowners are having tens of thousands of pounds cut from the value of their properties by lenders. The average asking price of a home soared to £323,530 in October as sellers cashed in on unprecedented demand during the stamp duty holiday. But almost half are now being told their property is worth less than they had asked, according to estimates. A struggle is now emerging between sellers egged on by eager estate agents and lenders wary of economic uncertainty. Agents have been accused of hyping the market so they earn bigger fees.”

“James Chisnall, director of City Finance Brokers, said the value of one property in Canary Wharf, east London, was cut by nearly 25 per cent from £595,000 to £455,000. He said valuers are nervous banks will pursue them for costs if the homeowner defaults on their mortgage payments. Buying agent Henry Pryor said he would expect the devaluation rate to be between 10-15 per cent in a normal market.”

“‘The housing market is out of sync,’ he added. ‘It is not behaving rationally given that we are in the middle of a recession. Some valuers are being overly-cautious, but I would go with their view over that of an over-excited seller.'”

From Stuff New Zealand. “Two months ago, not a single person was showing up to open homes for Auckland apartments. Most apartments are purpose built investment properties, designed to house international students and temporary workers for short periods of time. The pandemic pulled a handbrake on those markets but it appears to be easing off as Kiwi city-dwellers seek out any and all remaining pockets of affordable housing.”

“Some investors are keen to offload inner-city flats but first-home buyers are no better placed to grab a studio-sized foothold on the ladder because banks require much larger deposits for them. ‘There is a big difference between the central business district and the city fringe apartment prices we are seeing right now and that difference is who owns them,’ said John Bolton, chief executive of Squirrel Mortgages.”

“While residential auctions broke records and the average house price in Auckland was poised to pass $1 million, Auckland City branch manager for Barfoot & Thompson Sandra Forrester had no-one showing up to open homes. Real Estate Institute of NZ (REINZ) data shows the median price of a one-bedroom apartment in Auckland City decreased from $470,000 in July to $376,000 in August, reflecting the second lockdown – although the average price of two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments continued to climb.”

“The median price of one-bedroom apartments in Wellington City has almost halved, plummeting from $650,000 in July to $410,000 in August. It remained steady in September before falling to $355,000 in October. Inner-city apartment prices fell sharply and city fringe apartment prices ‘flat lined,’ Forrester said. But that is starting to change as the second lockdown fades into collective memory. ‘What happened in the wake of Covid was a big oversupply of rental property stock because we lost the international students, the tourists, and Airbnb – some investors decided it was time to get out.'”

“If you are considering getting into an apartment, Bolton’s advice is to take advantage of their ‘weak’ position in the market right now, leave the 40-50sqm shoebox units behind and mine the affordable gems on the city fringes. ‘Buy something that you can love. If you don’t love it, then no-one else will either,’ he said. ‘Leave the horrible apartments to investors.'”

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This Post Has 193 Comments

  1. The Mechanics Behind the Electronic Vote Steal Operation

    https://www.bitchute.com/video/OJrljwQFcIvc/

    https://twitter.com/tom2badcat/status/1325126091460268032

    https://archive.vn/KPwUa

    Michigan @ 45:20. And on. 5 out of 5 states.

    Another poster added:

    ‘At 31:30 in the video, he explains how Trump was comfortably ahead in all the 5 key battleground states, and suddenly all 5, AT THE SAME TIME, quit counting and went offline for 3 hours.’

    ‘Then when they came back, suddenly there were massive numbers of found votes and were all for one candidate and one candidate only (Biden). Statistically impossible.’

    Lots of info and links here:

    https://everylegalvote.com/country

    https://hereistheevidence.com/

    1. Smartmatic CEO apologizing in the 2017 Venezuela Election for 1 million vote switch

      https://www.bitchute.com/video/e2Fxswdf1SsG/

      ‘In an interview with the Fox Business Channel, Giuliani, in his capacity as lawyer of reelectionist US President Donald Trump, claimed that the Smartmatic vote-counting machines were “hackable.”

      ‘He said Dominion, the company that provided the automated vote-counting system used during the most recent presidential election, was owned by Smartmatic through an intermediary company referred to as Indra.’

      ‘He claimed that the Smartmatic vote-counting machine was basically developed and designed to commit fraud in the process of vote-counting, particularly for the Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.’

      ‘He claimed that Smartmatic had been behind the electoral frauds in many countries, without actually mentioning the Philippines, which has been using its system for over a decade.’

      ‘Giuliani also hinted about the origins of the Dominion- Voting System and the company’s alleged connection with Smartmatic, one of the most questioned automated voting companies, primarily because of the affiliation of the people behind the company to Chávez.’

      ‘He accused Smartmatic of manipulating the recent US presidential election in key US states, adding that its Dominion Voting System was using machines designed to allow human intervention.’

      ‘He said Smartmatic was founded by three Venezuelans who were very close to the dictator Hugo Chávez back in 2003, adding that the company was formed to fix elections. “That’s the company that owns Dominion. Dominion is a Canadian company, but all its software is from Smartmatic,” Giuliani was quoted during the interview.’

      https://manilastandard.net/news/national/339587/smartmatic-poll-machines-come-into-question.html

      1. I have not found a good explanation for WHY voting machines are necessary in the first place. Outside of enriching and empowering the Oligarchy, that is.

          1. What does that mean? Are they tracking whether Trump is making up those 19,000 votes, or are they starting the votes from scratch 0-0? And it still depends on which counties they are counting.

        2. I have not found a good explanation for WHY voting machines are necessary in the first place.

          To enable fraud.

  3. ‘Many, especially in more expensive cities like Toronto and Vancouver, weren’t able to break even renting out their condos even before the pandemic, and falling rental rates will make matters worse’

    Cash flow negative airboxes screams bubble.

    ‘Average monthly rent at downtown apartments, for instance, has fallen by more than 14% in the past six months. Another factor is new apartment construction. ‘Construction in the Inner Loop, it’s just a double whammy…You’ve got a lot of construction, very little absorption’

    How do those 5% cap rates look now? These guys re getting slaughtered in Houston.

    2. seeing a bunch of landlords now proposing 6 month leases in downtown Toronto. I guess they are gambling on improved rental rates or better prices in 6 months (the spring i guess). Wonder if that will work out for them

      1. I’ve seen reports of 20,000 condos under construction in Toronto, I’ve seen reports of more than double that. Either way it’s going to be a while before that market sorts out. These tiny units built for investors and sold pre-construction are toast. Financing has already dried up and they will bail when the closing comes due.

  4. ‘sellers are more motivated and ready to deal, according to Allie Beth Allman & Associates. The firm believes that November is a good time to buy your next home. Here are four properties with recently reduced prices’

    Wa? Why would anyone lower prices to the moon Alice? Unless somebody is a lion.

  5. ‘Local developer Michael Ochoa has bought a stretch of land near the Las Vegas Strip at an unexpectedly low price. The sellers of the 12.1-acre piece of land set the price of the property at $42.3 million in 2017 but finally sold it this year at only $12.5 million. Listing agent Mark Anthony Rua added that his clients wanted to unload the land this year. ‘That was the best price they could get with a buyer that would close this year,’ he said. The sale closed last month and the sellers were Chinese investors’

    I had to check the date a couple times and made sure it ran elsewhere recently. Chinese investors again!

    ‘Ironically, the land is near a property that sold last year for a hefty amount of money. The owners of Southern California real estate firm 3D investments, the Daneshgar family, purchased close to 60 acres of mostly vacant real estate in the area for $130 million’

    Ironic as in fooked.

    1. Yeah – saw that too.

      Kinda reminds me of the Japanese selling at massive losses 20 years ago after their bubble economy impoded.

    2. “Local developer Michael Ochoa has bought a stretch of land near the Las Vegas Strip at an unexpectedly low price. The sellers of the 12.1-acre piece of land set the price of the property at $42.3 million in 2017 but finally sold it this year at only $12.5 million. Listing agent Mark Anthony Rua added that his clients wanted to unload the land this year. ‘That was the best price they could get with a buyer that would close this year,’ he said. The sale closed last month and the sellers were Chinese investors.”

      “Ironically, the land is near a property that sold last year for a hefty amount of money. The owners of Southern California real estate firm 3D investments, the Daneshgar family, purchased close to 60 acres of mostly vacant real estate in the area for $130 million.”

      Sum Din Wong

    3. if you are a foreign investor – you cannot really use the capital gains loss in the US. So maybe they are hoping to use the loss back in China

    4. I had to check the date a couple times and made sure it ran elsewhere recently. Chinese investors again!

      Sounds like they bought at the top and had to take a big loss. Now we just need to see a whole bunch more of that across all the rent seeking demographics.

    5. “The sale closed last month and the sellers were Chinese investors’”

      🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

      1. I can’t wait to read all the retrospective stories in a few years about how many Chinese investors lost everything due to their highly leveraged U.S. real estate investments.

        1. That’s why the CPC has been vocal since 2015 that foreign investment must be “rational”, or whatever language they used. This problem has been brewing for a while.

  6. ‘In the 90210 ZIP Code, based on 30 sales, the median price for single-family homes in September was $4.518 million, down 27.1% year over year’

    Hot properties indeed Los Angeles Times. As I mentioned before, in a small market, it could easily be down more or less. But you have to take REIC data with a handful of salt.

    1. BTW I realize this is too long, but the crater is coming in faster than I can post it.

      ‘Agents have been accused of hyping the market so they earn bigger fees’

      Ahem…

      ‘the value of one property in Canary Wharf, east London, was cut by nearly 25 per cent from £595,000 to £455,000’

      This area has been sinking like a turd in a well since 2014.

      1. Canary Warf are the big banks and investment houses. Given that most of the employees are working from home – why would you want to buy a mini condo (500-600 sq ft) and live in an abandoned part of town.

  7. If leasing is hot in Manhattan now, imagine how hot it would be at 1995 or 2000 prices plus inflation?

    In NYC (and SF) the problem is price, for housing and for public services.

      1. As I showed, the number of employed residents of NYC increased by about 850,000 from 2000 to 2019, while the number of housing units occupied by working people — stayed about the same.

        The number of housing units occupied by retired people increased, as Baby Boomers retired but stayed put. Meanwhile, perhaps the Boomers in the suburbs are finally moving out or dying off, allowing younger people to escape that squeeze. I just hope they aren’t overpaying.

        1. I recently had the chance to snag a mobile home vacated by the death of a friend for $30K. He had nicely fixed it up right until just before he passed. I have stayed with him many times over the years & know its condition pretty well. His heirs just want to unload it for the balance of the mortgage. They would even throw in the contents just so they don’t have to deal with it. Lot rent is about $10K per year. I declined it.

          1. Lot rent is about $10K per year.

            Way too high. That thing is a white elephant, especially should they decide to sell the property and force everybody to move.

  9. Buying rentals in your late 70s to fund your retirement?????

    What the FOOK?

    “They hoped the modest rental income from the seven units would enable them to live comfortably in their retirement. Instead, they’ve lived in a state of anxiety for the last eight months. The residential eviction moratorium has been extended twice and now runs through the end of the year. Similar moratoriums are in place at the federal and local levels.”

    “‘We’re just trying to keep our heads above water,’ said Carl Dunlap, 83.”

    1. When annuities paid 5%+ it was a no brainer, that’s where the nest egg went when you retired.

      So now it’s either stawks or rentals. I’m sure many oldsters are afraid of stock market swings and figured that rentals were a safer choice. Then 2020 happened.

      1. Even before COVID-19, I heard many horror stories from landlords about dealing with bad tenants. Why sign on to that when you’re 83?

    1. Its crystal clear to me that the “cures” to this plandemic will be used as political tools just like the plandemic was. Political opponents will have a hard time getting a “cure”, and thus be unable to travel or conduct business while the useful idiots that do the puppeteers bidding will be given a vaccine (effective or not, doesnt matter) and henceforth be granted carte blanche to riot and loot per usual. They can roll out a new plandemic every couple of years when a few people sneeze and lather rinse repeat, destroying the economy and the lives of millions.

      The demons must be dealt with now or its going to get much much worse.

      1. “Will be“?

        They’ve been exploiting the “cures” for months now. We have one quick test, one preventative supplement, and two cheap treatments that could have been used to bring the death rate down to equal to or less than the flu. We could have opened up fully in time to send all the kids back to school and to hold a normal election. Instead, the globalists are effectively killing people to put themselves in charge both fiscally and geopolitically. And they will never be found out, much less be brought to justice.

  11. Daily reader, rarely post. Ben can’t thank you enough for this blog. If I use news is epoch Times but more often than not I head straight to your comments section to see the most important current events. Question: I forgot to bookmark a post the other day to share with hub (is been like drinking from a firehouse, the posts!)
    How do I search for the article? I don’t recall if it was Seattle Times or what but the nugget I wanted was the specific example of lenders/banks motivated to come to terms with houses sitting on their balance sheets, “sometimes as long as back to the Great Recession”
    Thanks anyone who can tell me how to more effectively search 😊

  12. Most casinos/hotels are at less than 25% capacity.

    Nearly all jobs in LV are fueled, one way or another, by the casinos/hotels (or to a much lesser sense by the large Air Force base there in NE LV).

    Yes – it make no sense and will end in misery, ruin and bankruptcy.

    “Las Vegas’ unemployment rate, nearly 15 percent as of September, is the highest in the nation among large metro areas, and yet house prices have never been higher. ‘It makes no sense,’ Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices agent Christina Cova-Simmons said. ‘I think about this daily.’”

    1. CA locusts escapees… buying up the high end housing. Will they vote the same way and make NV the same sh*tholes they escape from?

    2. Caught a peak of the Raiders-Broncos games towards the end. Nice new stadium the Las Vegas Raiders have, too bad there wasn’t a single fan in attendance. Also thought it was funny that it’s named after a crummy 3rd tier airline (Allegiant) whose business is mostly built around flying people to Vegas and selling them lodging package. It cost almost $2B and Clark County is stuck holding a $750M bag, while the Raiders paid about $1.1B.

  15. Thousands pour into Fair Park for North Texas Food Bank’s largest distribution yet during pandemic (11/14/20):

    “Thousands of families — including some who waited nearly 12 hours — turned out Saturday at the usually empty grounds of Fair Park for the North Texas Food Bank’s fifth and largest mega-distribution of food during the coronavirus pandemic.

    Since the pandemic’s start in March, the NTFB has held several such events at Fair Park and helped put on many smaller events to alleviate the hunger and financial stress many families have faced.

    During Saturday’s Thanksgiving-themed distribution, organized with help from such food bank partners as Fair Park First, Spectra and other groups, the agency handed out food to some 8,500 families. Before the pandemic, holiday giveaways would typically serve about 500 families.”

    https://www.dallasnews.com/news/public-health/2020/11/14/thousands-pour-into-fair-park-for-north-texas-food-banks-largest-distribution-yet-during-pandemic/

    12 hours? 8,500 families? Is that a lot?

    1. Apparently a lot governors are hesitant to pull the trigger on a lockdown in their state. Why? Because they know that there won’t be any Federal free cheese available. No $1200 stim checks, no extra $600 in weekly unemployment bennies.

      “We really could not have taken the steps that we did to contain the virus in March and April without knowing that people would be receiving $1,200 (checks), and rental assistance, and small businesses got (loans). That was a big part of it,” (Colorado Governor) Polis said. “The federal government was paying you to stay home. … It worked. It was a one-time intervention.”

      He added, of today’s outlook, “It’s unfair to ask people not to be able to pay rent and put food on the table. That’s not a reasonable ask of Coloradans.”

      Millions of Coloradans are staring down those very problems. A survey this month by the U.S. Census Bureau found that more than a quarter of people here belong to households struggling to meet basic expenses. The survey found two in five households are behind on rent or mortgage payments, and that nearly one in 10 households doesn’t have enough to eat.

      In other words, they know that there could be a citizen revolt if they call for another “stay at home” lockdown as the state can’t possibly afford to pay their bills and feed them.

      1. In other words, they know that there could be a citizen revolt if they call for another “stay at home” lockdown as the state can’t possibly afford to pay their bills and feed them.

        As the reaction to the scamdemic devastates the economy, the globalists are going to order their political Quislings to impose deeper austerity measures on the population. At some point even the dullest of the sheeple are going to notice the oligarchs plundering the wealth and assets of the bottom 95%, aided and abetted by “their” elected representatives. At that point rigged elections and the globalist media’s code of silence when it comes to the swindles of our financier overlords may no longer suffice to keep public anger from boiling over.

    2. 12 hours? 8,500 families? Is that a lot?

      I will admit to making snarky comments about the people in food lines having nicer, newer cars than I do, and sometimes it seems people might just be after freebies, but this is crazy. Looks like there must be a fair amount of genuine need, given that they said they usually serve only 500.

  17. The DOW is poised to clear 30,000 today, an all-time record. All of this while the highest number of people ever not paying their mortgages or rent. It’s surreal. And the FED assures us they stand at the ready to pump the stock bubble even higher should the economy falter further.

    The FED has become the most ridiculous joke in US history. They are doing nothing to actually help the economy, they are just lining the pockets of their buddies. It’s like your car has a rod knock, so they put some new tires on it and tell you everything’s fine, keep on driving.

    1. “The FED has become the most ridiculous joke in US history. They are doing nothing to actually help the economy, they are just lining the pockets of their buddies.”

      – Well, yes!

      1) Stan Druckenmiller:

      https://www.cnbc.com/2013/09/19/druckenmiller-fed-shifting-money-to-rich-from-poor.html

      Inside Wealth
      Druckenmiller: Fed robbing poor to pay rich

      Published Thu, Sep 19 2013 11:06 AM EDT | Updated Thu, Sep 19 2013 1:26 PM EDT
      Robert Frank @robtfrank

      The Federal Reserve isn’t just inflating markets but is shifting a massive amount of wealth from the middle class and poor to the rich, according to billionaire hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller.
      In an interview on “Squawk Box,” the founder of Duquesne Capital said the Fed’s policy of quantitative easing was inflating stocks and other assets held by wealthy investors like himself. But the price of making the rich richer will be paid by future generations.
      “This is fantastic for every rich person,” he said Thursday, a day after the Fed’s stunning decision to delay tightening its monetary policy. “This is the biggest redistribution of wealth from the middle class and the poor to the rich ever.”

      2) Twitter thread:

      https://twitter.com/NorthmanTrader/status/1327736432971182085

      Sven Henrich
      @NorthmanTrader

      Wilbur Ross stated this week the US deficit will reach $3.5T next year on top of the $3.1T this year, bringing US debt to over $30T. US debt reached the $1T for the first time in 1981.

      Here are the time intervals to reach each $10T:

      $10T: 27 years
      $20T: 9 years
      $30T: 4 years

      3:13 PM · Nov 14, 2020·Twitter Web App

      Sven Henrich
      @NorthmanTrader

      Replying to
      @NorthmanTrader

      This implies the US will have added $20 trillion,(nearly 100% of GDP) or 66% of all its debt outstanding in just 13 years.

      Don’t anybody tell me this is healthy or a sign of a structurally sound economy.

      3:16 PM · Nov 14, 2020·Twitter Web App

      Sven Henrich
      @NorthmanTrader

      Replying to
      @NorthmanTrader

      You should also know that debt spending filters into GDP results. This implies that GDP is vastly overstated as it doesn’t reflect the true state of the economy rather the debt economy.

      Positive growth has been financed with debt expansion.

      3:20 PM · Nov 14, 2020·Twitter Web App

      Sven Henrich
      @NorthmanTrader

      Replying to
      @NorthmanTrader

      Don’t believe me? Take out debt growth.
      Watch what happens. Total chaos.

      The economy is so structurally weak it can’t do without accelerating debt expansion.

      That’s the truth & track record that no politician, central banker or Wall Street analyst will tell you. #houseofcards

      3:23 PM · Nov 14, 2020·Twitter Web App

      Sven Henrich
      @NorthmanTrader

      Replying to
      @NorthmanTrader

      And this is why they will never, ever, ever again normalize rates as the entire construct is based on artificial cheap money and more debt.

      The poor get to shoulder the debt, the top 1% get to reap the gains. That’s the system we have.

      3:25 PM · Nov 14, 2020·Twitter Web App

      Sven Henrich
      @NorthmanTrader

      Replying to
      @NorthmanTrader

      Hence is it any wonder people are at each other’s throats under the illusion that one party or the other will make it better for them?

      That’s the show, the illusion of choice as George Carlin called it. Both parties sell it.

      It’s a great show, but that’s all it is.

      3:27 PM · Nov 14, 2020·Twitter Web App

      https://twitter.com/NorthmanTrader/status/1327744420922449920

      Sven Henrich
      @NorthmanTrader

      Replying to
      @NorthmanTrader

      Both Democrats & Republicans have presided over this system & the Fed has enabled it all.

      The result: The bottom 50% have gained nothing in over 20 years.
      Nothing.

      The top 1% have gained everything. And the Fed keeps saving them & denies they have any role in this.

      F*ck the Fed.

        1. Tells it like it is.

          It is also a redistribution from later-born generations (asset buyers) to Generation Greed (asset holders and sellers).

          1. massive amount of wealth from the middle class and poor to the rich
            It’s not just the Fed, either. Once I realized the situation, I got out of the stock market altogether in 2007 and have no intention of returning until lawn order returns. I doubt that can happen in my lifetime.

      2. The Federal Reserve isn’t just inflating markets but is shifting a massive amount of wealth from the middle class and poor to the rich, according to billionaire hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller.

        “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks…will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered…. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.” – Thomas Jefferson in the debate over the Re-charter of the Bank Bill (1809)

    2. PMs hodling steady, even on the news of great results from the Moderna vaccine. Better than Pfizer, with more data. And it can survive refrigeration far better. Still needs a booster shot tho. Some people are making predictions that at least the Western countries will be fully opened by next fall.

      1. Some people are making predictions
        Predictions, predictions. So easy to make. So few come true. No penalty for being wrong. Great way to grab attention though. I do hope a successful vaccine for COVID-19 happens, though.

    3. The DOW is poised to clear 30,000 today

      That would make a nice round milestone to hit just before making one last trip back to 10k before hyperinflation.

        2. and when can we expect this tripling or quadrupling of wages? After the US $ gets completely and totally trashed and nearly worthless.

          1. Dollars have never been more in demand. People are willing to do anything to get their hands on them.

            Imagine that.

          2. Dollars have never been more in demand. People are willing to do anything to get their hands on them.

            Anybody can get them – in the way of loans. They have flooded the market with credit.

      2. That would make a nice round milestone to hit just before making one last trip back to 10k before hyperinflation.

        I have a hard time understanding how DOW 10k will be possible with the FED’s deranged money printing. They will increase their balance sheet to whatever level necessary to prevent that.

    1. What happened was a post from you had the screen name auto filled with an email address. On comments going forward check your screen info for correctness before posting and edit. After a couple of comments it should work out. Clear yer cache too.

  19. This is creepy:

    “The complaint contends that Google is using Android users’ limited cellular data allowances without permission to transmit information about those individuals that’s unrelated to their use of Google services.

    Data sent over Wi-Fi is not at issue, nor is data sent over a cellular connection in the absence of Wi-Fi when an Android user has chosen to use a network-connected application. What concerns the plaintiffs is data sent to Google’s servers that isn’t the result of deliberate interaction with a mobile device – we’re talking passive or background data transfers via cell network, here.

    “Google designed and implemented its Android operating system and apps to extract and transmit large volumes of information between Plaintiffs’ cellular devices and Google using Plaintiffs’ cellular data allowances,” the complaint claims. “Google’s misappropriation of Plaintiffs’ cellular data allowances through passive transfers occurs in the background, does not result from Plaintiffs’ direct engagement with Google’s apps and properties on their devices, and happens without Plaintiffs’ consent.”

    https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/14/google_android_data_allowance/

    In reply to Boo’s comment a few days ago that Apple is no angel either, are i-phones less creepy? I’ve never owned one.

    I’m not about to go back to a flip phone, but I want to minimize if not eliminate interactions with Google.

      1. This^

        I need something with a good camera and a high resolution screen for reading blueprints, wiring diagrams, etc, and I don’t want to carry a tablet around all the time because it’s not practical.

        1. You could use a smart phone without any phone service. Of course if it’s connected to any wifi, you’ll still be spied on.

          1. Of course if it’s connected to any wifi And there may still be backdoors in the OS of any phone that is unknown at the moment to the uninitiated and unwashed, like us.

        2. I need something with a good camera and a high resolution screen for reading blueprints If that is all you want, have you looked at digital cameras? The one thing about smart phone cameras is the long time delay between your decision to take a pic and the time the pic is taken.

      2. https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/

        Have had a smart but purposely dumbed down qwerty for 7 yrs waiting for the pendulum to swing back the other way which of course in Europe it is quicker.
        I’ll share this for the HBBers ,might be just the phone for you

        https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/

        Punkt, out of Switzerland is also making a sweet phone. Full control of saying off all WI Fi GPS etc as in a physical button on side that does this. It’s not a fancy scream and camera though, more a modern take on the flip phone idea, and u plug it into another device when/if you want internet. The idea being digital detox, you own the phone it doesn’t own you. Cheaper at 350.

    2. I’m not about to go back to a flip phone, but I want to minimize if not eliminate interactions with Google.

      I still have a Kyocera flip phone stashed away in a drawer, should the day arrive when I choose to “cut the smart cord”

      1. Verizon told me a year ago they were discontinuing 3G service. I don’t know if they did. They gave me a “free” Android to help me out, so to speak.

        1. I have an old flip phone for my daily, only use a big brother (might as well call it what it is at this point) when traveling outside of the islands. The flip is on verizon and I recently got a text that technical support would discontinue next year, not that I ever used it – support is a joke at all the carriers from what I can tell.

        2. Eye have a 2g+ phone, no.camera, works great for voice & text, has knot failed x1 once!

          (Bought x2 New replacements on eBay for $10.00 + free shipping, damn!)

    3. “In reply to Boo’s comment a few days ago that Apple is no angel either, are i-phones less creepy? I’ve never owned one.”

      – Apparently there are various types of “creepy,” including Pres.-elect. 🙂 Never assume any privacy in cyberspace. A flip phone in a Faraday Cage bag is probably a good start. 1984 is real.

      1) https://twitter.com/jessefelder/status/1328385241678032896
      Jesse Felder @jessefelder
      ‘Apple is breaking EU law by enabling iPhone users to be tracked without their consent, said the privacy activist Max Schrems in a complaint to German and Spanish regulators.’
      Apple tracks iPhone users without consent, claims activist Max Schrems
      Austrian activist files complaints with German and Spanish data protection authorities
      ft.com [link via Twitter Tweet]
      10:11 AM · Nov 16, 2020·Twitter Web App

      2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS2lJNQn3NA
      Apple watching & logging EVERY APP YOU OPEN with new OS.
      180,274 views
      •Nov 13, 2020

      3) https://sneak.berlin/20201112/your-computer-isnt-yours/
      Jeffrey Paul
      Your Computer Isn’t Yours
      12 November 2020
      ( 3815 words, approximately 21 minutes reading time. )
      There have been several updates appended to this page as of 2020-11-16, please see below.

      1. I’m not trying to be absolutist about this.

        Yes, Apple does creepy sh*t but last I checked Apple is not banning people from YouTube for #BadThink, Google is.

        I am willing to sacrifice location data *while driving* in order to receive accurate real-time traffic data, I just don’t want to give it to or receive it from Google Maps anymore

        And for all the corontarians, I’ve blocked most of your attempts at contract tracing because I no longer carry a phone into any businesses or other public buildings.

        When I’m not working, or out climbing mountains (and taking pictures of them with my phone for Jeff) my phone spends 99% of its time on the kitchen counter, and often in airplane mode.

    1. The article does not clearly define what “services to buildings and dwellings” is, but mentions home delivery services as one job sector that is growing, specifically because of the scamdemic.

      Delivering food is not a service to a building or a dwelling. Electrical, plumbing, HVAC service calls (service, not new construction) are services to a building or dwelling, not its occupants.

      I like the Colorado Sun. The Denver Post is dead to me now.

      1. The Denver Post is dead to me now.

        The Post has been dead to me for a long time. The only time I subscribed to it was a free trial offer when I was in King Soopers. I hadn’t subscribed in over ten years and quickly was reminded of why. I cancelled before the free trial ended.

  21. A report from the Review Journal in Nevada. “Las Vegas’ housing market is defying logic. It has heated up with fast sales and a monthslong streak of record prices despite the bleak economy, raising the question locals often ask: Is the market in a bubble?”

    “Las Vegas’ unemployment rate, nearly 15 percent as of September, is the highest in the nation among large metro areas, and yet house prices have never been higher. ‘It makes no sense,’ Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices agent Christina Cova-Simmons said. ‘I think about this daily.’”

    – ‘It makes no sense,’ – Bubblenomics 101. From what I read, the Fed is trapped, painted themselves into a corner, etc. They can’t stop now, else there would be an economic implosion. What they don’t realize is that they are just forestalling the inevitable, and the problem will just be bigger later… Can-kicking eventually runs out of runway. We’re definitely closer today. Bubbles always pop, but the future is unknown.

    https://themarket.ch/interview/william-white-central-banks-keep-shooting-themselves-in-the-foot-ld.3053
    Interview
    «Central Banks Keep Shooting Themselves in the Foot»
    Mark Dittli 16.11.2020, 02.08 Uhr

    “Jerome Powell has tried to normalize monetary policy, but he had to stop after a market panic in late 2018. Is the Fed hostage to financial markets?“

    “This is exactly my definition of the debt trap: Central banks know they can’t leave interest rates as low as they are, because they are inducing still more bad debt and bad behavior. But they can’t raise rates, because then they would trigger the very crisis they are trying to avoid. There is no way out but to keep doing what you are doing, but by doing that, you are making it worse. Pretty uncomfortable, right?“

    Please consider Home Prices Are In a Bubble. Full Stop.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-11-13/housing-market-s-p-e-ratio-is-in-the-stratosphere
    Economics
    Home Prices Are In a Bubble. Full Stop.
    Stocks may be expensive based on historical measures, but it’s nothing compared to skyrocketing home values.
    By Aaron Brown
    November 13, 2020, 4:00 AM MST

    “Rapidly rising housing prices in the U.S. has led to talk of another housing bubble like the one that helped trigger the financial crisis a little more than a decade ago. Consider that the Case-Shiller National Home Price index has gained in excess of 6% per year on average since January 2012, while net rental income has barely kept up with inflation, increasing just less than 2% per year. The result is that home prices seem as overvalued as they were in the spring of 2005, nine months before the peak.“

    “The bad news is all previous history came at higher mortgage rates. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell below 3% for the first time in August 2020, and rates are close to the lowest possible levels given the credit risk and costs of writing mortgages. It’s one thing to be a peak valuation, it’s another to be at peak valuation with no discernable upside.”

    1. What they don’t realize is that they are just forestalling the inevitable, and the problem will just be bigger later

      It will be bigger, but it might end up being someone else’s problem to deal with by then.

  22. The firm believes that November is a good time to buy your next home.

    And December, and January, and February…Always Be Closing.

    2. Realtors are liars.

      The recent Westword article Ben posted noting that median sales prices for single family boxes of 2x4s and particle board assembled by illegals in metro Denver are now $625,000 only confirms I’ll never be buying anything in or near this city.

      Having the land in Southern Colorado, and an affordable rental near the city, why should I?

      No commission checks for Realtor and no paying interest to banks (cueing up oxide’s whine “b-b-but you’re still paying property taxes it’s just part of the rent”).

      In the present economic climate, rents will NOT be going up. And unlike loanowners, I’m never more than 12 months away from the end of a financial contract.

      If I had to leave metro Dumver tomorrow, I could write a check to cover the remainder of the lease. Most broke-@ss loanowners can’t even afford to buy their kids a Happy Meal after paying their monthly albatross.

      1. I have a retired relative living near Denver. This weekend I talked her out of hiring a plumber to fix a spot in the plumbing system where a toilet’s DWV line had been impinging on a HVAC copper hot water supply line, ever since the house was built. She and her husband are both engineers, and have the $ to pay for whatever help they need. They are painfully learning step by step that it is very difficult to find decent help from anyone in the building trades in the Denver area. She is a excellent observer and communicator, also an excellent copper pipe solderer. I gave her instructions in doing this combined repair. She & her husband did the job in 2 hours for a tiny fraction of what an incompetent plumber would have charged. Of course they are on the hook for any inadequacy of their repair, but it is all in plain sight and trivial to monitor.

      1. Surprised so many people just brush this whole thing under the rug. Probably has to do with the friends he kept lol.

  25. I live in California. A more severe lockdown with trigger
    the people getting nutty again. I predict long lines and the hording toilet paper and other items again.
    So, I have been stocking up because I hate dealing with the freaked out crowds.
    Everybody is already wearing masks for a long time now, so why do this again?
    I don’t believe anything they say anymore one bit. There must be a political motive.

    1. A surge in cases doesn’t mean a surge in deaths. Don’t even know if the test is accurate.
      I can’t trust a media that has fake narratives and deletes counter data. More small business will go under .

    2. So, I have been stocking up because I hate dealing with the freaked out crowds.

      Does that make you the problem? This hoarding thing causes others to hoard, and feeds on itself. Pretty soon I can’t find any toilet paper because of hoarders.

      1. toilet paper

        I never understood the toilet paper thing. It is essentially a locally made product that is the least likely thing in the store to become unavailable.

        I remember when Johnny Carson caused a run on toilet paper by joking in his monologue one night that there would be a shortage.

        1. I’m going to go out and buy up all the toilet paper in the greater Colorado Springs area. Crown me King of Bartertown, Bitchez….

      2. “I can’t find any toilet paper”

        Have you considered that the TP shortage may be intentional, enacted by the Branch Covidians?

        If nobody has *ANY* toilet paper the problem of enforcing social distancing solves itself LOLZ.

        1. What’s weird is the fact that toilet paper would not be in the top 10 of my most needed items. Sure, it’s a hassle, but one can simply hop in the shower. Toilet paper is not a necessity like food, clothing and shelter.

          1. rip,
            Your assuming I stocked up on toilet paper. One twelve pack I wouldn’t call hording. I got two weeks worth of food instead of getting about I week worth.

    3. Already happening. The Costco in Roseville was completely emptied of TP, paper towels, etc. as of Friday afternoon. People are freaking out all over again.

      1. People are freaking out all over again.

        Well, when the tyrants are threatening to lock us in our homes again, it isn’t that surprising.

      2. Walmarts in Manchester, MD and Hanover PA (both near the Mason-Dixon line) were struggling to to stock the paper products. No shortage of actual food though.

        Foreigners who think Americans are dumb are right. 😕

  27. Now we’ve got many states going into full-scale lockdown but asset prices ripping higher. Everything is on a tear. Makes no sense at all.

    2. Fear and working from home are driving up asset prices especially home prices in Sacramento, California.

      1. I$n’t it wonderful $helter.$hack.loan$ of greater.than > $500,000, $750,000, $900,000+ are plentiful & ea$y to obtain @ 1.86%!!!

        EVERYWHERE.IN.THEE.U$A!!!!!I

        Eye like it!, Eye.love.it!, Eye want more of it!

        🏡🏠🏰… 🏦📃📝📈📈📈📈📈📈📈📈📈📈📈📈🎇🎇🎉,

        George Wil$on on Denni$.thee.Menace: “Oh, Mr.banker!”

  29. My sh*tball blue state really never left lockdown. Haven’t been to a damn bar to hang out with people in 10 months. Every body wears masks everywhere. Cars, hiking, biking. It’s a goddamn freak show. To top it off we’ve only had 2 deaths related to this farce in the past 6 months and 2/3 of our deaths were only from 2 different nursing homes. Of course I’m in a state that had it starting last November when it was just a normal flu. My Governor is a Republican who just voted for Biden. They paint MLB all over the state.

    Downtowns are dead, tourism is shot and people are zombies just waiting for their magic VAXX. Nobody but a few people are fighting lockdowns at all.

    For those of you in Red states be thankful.

    1. Every body wears masks everywhere. Cars, hiking, biking.

      One thing I have noticed here is that when people walk out of the supermarket. the mask comes off. I can’t say that I’ve seen anyone wearing a mask while driving, cycling or walking outdoors. And we are rather blue here.

      2. when people walk out of the supermarket

        Here most people wear them walking to the car and even while they are loading their groceries into the car.

        1. If my hands are full I wait until I get to the car, if not, the mask comes off as soon as I’m out the door. I hate wearing them and do my best to minimize it.

      3. I can’t say that I’ve seen anyone wearing a mask while driving, cycling or walking outdoors. I have so all three categories, but not many.

        1. I see a lot of people with masks on while driving. I’ve done it a couple times, but only if I’m driving from one store to another and don’t want to take my mask off in between.

    2. It is even worse in Commiefornia with Governor Nuissance. Lockdowns never lifted really and keep getting worse. If I did not have a job, I would have left to South Dakota the only state with a sane governor and no lockdowns or mask nonsense.

    3. “Every body wears masks everywhere. Cars, hiking, biking.”

      Oh? And how is that working out?

      “To top it off we’ve only had 2 deaths related to this farce in the past 6 months and 2/3 of our deaths were only from 2 different nursing homes.”

      Great news! This is explicit evidence that demonstrates that wearing masks is working!

      😁

    4. I see people going for walks wearing masks. It’s ridiculous. I don’t live an area that requires you to be shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers.

  30. California real estate agents are way too lazy and arrogant now in this state as dumb bay area locusts are soo desperate to overpay for a crapshack now in outlying parts of the state. Bring on the crash!

    1. Same patterns in 90-93, 2001-4, 2009-12. We are probably due. Given the amount of cost reductions on condos in cities AND in burns, SFHs are just around the corner. That Bloomberg article shows exactly why on that second graph. Cost of borrowed money is low.

  31. This is a New Normal / Great Reset #Narrative.

    The Atlantic (as real as Real Journalists get) published an hour ago:

    “Don’t gather socially. Don’t travel. Many doctors and public-health experts have spoken out to this effect in recent weeks. Don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in anything resembling the modern American way—with multigenerational gatherings that involve travel and prolonged conversations over an indoor meal. In short, do not do anything resembling a Norman Rockwell painting.”

    https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/11/pandemic-thanksgiving/617119/

    The title of the article as it appears (not in the URL string) but on the website is “Cancel Thanksgiving.”

    The dig at Norman Rockwell is about what you should expect from the anti-American globalists. They hate everything this country ever was, want to erase its history, and want to erase YOU.

    1. The title of the article as it appears (not in the URL string) but on the website is “Cancel Thanksgiving.”

      Sure. Cancel Thanksgiving for all of us “commoners,” while the oligarchs and their puppets dine out at The French Laundry in Napa. And people vote for this sh!t. It’s almost unbelievable.

    3. Are they trying to isolate people from each other so they can bring on the GREAT RESET? Nothing makes sense .

    4. The title of the article as it appears (not in the URL string) but on the website is “Cancel Thanksgiving.”

      That title is no accident. While grandma may have never heard of the cancel culture the younger ones sure have. And many of them are probably on board with canceling what they see as a “problematic” quasi-religious holiday.

  32. The globalists are mustering their Republicrat duopoly stooges to block the nomination of Judy Shelton to the Fed, where she could potentially expose the Fed’s schemes and scams.

    Judy Shelton’s Fed confirmation in doubt as a third Republican senator will oppose nomination

    A third Republican senator said Monday he would oppose the confirmation of a nominee of President Donald Trump to a seat on the Federal Reserve’s board of governors, setting up a close vote as soon as this week.

    In a statement, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said he wouldn’t support the nomination of Judy Shelton, an outspoken critic of the central bank and close ally of Trump’s economic adviser Larry Kudlow, leaving her with support from no more than 50 senators.

    “I oppose the nomination of Judy Shelton because I am not convinced that she supports the independence of the Federal Reserve Board as much as I believe the board of governors should,” Alexander said.

    1. @Realtors Are Liars,

      Nice! I pray for rising home inventory and 50% housing price crash next year and hope no more bailout programs. Would love to swoop in for deal all cash and have a nice place all paid off in full. Watch out for Mello Roos aka Mello Screw U and Me the scam two now dead scummy demonrat CommieFornia pols passed that scammed people on property taxes by running around Prop 13. I refuse to buy newer homes for this reason plus HOA suck.

    1. Check out the Wikipedia page on Smartmatic. First, notice the disclaimer on the header that the “neutrality of the article is disputed.” Then notice why:

      Smartmatic was the subject of a hoax in the aftermath of the 2020 United States presidential election, notably promoted by the personal attorney to President Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani,

      I encourage everybody to scroll down and read under “controversy.” It is surreal that this system is being used in the US, and that the Chairman of the Board is now on Biden’s transition team. You’d have to be corrupt or a fool to believe this is legit.

        1. On June 7, 2017, the Philippine Department of Justice indicted “several Smartmatic and Comelec personnel for changing the script in the election transparency server on election night during the May 2016 national and local polls”. Those charged with the tampering include Marlon Garcia, the head of the Smartmatic’s Technical Support Team, as well as tow other Smartmatic employees, Neil Baniqued and Mauricio Herrera, and Comelec IT employeesl Rouie Peñalba, Nelson Herrera, and Frances Mae Gonzales. The six were charged with “illegal access, data interference, and system interference” under the Cybercrime Prevention Act.[124]

          In August 2017, it was revealed that Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista was allegedly paid commissions by Divina Law while serving as chairman “for assisting the law firm clients with the Comelec”. Divina Law, a firm that provides legal advice to Smartmatic. Bautista admitted that he obtained “referral fees”, but denied that it was due to his position in Comelec. According to House Deputy Minority Leader Harry Roque, the incident is “a very clear case of bribery” by Smartmatic.

  37. Twitter and other globalist media, while zealous in de-platforming truth-tellers, are a good deal more indulgent with it comes to their fellow globalist minions in Antifa bragging about their acts of arson against police officers. Again, the parallels between the run-up to the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and what the globalists are fomenting here in America are uncanny, since the financier oligarchy and their collectivist Red Guards are working off the same script.

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/antifa-youth-liberation-front-arson-police

  39. This Covid-19 “epidemic” has been blown WAY out of proportion. It’s no longer a public health issue, it’s now a political weapon being used to violate the civil rights of Americans. There’s no need for such hysteria–the disease is nothing more than the common flu for the vast majority of the population. Certain people are at a higher risk of complications or death.

    BUT THIS IS TRUE FOR ANY DISEASE. And death is guaranteed to happen to everyone. Life is inherently RISKY! The moment you are born, you are doomed to die of something sooner or later. So quit panicking over something that sometimes kills people.

    For the population under the age 30, Covid-19 isn’t of any concern. Young people are 10-100 times more likely to die in an accident, homicide or commit suicide than die of Covid-19.

    If you’re between 30 and 50, the risks of serious illness or death rises a very small amount. The risks from all the other diseases dwarf the risks from Covid-19.

    If you’re between 50 and 70, then the risk from Covid-19 becomes more visible, but probably only to people who are also sick from other chronic conditions. And the risks of death from everything else skyrockets in this age group. Compared to Covid-19, the risk of dying from everything from cancer, heart disease and other chronic conditions makes Covid-19 look not very important. So people in this age group should be taking precautions against becoming infected. But this is also true with the annual flu–so if you’re already taking anti-flu measures, those will protect you against Covid-19.

    The vast majority of people who die or have serious complications from Covid-19 are over the age of 70. And the rate goes exponential for people over 80. So if you are a well seasoned senior, you should take more drastic measures to limit your exposure to people during this epidemic. But even if you becoming ill from Covid-19, most people won’t end up dying since the success rate for treating the disease has improved markedly since earlier in the year.

    So most people can just go back to normal life. No masks and no social distancing or shut downs. Those people in the high risk groups should take serious measures to protect themselves. And wearing a mask or trying to stay 6 feet away from other people ISN’T going to be effective. High risk people should reduce their exposure to all people, especially strangers in public. That means not going out in public except for when it’s necessary. And when you go out, do it at times or in places which aren’t crowded, eg, go to the supermarket early in the morning or late at night when there are no crowds.

    Far more lives will be saved if anti-Covid 19 measures are focused on the high risk people in the population. It’s useless to prevent a 20 year old college student from becoming sick since the student might not even know he’s been infected, or he might just end up with a mild illness. The good thing is that every person that does become infected increases the level of immunity across the population. But you say, “The 20 year old might infect a 75 year old!”

    True, but the 75 year old should not be coming into contact with ANY 20 year old in the first place. Right now we are destroying our freedoms and economy while we aren’t protecting the people at high risk against becoming ill with Covid-19.

    The current actions of our governors and mayors are just abuses in power by people who don’t know anything about infectious disease epidemiology. And even physicians like Dr. Fauci don’t have any real expertise in epidemiology. Most physicians in this country only get one puny class in public health and epidemiology in medical school. It doesn’t even teach them what they don’t know about the field or anything of practical use against infectious disease outbreaks.

    Since public health is such a lowly regarded field of medicine–it’s a field that is one of the lowest paying and least prestigious areas of medicine which is poorly regarded by most doctors, and public health receives hardly any funding by government, it’s no wonder that our country comes up lacking when a public health emergency occurs here. You get what you pay for.

    Contrast this to the Aerospace Industry. The pay and status of the scientists and engineers that build nuclear aircraft carriers or submarines, or the B-2 Bomber and F-22 are among the highest of any profession. What kind of airplanes and weapons would we get if we paid engineers $35,000/yr? Or PhDs and senior engineers with master’s degrees $50,000/yr? You get what you pay for. People have no right to complain now that our public health response has been so idiotic in many ways. Public health officers should be making the decisions on lockdowns and restrictions, not politicians. But public health officers have no status or power under our current system.

    1. the disease is nothing more than the common flu

      the 75 year old should not be coming into contact with ANY 20 year old in the first place

      One of these things is not like the other.

      1. “…is nothing more than the common flu for the vast majority of the population.”

        That’s right. For some people Covid 19 is NOTHING MORE THAN THE FLU. For others, it can be DEADLY.

        In this case, age is called a “Risk Factor” which means it is something that can influence the risk of a more severe outcome.

        1. Age group risk. Last time I checked the death stats a couple of months ago, in the age group under 18, the death toll from influenza was double the death toll from COVID-19

          1. checked the death stats

            I probably got this completely wrong, but a few days ago I was looking at the CDC’s mortality data. They have a category where flu, pneumonia and Covid are all lumped in together (totals for week). The total looked a lot like the worldometer Covid numbers (reported by day). I’m sure I missed something despite looking twice.

            I was looking at this stuff frequently, hoping for the border with Canada to open up on good news. As the months have ticked away and people are getting their hair on fire once again I am growing resolved that I won’t see my gal any time soon.

          2. a few days ago I was looking at the CDC’s mortality data. I got my data from the CDC web site, but it took a lot of digging and clicking to find it. Almost as if the CDC doesn’t want to draw attention to the extremely low risk of death from COVID-19 among the youth.

        2. I got my state (Ohio) most recent data just now. Really eye opening the way I look at it.
          Total COVID-19 deaths so far: 5772
          Total ” deaths among those 70 and over, % of total: 4572, 78.3%
          Total ” deaths among those = 70 should stay the hell away from everybody else, for their own safety.

          2. deaths age 19 and under

            And yet my 10yo will likely not being going back to school full-time this entire school year.

          3. 5772 people did not die of Covid 19 in Ohio. The CDC website on Covid 19 statistics is so complicated that it is essentially unusable. The statistics reported for deaths caused by Covid 19 are very misleading. The CDC does tabulate and show the number of deaths where only Covid 19 is on the death certificate. Then it breakdowns the deaths with Covid 19 and other conditions listed on the death certificate (e.g., heart diseases etc).

            The problem here is that the CDC is not reporting the cause of death that is normally used in official mortality reports. The “Cause of Death” used in the USA and internationally is based solely on the “Underlying Cause of Death” as defined by WHO. The classification system called the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is used to determine the cause of death. The Underlying Cause of Death uses a complex standardized complex algorithm to determine the cause of death. The definition of the Underlying Cause of Death is “the disease or injury which initiated the train of events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury”.

            The goal of the ICD system is to produce the most useful mortality statistics possible for use in public health. Thus, the Underlying Cause of Death may differ from a purely medical point of view.

            The Covid 19 death statistics coming from the CDC are not based on the ICD system used in the common mortality statistics reports. Thus, it’s impossible to compare Covid 19 death statistics from the CDC to the other causes of death in mortality reports.

            In 2013 there were 56,979 deaths in the USA from Influenza and pneumonia. In Ohio in 2017 there were 2,243 deaths from flu and pneumonia according to the CDC mortality report. However the CDC is reporting that their were 5,772 deaths from Covid 19 according to their Covid 19 website. These two statistics are not comparable because they are based on two different classification systems. So if a person was hospitalized for congestive heart failure and then developed pneumonia caused by Covid 19, in the ICD system that would be a heart failure death, not Covid 19.

            So now it’s impossible to figure out what’s the true impact of Covid 19 on mortality. It’s possible that Covid 19 is hastening the death of people who are suffering from serious diseases, but until the causes of deaths from death certificates are processed using the ICD algorithm, it’s impossible to determine how Covid 19 deaths compares to all the other causes of deaths.

            Since Covid 19 is a new disease, we’ll have to wait until all of the death certificates of 2020 are collected and analyzed to see the true impact of Covid 19 on mortality. Right now everybody is just speculating on Covid 19’s effect on deaths.

          5. I’m a biostatistician and epidemiologist. I’ve worked for a large health department where I performed disease surveillance and vital statistics jobs. Boring stuff that is very rarely noticed by the public.

          6. … and how did you come to arrive at the HBB? It’s odd that you’d just pop up here.

            … or is zzy an alter ego of someone that’s been here for years.

          7. I live in California where there’s been a housing bubble for decades. San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sillycone Valley, Sacramento, the prices of housing here has been ridiculous longer than some people at HBB have been alive. I’ve been reading housing blogs for a very long time, and many of them no longer exist.

            As for “zzy”, it’s just random digits–I’m a statistician. I’ve been using computers since 1984 (IBM Mainframes back then), and I’ve never developed the ability to come up with usernames and such so I just use random names which don’t mean anything!

    2. “There’s no need for such hysteria–the disease is nothing more than the common flu … ”

      “📢🎤 it’$ just the common.cold folks” … cough, cough Rash Limpbaughs

    3. “So quit panicking …”

      No panic here, in fact going ⛳ this.morning with my 18yr son in Thee.🍊oh,$ee, CA … (he gets to drive both the car & the cart! 🥨 🍺) … Take.out lunch afterwards on the beach sand (Calafia) … might toss a Frisbee or smash paddle ball just fer the “non.mask.panic” heck.of.it! 🍞☕

      (Eye hope thee.deeth.👾 ain’t floatin’ in thee salt.mist air! Yikes!)

    4. “If you’re between 50 and 70, then the risk from Covid-19 becomes more visible, but probably only to people who are also sick from other chronic conditions.”

      Yup, 70 year old morbidly obese smokers are as hard to come by as pay stubs from a job that Hunter Biden was actually qualified for.

      1. We have never shut down like this before, even during the1957 flu that killed all age groups, over 100 thousand died. Didn’t shut down for the 1968 panadamic, or the 2009 panadamic.
        Medical has known for a long time that older sick people die from Respiratory deaths, especially in nursing homes. All kinds of hospital germs take older sick people also. It was the rise of the Super germs in hospitals in which antibiotics didn’t work against these Super bugs.
        Hospitals back in the ,60s started not cleaning as much thinking they would just give antibiotics . What developed was germs outsmarting antibiotics and becoming Super Germs.
        So, I’m just saying that the nothing makes sense in terms of these lockdowns.

      2. “Yup, 70 year old morbidly obese smokers are as hard to come by as pay stubs from a job that Hunter Biden was actually qualified for.”

        That’s right, so why should perfectly healthy people under the age of 70 be treated the same as Hunter Biden? Democrats and their liberal nut job activists have succeeded in removing the concept of “risk” from everything in everyday life. To them the concept of “risk” is PROFILING! And people who PROFILE others are being RAACCISST!

        So at the airport security checkpoint, our crack TSA officer encounters a 70 year grandmother from Des Moines who’s flying to Columbus, Ohio to visit her grandkids. Right behind her is a single Pakistani 25 year old male traveling with six other single Pakistani males with no luggage, on a one way ticket to New York. What does our crack TSA agent do?

        He removes the 70 year old grandmother from the line to be strip searched and interrogated under bright lights while the FBI swoops in on her daughter’s house in Columbus to check out if the grandchildren really exist. Then they let all the Pakistani males through without taking a second glance because they weren’t identified by the random selection algorithm used by the TSA. In the world of today’s Communist liberal, everybody is the same–there’s no such thing as risk. Using any common human attribute to discriminate one person from another with respect to identifying bad guys like terrorists is just a racist tools used by white people–it’s the knee on a junkie’s neck who just O.D. by swallowing a fentanyl tablet.

        So power hungry Democrat Governors in their zeal to “stop” the Covid-19 epidemic treat the entire population of their states like a frail 85 year old sick person with diabetes, heart failure, emphysema and colon cancer. ANYBODY can get Covid 19 so everybody has to be locked inside their homes and not celebrate Thanksgiving!

    5. Public health officers should be making the decisions At the very least they could be educating legislators – pandemic has only been going on for about 11 months – but as we all know legislators ain’t interested in doing their legal jobs or apparently in learning anything.

    6. Most physicians in this country only get one puny class in public health and epidemiology in medical school. Last I checked US physicians in training get ZERO training in properly filling out death certificates, which are the most basic data that public health officials and epidemiologist use in following communicable diseases. The only training I got was when a charge nurse shoved a partly filled out death certificate on my first patient who died on me — “here, check this out, fill out the causes of death, and sign it”

        1. subjects not touched upon It was almost as if the real objective of our education was not “education” at all.

  40. “‘Two households are moving out of California for every one moving in,’ says Mark Perry, a professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan who has been studying the US migration market over the past few years.”

    How long can this continue before the California population significantly shrinks?

    And what is happening to all the houses left behind by fleeing Californians?

    1. “‘Two households are moving out of California … ”

      Root.thee.vote!

      Example: Nevada / Clark County

      Next: Wyoming / Teton County

      = x2 $ocialist US Senators

      the population of Wyoming in 2020 is 595,652

      Or, give Puerto Rico US citizens what they just “Hoax!”.voted in 2020 for: 51$t. $tatehood

      (Do you think the paper towels in yer local IGA store is made from USA domestic trees?) … Is “María” a Spanish name?

    2. I wonder what percentage of arriving households are unskilled laborers who enter the country illegally.

  42. The Fed’s Ponzi markets are a peculiar shade of green this morning that looks just like red, but that would be un-possible, since the Keynesian fraudsters at the Fed are engaged in the most reckless expansion of their balance sheet since “The Creature from Jekyll Island” took control of our money issuance in 1913. Could it be that the Fed’s financial crack cocaine – endless created-out-of-thin-air “stimulus” – is having less and less of an effect on the strung-out junkie that our “markets” have become? Or are the deteriorating fundamentals finally starting to overwhelm the Fed’s Ponzi markets and asset bubbles?

  43. Sometimes the cognitive dissonance from these #ClownWorld headlines is enough to make one’s head explode. Who exactly do homebuilders think are going to be buying their insanely overpriced shacks in our oligarch-plundered, COVID-ravaged economy where real unemployment is in excess of 40 million people and most people are already drowning in debts they’ll never be able to repay?

    Homebuilder sentiment sets another record high in October

    https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/19/homebuilder-sentiment-sets-another-record-high-in-october.html

    1. Homebuilder sentiment sets another record high in October

      Until they stop handing out loans like candy, this will not change. People do not care what the price of anything is. Give them a loan, they’ll “buy” it.

    2. Subprime mortgages.

      Remember…. Subprime lending is 90%+ of the entire mortgage market and has been since 2010.

  44. I watched 2 versions of 1984 last night , the American version and the British version.
    You can see so many of those type of control methods already being used that were in the Movie.
    Changing words, rewriting history, making it impossible to think, false narratives, and severe punishment if you don’t accept the narrative.
    These Globalist that no doubt are into social engineering and control of what should be free people must of watched the Movie.
    Orwell said before he died that the book was a warning, not a prediction.

  45. Also , remember when I was talking about Joe Biden using the “Build Back Better”
    Slogan during his campaign.
    Apparently Klaus Schwab the Goldfinger Globalist has that exact phrase in his stupid papers. The leader of Canada used the exact phrase the other day.

    So , I’m thinking that these Globalist have a narrative , and they are tied in with more than one World Government to bring it on.
    It’s not a accident that they all start using the same words.

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