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Why Does Every Downturn Feel Like The First Time?

A report from the Orange County Register. “Skipped mortgage payments across California are jumping to levels not seen since the mortgage mess surrounding the Great Recession. Let’s start with a few numbers from mortgage tracker CoreLogic and its measure of ‘seriously delinquent’ home loans in August — those with 90 days or more of late payments. Statewide, 3.8% of home loans were in deep trouble compared with 0.6% a year earlier. Yes, that’s a six-fold-plus jump.”

“It’s largely the same story in this sample of key markets. Riverside and San Bernardino counties: 4.6% ‘seriously’ tardy vs. 1% a year earlier. Los Angeles-Orange County: 4.2% vs. 0.6% a year earlier. San Francisco metro: 2.8% vs. 0.3% a year earlier. San Jose metro: 2.2% vs. 0.2% a year earlier. This isn’t just California craziness. The nation’s rate was 4.3% — up from 1.3% in August 2019 and the highest rate of ‘serious’ trouble since February 2014.”

The Times of San Diego. “Authorities indicted nine people this week allegedly involved in a $6 million scheme that preyed on Southern California victims facing foreclosure. The indictment, announced by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, outlines crimes that occurred in San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties from 2011 to 2018. Prosecutors accuse them of targeting distressed homeowners by claiming they could stop the foreclosure of homes if the victims made monthly payments.”

“They then delayed foreclosures and eviction actions by allegedly filing fraudulent bankruptcy documents, court documents and fractional interest grant deeds, according to the state. Many homeowners wound up losing their homes to foreclosure, despite paying the defendants hundreds of dollars a month over the course of many years. The alleged scheme impacted multiple victims, resulted in a loss of about $6 million and affected more than 200 properties.”

“The list includes properties with loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), and loan servicers Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, officials said. ‘This type of fraud not only affects individual families, it also affects the housing market,’ said Michael Gibson, the Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General.”

From Variety on California. “More than three years after it first hit the market, one of the Los Angeles market’s most notorious spec-mansions — the real estate white elephant formerly known as Opus — has finally found a buyer. The 20,000-square-foot contemporary made global headlines in summer 2017, when it debuted with a $100 million asking price. It took a change of realtors, multiple price reductions — to a final $60 million ask — and a second, far more subdued marketing campaign to sell Opus.”

“By the time Opus was finished, in 2017, the market had shifted. Billionaires were no longer interested in the latest modern white box. So the bloated house became an emblem of L.A.’s real estate excess. Seeing Niami’s early success, other local developers had built too greedily, churning out dozens of big white boxy mansions for buyers who didn’t even exist, only to watch them languish on the market. Opus, the biggest and baddest of them all — excepting Niami’s still-unfinished ‘The One’ compound — sat alone and unloved on its Trousdale Estates hill.”

“Undeterred, Niami continued trying to sell the house until earlier this year, when one of his lenders — local doctor-turned-real estate investor Joseph Englanoff — finally took control of the property. Englanoff gave the place a quick renovation, righting many of the previous design wrongs.”

The New York Post. “With many saying the COVID-19 real-estate turndown is like no other, heed these observations from CBRE superstar dealmaker and tri-state CEO Mary Ann Tighe. ‘Why does every downturn feel like the first time?’ she asks. Pointing out that New York has had a ‘deeply cyclical economy going back to the first Dutch settlement four centuries ago,’ Tighe reminds us, ‘Downturns have laid the foundation for change and ultimately regenerated our city.'”

From Texas Public Media. “The entire oil industry has been in trouble for the past eight months. And if oil is in trouble, that means Texas is, too. Right now the price of oil is a third less than it was in January. Every dollar the price drops, experts say, represents a decline of about $85 million in economic impact in the state. By many estimates, the speed and severity of this bust make it the worst on record.”

“Drew McManigle’s family used to be in the oil business, but not anymore. ‘This downturn is going to make the downturn of the ‘80s look like a cakewalk. When it’s all over and done,’ he said.”

“The boom caused a lot of demand for housing. That was starting to change. After decades of having no real investment, the area has new housing coming in. The city partnered on a new hotel and meeting center downtown. But now the demand that made this one of the most expensive places to rent a room or an apartment is largely gone. There are several projects being built right now in the area.”

“‘There are going to be a lot of empty apartments,’ said Kirk Edwards, president of Latigo Petroleum and a business leader in Odessa.”

“‘The shale revolution was not financed by debt, it was financed by equity, for the most part,’ said Gary Sernovitz, an author and energy finance veteran of 25 years. Equity investors were chasing big returns, but were met with what one analyst called a capital destroying machine.”

From D Magazine in Texas. “‘Will trade oil for toilet paper.’ So read a marquee outside an office building in downtown Midland on April 20, 2020, as the perfect storm of oversupply and pandemic-induced reduced demand took hold of the oil and gas industry. On that day, producers watched in disbelief as the oil futures price fell to -$37.63 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. For West Texas Intermediate, the posted price dropped as low as -$41.25. The sign usually displayed the price of oil, but it wasn’t programmed to go negative. The gallows humor messaging seemed appropriate, as oil prices were, indeed, in the shitter.”

“Layoffs occurred. Bankruptcy filings rolled in. Rigs shut down. ‘It’s not been fun–I’ll start with that. When activity levels cratered, the industry was in a lot of turmoil. If people were over-leveraged, they were in a lot of trouble,’ says Doug Dormer, CEO of Cardinal Midstream.”

“For some up-and-coming oil industry leaders, this bust has been defining. Although prices have recovered, in the moment, there were numerous unknowns. ‘It’s easy to look back now and see that we had hit bottom, but at the time, we really no idea where the bottom was,’ says Bradley Williams, CEO of Elephant Oil & Gas. ‘No one could have imagined oil was going to go to negative $40.'”

The Las Vegas Sun. “Rebecca Steele is the CEO of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, the largest nonprofit financial counseling organization in the U.S. NFCC aims to help Americans lead financially healthy lives. It offers services such as debt management planning, foreclosure prevention and home ownership counseling through its network of 600 offices nationwide.”

“Q: How many people does NFCC serve? A: We expect to see anywhere from 1.2 million to 1.5 million this year through our network. We expect next year to be much larger than that; our forecast is over 2.5 million, maybe upward of 5 million.”

“Q: Has there been a change in demand because of the pandemic? A: At the beginning of the crisis, we saw a spike in concerns and fear. We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of people calling to find out, ‘Hey, what do I do if I can’t make my payments?’”

“Very quickly, the government turned around with the CARES Act and provided really needed stimulus, especially for this lower income band. That helped them get through their rent payments. Their mortgages were able to go on a forbearance and there was a deferment on eviction. So, all of that served to really help, as well as the additional payments from the federal government and some of the supplemental state payments.”

“Now what we see is that has leveled off and some of that (pressure) has begun to climb back up. We’re really, really concerned, especially with the fact that there’s just not a safety net.”

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This Post Has 120 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. ‘”We began to look and realized how easy it is to change votes.”

      ‘Election security expert @RussRamsland
      has performed many investigations on US election machines.’

      ‘The most *shocking* thing about this interview is it took place just days BEFORE the election. Watch’

      https://twitter.com/kylenabecker/status/1327511568993701888

      I believe this is the gentleman in the top video.

      ‘The claims of unexplained anomalies by Wayne County, Michigan, election board canvassers are validated by one renowned election fraud experts who states, definitively, that Michigan’s election results – across the state and not just in Wayne County – are a “physical impossibility.”

      ‘The examination of the Michigan voter data was performed by Russell Ramsland, the co-owner of Allied Security Operations Group (ASOG). His company specializes in detecting election fraud, cybersecurity, open source intelligence and global security services. Ramsland served in the Reagan administration and has worked for both NASA and MIT.’

      ‘In the affidavit concerning the election in Michigan, Ramsland determined – without question – that vote fraud and ballot tampering took place in the 2020 General Election in Michigan determining the results as they are currently known to be a “physical impossibility.”

      ‘In addressing the Dominion Voting System, Ramsland was critical of its security over-all citing “vulnerabilities to hacking and tampering, both at the front end where Americans cast their votes, and at the back end where the votes are stored, tabulated, and reported.”

      ‘Ramsland noted that the vulnerabilities described are well-known by experts in the voting securing field and that these vulnerabilities have been extensively written about. “My colleagues and I… have studied… the November 3, 2020, election results. Based on the significant anomalies and red flags that we have observed, we believe there is a significant probability that election results have been manipulated…” Ramsland wrote.’

      ‘His colleague, Dr. Andrew Appel, a professor of computer science at Princeton University and an election security expert, said, “I figured out how to make a slightly different computer program that just before the polls were closed it switches some votes around from one candidate to another. I wrote that computer program into a memory chip and now to hack a voting machine you need just 7 minutes alone with it and a screw driver.”

      https://nationalfile.com/election-fraud-expert-michigans-election-results-are-physical-impossibility/

      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

        ‘Charlie is joined by Lt. General Thomas McInerney to detail the shocking allegations surrounding Hammer and Scorecard, weaponized digital tools that allegedly allow our intelligence agencies to alter election results, including those in the United States. Are these tools actually real? Were they deployed in this most recent election? Can we know who is behind these treasonous acts if they did in fact occur?’

        ‘In what might be one of the most important interviews ever conducted on the show, Gen. McInerney lays out an election fraud scheme in extensive detail on a scale never before experienced in America or the world.’

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti3gNXz2F8w

        1. 3 Million Dead Voted, 7 Million Votes Stolen From DJT. Sidney Powell With Howie Carr

          Nov 20, 2020

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5vndAmMqAM&feature=youtu.be

          I saw this:

          https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/23/trump-campaign-cuts-ties-with-attorney-sidney-powell-after-bizarre-election-claims

          I also posted this last night:

          “Dominion-izing the Vote”

          https://www.bitchute.com/video/qlEUbPLvW98w/

          So when senator running dear and 4 other senators/lawmakers said Dominion was a election fraud disaster, was that bizarre?

          Also:

          ‘Gen. Michael Flynn, a former Trump administration official, said lawyer Sidney Powell is “staying the course” and will prove election fraud after the president’s legal team said she is not working for the campaign on Sunday night.’

          ‘Powell, who represented Flynn in his legal case, “has been suspended from Twitter for 12 hours,” he wrote on Twitter after former New York Mayor and campaign attorney Rudy Giuliani made the statement about her status.’

          “She understands the WH press release & agrees with it,” Flynn said. “She is staying the course to prove the massive deliberate election fraud that robbed #WeThePeople of our votes for President Trump & other Republican candidates.”

          https://www.theepochtimes.com/gen-flynn-sidney-powell-staying-the-course-will-prove-alleged-election-fraud_3589424.html

          The Guardian is a globalist rag, and has foaming at the mouth TDS.

          2. ‘Powell, in a statement, said she agrees with the campaign’s announcement that she is not part of Trump’s legal team, saying she never signed a retainer nor did she charge the campaign for expenses or fees, adding that, “My intent has always been to expose all the fraud I could find and let the chips fall where they may—whether it be upon Republicans or Democrats.”

            “The evidence I’m compiling is overwhelming that this software tool was used to shift millions of votes from President Trump and other Republican candidates to Biden and other Democrat candidates,” she added. “We are proceeding to prepare our lawsuit and plan to file it this week. It will be epic.”

            ‘Powell said in a separate statement to CBS that, “I will continue to represent #WeThePeople who had their votes for Trump and other Republicans stolen by massive fraud through Dominion and Smartmatic, and we will be filing suit soon.” She added the hashtag “#KrakenOnSteroids,” in reference to her previous remarks that the evidence she said she was receiving in relation to allegations of election fraud was massive, and likening its eventual disclosure to “releasing the Kraken.”

            ‘At a joint press conference last week, Powell, Giuliani, and Ellis said they have evidence of massive election fraud, which they would release as part of a forthcoming court filing. Powell also said that some governors may have engaged in a pay-to-play scheme to use Dominion Voting Systems—one of the Trump campaign’s chief targets in recent days. “Georgia is probably going to be the first state I’m going to blow up,” she said, accusing Gov. Brian Kemp of engaging in such a scheme.’

            https://www.theepochtimes.com/sidney-powell-confirms-non-affiliation-with-trump-legal-team-vows-to-continue-fraud-fight_3589900.html

          3. Gen. Michael Flynn, a former Trump administration official, said

            I read that it was his son who made the post, Michael Jr.

          5. So all the bombshells will be released this week, for real this time? Cuz I’m getting tired of teasers, and that kraken was pretty lame.

            That said, if Trump were really “cutting ties” for “bizarre claims,” then he would have conceded by now.

          6. he would have conceded by now

            He is not required by the Constitution to “concede”. The election proceeds by law without that. I suppose you could say it would be gracious of him considering all the help and support and giving the benefit of the doubt the D’s have given him for the past four years.

            s/

          7. This is interesting:

            ‘Powell, in a statement, said she agrees with the campaign’s announcement that she is not part of Trump’s legal team, saying she never signed a retainer nor did she charge the campaign for expenses or fees, adding that, “My intent has always been to expose all the fraud I could find and let the chips fall where they may—whether it be upon Republicans or Democrats.”

            ‘Powell also said that some governors may have engaged in a pay-to-play scheme to use Dominion Voting Systems—one of the Trump campaign’s chief targets in recent days. “Georgia is probably going to be the first state I’m going to blow up,” she said, accusing Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of engaging in such a scheme.’

            https://www.theepochtimes.com/sidney-powell-confirms-non-affiliation-with-trump-legal-team-vows-to-continue-fraud-fight_3589900.html

            So she’s going after Republicans too. IIRC Arizona was one of the states that used Dominion and stopped counting votes election night, leaving a tangled mess. I don’t trust guvnah Ducey. He’s a CCP virus control freak too.

          8. Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis appear to be pursuing the constitutional issues while Sidney Powell pursues the potentially criminal/treasonous issues since the DOJ/FBI is AWOL. Remember, Gen. Flynn was Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. He knows some serious sh!t; that’s why he was targeted by the Obama administration. We also have to hear from John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence.

        2. “Dominion-izing the Vote”

          This video is about 30 minutes and has two long commercials (kinda) that you can skip. But it starts to drill down into substance. They have a computer guy who knows his stuff: says the ability to manipulate votes was a “feature, not a bug.” They also explore the Dominion “security” expert who was a rabid antifa nut, boasted of “making sure” the President wasn’t going to be re-elected, and had several unhinge TDS social media posts that were saved.

    1. I have yet to hear any of those promising gibs say whether I will be receiving a refund check for the student loans I paid off.

  3. ‘Drew McManigle’s family used to be in the oil business, but not anymore. ‘This downturn is going to make the downturn of the ‘80s look like a cakewalk. When it’s all over and done’

    When Midland shacks hit $300k, I said they would regret it. Remember when Midland hit the highest increase in luxury apartments. over 1,000%?

    ‘There are going to be a lot of empty apartments,’ said Kirk Edwards, president of Latigo Petroleum and a business leader in Odessa’

    When I was out there in 2017, they were building apartments like crazy.

    1. “When Midland shacks hit $300k…”

      Wasn’t the movie, “Hell or High Water (2016),” about Midland Bank?

      1. I described the euphoria in 2017. Convenience stores with 30 people in a line. Really expensive trucks everywhere. BTW, the mention of equity firms driving this weren’t correct. Sure they put in equity, and levered it with 90% plus loans. Like they said, chasing yield. Works until it doesn’t. Yellen bucks looking for a place to die is a real phenomenon. All this phony money starts looking for return, ultimately takes too much risk and falls in on itself. Oil is the simplest example of QE resulting in deflation. You can also see it in hotels, student housing, etc.

        Yeah, those $300 a night motel 6’s in Carlsbad were gonna last.

      2. “Wasn’t the movie, ‘Hell or High Water (2016),’ about Midland Bank?”

        From Wikipedia …

        “In West Texas, divorced father Toby Howard (Chris Pine) and his ex-con older brother Tanner (Ben Foster) carry out early morning robberies of two branches of the Texas Midlands Bank. Though the robberies are well-planned, Tanner’s wild nature leads him to take unnecessary risks, frustrating Toby. Back on the family ranch, they bury their getaway car in a pit with an excavator. The brothers’ mother has died after a long illness, leaving their ranch in debt because of a reverse mortgage provided by the Texas Midlands Bank. If the debt is not paid off in a few days, the ranch will be foreclosed. Oil has been discovered on their land, and Toby is determined to ensure a comfortable life for his estranged sons. They rob Texas Midlands as a form of frontier justice.”

        An apt title for this movie would have been “The Revenge of the Reverse Mortgage”.

  5. ‘Why does every downturn feel like the first time?’

    This is actually a key point for manias, echoed in the TPM article about how long the boom went on. What happens is it goes on too long, and people eventually assume it will never end. It’s not rational: these TX articles are basically all about the boom/bust nature. But people forgot that, like with the 100M shacks in CA. The mega large mansion bubble coincided with the safe deposit box in the sky boom. Not a coincidence.

  6. ‘crimes that occurred in San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties from 2011 to 2018. Prosecutors accuse them of targeting distressed homeowners by claiming they could stop the foreclosure of homes if the victims made monthly payments’

    So the to the moon Alice! stuff is exposed as horse hockey. Why couldn’t they just sell?

    1. ‘crimes that occurred in San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties from 2011 to 2018.

      As usual, regulators and enforcers who were supposed to prevent such systemic fraud were AWOL, or more likely complicit.

    1. I haven’t heard that much enthusiasm since I saw the Dead & Company with John Mayer five years ago this week when all 6,000 of us called them back on stage for an encore.

          2. I saw the Dead with Jerry for the last time at the Franklin County Airport in Vermont on July 13, 1994. I didn’t go to any Dead shows in 1995, nobody was expecting Jerry to die so soon…

          3. Jerry Garcia was one of the most brilliant guitarists in history.

            My honest take is that I’ve heard multiple people say that, but every example they show me doesn’t sound brilliant at all. Can you give me an example that might change my mind? Usually when this happens it means I’m missing something. My tastes run from John Mayer to David Gilmour to Eric Johnson if that explains what I currently see as brilliance.

          4. The 3 LP / 2 CD live album Europe ’72 is my favorite commercial release from the Dead. The live shows from 1977 are another good year. I can enjoy listening to those without seeking some competitive comparison of Jerry’s musical abilities with other guitarists.

            The worst is discussing this with Phish fans, they can’t have any discussing about Phish vs. other artists without dropping “but Phish are classically trained musicians!”

          5. OK thanks. I’ll check it out. Regarding Phish, I’ve only heard a few seconds and it was an immediate turnoff for me.

          6. I can’t comment on the guitar quality, but the Phish pianist was clearly classically trained. Phish is good on their Billy Breathes album, but I don’t care for their 20-minute jam songs.

          7. My honest take is that I’ve heard multiple people say that, but every example they show me doesn’t sound brilliant at all. Can you give me an example that might change my mind? Usually when this happens it means I’m missing something. My tastes run from John Mayer to David Gilmour to Eric Johnson if that explains what I currently see as brilliance.

            Nope, can’t change your mind, because what you’re talking about is personal preference. What’s funny is you list John Mayer and I wouldn’t even put him top 100. The guy is technically proficient, but boring. I’ll take a guy like BB King any day over some guy who can cover the entire fretboard in lightning speed without a buzzed note. And if we want to talk about pure technical ability, a guy like Buckethead would be in the top 10. But again, pretty boring for the most part.

            I like a guy who plays with feeling, which Garcia has in spades. Same with Jimmy Page, and Gilmour who you list. Being able to tug at the heartstrings with a few chords and licks is a talent few guitarists are ever able to accomplish. Shredders and technicians are a dime a dozen.

          8. PS – there are a few guys who can absolutely shred but are also extremely tasteful guitarists who can bend a note and tug at the heart with the best of them. Neal Schon of Journey is one of them.

          10. Being able to tug at the heartstrings with a few chords and licks is a talent few guitarists are ever able to accomplish. Shredders and technicians are a dime a dozen.

            No disagreement, including Schon. But I have yet to hear anything from Garcia that does anything for me. I’ll check out the suggested stuff.

          11. No disagreement, including Schon. But I have yet to hear anything from Garcia that does anything for me. I’ll check out the suggested stuff.

            You probably just don’t like his sound and style, which is fine. I have listened to “Cliffs Of Dover” countless times, trying to appreciate it, and just can’t. Eric Johnson doesn’t do it for me. I can see his technical proficiency, but his music does nothing for me. It’s just one of those things.

          13. You probably just don’t like his sound and style, which is fine.

            Guess not. Just listened to the Brown Eyed Women link that Deplorable posted and couldn’t find a there there. I think one problem is that I feel some chord progressions much more than others. Dark minor stuff…I’m all over it. Happy silly stuff doesn’t work for me even when the playing is good. I just feel nothing when I hear it…

            Now Cliffs of Dover is an interesting example because it is more bouncy and major, yet somehow it works for me…the jazz-like preps/kicks/anticipations help. But I do like some other songs off that album even more.

          14. I saw the Dead live in West Virginia ages ago in college.

            A lot of my friends were deadheads that raved about the amazing live Dead shows. But I thought it was horrible. A really miserable experience. And the drug culture of washed out hippies with their fake vibe of drug-induced peace and love was brutally depressing.

            Having said that, I really like Jerry’s guitar playing. There’s a delicacy about it that can only come from a person’s soul. And he was a good songwriter too. Crazy Fingers is one of my favorite songs. Maybe I just had bad luck and went to an off night… the show was dull and uninspiring.

  8. ‘We expect to see anywhere from 1.2 million to 1.5 million this year through our network. We expect next year to be much larger than that; our forecast is over 2.5 million, maybe upward of 5 million’

    ‘Q: Has there been a change in demand because of the pandemic? A: At the beginning of the crisis, we saw a spike in concerns and fear. We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of people calling to find out, ‘Hey, what do I do if I can’t make my payments?’

    But it’s a great time to hang a 30 year loan around yer neck, with people hoarding toilet paper and all. BTW, I read LV is shutting down casinos again.

    1. Shutting down based on a phony test. I’ve read as much as 95% false positives based on the test having too many cycles.

      Now the WHO comes out and says remdesivir is no bueno. Sure seems like the medical industrial complex is herding humanity away from cheap OTC treatments and into one of the 34,374 and counting super awesome totally effective vaccines that absolutely were not rushed in development.

      Interesting study out of Egypt on how they treated the Rona and they’ve done extremely well. It probably helps that they don’t have a CDC, NIH, or a completely parasitic media.

      1. Sure seems like the medical industrial complex is herding humanity away from cheap OTC treatments and into one of the 34,374 and counting super awesome EXPENSIVE totally effective vaccines that absolutely were not rushed in development.

        Fixed it.

      2. Now the WHO comes out and says remdesivir is no bueno. Sure seems like the medical industrial complex is herding humanity away from cheap OTC treatments and into one of the 34,374 and counting super awesome totally effective vaccines that absolutely were not rushed in development.

        Remdesvir was supposed to be the expensive solution that would make Gilead richer and keep people away from the cheap stuff. Guess that didn’t work out…maybe one of the other new ones will.

    2. BTW, I read LV is shutting down casinos again.

      Not to worry. The Wall Street-Federal Reserve Looting Syndicate’s rigged casino is still doing a booming business sucking in the retail investor muppets.

  11. Statewide, 3.8% of home loans were in deep trouble compared with 0.6% a year earlier. Yes, that’s a six-fold-plus jump.”</em?

    Is that a lot?

  12. So the bloated house became an emblem of L.A.’s real estate excess. Seeing Niami’s early success, other local developers had built too greedily, churning out dozens of big white boxy mansions for buyers who didn’t even exist, only to watch them languish on the market.

    Another legacy of the Fed’s ultra-easy monetary policies.

  13. “Very quickly, the government turned around with the CARES Act and provided really needed stimulus, especially for this lower income band. That helped them get through their rent payments.

    Then why did so many of them stiff their landlords?

  17. KDVR (11/23/2020):

    “New data shows more Coloradans are turning to real estate websites as a way to escape the reality of the pandemic without leaving home.

    According to the Colorado Association of Realtors, the most searched for zip code listings at this point in the pandemic include: Aspen, Boulder, Windsor, Telluride and Steamboat Springs.

    “People want space now. They need space in their home and around them. I think the only zip code not trending really high in terms of real estate sales right now is 80202 — which is right in the heart of LODO [Lower Downtown Denver]”

    https://kdvr.com/news/local/which-communities-are-coloradans-zillow-surfing-the-most-during-the-pandemic/

    80202, nobody wants to live there? I can’t imagine why…

    1. People want space now. They need space in their home and around them

      Isn’t it amazing how all of a sudden when you shed over 700,000 jobs per week for 10 months straight, that everybody is cashed up and can afford to buy real estate, at peak pricing no less? Wow, never realized how well-off the entire country was and that jobs didn’t matter anymore. It’s a miracle!

      1. Commuting costs can easily be $500+ a month from southern CT or Long island into NYC, plus people have a station car you see a lot of them around 15-20 year old cars with 50,000 miles so its a nice pay raise without asking the boss.

  18. Colorado Sun — In Colorado and across the U.S., people are proving to be the weakest link for coronavirus exposure apps (11/22/2020):

    “In other parts of the world, people are taking that necessary leap of faith. Ireland and Switzerland, touting some of the highest uptake rates, report more than 20% of their populations use a contact-tracing app.

    Americans seem not so hot on the idea. As with much of the U.S. response to the pandemic, this country hasn’t had a national strategy. So it’s up to states. And only about a dozen, including the recent addition of Colorado, have launched the smartphone feature, which sends users a notification if they’ve crossed paths with another app user who later tests positive for COVID-19.

    The service, built by Google and Apple and adapted by individual countries, states or territories, either appears as a downloadable app or as a setting, depending on the state and the device. It uses Bluetooth to identify other phones using the app within about 6 feet for more than 15 minutes. If a user tests positive for COVID-19, they’re given a verification code to input so that each contact can be notified they were potentially exposed. The person’s identity is shielded, as are those of the people notified.”

    https://coloradosun.com/2020/11/22/colorado-coronavirus-app-problems/

    Built by Google and Apple? Identity is shielded?

    Um… that’s a NO. I stopped carrying my phone inside of businesses or other public buildings months ago. And if I’m running errands around the neighborhood I leave my phone at home.

    1. Westword — Colorado Hospitalization Crisis Grows Closer (11/23/2020):

      “At 9 a.m. Sunday, November 22, cell phones owned by untold thousands living across Colorado buzzed simultaneously with a public-safety alert: “This region is at severe risk from deadly COVID. Use caution.”

      This notice, unleashed by Colorado’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management division, demonstrated a keen grasp of the obvious that was confirmed later that day by fresh data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Once again, the majority of the details were alarming, particularly those involving hospitals, more than a third of which are anticipating staff shortages over the next seven days owing to the rapid influx of patients suffering from the novel coronavirus.”

      https://www.westword.com/news/covid-19-colorado-hospital-crisis-nears-november-2020-update-11849193

      LOL@ at 9 a.m. Sunday I received nothing about the “deadly COVID” because my phone was turned *OFF* and sitting on my kitchen counter.

      Westword also has an article linked from this one titled “Unsafe Holiday Actions Like Putting a Gun to Grandma’s Head.”

      Some of us adults will be celebrating Thanksgiving this week (without any Olds) and I expect most of us will survive.

      1. LOL@ at 9 a.m. Sunday I received nothing about the “deadly COVID” because my phone was turned *OFF* and sitting on my kitchen counter.

        Citizen! The appropriate response was to run in circles flapping your arms and screaming like a six-year-old girl into your mouth hankie, while invoking the protection of St. Greta. Go and sin no more.

        1. “I never received the alert. Perhaps I have been tagged as expendable?”

          – You’re both expendable and non-essential! 🙂

          – I turned off all of the GOVERNMENT ALERTS on my phone long ago. By the time the government knows something, it’s already too late! Stop the Nanny-State madness.

          – BTW, the (extreme left) Governor of Oregon wants you to snitch on any COVID violators to the police that she wants de-funded. Oh, the insanity!

          “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’ ”– Ronald Reagan – 40th president of US (1911 – 2004)  

          ‘It became necessary to destroy the town [Nation] to save it” as reported by Peter Arnett, Tet Offensive, 1968

      3. Some of us adults will be celebrating Thanksgiving this week (without any Olds) and I expect most of us will survive. A distant cousin my age in NW lower Michigan is planning on having her 2 kids drive up from IN on Wednesday for Thanksgiving. I told her I thought that was an especially bad idea, considering she survived the death of her brother-in-law she shared home with last month (from complications of COVID) and that she has had one + test and at least 3 – tests in the last 3 or 4 months. Her kids think COVID is a complete hoax. I asked her if they think their late uncle is still alive, and all I got over the phone was silence…

      4. I’ve never seen longer lines at the local Corona virus test station at Moorpark Junior college , miles long

  19. Based on the Media coming out more and more on the Great Reset, these sinister Looters are apparently making their move right now.
    Who would take one of their vaccines? This is a takeover of the World attempt by Big Corporations and Globalist Monopolies with their rigged systems that was extracting wealth from the populations.
    They were the ones that created the class warfare pitting generation against generation and race against race. Than for at least 25 years they brainwashed the youth to embrace the Commie BS of equity of outcome and bogus Social Justice
    They bought off the treasonous Politicians on both sides of the Political Parties and hijacked Government institutions to advance their One World Order, where they rule agenda. They own the media and freec speech is under attack in favor of their fake narratives of fear mongering , racism, with absurd Commie solutions to take away the US Constitution.
    The Covid lockdowns are fake Science and masks don’t do shit.
    Their willingness to destroy people’s lives and business is obvious, and you can tell evil by what it does.
    Now a rigged election to get their treasonous puppets in being Biden/Harris who want to transform the US into top down control and looting by them.
    Evil people who aren’t any different than other dictators who sought to rule the World.
    Trump won, but stealing and lying and control of people is their evil agenda.
    Using medical to advance their agenda is the biggest Con job in History. No doubt that Communist Countries like China are in on the power grab.
    It’s is power without representation or consent by the people, the very thing that created the original Revolution in the US.
    If these Hilter like Swamp Creatures are successful in this deranged power grab there is no end to what bizarre situations they will create because they are anti human and perverse in their willingness to control life.
    These Looters of the US should be viewed as a invading army against the US and everything it ever represented. You can tell when something is evil by the methods it uses.

    1. Who would take one of their vaccines?

      I’m sure that the bedwetters will quickly line up, with their arms exposed, as soon as it’s available.

    2. “Who would take one of their vaccines?”

      Many first responders, doctors and nurses, school teachers, etc., won’t have a choice, i.e., the employer’s way or the highway!

      1. won’t have a choice I think about 6 weeks after the first mass immunization in the USA we will all know a lot more about the usefulness of the shot than we do now. My default is that it won’t do much one way or the other in this time frame. I do hope it will be phenomenally successful, but I’m not counting on it.

  21. Politico article mentions the Language Police (11/21/2020):

    “Most Latinos identify first as working-class Americans, and Trump spoke to that,” said Josh Zaragoza, a top Democratic data specialist in Arizona, adding that Hispanic men in particular “are very entrepreneurial. Their economic language is more aligned with the way Republicans speak: pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, owning your own business.”

    And then there’s the way the left spoke — or were framed by Trump’s campaign for speaking. Calls to “defund the police,” a boycott of Goya Foods and the threat of socialism turned off some Latino voters. And even using the term Latinx to describe Latinos in a way that’s gender-neutral only served to puzzle many Hispanics.

    “About 97 percent of Latinos don’t say ‘Latinx,’” Zaragoza said, referring to a Pew Research poll on the subject.”

    https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/21/culture-wars-latinos-trump-438932

    I have never once heard the term “Latinx” spoken on a jobsite.

    1. I have never once heard the term “Latinx” spoken on a jobsite.

      Not only that, but Mexicans don’t call themselves “Hispanics” or “Latinos”, they call themselves Mexicans. And they are tribal and have a severe distrust of non Mexican Hispanics.

      1. And they are tribal and have a severe distrust of non Mexican Hispanics.

        Recent Mexican immigrants also get preyed on by follow Mexicans in the REIC. A recently naturalized Mexican guy on my street asked me to review a contract a realtor was pressuring him to sign, and I ended up showing it to a friend of mine, a Korean-American, who has a real estate license. He said it stunk to high heaven, so we got another friend of ours, who is a native Spanish-speaker, to better explain to Hector (the guy on my street) why he shouldn’t sign the contract. His trust in his fellow countryman was badly misplaced, it turned out. I could set up a thriving business reviewing documents for recent Mexican immigrants who are dealing with less-than-ethical professionals of their own ethnicity. I hate seeing good hard-working people getting taken advantage of by those who are supposed to be helping them.

        2. The tribalism is also defined by regions in Mexico. The worse thing you be is a “chilango”, someone from Mexico City, in which case every one else hates you.

          1. Chihuahua and Durango primos are on every Front Range jobsite. I’ve only worked with one guy who says his family came here from Mexico City.

          3. The worse thing you be is a “chilango”, someone from Mexico City, in which case every one else hates you.

            Hahah…reminds me of Ireland and listening to locals everywhere slag the “^%$ing Dubliners”.

  23. There is another wall of FED and .gov money coming, likely larger than the last. I anticipate we will be testing the bounds of the dollar and its status as the world’s reserve currency.

    I imagine first, just as last time, you will see a massive spike in spending as all of the Harryhowmuchamonths go out and buy everything they can with everything they get. It will last about as long as the enhanced unemployment checks. So, I’d guess we’re in for another 1 1/2 years of fake economic BS and asset price bubbles.

    Will we see DOW 40k? Perhaps. Might even see $40k Bitcoin. These trillions of dollars in stimulus go right into the hands of the Wall St. grifters, and they are neck deep in this crypto scam, mostly because they’ve maxed out their returns in other areas and are desperately seeking yield. Sh!tcoin is just a mechanism to rape and reap.

    1. “Will we see DOW 40k? Perhaps. Might even see $40k Bitcoin”

      – Venezuela’s stock market is doing well, but that doesn’t mean much. Once the stock indices no longer indicate true economic health, then it’s only a number.

      – MMT is just more words; a soothing balm for your cognitive dissonance.

      – Money printing in combination with debt monetization (i.e. The exponentially growing Fed balance sheet used for buying U.S. Treasuries directly) has been tried before, but always ends in tears. Unlike the comforting lies of MMT, the unpleasant truth is that “there’s no free lunch.”

      “The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.” -Ernest Hemingway

      “The U.S. economy, once the envy of the world, is now viewed across the globe with suspicion. America has become shackled by an immovable mountain of debt that endangers its prosperity and threatens to bring the rest of the world economy crashing down with it. The ongoing sub-prime mortgage crisis, a result of irresponsible lending policies designed to generate commissions for unscrupulous brokers, presages far deeper problems in a U.S. economy that is beginning to resemble a giant smoke-and-mirrors Ponzi scheme. And this has not been lost on the rest of the world.” – Hamid Varzi, International Tribune

      “You cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow your way out of debt.” – Daniel Hannan, Member of the European Parliament

      1. not been lost on the rest of the world. The rest of the world is also taking part in this Ponzi scheme. The USA is the least rotten apple in the barrel, AFAICT.

    2. “I anticipate we will be testing the bounds of the dollar and its status as the world’s reserve currency.”

      Perhaps that status has been a mixed blessing.

      Why didn’t the dollar fall to the point where imports were so expensive, and exports cheap, that our current account came back into balance? Economists believe that must have happened because in theory it would have to.

    3. “There is another wall of FED and .gov money coming…”

      I need another low mileage car. My money isn’t earning anything other than the manipulator’s management fees, and it seems like low mileage car prices actually increase as the easy money “runneth over.” Of course the best answer is, phuc the car.

  26. “Research shows that through a vast network of LLCs and other holding companies, Yeh owns a Southern California real estate empire worth many hundreds of millions of dollars. Her assets include major shopping centers in Arcadia and Rowland Heights, plus apartment buildings and condo complexes from Rancho Cucamonga to L.A.’s Westside.

    One of the biggest jewels in Yeh’s property crown is the Downtown L.A. high-rise building at 8th and Hope Street. Two years ago, in a move that shocked commercial real estate watchers, she paid a whopping $220 million for the multifamily complex, which stands 22 stories tall and includes 290 luxury apartments, plus a swimming pool and rooftop deck. The sale was L.A.’s biggest multifamily deal in all of 2018, and one of the biggest per-square-foot Downtown deals of all time.”

    Knife catcher all the way.

    2. While millions are unemployed in California due to California’s ongoing draconian lockdown, Newsom attended a lobbyist’s birthday party at a tony Napa restaurant, violating several of his own rules.

      2. Pennsylvania has declared that last call for bars on Wednesday 11/25 is at 5pm.

        Clown World gonna clown.

    1. Did you know that my cousin and her fiance in St Petersburg are allowed to work at their jobs at restaurants?

      1. B…b…but isn’t that an automatic death sentence? Or did they gain immunity by participating in BLM mostly peaceful protests?

          2. I think the plan is to get half the country into bread lines. Remember when Bernie said they weren’t a bad thing?

  33. I love me some MSM propaganda.

    President-Elect Biden To Begin Formal Transition Process After Agency OK

    November 23, 20206:30 PM ET

    Joe Biden’s administration can formally begin its transition to power after a previously little-known federal agency on Monday ascertained Biden as the apparent winner of the election more than two weeks after the Democrat became president-elect.

    While Trump said he had recommended the moves, Emily Murphy, the Trump appointee who heads the GSA, wrote in her “letter of ascertainment” to Biden that she had reached the decision independently.

    “Please know that I came to my decision independently, based on the law and available facts,” Murphy wrote in the letter, dated Monday. “I was never directly or indirectly pressured by any Executive Branch official — including those who work at the White House or GSA — with regard to the substance or timing of my decision. To be clear, I did not receive any direction to delay my determination.”

    Murphy had faced criticism from Democrats, national security experts and health officials, who argued that delaying the formal transition was hampering the incoming Biden administration from getting up to speed on the response to the coronavirus pandemic and jeopardizing national security. A handful of GOP lawmakers also called for Murphy to allow the transition to get underway.

    https://www.npr.org/2020/11/23/937956178/trump-administration-to-begin-biden-transition-protocols

    GSA Administrator Allows Access to Biden Transition Team After Leftists Threatened Her Family, Pets

    by Adan Salazar
    November 23rd 2020, 6:09 pm

    “I was never directly or indirectly pressured by any Executive Branch official–including those who work at the White House or GSA–with regard to the substance or timing of my decision,” states Murphy’s letter. “To be clear, I did not receive any direction to delay my determination.”

    Murphy goes on to admit thousands of rabid Biden supporters were actually the ones who attempted to pressure her via threats, harassment and intimidation.

    “I did, however, receive threats online, by phone, and by mail directed at my safety, my family, my staff, and even my pets in an effort to coerce me into making this determination prematurely. Even in the face of thousands of threats, I always remained committed to upholding the law.”

    Murphy points out the GSA is not responsible for determining the winner of an election, and that a winner will ultimately be determined by the courts:

    “The actual winner of the presidential election will be determined by the electoral process detailed in the Constitution.”

    President Trump on Monday thanked Murphy for her work and condemned the left’s coercive tactics.

    1. Murphy letter also says something about “developments in the court cases.” What does she mean by that? That she knows Trump will lose and therefore she should release $7 million of transition funding? Maybe it’s time again to ask Pompeo what sort of transition of power he’s expecting.

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