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Investors Started To Realise That They Might Have Bought Into A Mirage

A report from Auction.com. “The great promise of short sales and other distressed pre-foreclosure sales as a foreclosure alternative is most fully realized in a competitive and transparent online auction marketplace, according to the Auction.com Market Validation Program (MVP) for pre-foreclosure sales. It’s important to put short sales and other pre-foreclosure sales on the front burner of foreclosure prevention strategy as the mortgage servicing industry works through the millions of mortgages that are delinquent and in forbearance as a result of the 2020 recession.”

From Mansion Global on New York. “Manhattan’s high-end real estate market saw an unseasonably strong performance, according to a report from Olshan Realty. Beth Benalloul of Corcoran, who represented the developer of the 1010 Park Avenue apartment said ‘the market in general is better and we have been aggressively telling people we are working with pricing.’ On Friday, the sponsor lowered asking prices on three other units, with discounts ranging from 18% to 30%.”

From KSNV in Nevada. “The calendar may play a factor in easing tight inventory around the Las Vegas valley, as homeowners in forbearance will need to make some decisions about keeping their homes or putting them on the market. ‘We know there is shadow inventory that will be hitting the market eventually, because of homes that are in forbearance,’ said longtime Las Vegas realtor Pam Junge, who says Nevada is second in the nation behind Hawaii for distressed homeowners and forbearance numbers.”

“‘Forbearances are starting to expire. Most banks were giving people three-month charges up to one year, and we are approaching that one year mark very fast,’ she said. While no one wants to speculate on a housing bubble in the future, Las Vegas Realtors President Aldo Martinez says the Las Vegas real estate market has shown great resilience over the past two decades. ‘Real estate has always been able to sustain itself, even in the worst market. In 2006 and ’08, we were setting records selling. Even though it was bank-owned, people were still buying it.'”

From Bisnow Washington DC. “Apartment rents in the D.C. area experienced the sharpest drop in decades last year, with the District feeling the most pain, but developers continued to break ground on new projects. ‘In the fourth quarter, it does seem like the bottom fell out a little bit,’ JPMorgan Asset Management Managing Director Allina Boohoff said. ‘There were a lot of deliveries in D.C. proper that were counting on new college graduates, new people coming in, that were just frankly not there.'”

From Realtor.com. “Rents fell in 37 of the nation’s 100 largest counties in December, according to realtor.com®’s monthly rent report. Rental prices are plummeting the most in the highest-priced tech hubs. ‘San Francisco is resilient and the demand will be there in the future, but some landlords are really struggling to fill their apartments,’ says Charley Goss, at the San Francisco Apartment Association.”

“Across Chicago, landlords have been trying to tempt renters with price reductions and months of gratis rent. But there are some types of housing that are sitting empty longer than others. While townhouses and duplexes with courtyards are still clamoring for tenants, units with direct-entry from the outdoors are getting rented out a bit faster than the glut of brand-new apartments and condos in The Loop.”

“With an influx of new units built over the past half-decade—3,000 in just the past three years alone—Honolulu and greater Oahu have been experiencing rent decreases for the past half-decade. Then the pandemic hit. This disrupted the tourism industry, leading many furloughed or unemployed hospitality workers to leave town. Their empty apartments added to the glut on the market.”

“Landlord woes in Boston didn’t stick to just the south side of the Charles River. Like many of the higher education institutions in the metropolitan area, elite Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the wealthy county’s Cambridge have gone remote. That means that the rentals normally occupied by students are empty.”

From Remax in Canada. “In 2020, the unthinkable occurred: the red-hot Toronto condo market experienced an unforeseen downturn. Units in the sky suffered a setback – something that nobody would have envisioned at the start of the year. The real estate industry has often discussed buyer’s fatigue, but a new phenomenon arose in this challenging market: seller’s fatigue. Some condo owners were unable to either rent their units or sell them – even at deep discounts – in a market that was witnessing a rapid injection of supply.”

From The Guardian in the UK. “Stretching across a 230-hectare riverside swath from Vauxhall Cross to Battersea Power Station, straddling the boroughs of Lambeth and Wandsworth, the Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea (VNEB) ‘opportunity area’ has been trumpeted as the biggest regeneration project in Europe. With around 5,000 homes completed over the past five years, and a further 15,000 in the pipeline, the new district has all the makings of a similarly exclusive fiefdom, an international investors’ playground where regular Londoners are pushed to the very edges, or cut out of the picture altogether.”

“VNEBis a place where penthouses with private chapels and running tracks loom above crumbling council estates across the railway line, where scores of flats lie empty, held by secretive shell companies in off-shore tax havens, and where the division between absentee investors and owner-occupiers confined to poor doors could not be more stark. Dogged by allegations of cronyism and gerrymandering, it is the product of politicians in thrall to property developers, driven by a blind faith in the market – even when investors started to realise that they might have bought into a mirage.”

“In one snapshot, looking at an agency that listed 35 new-build properties for sale during an eight-month period, the constant relisting made it look as if there were in fact 368 properties for sale. Rather than roughly £50m in market value of apartments advertised, the distortion would have made it appear as more than £500m. In another example, a £3.6m flat was re-listed 15 times in six months, making it seem like the average asking price in the area was skyrocketing.”

“Hundreds of luxury flats in Battersea and Nine Elms were continually being listed for sale, then taken down and immediately relisted. It was being done at such frequency across so many developments that it distorted the market across the whole area. ‘It gave the impression that there was not only a lot of activity,’ said Propcision’s director, Michelle Ricci-Zak, ‘but that the average price in that area was going up – when actually we proved it was going down.'”

“The manufactured flurry also gave the impression to potential buyers that flats were ‘flying off the shelves,’ she said, when in fact the developers were struggling to offload them. The reality was that they were selling off homes in bulk at steep discounts to corporate landlords and institutional investors, with prices slashed by up to 38%.”

“‘If you buy prime property in London,’ said Ling Zhang, a Chinese investor who has acquired a handful of new-build apartments in the capital in recent years, ‘you want it to feel like London – not China. I also think there are far too many identical ‘luxury’ apartments being built in the same location for it to be a good investment. Chinese buyers are very concerned about location, and we mostly prefer north of the river, close to the universities. Many people send their children to London to study, then rent out the apartments when they graduate.'”

“Henry Pryor, a prime property buying agent, is frank: ‘I’d rather buy a flat in Wuhan than Nine Elms today.'”

The Globe and Mail. “GameStop shares shares sank on Tuesday and a silver buying spree led by small investors subsided as a Reddit-driven trading frenzy that has shocked global financial markets over the past week started to show signs of fizzling out. Analysts said the silver pullback may show the limits of small investors’ impact in a large market, while posts on the popular Reddit forum WallStreetBets expressed concern that silver buying could cost traders their grip on some stocks.”

“Reddit moderators had on Tuesday removed one of the most popular posts suggesting buying silver and many WallStreetBets posts focused on riding out the volatility. ‘WHO IS HOLDING GME WITH ME?’ read one top post. ‘I’M HOLDING EVEN IF MY PORTFOLIO GOES DOWN TO ZERO,’ read another.”

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This Post Has 94 Comments

  1. ‘On Friday, the sponsor lowered asking prices on three other units, with discounts ranging from 18% to 30%’

    This does what to previous buyers?

  2. ‘It’s important to put short sales and other pre-foreclosure sales on the front burner of foreclosure prevention strategy as the mortgage servicing industry works through the millions of mortgages that are delinquent and in forbearance as a result of the 2020 recession’

    I included this because of what’s not said. These are still foreclosures, just a different person saying GTFO.

    1. I read the article and was a little confused. When it’s an auctioned short-sale do you have the ability to see the house or are you kept out like a foreclosure sale?

  4. ‘I’d rather buy a flat in Wuhan than Nine Elms today’

    How the mighty have fallen.

    ‘“The manufactured flurry also gave the impression to potential buyers that flats were ‘flying off the shelves,’ she said, when in fact the developers were struggling to offload them. The reality was that they were selling off homes in bulk at steep discounts to corporate landlords and institutional investors, with prices slashed by up to 38%’

    Openly discussing market manipulation – check! Also fooks previous suckers.

    The Guardian is a TDS stronghold. While they may wax nostalgically about inequity, blah blah, the truth is these safe deposit box in the sky money laundering centers were created by socialists. Remember the a$$ hat Bloomberg bragging that NYC should be built for every billionaire on the planet? That’s one reason they’re fooked as well. It was a fairy tale of central planning. Well known crow breath Dick Florida was quoted hundreds of times about this urban horse sh$t, only to later admit he had his head up his a$$ about the entire thing.

    BTW, this part of London has been sinking like a turd in a well for over 6 years.

    1. This struck me as odd:

      VNEBis a place where penthouses with private chapels

      Since when do richies pray? Unless maybe they were targeting Muslim buyers, but I don’t think they call those rooms “chapels”.

  6. ‘We know there is shadow inventory that will be hitting the market eventually, because of homes that are in forbearance,’ said longtime Las Vegas realtor Pam Junge, who says Nevada is second in the nation behind Hawaii for distressed homeowners and forbearance numbers.”

    Wha? I thought shadow inventory was a conspiracy theory.

    1. “…second in the nation behind Hawaii for distressed homeowners and forbearance numbers.”

      We scheduled and subsequently canceled HI vacations twice in the summer of 2020.

      How’s the government-mandated shutdown of their tourism industry working out for them?

  7. Timcast IRL – Wall Street FORCED Robinhood To Shut Down trading, The Game Is Rigged And Media LYING

    Two comments:

    ‘Why would you spend $300 on a box/month’s worth of food?
    You know what i do? I buy tins of food, pasta, powdered milk, uht milk….i could buy 6 months supplies for $300, these boxes are a con, much like Timmy.’

    ‘Much of the meal kit buckets are a bit of a rip off, but there is nothing illegitimate about freeze dried food. Buying it from these companies, it often doesn’t taste the best, and is often not made with the most healthy ingredients, but if you do it yourself, it’s definitely legit. It’s also possible to put beans and rice and other such cheap staple items in vacuum sealed Mylar bags, and it will also last for 25 years, and it’s way way cheaper. Getting canned food is better than nothing, but it doesn’t last nearly so long, so you have to be constantly cycling it out. I do both, and have enough food and water to last 10 people for a year(so far). The meal kits Tim sells are definitely not the most efficient thing you can do to prepare, but even having that is better than nothing. Sadly most people are to lazy to invest a bit more time and energy into doing it right.’

    So what is it with the dried food?

    1. I take freeze-dried food on long hikes and camping trips, but while it provides calories and sustains life, it definitely wouldn’t be my first choice if I had to go for long periods without fresh food. It’s expensive, and rather tasteless. Beans and rice last for years if properly stored, and taste better if properly cooked. If you get anything freeze-dried, make it fruits or meats only that you can use with rice or pasta.

    2. Now that I think about it, these are probably high markup boxes that can sit in a warehouse for a long time.

      ‘I buy tins of food’

      Where do you suppose these dried food guys get the product? Cans most likely. They aren’t sitting on the dock buying fresh sardines.

      1. Canned sardines aren’t half bad. I’ve read that they are sufficiently shelf stable to provide a good inflation hedge, too.

    3. What is it with stock prices becoming historically disconnected from fundmentals…just like they were immediately preceding the tech stock meltdown of the early 2000s and the Housing Bubble 1.0 collapse of 2007-2009?

    4. most people are to lazy to invest a bit more time and energy

      We are in a world of instant solutions in so many ways. Keeping a stocked pantry takes a little time, but it also has a learning curve. Who wants a learning curve, just give me the answer!

      Works fine if you have more money than sense.

    5. Reader comment on the HairLossTalk forum:

      “He kinda did it to himself though. Everyone knew he was trying to hide it by never taking off that beanie. For him to say he wears it so people can’t notice him is laughable. Frankly if he owned it it wouldn’t be that big of a deal honestly, yea some people will comment on it regardless but he’s obviously very insecure about that so it’s easy to prey on.”

      1. Silly question: why are young men losing their hair like this? When I was growing up, sure, there were the middle-aged guys with a bald spot in back. But this bald-guy look on young men has only happened in the past 10-12 years. And it’s not just the shaving — there’s definitely an increase in baldness. What’s causing it?
        Stress? Soy? And perhaps not coincidentally, the beard came into fashion at about the same time.

        2. For a counterexample, I noticed my hairline begin to recede in my late 20s, and thought for sure my hair would be gone by the time I reached my maternal grandfather’s age of total baldness.

          Three decades on, I’ve got some thinning to show for helping my wife struggle to raise a family of four on middle class incomes in an unaffordable economy, but most of my hair remains intact.

    6. I watched part of Beanie Boy’s podcast last night. His pitch for the freeze-dried food was laughable. He was running errands and couldn’t find any open restaurants. So he had to break into his emergency bucket and they all had pancakes and all was well. Seriously? There’s a blizzard — all over the news. A pandemic — all over the news. And he didn’t think to stop at a store and get a box of regular pancake mix, some frozen sausage, and a couple eggs? He’s dependent on restaurants every day? Say what?

      That said, the comments about the freeze-dried food are correct. The buckets are all cheap protein-less carbs that you can get for $50-75 separately. Canned food only lasts 2-3 years, so you have to rotate and replenish. It will get you through a snowstorm, but not a years-long widespread grid-down SHTF. Freeze-dried meats and cheeses, with some fruits, are viable when there’s no alternative. BTW, I also recommend some long-lasting protein powers and multivitamin drink-mix packets.

      1. get you through a snowstorm, but not a years-long

        I can chicken, chuck roast, chili and meat based soups. They are fine for five years if stored properly.

  8. “In 2020, the unthinkable occurred: the red-hot Toronto condo market experienced an unforeseen downturn. Units in the sky suffered a setback – something that nobody would have envisioned at the start of the year.

    There really needs to be an app that enables us to kick lying REIC shills in the jimmies. Unthinkable? Nobody could’ve seen this coming? Liar liar pants on fire. Ben & HBB posters have been calling this for years now.

  9. “How online auctions deliver on the promise of pre-foreclosure sales
    Market validation program outperforms traditional short sale offers by $28,000 on average
    February 1, 2021, 2:53 pm
    By Auction.com”

    That’s not very informative…are we talking about $200,000 shacks (14%) or $2,000,000 shacks (1.4%).

    And besides the 1%, or financial investment firms, who buys a house at an auction? Can a middle class San Diegan get someone to loan him $800,000 that he can use to bid on auction homes? Seems like a crazy level of investment risk, given the crater that lies in view just up the road.

    1. I’ve mentioned this before. Having sat in on some REIC web things and talking with former REO brokers, the industry has shifted away from foreclosing and putting shacks on the MLS. The plan is to run pretty much all of it through the online/sometimes also courthouse auctions. The law in many places requires a courthouse sale, so you’ll often find a hybrid model.

      What’s not to like from a lenders view? Much less expense to GTFO. Repairs, UHS fees. Just “as-is baby!” and the bidders take all the risk sight unseen. Now the experienced people know how to gain an edge in this game. Does that hurt others? Sure but WTF cares?

      So this all works as long as you have bidders show up. The floodgates were opening before the CCP virus, but now we’re back to log-rolling and guberment BS. For instance, in CA they’ve got some new “right” for non-profits/FBs to buy out a loan for 30 days “after” the auction. That should breed confidence. Sure I’ll pony up hundreds of thousands and see if Johnny Save A Shack cuts me off with no compensation – NOT!

      SNAFU as usual. But as the article says, there are millions of these things newly in default.

      1. The downside risks to individuals buying homes to live in are once again off the scale. And some recent articles have suggested that REITs are also overpriced. The whole gameplan is to lure retail investors to overpay for crap assets.

        1. “And some recent articles have suggested that REITs are also overpriced.”

          The investors usually encounter a rip tide when they attempt to out-swim the sharks.

      2. non-profits/FBs to buy out a loan for 30 days “after” the auction

        Is this law even legal? They are effectively forcing someone to sell private property against their wishes.
        Isn’t that a due process issue?

        2. What does legality have to do with anything? 2007-2009 blew any questions of legality out of the water.

      3. The only, ahem, deals during the last bust for ordinary people were already-foreclosed bank-owned properties that sat and sat amidst the total absence of buyers in 2010-11. The foreclosure cleared the titles of liens, the places generally in fair condition, and prices dropped and dropped for months. Of course if you actually tried to make an offer on one, magically 2 other offers would appear over asking before you even put in the paperwork.

        So the bank-owned option won’t be happening this time around? But how will realtors and bank insiders know exactly when the market hits bottom so they can front-run the marks?

        1. I worked with the REO guy at a TBTF bank during bubble 1. He would routinely have sales. Under $100,000 cut the price, Get it sold. Over $500,000 – $1,000,000 gotta go. Now how do you know about what is being pushed? No clue., but yes, they did push things out at times.

  10. Does it seem like the bubble cycle period is contracting? For example, I first read that silver was bubbling up within the past couple of days, and now it’s already headed into the crater.

    1. For a geological analogy, it’s something like how a major volcanic eruption is typically preceded by a high frequency series of earthquakes and minor eruptions. The stock market and other risk asset markets are currently issuing the financial markets version of these early warning signs of imminent disaster.

    3. The Financial Times
      Precious metals
      Silver price retreats rapidly in blow to new retail buyers
      Steep fall underlines difficulties facing small investors in influencing global market
      Silver dropped 4.5 per cent in early London dealings to $27.67 an ounce, after leaping as much as 12 per cent the previous day © Ilya Naymushin/Reuters
      Henry Sanderson and Neil Hume 3 hours ago

      A rally in the price of silver fuelled by a sudden burst of interest from retail traders rapidly unwound on Tuesday, with many veteran investors left scratching their heads over the episode.

      Silver fell 4.5 per cent in early London dealings to $27.67 an ounce, after leaping as much as 12 per cent the previous day to the highest level in eight years.

      The pullback underlines the difficulties facing small investors, even when they combine forces, in influencing the global silver market, where $6bn worth of the metal changes hands in a typical day. It also reflects growing pushback on the internet forum Reddit against the effort to push up silver prices — a strategy posed by a user last week.
      …

      1. Heh, for the heck of it I went to a couple precious metal sites. JM has 1 oz coins in stock, albeit for $12 over spot. There’s a little message: “Selling fast. 7139 bought this in the past week!” Methinks JM held back some shadow inventory until the other sites were sold out, and then released a little more for higher profit. Just like in housing.

    4. I’ve seen this movie before
      And I have to admit it’s no bore
      The lying, the dying, the late night crying
      It makes me want to watch it no more.

    5. The paper price of silver is down hard this morning (~8%), but the real price (premiums of around $8-10) is holding firm, and supplies are very tight.

      1. but the real price

        Spectacular retail dealer premiums, which are lost once paid.

        A year ago it was toilet paper. At least we’re moving up.

    6. I first read that silver was bubbling up within the past couple of days, and now it’s already headed into the crater.”

      That was / is a pump and dump . But I’m beginning to think the entire market is a pump and dump now . It always drags out at the end the last couple years when it should crash it just hangs and hangs.

    1. I’m not worried. Chris Thornberg has offered us his personal assurances that California housing prices will never go down.

      1. The article was about the UK housing market, one of the most bubblicious in the world. Not sure Chris Thornberg has commented on that.

        1. I grasped that. And since All Real Estate is Local, California has nothing to fear about London prices falling down…or does it?

          I don’t mean to suggest that these markets are coupled to one another, but rather that the globalist central banking cartel has planted seeds of financial mania internationally which create systemic risk for another global housing crisis. And they pretend to make us all safer as they make a coordinated effort to financially engineer systemic risk.

          1. “…I don’t mean to suggest that these markets are coupled to one another…”

            They might not be tightly coupled in the way most would think about markets, but they certainly are loosely coupled and IMO get tighter practically daily.

            Just look how the FOREX and global stock markets operate.

  12. Get ready for it: Here come the ludicrous and laughable stock market reassurances from the talking heads at the Fed.

    1. Groundhog Day

      Fed’s Kaplan sees no systemic concerns in GameStop mania

      Fed’s Kaplan says he sees no ‘systemic’ worries with GameStop stock market mania
      Published: Feb. 2, 2021 at 9:54 a.m. ET
      By Greg Robb
      The GameStop logo sign is seen above the store in Culver City, California. (Photo by Chris DELMAS / AFP/Getty Images)

      No underlying structural worries about the plumbing of the financial markets have arisen in last week’s social-media fueled jumps in stocks like GameStop (GME, -45.14%) and AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC, -39.32%), said Robert Kaplan, the president of the Dallas Fed, on Tuesday.

      “I don’t see anything right now that is systemic,” Kaplan said, in an interview on CNBC.
      …

      1. There are really only two issues with the GME debacle:
        1. Funds being allowed to short more shares than exist.
        2. Brokerages being allowed to cut off trading for one group but not another (or to cut off buying but not selling).

        The first one is systemic. The second one should be stonk jail. Everything else is buyer beware.

        1. “Brokerages being allowed to cut off trading for one group but not another (or to cut off buying but not selling).”

          Doesn’t whether this is legal depend on the cutoff criteria?

          1. Also, if one firm can somehow affect the operation of the entire market, maybe there isn’t enough competition?

          2. there isn’t enough competition?

            It’s kind of funny. Free services competing for your business. What would the draw be, we sell less of your data? We give the vultures fewer seconds to jack your trade before we execute it?

      2. “I don’t see anything right now that is systemic,” Kaplan said, in an interview on CNBC.

        Here’s a very clear and realistic perspective of the issue(s). The Fed has so thoroughly corrupted the system to save the establishment (i.e. the system), that in doing so has guaranteed a crashing real (Main St.) economy. Moreover, since the stock market must (eventually) reflect the health of Main St., I fully expect a “re-coupling” in this regard. “Read the whole thing.”

        https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/the-cantillon-effect-and-gamestop
        The Cantillon Effect and GameStop
        Why our politics centers around the unreal world of finance.
        Matt Stoller | January 31, 2021

        “To the moon… [Speculation nation]”

        “Our economy has become so concentrated, and financial speculation has so replaced real commercial activity, that how we manipulate the price of meaningless pieces of paper is now imbued with deep moral significance.”

        “As with any complex event, there are multiple narratives at work. There’s a political story, of populists fighting Wall Street insiders, an economic story of speculation and the casino-like nature of Wall Street, and a financial story of middlemen and con artists manipulating both sides. I’m most interested in the institutional story, of financial plumbing of our markets, and fundamentally, how money flows through those pipes, from the Federal Reserve into the financial system, and the real economy.”

        “In fact, much of what Robinhood is now doing shouldn’t be allowed, including encouraging retail clients to be speculating in margin accounts and in options. And my guess is that there are big funds with anonymous people on the subreddit whipping up a furor – pump and dumps on message boards didn’t start in 2021. Ironically, I don’t think they those on WallStreetBets would disagree, I think they would just claim that if you’re going to put a stop to gambling, stop it on Wall Street first. And that’s right, the amount of leverage and/or cheating by hedge funds, big banks, private equity firms, and market-makers like Citadel is likely off the charts.”

        An Economy of Bubbles
        “The basic problem that GameStop is revealing in our economy writ large is that as a society, we are increasingly putting our time, energy, capital and talent we could use to build fun or useful things into gambling or acquiring market power.”

        “Without action against these buying monopolies and tariffs to stop China from dumping into our markets, these new supply chain will die. This isn’t isolated to textiles, but is a long-standing economy-wide bias towards monopolies and finance and against production of real goods and services. With the current setup of our markets, there’s just no clear reason to be investing in useful enterprise.”

        “Very low or negative interest rates mean that investors can’t find any place to place their savings. Investors perceive there are no more factories to build, no distribution centers to create, no new energy systems to research, no more products to create. You can only stuff money under a mattress, and the price of mattresses is going up. Our financial system, in other words, is acting like we have no more social problems to profitably solve.”

        “What is really happening is not that we’ve run out of problems to solve, but that the economy has become a giant “kill zone,” which is a term venture capitalists use to describe areas they can’t invest for fear that a monopolist will crush their company. Extreme market power is evident in tech markets, but it’s systemic in smaller markets as well, like horse shows, puzzles, cheerleading, portable toilets, mixed martial arts, mail sorting software, and a whole lot more.”

        “With an economy of monopolies, there are now large profits with nowhere to go because investment in new production doesn’t make sense if you have market power. Workers have little bargaining power, so the extra money doesn’t go to them. Taxes on capital are low, so the money isn’t heading back to the government. Moreover, a lot of small businesses have been shut down because of the pandemic, so people can’t put their savings into new business even if they wanted to. Monopolies and a corrupted financial system have broken the ability to put money into useful enterprises. So where is it going?“

        “Speculation.”

  13. ‘Everybody is scared of 2021.’ Europeans are losing jobs, businesses and hope

    How are those lock downs working?

    In the English town of Crowborough, about 45 miles south of London, Suits to Suit, a suit rental company that specializes in weddings, is also looking beyond 2021 for a recovery.
    Europe’s social safety net is often considered the gold standard. Coronavirus has exposed its holes
    “There seems to be no end in sight at the moment,” owner Andrea Woods told CNN Business. “Grooms who were supposed to get married in 2020 have found dates for 2022. Everybody is scared of 2021.”
    With so much uncertainty surrounding the development of the pandemic, couples are understandably reluctant to commit to wedding dates, leaving Woods in limbo.

    1. That would be the news of slow vaccine rollouts. Pfizer/Moderna are hard to make, Astra-Zeneca is approved in UK and EU but shipments are behind schedule. US won’t approve AZ until April at the earliest. J&J looks (to me) as if they are going to need two shots. They are testing two shots but that’s another 3+ month delay. Novavex is promising but very early. On top of, it looks like ALL of them will need to develop a single-shot South African booster, which is another round of approvals and distribution.

      I won’t consider things normal until 80% of the population gets three shots. That could be next Christmas, and that’s in the Western world.

      1. “consider things normal”

        They already are in Florida, which has proven that lockdowns and mask mandates are worthless.

        Europeans are cucks.

        1. It is and always had been just a flu bro.

          Also it’s a big smokescreen for repo market failure 1 1/2 years ago. But we’re not allowed to talk about that.

        2. It’s A COVID Miracle! UK Flu Cases At 130-Year Low

          by Kelen McBreen
          February 1st 2021, 5:32 pm

          Experts are crediting “lockdowns and new health habits,” after UK flu numbers dropped over 95% in what is a 130-year low.

          “Out of 3.9 million patients at 385 GP practices across England last week, only 35 had the flu,” Sky News writes.

          According to Yahoo News, “Medical experts said flu appears to have been ‘almost completely wiped out’ after rates plummeted by a whopping 95%.”

          Mainstream media claims COVID measures and increased publicity about the importance of taking the flu vaccine have contributed to this drop.

          However, the increase in vaccinations has been minimal compared to the drop in flu cases.

          While the flu has dropped by more than 95%, only three percent more Brits over the age of 65 took the free flu vaccine.

          https://www.infowars.com/posts/its-a-covid-miracle-uk-flu-cases-at-130-year-low/

        3. Europeans are cucks.

          I am reminded of that every time I have a zoom meeting with my Euro colleagues. They must keep their tiny flats freezing cold, as they always wear jackets during the meetings. They must really believe that they are saving the world by freezing in the winter.

          2. “Energy is more expensive because of all the world saving they’ve been doing.”

            Once the Harris/Biden administration gets those skilled workers in the coal industry transferring their skills to what we need to do, reclaiming abandoned land mines our energy problems will be over.

            Either that or the lives of the coal workers trying to learn how to remove land mines will be over.

            Kamala Harris Defends Joe Biden’s Climate Policies, Says They’re Creating More Jobs

            BY DARRAGH ROCHE
            1/29/21

            Vice President Kamala Harris has defended the Biden administration’s environmental policies and argued that the effort to tackle climate change will create jobs.

            Barren asked Harris about retraining workers in the oil, gas and coal industries who may lose their jobs as the energy sector changes and the administration pauses new extraction.

            “All of those skilled workers who are in the coal industry and transferring those skills to what we need to do in terms of dealing with reclaiming abandoned land mines; what we need to do around plugging leaks from oil and gas wells; and, transferring those important skills to the work that has yet to be done that needs to get done,” Harris said.

            https://www.newsweek.com/kamala-harris-defends-joe-biden-climate-policies-creating-more-jobs-1565370

      2. I won’t consider things normal until 80% of the population gets three shots.

        By then there won’t be enough economy left to have any semblance of normalcy.

    1. “Mommy!!”

      🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

    2. “Reddit trades crumble as GameStop, AMC and Silver plunge”

      The 9/11 hijackers didn’t get out alive either. Mission accomplished!

  16. 1) A report from Auction.com. “The great promise of short sales and other distressed pre-foreclosure sales as a foreclosure alternative is most fully realized in a competitive and transparent online auction marketplace, according to the Auction.com Market Validation Program (MVP) for pre-foreclosure sales. It’s important to put short sales and other pre-foreclosure sales on the front burner of foreclosure prevention strategy as the mortgage servicing industry works through the millions of mortgages that are delinquent and in forbearance as a result of the 2020 recession.”

    – No mention of the magnitude of the shadow inventory that existed before the CCP viral pandemic.

    – “…millions of mortgages that are delinquent and in forbearance…” This is effectively shadow inventory also. Extend and pretend, forever.

    – For now record low mortgage rates are driving prices higher for those with the means in our bifurcated economy. Housing bubble 2.0 continues apace for SFH for now, but the imbalances will (eventually) have to be resolved, including the high and growing wealth and income inequality courtesy of the Fed’s ultra easy monetary policies.

    2) From KSNV in Nevada. “The calendar may play a factor in easing tight inventory around the Las Vegas valley, as homeowners in forbearance will need to make some decisions about keeping their homes or putting them on the market. ‘We know there is shadow inventory that will be hitting the market eventually, because of homes that are in forbearance,’ said longtime Las Vegas realtor Pam Junge, who says Nevada is second in the nation behind Hawaii for distressed homeowners and forbearance numbers.”

    “‘Forbearances are starting to expire. Most banks were giving people three-month charges up to one year, and we are approaching that one year mark very fast,’ she said. While no one wants to speculate on a housing bubble in the future, Las Vegas Realtors President Aldo Martinez says the Las Vegas real estate market has shown great resilience over the past two decades. ‘Real estate has always been able to sustain itself, even in the worst market. In 2006 and ’08, we were setting records selling. Even though it was bank-owned, people were still buying it.’”

    – RE was, is, and always will be cyclical. No mention of housing bubble 1.0 that popped in 2006-2008. No mention of Wall St. buying up the excess inventory for a song as the system “foamed the runway” for them. As is the case today, Main St. took it on the chin, while Wall St. reaped the rewards (by strip mining Main St.).

    – “Forbearances are starting to expire.” Tick-tock.

    – It’s hard for me to conceive of equity and SFH markets being more distorted than they are today, and yet here we are. Nothing to see here, move along.

    1. Seems like the FIRE sector firms have rigged the housing market real good now, to split out a separate “wholesale” market for mop up operations, such as sale of foreclosure homes at auction prices the public never sees, to a “retail” market at higher prices the public does see (Case-Shiller Index, gubmint-guaranteed purchase loans, etc.), which help serve to perpetually convince us that “real estate always goes up.”
      Along the way, some deserving FIRE sector workers milk the spread between retail and wholesale prices.

      Seems illegal as hell (“price fixing” / “collusion”, etc), but if whatever laws might suggest as much are ignored / unenforced, then perhaps it’s effectively legal.

      If the above is somewhat on target, I’m inclined to never want to blow money on a price-rigged retail shack over the course of my future lifetime, at least in overpriced, pricerigged SoCal. However, where do I sign up for my fair share of the retail-whorsale price spread gravy?

  17. Wokeyleaks

    64,136 views•
    Feb 2, 2021

    Paul Joseph Watson
    1.87M subscribers

    1,310 Comments

    TimEvans64

    46 minutes ago
    “Weapons-grade hypocrisy” is the best expression I’ve heard all week.

    112

    PREISING PRODUCTIONS
    1 hour ago
    If you say “Awomen” after “Amen,” you’re Amoron…

    1K

    Dick Trickle
    42 minutes ago (edited)
    “They’re scared of being unpopular”

    Spot on! That’s their greatest fear. And it is the always present threat of ostracism has resulted in the hyper conformity of this crowd.

    156

    https://youtu.be/VvjxePsmYqg?t=312

  18. Is it TimmyTime now? 8pm east coast.

    Let us listen, and learn, about what kind of overpriced dried food you can buy. Ian needs to go outside and get some sun, he’s got that Zuckerberg grey skin thing happening…

    1. The Financial Times
      Retail trading
      GameStop shares slide 60% as Reddit rally deflates
      Losses pile up on stocks favoured by army of day traders
      People walk by a GameStop store in Brooklyn, New York
      The rally in GameStop shares last week inflicted billions of dollars of losses for hedge funds which had bet that the company’s shares would decline
      © Spencer Platt/Getty
      Eric Platt, Colby Smith and Aziza Kasumov in New York and Madison Darbyshire in London
      3 hours ago

      GameStop shares dropped 60 per cent on Tuesday as losses piled up on stocks favoured by the army of day traders that have organised on the social media site Reddit.

      The declines were so sharp that they triggered multiple trading halts in GameStop. Automatic curbs also kicked in to calm jittery trading in other stocks favoured by retail traders.

      GameStop and others such as BlackBerry and AMC Entertainment have become synonymous with the new wave of day traders that have swept into US financial markets since the pandemic hit the country last year.
      …

  20. Anyone mentions proof of election fraud anywhere and the iron boot comes down with a prepared statement.

    WATCH: Newsmax Host Cuts Off MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell As He Mentions Election Fraud

    Infowars.com
    February 2nd 2021, 5:40 pm

    “Well, first mine was taken down because we have all this election fraud with these Dominion machines — we have 100 percent proof,” Lindell begins to say.

    The remarks irked program host Bob Sellers, who frantically tried to recover.

    “Mike, thank you very much, Mike, Mike — you’re talking about machines that we at Newsmax have not been able to verify any of, uh, those kinds of allegations. We just want to let people know that there’s nothing substantive that we have seen. Let me read you something there,” Sellers tells Lindell.

    Reading off a prepared statement, Sellers issued a disclaimer stating, “There were some clear evidence of some cases of vote fraud and election irregularities, the election results in every state were certified and Newsmax accepts the results as legal and final. The courts have also supported that view.”

    “You’re going to suppress, just like Twitter,” Lindell continues, as he’s continuously talked over.

    https://www.infowars.com/

    2. The comments keep saying that the channel didn’t want to get sued. But don’t these channels already show a disclaimer that the views of the guests don’t represent the views of the channel? That should be enough to protect them.

        1. I love the way George reads his prepared 86 challenges all states certified prepared talking points in his “I have to stop you there” argument.

        2. After coming back and watching both videos, the Newsmax anchor and ABC ‘s Steponopolis look like they are reading from the same statement about 86 challenges all states certified William Barr even said cr@p.

          1. 86 challenges

            It actually amazes me that some people I know insist that because none of these cases were heard, meaning no evidence was aired, that proves there was no evidence. The logical disconnect is deep and emotionally defended.

          2. The logical disconnect is deep and emotionally defended.

            Well, since their team “won” it’s expected that it will be denied. I mean, no one in Argentina says that they should give back the 1986 World Cup trophy because of Maradona’s “Hand of God” hand ball goal in the quarterfinal match vs England, even though you can see it on video.

            We are long past the concept of the “Loyal Opposition”. Today, the Dems play to win, at any cost. Bow tie conservatives are content to be the perpetual minority party, and why not? Lucrative deals await them upon retirement if they refrain from rocking the boat.

          3. 86 challenges

            How exactly are these counted? Once for every court? One “case” with federal jurisdiction could be counted as three given the three levels of the federal judiciary.

      2. The anchor got up out of his chair and walked off the shot after he couldn’t get the dude to stop talking about having 100% proof the voting machines had stolen the election.

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