thehousingbubble@gmail.com
Blog

There’s Currently No End In Sight When It Comes To Falling Prices

It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Four years ago, Alexandra West bought a house in Sacramento, California, for just under $300,000. She agreed to a five-month lease, starting at the end of January 2020. ‘She owes well north of $20,000 in back rent,’ West said. ‘There’s been a massive amount of coverage about tenants’ plight, but there’s been little to no talk about the people like me who are facing a financial cliff.'”

“Debbie and Wayne Penczek own nine units in the Baltimore area, charging from $850 to $1,300 a month. Five of their tenants aren’t paying rent. ‘This was our retirement,’ said Debbie Penczek, 65. ‘And basically, we’re missing every month anywhere between $5,000 and $8,000.’ They’ve been able to pause some of their mortgage payments, although one lender suggested they tap their individual retirement account. They’re still responsible for their properties. ‘You feel like, well, the first opportunity we get, we’ll sell the properties,’ Wayne said.”

“Justin Bieber ended up half-a-million short in Beverly Hills, where he just sold his 1930s Colonial-style home for $7.955 million, The Times has confirmed. The pop star paid $8.5 million for the property just two years ago.”

“Purchased for $3.525 million in April of 2017, the home at 389 27th Street returned to the market priced at $3.75 million this past November. The resale has just quietly closed escrow with a contract price of $3.500 million, down 0.7 percent from the second quarter of 2017 on apples-to-apples basis while the Bay Area index for single-family home values was up 21.1 percent over the same period of time and the ‘median sale price’ was up as well.”

“New York City rents and home prices both dropped at their fastest annual pace on record in January, signaling that the city’s real estate market is still declining sharply, according to StreetEasy. ‘It’s rare that we see record high price drops in both the rentals and sales market, but landlords and sellers are dealing with the same issue right now — a surplus of competition and not enough demand. Asking prices and monthly rents are coming down quickly, which means that landlords and sellers are finally facing reality. With inventory levels as they are, there’s currently no end in sight when it comes to falling prices.'”

“Strata recently found that condo values in some of Toronto’s most in-demand neighbourhoods (such as Yorkville, The Annex and Casa Loma) dropped a whopping 30 per cent. More condos are hitting the market because Airbnb operators are selling their short-term rentals (with no tourists coming to town, investors are looking to offset their losses), students are no longer renting units and more people are choosing to live outside the city.”

“Dubai’s real estate market has made a ‘hard landing’ but lower prices may be a good time for investors looking to buy, according to a major Emirati property developer. ‘We had a slowdown in the economy, and in the property market since [2018 and 2019], things were already coming down,’ said Hussain Sajwani, chairman of Damac Properties. ‘We were having [a] soft landing … and Covid made it [a] hard landing.'”

“When is the best time to invest in an inner-city apartment? ‘I think now is a really good time to put your money in the inner city,’ says David Carrozza, of Cobden & Hayson, who is selling a one-bedroom apartment in Sydney’s Park Regis for $420,000 to $460,000. ‘The city markets have all been affected by COVID-19, and in Sydney, rental returns have fallen by 25 to 30 per cent, and prices have been softening. A lot of properties, in addition, have been empty for quite a period of time.'”

“‘The lumber prices are so unstable,’ said National Association of Home Builders CEO Jerry Howard. ‘It’s so consistently rising that they have to put ‘escalator clauses’ in the contract and the customers have the right to walk away – and now they’re starting to.'”

“The House Committee on Financial Services heard testimony on what happens when short-sellers, social media, and retail investors collide—as they did on January 28. Danielle Perreault of Saco, says she trusted in Robinhood’s motto: ‘Let the people trade.’ ‘…and I think they’ve gone from being Robin Hood to the Sheriff of Nottingham,’ Perreault said.”

“Perreault said, ‘They essentially cut off demand for this for the stock from the retail investors, of which I am, and eliminated the demand. There only being supply, the price plummeted and people lost millions if not billions of dollars. There are a lot of people who threw money they could not afford to lose into this… rent money, mortgage money, taking out a loan, borrowing from their 401(k) to buy the stocks, seeing the trajectory. It’s heartbreaking for those folks.'”

Related Posts
This Post Has 112 Comments

  1. Ahem…

    ‘down 0.7 percent from the second quarter of 2017 on apples-to-apples basis while the Bay Area index for single-family home values was up 21.1 percent over the same period of time and the ‘median sale price’ was up as well’

    1. The skew mix in various reporting stats will cause hurt to people. Median and average prices are being impacted because people with more $s can afford much ‘more house’ with the low rates.

      The resulting FOMO is causing folks to get sucked in. There are few people that are commenting (harshly) on this like the following article from Better Dwelling. If you put in sharp terms like you make more $s from your house than your occupation, people will realize something is horribly wrong.
      —
      “The price of a typical home across Canada made a sharp increase, not just over the year – but last month. The benchmark price reached $669,000 in January, up 2.2% (+$14,400) from a month before. This represents an increase of 13.5% ($79,800) from the same month one year ago. To say this is an astronomical increase in home prices at the national level, is a bit of an understatement. ”

      To contrast, 37 markets saw big monthly gains – with 12 of them in the 5-digit range. The biggest gain was in the pricey Toronto suburb of Oakville, where the price of a typical home reached $1,259,300. The market saw an increase of 6.2% (+$73,600) compared to just a month before. The 12-month increase for a typical home in the region works out to a 20.1% ($210,900) increase. The home must have gone to an Ivy League school.

      https://betterdwelling.com/canadian-real-estate-saw-a-typical-home-price-rise-up-to-73000-just-last-month/

    2. I’d love to hear what Chris Chris Thornberg has to say about cratering Bay Area prices a year after predicting the pandemic would boost them.

  2. ‘There only being supply, the price plummeted and people lost millions if not billions of dollars. There are a lot of people who threw money they could not afford to lose into this… rent money, mortgage money, taking out a loan, borrowing from their 401(k) to buy the stocks, seeing the trajectory’

    Note there’s just the stamping of little feet left of this debacle.

    1. When the service is free, the product is YOU.

      First rule of investing. Never more than you can afford to lose.

      Second rule of investing. You ain’t Jon Corzine.

    2. It’s pretty incredible to see people who probably never paid a dollar for a lottery ticket gamble away their life savings to get in on a stock price mania.

      Notice how the MSM utterly fails to connect the dots to the “Go Big” stimulus dog whistle for gamblers to pile into risk assets. It’s all Robinhood’s fault for offering an innovative, democratic trading platform.

      1. Less than a minute into Vlad Tenev’s opening statement, Maxine Waters was already impatient with the Robinhood chief executive and pounding on the gavel.”

        🤡

  3. ‘one lender suggested they tap their individual retirement account’

    Wa?

    ‘You feel like, well, the first opportunity we get, we’ll sell the properties’

    Well don’t give it away Wayne.

    1. that will be interesting to read – thanks. Folks on this blog talk about 5% cap. With regards to the story below, there has been recent stories about 3-4% Caps – with folks err ‘speculating?’ about appreciation and future rent increases.

      —-
      “Despite rental vacancies rising to the highest level in 20 years and a provincewide ban on rent increases due to the pandemic, sales of Vancouver multi-family rental buildings surged in the second half of 2020 after collapsing 38 per cent in the first six months compared to the same period a year earlier.

      “The Metro Vancouver market saw a total of 78 properties trade in 2020, just one less than the 77 transacted in 2019,” reported Mark Goodman, a partner and managing broker of Goodman Commercial, Vancouver, which specializes in the multi-family market.

      Metro Vancouver’s 2020 total dollar volume increased to $1.13 billion, up 2.7 per cent in compared to 2019, and the average price per suite rose 8 per cent to $403,088, Goodman noted.”

  6. The real question is why.

    Home building has slowed and is certainly in no exponentially growing curve.

    Insane covid mandates have probably dried up supply of finished board material. Closing of borders and trade to “contain” the virus.

    Add in some additional insane wacko environmental regulations…

    ““‘The lumber prices are so unstable,’ said National Association of Home Builders CEO Jerry Howard. ‘It’s so consistently rising that they have to put ‘escalator clauses’ in the contract and the customers have the right to walk away – and now they’re starting to.’”

    1. The main reason futures exist is so market participants can lock in/hedge prices. A reporter has never asked why they didn’t use futures. (They do, they are just a lion).

        1. Lumber futures. It can be done with steel, all sorts of commodities. Farmers do this all the time, oil/gas industry too.

        2. With the use of future contract one agrees to buy or sell a product on a certain date at a certain price, hence both the producer and the consumer of the product will know its cost on that date. Future contracts remove the risk of price fluctuations from buying and selling decisions of producers and consumers of products.

          A farmer, for example, can agree to sell his entire farm product for a specific price before he even plants it thus removing the risk of price decline at harvest time. The consumer of the product can do the same in that he can contract to buy the farmer’s product at that agreed to price.

          1. Basically, if you need to sell something months from now and you believe prices may drop, you can lock in the future price today to guarantee what you will get at the time of sale.

            Conversely, if you are going to buy in the future and are afraid prices may rise between now and the purchase date, buying futures offers protection against rising prices.

            But futures are also useful for financial gambling purposes. Just ask the folks who bought oil futures months earlier to sell oil on the day last April when prices dropped below zero. They made some bank!

  7. “‘The lumber prices are so unstable,’ said National Association of Home Builders CEO Jerry Howard. ‘It’s so consistently rising that they have to put ‘escalator clauses’ in the contract and the customers have the right to walk away – and now they’re starting to.’”

    From the Fox Business article:
    “Housing the best performing sector of economy as fears mount over downturn”

    “After being a drag on economic activity for more than a year, home building rebounded, encouraged by interest rates cut by the Federal Reserve and unemployment that is near a half-century low.”

    – “encouraged by interest rates cut by the Federal Reserve…” Mortgage interest rates are at historical lows, and since house prices move opposite to these rates, prices are high and have again reached the affordability ceiling. Throw in Fed-induced commodity inflation for building materials and other items on top of the Fed-generated asset price inflation in stonks and housing, and it’s not surprising prices are ridiculous again.

    – “unemployment that is near a half-century low” This statement, while accurate, is disingenuous. There are still millions out of work (employment is still well below pre-pandemic levels) and the real unemployment rate of U6 vs. U3 is much higher. Better yet, use the normalized employment to population ratio.

    “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” – Mark Twain

    – It’s “risk-free Friday,” so stonks will be up. Stonks and housing are the economy, but there are no longer markets. Enjoy your centrally-planned, command-and-control, Potemkin village, economy, with an artificial, “K”-shaped recovery, due to Fed-generated wealth and income inequality. Are you not entertained?

    “But let’s just go to the heart of the matter: the stock market, there is a floor there.  You know that the Fed and others are pounding away to minimize the risk in the stock market, and that’s a good thing.  That’s for our economy.” – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on on CNBC’s Mad Money with Jim Cramer, July 22, 2020

    https://twitter.com/LukeGromen/status/1362412078573752320
    Luke Gromen @LukeGromen
    Nothing gets the Fed to act faster than this happening for a few trading days. Nothing.
    “Stocks down, bonds down” is the Achilles Heel of the pro-cyclical, asset price appreciation-dependent, Rube Goldberg machine of an economy that US policymakers have built since 1982.
    7:42 AM · Feb 18, 2021·Twitter Web App

    1. You nailed it, especially with that last Twitter quote.

      I guess GameStop was Too Small To Save? (TSTS as opposed to TBTF).

  9. Wall Street Journal — We’ll Have Herd Immunity by April (2/18/2021):

    “My prediction that Covid-19 will be mostly gone by April is based on laboratory data, mathematical data, published literature and conversations with experts. But it’s also based on direct observation of how hard testing has been to get, especially for the poor. If you live in a wealthy community where worried people are vigilant about getting tested, you might think that most infections are captured by testing. But if you have seen the many barriers to testing for low-income Americans, you might think that very few infections have been captured at testing centers. Keep in mind that most infections are asymptomatic, which still triggers natural immunity.

    Many experts, along with politicians and journalists, are afraid to talk about herd immunity. The term has political overtones because some suggested the U.S. simply let Covid rip to achieve herd immunity. That was a reckless idea. But herd immunity is the inevitable result of viral spread and vaccination. When the chain of virus transmission has been broken in multiple places, it’s harder for it to spread—and that includes the new strains.”

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/well-have-herd-immunity-by-april-11613669731

    Time to re-open the economy.

    The exaggerated response to a disease with a 99.98% survival rate has been worse than a fraud, it’s state sponsored genocide.

    Nobody dies “of COVID” and every death recorded as “with COVID” is all a lie.

    They destroyed the economy based on a lie.

    1. Planned ‘False Flag’ event to loot the treasury to hide repo-market structural failure. Fractional Lending has no more ponzi scheme suckers to rope in so time for a ‘Great Reset’ which also happens to mean Vaxx-i-Cide for the proles.

      1. IMHO, it’s all about creating false narratives by these Big Monopolies , so they can loot or artificially raise prices or have their Ponzi Schemes.
        If these big Money Entities can corrupt Government to promote their fraud, than they amass great wealth based on the schemes.

        Climate Change is a way for them to loot by raising energy prices, and control populations.
        Covid 19 Pandemic is a Medical Fraud to justify a looting and rushed vaccines and control over people.
        Just all the rigged narratives are to transfer money to the Fat Cats, at the expense of the people and the tax coffers.
        False Narratives of racism and white privilege designed to pit populations against each other so people won’t notice the real culprits creating this class warfare by all their rigged markets. Blame it on White people being bad, and America being bad.
        These Entries that are the masterminds of all these false narratives are so insane, greedy , inhumane, fraudulent, power hungry, that they are the enemy of the people in any Country they reek their destruction.
        And their proposed Great Reset is simply they control all resources and dictate all policy and what people will get.
        They partner with our Foreign and domestic enemies in their schemes in a One World Order idea as they try to destroy sovereign Countries .
        It’s the most ambitious power grab in history , so the reason for Global Pandemic, Global Climate Change, causing Global policies.
        Since China , who is the manufacturing monopoly isn’t about to get rid of cheap energy , the US has to , which puts China at a advantage. Russia isn’t going to get rid of cheaper energy either.
        This treasonous Puppet Biden is the biggest traitor to America of all times along with Senate and Congress by rigged election.
        It’s like the people are trapped in a room with ax murders where they are locking any doors to get away from the destructive insanity.
        Police wasting their time on mask control, while they let real criminals free to reek their havoc.
        False Narratives that 75 million Trump Voters are insurrectionists Terrorist, etc etc.
        I mean their narratives are so stupid, unbelievable, and obviously fraudulent, yet 24/7 fake news of this junk is suppose to create a war against over half the Country.
        So , fake news, with the censoring of dispute or all facts is the new method of mass destruction of anything but these false narratives, with punishment to anyone that dares to dispute their fraud.
        Unbelievable . But somehow I think the pathways will emerge to stop the biggest frauds of all time.

      1. Diabeetus (hello, Stacey Abrams), high blood pressure, obesity.

        NOBODY died from COVID, they all died “with COVID” from motorcycle accidents and falling off of ladders.

        1. Nobody dies from motorcycle accidents or falling off of ladders.

          It’s the internal bleeding and head injuries that gets em.

  10. Another gibs article:

    “Offering student debt abolition for Black students is the right thing to do, both morally and politically. Politically, because Biden owes his victory to Black voters, and should offer them something concrete in return for their loyalty. And morally, because he has personally contributed to many of the inequities that plague Black Americans today.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/19/biden-can-repay-black-americans-through-canceling-our-student-debt

    I have yet to read a single one of these gibs articles that discusses what the undergraduate majors of these debt donkeys are. Or worse yet, the useless graduate degrees that have no value.

    Just gibs, just endless, infinite gibs.

    1. “Offering student debt abolition for Black students is the right thing to do, both morally and politically.”

      You see, $10k is chump change. President Biden…remove these chains, free us from this financial plantation!

    2. And morally, because he has personally contributed to many of the inequities that plague Black Americans today.”

      huh ?

    2. OK, my read on the article you posted Redpilled, is that yes these vaccines can alter human DNA. And, this altering of DNA by these vaccines isn’t a good thing and people testing positive for Covid long time after vaccine is part of the proof the DNA was altered.
      Unreal. No doubt they are going to try to suppress news like this, the deaths that are occurring after people take this vaccine, especially older people.

      1. The DNA vaccines looks like gene therapy. Reminder, my mother was in regulatory affairs and clinical development for gene and stem cell therapies. Translation: she was a legalized drug pusher designing clinical trials and interfacing with the FDA. She was single and I was an only child so I was privy to her work. I was skeptical of claims that the mRNA vaccines could alter DNA but no longer.

    3. Speaking of vaccines, my very elderly next door neighbor got her first covid vaccine shot about three weeks ago, and now she is having a terrible shingles event apparently related to chicken pox.

      1. My dad and stepmother, both high risk, got their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine 8 days ago. I’ve voiced my concerns.

      2. OK, I have a older friend who took the first shot that is getting a neurological type reaction to the first shot and he hasn’t even gotten the. second shot yet.
        After the shot his legs just started giving out on him and he ended up falling cracking a bunch of ribs.
        My friend is a big time vaccine advocate who couldn’t wait to get in line to get the vaccine. So God knows what is going to happen when he takes the second shot. He thinks I’m nuts for not wanting the vaccine, no matter how much data I give him. So, I was wasting my time because he just believes anything the Medical Industry tells him.

        1. You’re wise to be precautious. All the official statistics on how many people have survived the vaccine experience seem to gloss over the details of how older people in frail health have fared.

          My sister, herself a big vaccine advocate, just revealed that someone in my parents’ retirement community died a week after getting vaccinated. My 90+ parents survived round 1 with no problems, but I may push to postpone my dad’s round 2 vaccine indefinitely if evidence continues to emerge about unacceptable risks of the second dose.

          1. evidence continues to emerge

            In today’s “news”, these vaccines don’t have to be kept at cryogenic temperatures. Just regular refrigeration!

            The EXPERTS apparently know next to nothing.

          2. Did the news identify which vaccines “these” vaccines were? Pfizer and Moderna need the cryo. J&J and Astra-Zeneca, and I believe Novavex, only need regular refrigeration.

            Then again the MSM has to write for 9-year-olds, so it’s not surprising that they keep using phrases like “the” vaccine.

          3. don’t have to be

            The Pfizer vaccine (difficult to transport) was probably losing out to the Moderna vaccine (easier to transport) and looking at the J&J vaccine (1 dose) coming to market.

          6. VAERS catches roughly 1% of events.

            I’d like to know more about this, because that would indicate almost 100,000 deaths from COVID vaccines. How on earth would that be considered acceptable?

          7. VAERS catches roughly 1% of events

            I guess only 929 of those 92,900 people who died from the vaccine bothered to report. How rude of them.

            That 100:1 metric might be valid for side effects. But serious and easily diagnosed effects such as Bell’s Palsy, anaphylaxis, and death are kind hard to miss.

          8. 929 deaths

            Does it appear that the chance of fatality from (with) the vaccine is the same order of magnitude as the chance of death by (with) the CCP virus? This would be very ironic.

          9. One-Third of Deaths Reported to CDC After COVID Vaccines Occurred Within 48 Hours of Vaccination

            The latest VAERS data show that 799 of the deaths were reported in the U.S., and that about one-third of those deaths occurred within 48 hours of the individual receiving the vaccination.

            As is consistent with previous VAERS data reports, 192 of the reported deaths — or 21% — were cardiac-related. As The Defender reported earlier this month, Dr. J. Patrick Whelan, a pediatric rheumatologist, warned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December that mRNA vaccines like those developed by Pfizer and Moderna could cause heart attacks and other injuries in ways not assessed in safety trials.

            Of the 929 deaths reported since Dec. 14, 2020, the average age of the deceased was 77.8 and the youngest was 23. Fifty-two percent of the reported deaths were among men, 45% were women and 3% are unknown. Fifty-eight percent of the deaths were reported in people who received the Pfizer vaccine, and 41% were related to the Moderna vaccine.

          14. “Former FDA Commissioner David Kessler who noted in JAMA in 1993 that only a small percentage of adverse events from Pharma products are ever reported. Kessler”

            Bad for business.

            My sister, herself an attorney, has decided for my dad, based on Dr. Fauci’s recommendation, that the vaccine is best for him. It may take an act of Congress to convince her that this may not be the case.

          1. Ironically, the vaccine for the CCP flu has side effects similar to the Shingles vaccine.”

            Ok my 90 year old dad got the first shot and also says he has shingles so … didn’t connect it until now

        2. I’m out of my depth in this area; just sharing what I heard from the grapevine. Apparently it was dormant until the vaccine injection.

          1. All the data that I have been hearing for months now points to the meds being a more effective way to combat this virus.
            If the vaccine is high risk for seniors, the very group your trying to protect from Covid19, than its lucency. It’s insane to lock down the Global populations as well as the vaccination of 70 % of the populations, which is the goal according to Dr Fauci.

          2. different disease

            From the same infection. Those of us who had the pox as children may one day get phase two.

          3. “…meds being a more effective way to combat this virus.”

            Does combat mean to treat the virus once you have it or to avoid getting it?

  12. “Justin Bieber ended up half-a-million short in Beverly Hills, where he just sold his 1930s Colonial-style home for $7.955 million, The Times has confirmed. The pop star paid $8.5 million for the property just two years ago.”

    Why would anyone flip a mansion at a massive loss over such a short time horizon?

    1. Why would anyone flip a mansion at a massive loss over such a short time horizon?

      Maybe he wants a different mansion. Maybe he needs the cash. Who knows?

    1. This kind of crap happens a lot in California, too. It’s a natural consequence of a lack of competition on the supply side of the energy market.

  14. “…Justin Bieber ended up half-a-million short in Beverly Hills …sold his 1930s Colonial-style home for $7.955 million…” “…pop star paid $8.5 million for the property just two years ago….”

    Well its Friday, and time for yet another Hollywood sob story.

    Actually, Justin dropped a lot more than a half-million when you factor in property taxes, other holding costs and realtor commissions.

    But I’m sure he had some great parties.

    Apparently, 3rd grade math isn’t one of Justin’s talents.

    1. Someone could write a great book about the sizable fortune entertainment icons have lost on high end real estate investments during the Housing Bubble years.

      And we’ve only seen the beginnings of the story so far. The final chapter is bound to be a page turner!

      1. “…The final chapter is bound to be a page turner!…”

        And the Academy Award for the biggest Hollywood dumb a*s money loser goes to …. [sound of ripping envelope, gasps from the audience]

  15. I see the waffling beanie boy is talking about a food shortage in Texas. I’m in Texas at the moment. There isn’t a shortage of anything. Even the convenience stores have plenty of stuff including water. The internet sux.

    2. I have seen this guy mentioned here a lot. I only became aware of him from a link Deplorables posted a few months back. I didn’t like him and have never watched him since. Is there some reason he’s referenced a lot? Of what significance is he? Do you watch him regularly?

      1. Little Timmy Pool’s entire narrative now is whining about how he’s about to get kicked off of YouTube.

      1. And everyone thought the Donner Party had it rough …

        “Food banks in Texas have gone into disaster mode as they ramp up operations to tackle a surge in hunger after unprecedented freezing conditions disrupted almost every part of the food supply chain in the state.

        “Grocery stores are empty, school meal programs suspended, and deliveries disrupted by untreated, treacherous roads that have left millions of Texans trapped in precarious living conditions with dwindling food supplies.

        “Even those who did stockpile before the Arctic conditions swept in have lost refrigerated groceries due to lengthy power cuts and cannot cook what food they do have without electricity or gas.”

        Oh, my.

        1. the Arctic conditions swept in have lost refrigerated groceries

          Maybe it’s just because I’m a Yankee hick, but sometimes when the weather is cold I leave some things in the back entry way to keep them cold until I’m ready to use them.

          1. I like 220-year old French trick of spooning food into tins, sealing, and cooking them in such a way that the food doesn’t spoil for a couple of years at least. Some of the these tins are even cleverly shaped so that you may stack several of these tins vertically to save space.

            But then, maybe Texans don’t know what a “can opener” is. Especially that prepper Mecca, Austin.

      2. If it’s cold here, what’s it like in the actual arctic? No food shortages I bet. I’m reminded of the south park show where they got stranded one night and immediately started talking about who they were gonna eat.

        ‘Of what significance is he?’

        Good for a laugh.

          1. I have heard Tony Hellers information for hours and hours and he’s a great debunker of Climate Change .
            He shows why the narratives are false. He is just a honest Scientist.

  16. I was thinking about this crypto sham, and I have yet to hear a reasonable answer to the question of how something can be so valuable when it can be infinitely recreated.

    People like to say, “but you can only mine so many Bitcoins into existence.” Fine, but you can create an infinite number of new “coins,” which is what people are doing. And all those new coins are rocketing in lockstep with Bitcoin. So you’re telling me that crypto is a pot of gold where you just invent a coin and everybody gets rich who buys it? Does not pass the smell test.

    But what I’ve really been thinking about is this: After the whole Gamestop debacle, the level of corruption between the FED and Wall St. was laid bare. Janet Yellen has received $10 million in bribes, I mean speaking fees, from these crooks. Citadel is the market maker for Robinhood, and Citadel paid her directly. Bernanke is on retainer with Citadel.

    Citadel and Steve Cohen bailed out Melvin Capital, the hedge fund that was getting crucified by the short squeeze. Yes, that Steve Cohen – the one who should be in prison for felony insider trading and other frauds. The same guy who just bought the Mets, but I digress.

    What does this have to do with crypto? Wall St. and hedge funds are deep into crypto now. This means that Janet Yellen and Bernanke are actively involved with the very people who are speculating in crypto. Bernanke and Yellen, and their buddy Jerome Powell, are essentially sleeping with the enemy, as crypto is supposed to be the alternative to fiat. What the long term implications of this are I don’t know, but as they say the fish rots from the head, and in this case the head is clearly rotting, badly.

    1. “I was thinking about this crypto sham, and I have yet to hear a reasonable answer to the question of how something can be so valuable when it can be infinitely recreated.”

      Crypto is only has ‘value’ because people believe it does. Just like everything else.

      1. You are incorrect.

        Things like cars, houses, fishing boats, haircuts, and vacations have value because they satisfy human wants. Dollar bills and demand deposits have value because you can use them to buy consumer goods and services to satisfy human wants.

        Crypto has value because people who buy it now think they will make money by selling it for a higher price later. And “mining” it wastes energy that might otherwise be used to heat people’s houses, plus the ginormous carbon footprint of imaginary currency mining doesn’t exactly mesh well with the Green agenda. It’s the ultimate Ponzi asset. Buy it at your own risk.

    2. Buttcoin now has a $1 trillion market cap and is systematically risky / too big to fail. Get on the crypto goldmine train today or get priced out forever by the time it goes to $1 brazillion.

  17. “New York City rents and home prices both dropped at their fastest annual pace on record in January, signaling that the city’s real estate market is still declining sharply, according to StreetEasy.

    Time for the REIC shills to trot out their shopworn “green shoots of Spring” narrative.

    1. “Time for the REIC shills to trot out their shopworn “green shoots of Spring” narrative.”

      – Yes BR, thanks for the reminder of that evergreen “green shoots” line.

      – I dunno, but strangely, I’m seeing many parallels between the movie “Being There” and the current state of affairs here in the U.S., which is kind of scary. Not sure if it’s creepy, sleepy Joe or the Fed that plays the part of “Chance.” I think it’s a toss-up.

      Quotes from the Movie “Being There”
      https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/being_there

      “Yes. In the garden, growth has it seasons. First comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again.” – Chance

      “I think what our insightful young friend is saying is that we welcome the inevitable seasons of nature, but we’re upset by the seasons of our economy.” – Benjamin Rand

      “Mr. Gardner, do you agree with Ben, or do you think that we can stimulate growth through temporary incentives?” – President “Bobby”

      “Hm. Well, Mr. Gardner, I must admit that is one of the most refreshing and optimistic statements I’ve heard in a very, very long time. I admire your good, solid sense. That’s precisely what we lack on Capitol Hill.” – President “Bobby”

      1. the movie “Being There”

        Saw it for the first time last month. It shows you who the puppet masters are.

  18. ‘I think now is a really good time to put your money in the inner city,’ says David Carrozza, of Cobden & Hayson, who is selling a one-bedroom apartment in Sydney’s Park Regis for $420,000 to $460,000.

    If it’s such a good time to invest in vibrantville, David, why are you selling?

    1. In 2005 the fake news cheerleading was, “Real Estate always goes up, Buy now or be priced out forever, etc.”
      Than when it crashed the lenders and investment houses got bailed out by that hag Pelosi and Biden.
      The Culprits said stuff like,
      “We didn’t see it coming, the Government needs to do something, etc. etc,” all excuses for their fraud.
      So, the moral hazard for the 2009 bail outs is these gangsters just double down and loot more and the looting expands to other industries and the fraud gets worse and worse.
      Now nothing but lawlessness and a demonizing of the victims of their fraud.

  19. Unlike last March, it’s different this time for risk asset investors, as the Fed has your backs. So invest away, in the full knowledge that you can’t lose money loading up on stocks in today’s financially backstopped Ponzi markets.

    1. The Financial Times
      Capital markets
      Real yields on US Treasuries rise on hopes for buoyant economy
      A sell-off in government debt is rippling through markets
      Colby Smith in New York yesterday

      A rise in US real yields accelerated sharply on Friday, as investors positioned for the robust rebound in growth and inflation they expect Joe Biden’s $1.9tn stimulus package to generate later this year.

      The real yield on 10-year Treasuries — which measures the returns investors can expect once inflation is taken into account — briefly rose to minus 0.77 per cent, the highest level since July save for an intraday spike in November and roughly 0.2 percentage points above levels seen last week.

      That is the fastest five-day increase in 10-year real yields since last March, a period when financial markets seized up and sent investors scrambling to hold cash.
      …

      1. By the way, I’m already HODLing lots of cash, in case any of the crazed gamblers want to buy any from me!

  21. It was so great when the USA actually was close to real capitalism. The competition kept prices down and you didn’t really have this fake wealth creation. The Fat Cats were limited in this Monopoly creation of rigged markets.
    Prices were so much more stable and tracked with average wages.
    Corrupted Government destroyed capitalism in the US, in favor of Globalist Monopoly Rule with Big Government using tax funds messing up markets. Government getting involved in Commerce has been a disaster for capitalism. So, the Commies aren’t attacking the real problem, which is lack of capitalism by Monopoly and Big Government interference with capitalism.
    Commies don’t care, they just want to bring on their Top Down Control of all resources under the idea of equity for all. This is why the Commie looters and the Globalist Monopolies are so in sync with each other because both want to destroy capitalism.

    1. “It was so great when the USA actually was close to real capitalism.”

      The post WWII glory days were due to the other countries bombed flat leaving the U.S. with the only functioning manufacturing, but that was an outlier anomaly in history. Now we’re back to competing again, e.g., Chevy or Ford vs Honda or Toyota. It’s not difficult, just peruse Craigslist for 15-min, but you already know the answer, right?

Comments are closed.