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Howls Of Protest From These Parasites Deserve Little Sympathy

A weekend topic starting with News 10 in Oregon. “J.J. Kramer a realtor with John L Scott, said he does not believe that price increases and bidding are perpetuated by realtors. ‘The market speaks, it doesn’t really have anything to do with the real estate agents, I mean, we are out engaging the field a lot, trying to locate where the good inventory is and trying to price it correctly,’ he said. ‘None of us–I’m speaking for myself, but I’m pretty sure that my fellow friends would agree–we’re not trying to increase the prices.'”

From Summit Daily in Colorado. “‘We’re coaching our clients to be ready to go, have their track shoes on,’ said Jack Wolfe, broker at LIV Sotheby’s International Realty in Breckenridge. ‘We’re just in a situation where if you hesitate, you may not get the home.'”

From Central New York. “Jackie Collins and her husband are looking for a new house, but so far, they haven’t had much luck. ‘We’ve put offers on two houses with what we thought were extremely aggressive offers with 20%,’ Jackie Collins said. ‘But come to find out, all the houses we have put offers in for have gone for $100,000 over asking price.'”

“Stories similar to Jackie’s are becoming common. This market is so unique that Paul Pichoske, who has been in the industry for 35 years, said this is uncharted territory. ‘I’ve never seen anything like this. People are putting their houses on the market and the same day getting multiple offers over asking price,’ Pichoske said.”

“With the Central New York real estate market growing so quickly, Pichoske warns people to use caution. ‘If you go back to 2008, to the mortgage crisis, people had bought high, and then they couldn’t afford their property anymore. They were in a position where they were negative equity,’ Pichoske said.”

From Yahoo News on Canada. “One factor at play, realtor Claire Knight notes, that she’s never seen in her 16 years as a realtor, is buyers being unable to find a house. ‘Even when they find a house, they’re competing, and they have to pay way over what it’s truly worth; it’s discouraging people,’ said Knight.”

From Better Dwelling in Canada. “Canadian real estate markets have become such a large bubble, even a crash can’t fix prices. Even an earth shattering 30% crash can’t make these cities affordable for most. First, let’s start with down payments in Gangster’s paradise — Greater Vancouver. At February’s prices, the GVA would require 307 months of savings (31 years) to save the minimum.”

“Greater Vancouver real estate prices start to look reasonable with a 30% drop. Only by contrast though. A typical home would take 90 months of savings (8 years) to save the minimum down payment. In Fraser Valley it would take about 68 months of savings (6 years). Keep in mind, this is still just for a typical home. A 30% price drop for detached homes would still need 320 months of savings (26 years) for the minimum down payment.”

“Did I forget to mention the mortgage payments aren’t possible for people making those wages? In Vancouver, you currently need to earn at least $147,600 to make the payments on a typical home in February 2020. Over in Fraser Valley, you can get away with $143,700 per year. That’s 44% and 40% higher than the current median household income, respectively.”

The Financial Post in Canada. “Canada’s housing market has finally gotten so crazy that it is prompting talk about something almost sacred to homeowners: the tax-free profits they realize when they sell their main residence. Yet for Canadian policymakers, even just thinking about thinking about touching the capital gains tax exemption could leave them with few allies in the real estate industry. ‘It will be an atom bomb on the retirement savings of Canada’s vast middle class,’ said Tim Hudak, chief executive of the Ontario Real Estate Association.”

“The exemption is one of the modern engines of Canadian homeownership and retirement planning, which may keep policymakers steering clear of messing with it in any fashion. ‘Every single person says that at the end of the day, if I don’t stay in my own home, I can realize the entire fair market value on a tax-free basis, and then use that money to help fund or supplement my retirement,’ said Jamie Golombek, a Financial Post writer.”

“A lot of people are also counting on that nest egg to continue to grow. ‘Even on the heels of a 15 per cent year-over-year growth, more people than ever have told us that they anticipate prices will go up,” said Paul Taylor, chief executive of Mortgage Professionals Canada. ‘And that is a bit of a speculative warning sign, if you like.'”

From Domain News in Australia. “Soaring property prices have caught the attention of the nation’s regulators, but they have emphasised they do not yet see any worrying rise in risky loans. And potential home buyers are piling into the market, with a new survey showing home-buying intentions are at their highest level since 2015. New loans written as interest-only – where the borrower does not have to pay off principal for five years – were 31.2 per cent higher than a year earlier.”

“With prices rising, potential buyers have been willing to take on more debt to get into the market, with a 26.3 per cent rise in loans that are at least six times the borrowers’ income over the past year. CBA chief economist Stephen Halmarick said low interest rates and government support for first-home buyers encouraged people into the market despite sky-high prices. ‘The most important metric [the RBA] will be looking at is the quality of the lending, making sure its loan-to-valuation ratios are not too high, and people are not taking on too much debt. It’s not the level of debt; it’s the quality of the loans that’s important.'”

From News Hub New Zealand. “The value of houses needs to drop by 55 percent or Kiwis need a 120 percent pay rise for current house prices to be ‘affordable’, according to analysis. But the Government refuses to admit it. It won’t set a target for housing affordability outcomes from its major market intervention. There is an international measure of housing affordability called the median multiple – the ratio comparing the median house price to the median household income.”

“The dream is a median multiple of three – affordable – house prices three times incomes. Three to four is classed as moderately unaffordable while four to five is seriously unaffordable, and anything above that is severely unaffordable. New Zealand’s rating is off the scale – 6.7, that’s countrywide. It’s even higher in our big cities. But the Government won’t set a target to lower it. One factor: House prices might need to fall, which is politically taboo.”

“‘Are politicians willing to see house prices go down?’ asks economist Brad Olsen. ‘Because as much as we’d love to see incomes go up, they’re just simply not going to go up fast enough to change this housing crisis.'”

“And if we wanted to shoot for the stars – actually affordable housing – house prices need to drop by 55 percent or we need whopping pay rises of 123 percent – our pay more than doubling. It might happen – pigs might fly – but there’s another way. ‘We need to stop treating housing as this solid gold un-impenetrable investment that never goes anywhere but up,’ says Olsen.”

From Stuff New Zealand. “The reported anger of property investors at the Government’s new housing policies, announced last week, is misdirected at best. Under the new law any owner who sells a property that is not their family home within 10 years of purchase after today will pay tax on the profit. That could be as high as 39 per cent, depending on other income and the amount of the profit.”

“Investment in existing housing has never made a real contribution to the nation’s economy regardless of how long the properties were held before sale and speculators should always have been paying taxes anyway. The new law does not add to the latter liability. If investors are angry with anyone it should be past administrations which allowed the situation to develop to the level it has. A look in the mirror might also reveal some other culprits as well.”

“Investors and speculators in real estate are equal contributors to a ridiculously overheated housing market, and they should have seen these changes, or something similar, coming at them like a freight train at least five years ago. There have been warnings enough that the booming house market would not be allowed to continue without Government intervention. If anything, that intervention has taken too long.”

“Howls of protest from property investors, speculators and the real estate industry were also predictable but these social parasites deserve little sympathy when we see rents as high as $700 a week for a basic house and nearly $1million to buy one. Families with well above average incomes had no chance of ever getting out of the rent trap and buying their own home under that system.”

“Successive Governments from both sides of the political divide have failed, so far, to adequately address the problem. It has always been too easy to applaud the accumulation of wealth, no matter how it was accumulated, and to blame the poor for their poverty.”

“There was no doubt that the housing market needed to be cooled down, rather than extinguished, if we were to see a meaningful reduction in the number of people sleeping in cars and under bridges. If that means a dramatic fall in house prices it will not come soon enough for some, and it will not be the first time speculators have lost capital on unwise investments.”

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This Post Has 86 Comments

  1. Housing bubbles make you poor and then they pop. Take away the guberment gravy and poof – they’re gone. Let it go on long enough and it collapses under its own weight.

    2. It’s not the level of debt; it’s the quality of the loans that’s important.

      Canadians are the most indebted people on the planet. It’s all about the level of debt. Loans that can’t be repaid are garbage from day one.

    3. “Let it go on long enough and it collapses under its own weight.”

      And then it dies in the arse.

    4. ‘None of us–I’m speaking for myself, but I’m pretty sure that my fellow friends would agree–we’re not trying to increase the prices.’

      Was this spoken while the vampire was hooked up to a polygraph?

      I mean, that is the whole ballgame. That is the entire industry. WTF?

  2. ‘Stephen Halmarick said low interest rates and government support for first-home buyers encouraged people into the market despite sky-high prices. ‘The most important metric [the RBA] will be looking at is the quality of the lending, making sure its loan-to-valuation ratios are not too high, and people are not taking on too much debt. It’s not the level of debt; it’s the quality of the loans that’s important’

    These people will tell you shacks can never be too expensive.

    ‘Every single person says that at the end of the day, if I don’t stay in my own home, I can realize the entire fair market value on a tax-free basis, and then use that money to help fund or supplement my retirement’

    Yeah, everybody retires with no work or savings, just a whopping big loan around the necks of the latest sucker.

    1. Yeah, everybody retires with no work or savings

      Work and savings is a hard sell. Work means little free time and saving means not buying those things you deserve, like fancy cars, restaurant meals, iToys, etc.

      1. Other than wealthy immigration, intergeneration wealth is really the only option left. Left alone there will be massive economic dislocation


        A new study out Monday suggests Canadians can expect a $750 billion windfall from their aging relatives over the next decade, an inheritance inflated 50 per cent compared to what was passed on in the previous decade.

        Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal says this is the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in Canadian history for the time considered and the amount will grow even larger in subsequent decades.

        1. “…intergeneration wealth is really the only option left.”

          There are quite a few examples of this in our circle in San Diego. You can tell when a thirtysomething couple with a young family shows up and drops $1+ million on a large shack sans mortgage. Must be nice to not have to struggle to make the monthly…

  3. ‘It will be an atom bomb on the retirement savings of Canada’s vast middle class’

    IMO there’s not a vast anything in Canadia. There’s hardly anyone up there.

      1. Lots of snow and ice…I flew from Amsterdam to San Diego in the winter of 2018, including across eastern Canada. I’d never before in my life seen the likes of such a vast frozen wasteland.

      3. “There are vast forests…”

        Sure, vast heading east or west. However, Canada’s thick forests quickly turn sparse a couple of hours north of the U.S. border as the tundra becomes permafrost from the constant bitter cold weather.

        1. I did say “forests and tundra”. And I didn’t say never ending. Buy you are right, most of Canada is a vast, frozen wasteland.

    3. San Diego homes are back to ‘05 Tactics. immediate overbids, liquor gifts and letters to the sellers. we’ve seen this movie before.

  4. RE: unsustainable price increases and the ratio of median household income to median used house prices, here’s a local example, listed just yesterday that already has 741 views and 27 saves:

    https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3055-S-Pearl-St-Englewood-CO-80113/13028700_zpid/

    $325K, 2BD 1BA, 774 sq ft, 0.15 acre, built in 1925.

    That’s gonna be a big fat NOPE. Every new house built around here (and most of them are duplexes) has a asking price of $600K+.

    I’m moving next month, from my top floor corner unit rental, 100 feet down the hall, to a newly renovated top floor corner unit rental (with even better mountain views) and will be paying 15% more.

    You can keep your bidding wars. I HAVE ZERO DEBT. I don’t owe anybody anything, and Realtor needs to be reminded that at any point in time, I am never more than 12 months away from the end date of a rental contract, one which, if needed, I could write a check and pay off in full.

    I have so much money left after “throwing money away on rent” every month that I don’t know where to throw it.

    DEBT IS SLAVERY.

    1. never more than 12 months away from the end date of a rental contract, one which, if needed, I could write a check and pay off in full.

      Meh, I could do it in 3 months, with quite a bit of scratch left over.

        2. Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m saying. 🙄 Mssr DePlorb was talking about a “rental contract.” Give me three months and I could be out of my mortgage contract, simply by selling the house and paying off the coupon. And then I’d be back to … renting, just like DePlob! Oh the horror! The pain!

          Oh wait, actually I’d likely have enough scratch leftover to buy something cheap in flyover, and then I wouldn’t have any kind of contract except property tax (which we all have, unless we want to live on a boat full-time).

          1. And your sale of the Maryland house and purchase of the flyover house will both result in the generation of commission checks for Realtor.

            I’m proud to say I’ve never generated a commission check for Realtor. And if I buy the land in Southern Colorado it will be myself handing the seller a cashier’s check and signing off on the sale at the county courthouse.

          3. Don’t pretend

            Actually, I didn’t know you meant “I can always sell”. You should just say that.

  5. Between mortgage rate suppression artificially goosing the demand side of the market, and mortgage and rent payment moratoriums artificially limiting supply, this seems like a historically advantageous moment to overpay for a home in the purchase market, if you just have to buy right now.

    1. Has anything of this nature ever previously occurred in the tailwinds of a bad recession?

      “‘We’re coaching our clients to be ready to go, have their track shoes on,’ said Jack Wolfe, broker at LIV Sotheby’s International Realty in Breckenridge. ‘We’re just in a situation where if you hesitate, you may not get the home.’”

      1. This thing has been manufactured by guberments and central banks. They say it straight out in Canada and Australia. It’s a colossal mistake. But the general public jumped on it like a dog on a bone.

        2. Yep. And when the Fed’s Everything Bubble bursts, these reckless gamblers are going to be the biggest crybabies on the Parade of Victims being trotted out by the MSM.

          1. And they will also be the primary targets for the next round of politically sanctioned “Save Our Homes” bailouts.

    2. Record low interest rates plus record low inventory (last chart) are the two primary throttles of the market and they are maxed out.

      Interest rates are creeping up and inventory is expected to creep up after we reach max vaccination levels and herd immunity (i.e. weeks with virtually no new covid cases and deaths).

      Sales are through the roof as well (ibid link), which is surprising considering the low inventory. This indicates there are many transactions happening very quickly.

      Where does it go from here? One scenario is that inventory goes up and interest rates go up and prices plateau and stay generally flat or even decline a bit. Another scenario is prices decline more, leading to the scenario from the last housing bubble where prime mortgages dwarf the number of foreclosures over subprime: https://www.nber.org/digest/aug15/us-foreclosure-crisis-was-not-just-subprime-event

      But then foreclosure moratoriums and various other ways to limit price declines (recall that local governments feed on property taxes based on house prices) would likely be again executed.

      What about market freezes or slowdowns? Remember that Player 3 – the central bank and the government – are not going to sit idly by, letting their own personal net worth take a hit, nor are they going to let property taxes slip away without action. Nor are the lobbyists going to stop coming up with imaginative, publicly financed ways to keep house prices up. Will voters ever stop wanting Player 3 to stop juicing the market? 60-some percent of voters own houses or have mortgages. So no, once someone steps from one side to the other, the dark amusement felt while on the other side is still dark amusement but now you’re good with Uncle Sugar keeping the sugar coming.

      The only wildcard is coming out of a covid-induced hibernation, kind of like a post-war scenario. Post WWII, prices skyrocketed, dropped, jumped but then slowly declined for about 30 years ( https://www.motherjones.com/wp-content/uploads/images/Blog_Housing_Prices_1890_2006.jpg – article: https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/08/chart-day-housing-prices-wwii/ ) Are we at that point? I dunno. There’s lots of moving parts: population, monetary policy, zeitgest.

      Anyhoo, FYI, YMMV, etc.

      1. With 25 million excess, empty and defaulted houses, what do they mean by “low inventory”?

  6. This is a pearl-clutching article.

    Texas Tribune — When Texas ended its mask mandate, the event cancellations started — and the losses are adding up (3/25/2021):

    “At least four organizations canceled conferences or conventions in Austin, citing health concerns after Texas ended its statewide mask mandate earlier this month. The cancellations cost the Hilton Austin hotel $350,000 in revenue, according to Austin Convention Enterprises, a city-created corporation that owns and manages the hotel.

    Gov. Greg Abbott ended the statewide mask mandate and capacity limits on businesses on March 10, pointing to fewer COVID-19 hospitalizations and cases in the state. Public health experts and political opponents lamented the move, saying it was too soon before the majority of the state was vaccinated against the virus or even eligible for a shot.”

    https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/25/conventions-texas-mask-mandate/

    Dear bedwetters, remember My Body, My Choice?

    My wallet, which as a rich renter (redundant, I know), is overflowing with dollars to spend, will be opening wide with an explosion of dollars spent into businesses than ban masks. Which as a result, means that my financial boycott of Denver will continue indefinitely.

    No business income and no sales tax revenue for you!

    1. There hasn’t been a single convention in Dumver since this began, because, you know, to flatten the curve.

      Denver Pop Culture Con, one of the biggest in the country with 100,000+ attendees, went out of business after cancelling in 2020 and 2021.

      Oracle OpenWorld went virtual last year and probably won’t be back until next year. Who are they kidding about conventions being cancelled because Texas opened up? They’ve all been cancelled. for over a year.

      1. Denver is a great place to make money in and not spend money in. It’s a one way street: I go to Denver, get some money, and then take that money out of Denver (because I don’t live in Denver).

        Let’s call them “remittances” shall we?

        1. Housing migrant children in a convention center? What could possibly go wrong?

          Migrant Children Expected To Start Arriving At Convention Center This Weekend
          Thursday, March 25, 2021
          By John Carroll
          Photo by Milan Kovacevic
          Above: The San Diego Convention Center is seen in the background in this photo taken March 4, 2018.

          Hundreds of children up to 17 years old will soon be arriving at the San Diego Convention Center, probably as soon as this weekend.

          “This is a humanitarian issue. These are children who have a legal right to be here and I think we’ve all been shocked by the pictures and the conditions they’re in, in CPB detention facilities,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman Nathan Fletcher.
          …
          https://www.kpbs.org/news/2021/mar/25/migrant-children-convention-center-weekend/

          1. These are children who have a legal right to be here

            Even though they are not citizens and might be Covid positive, they have a “legal right” to be in the USA.

            However, if a US citizen wants to repatriate, he cannot do so unless he tests negative for Covid.

          2. “This is a humanitarian issue. These are children who have a legal right to be here”

            Almost like they have more rights than Americans..

    2. remember My Body, My Choice

      If we had enough N-95 masks for inhalers who choose to protect their own body, I would agree with you. But our masks are so lousy that we need at least two cloth masks (one on the exhaler and one on the inhaler) to achieve what one N-95 would.

      And so as a result, those conference-goers are also exercising their right to choose stay away and spend their dollars in states which do still require masks.

      1. If we had enough N-95 masks

        The CDC reported that wearing masks makes no statistically significant difference. Two masks? 2 x 0 = 0.

        Why does noboby nowhere wear a 100% mask (P100)?

        1. Senator *Doctor* Rand Paul was correct when he told Lord Fauci that masks are nothing but security theater.

        2. Show me the CDC report. You might be talking about that Danish paper, which would have received an F in any real STEM class.

  7. Today is Saturday, March 27th and Joe Biden is not the legitimately elected president of the United States.

    Washington Post — The false claims from Fox News and Trump allies cited in Dominion’s $1.6 billion lawsuit (3/26/2021):

    “Dominion Voting Systems filed its fourth election-related defamation lawsuit on Friday, this time against Fox News for $1.6 billion, alleging that the network knowingly aired false claims about Dominion.

    The repeated false claims by Fox hosts and guests cited in the Dominion lawsuit in some ways mirrors the false claims cited in Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion defamation suit against Fox last month. Fox has filed four motions to dismiss the Smartmatic lawsuit.

    In its suit against Fox, Dominion alleges that it repeatedly notified the network that it had aired falsehoods and also sent retraction requests to Fox.”

    https://archive.is/ssYQf

    The 2020 election was stolen.

    1. “The 2020 election was stolen.”

      Stolen with evidence of the crime being well documented on this very site.

      Not only stolen but covered up (really as brilliantly as it was corruptly) by using the weight of the Stop the Steal protest in DC planting paid protesters (ANTIFA on video being called out and tackled) among the Trump supporters who smashed windows while someone (Peloisi?) had obviously given orders to open doors (also on video and let (500?) gullible Trump supporters to walk in the Capitol out of at least 500,000 to 700,000 Stop the Steal protesters who were in DC that day.

      It made a nice pre-planned made for TV MSM spin job documentary with endless clips for the Evening News showing that all Trump supporters are white supremacist terrorists who want to overthrow the government and the election being stolen was a “Big Lie”.

  8. From News Hub New Zealand. “The value of houses needs to drop by 55 percent or Kiwis need a 120 percent pay rise for current house prices to be ‘affordable’, according to analysis. But the Government refuses to admit it.

    The commies that malgovern New Zealand have no problem locking the whole country down and destroying the economy. But do something about unaffordable housing? Nope, no can do.

    1. Now that the globalists have disarmed the New Zealand cucks, they can have their way with them.

      1. England and every commonwealth country are cucked:

        “British former Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption has warned that “social controls” brought about by the coronavirus pandemic may be kept in place by governments for up to a decade.

        “It’s politically unrealistic to expect the Government to backtrack now,” commented Sumption, who has been highly critical of the government’s ‘totalitarian’ lockdown policies.

        The judge compared the reaction to rationing after the Second World War, which went on for nine years, adding that this time “I think it may be even longer.”

        https://summit.news/2021/03/26/supreme-court-judge-expects-people-will-be-forced-to-wear-masks-stay-home-for-ten-years/

        1. British former Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption has warned that “social controls” brought about by the coronavirus pandemic may be kept in place by governments for up to a decade.

          I guess I won’t ever visit London again. No big loss.

  9. Some international news (globalists gonna globe).

    Bloomberg — U.S. Says China Is Targeting Companies That Bar Xinjiang Cotton (3/26/2021):

    “The U.S. accused China of a state-run social media campaign and boycott against companies that refuse to use cotton from the Xinjiang region over concern the crop is produced with forced labor by Muslim-minority Uyghurs.

    China has targeted American, European and Japanese businesses that are avoiding Xinjiang cotton, State Department deputy spokeswoman Jalina Porter told reporters in a briefing on Friday. She said that amounts to a state-run “corporate and consumer boycott.”

    https://archive.is/pBBRz

    Note that the woke NBA kneelers all enthusiastically felate China for a paycheck. They all hate America and kneel for Fentanyl Floyd but zero f*x given about a country that literally enslaves its own minority population to pick cotton.

    Slaves. Picking cotton. In the 21st century.

    1. “…the crop is produced with forced labor by Muslim-minority Uyghurs.”

      Sounds like China is just like the U.S. … in the antebellum (pre-1860) southern parts. Quite a role medel they are!

        1. In my experience, lots of Han people don’t necessarily trust the minorities from Xinjiang.

        2. Are there millions of Chinese working to free the slaves?

          I think they would be more than happy to enslave us.

    2. Note that the woke NBA kneelers all enthusiastically felate China for a paycheck. They all hate America and kneel for Fentanyl Floyd but zero f*x given about a country that literally enslaves its own minority population to pick cotton.’

      yep doesn’t make sense if you have half a brain.

  10. ‘Even when they find a house, they’re competing, and they have to pay way over what it’s truly worth; it’s discouraging people,’ said Knight.”

    Heckova job, central bankers.

  11. “Soaring property prices have caught the attention of the nation’s regulators, but they have emphasised they do not yet see any worrying rise in risky loans.

    I bet they didn’t see any structural defects in skyboxes, either.

  12. “Investors and speculators in real estate are equal contributors to a ridiculously overheated housing market, and they should have seen these changes, or something similar, coming at them like a freight train at least five years ago.

    Public policy should be ruthless in discouraging speculative excesses by these parasites and their central bank enablers. Housing should be for shelter, not a speculative asset class.

    1. If your post wasn’t pending to post I wouldn’t have posted a duplicate. And on the subject of Real Journalists, President DJT was right when he said that “the media is the enemy of the American people.”

  14. Real Journalists:

    “The current event in the news — a sharp increase in the arrival of unaccompanied minors — is a problem for border officials, a political challenge for Biden and a dire situation for many migrants who make the journey, but it does not fit the classic dictionary definition of a crisis, which is: “A turning point in the course of anything; decisive or crucial time, stage, or event,” OR “a time of, or a state of affairs involving, great danger or trouble, often one which threatens to result in unpleasant consequences [an economic crisis].”

    Therefore, we should avoid, or at the least, be highly cautious, about referring to the present situation as a crisis on our own, although we may quote others using that language.”

    https://blog.ap.org/behind-the-news/describing-whats-happening-at-the-us-border

      1. >>tweet: “it’s always an angry white man. always.”

        “I am no longer employed at USA TODAY, a company that was my work home for almost eight years,” Jhaveri wrote on Medium.

        Maybe it’s your “etched in stone” bias?

        1. I’m gonna guess that she was already on thin ice at USA Today. and this was the excuse to get rid of her.

  16. Did you notice a stonk fire sale play out on Friday against the backdrop of Wall Street’s ever rising headline stonk market indexes?

    1. The Financial Times
      US equities
      Distressed stock sales led by Goldman mystify market
      Investors hunt for the source of almost $19bn in block trades that sent share prices spinning
      More than $11bn was wiped off the valuation of the owner of MTV and Nickelodeon on Friday
      Ortenca Aliaj and Eric Platt in New York 12 minutes ago

      Wall Street traders are hunting for the source of distressed stock sales on Friday that helped cause a sell-off in which $33bn was knocked off the value of Chinese technology companies and US media groups like ViacomCBS.

      The share sales, which amounted to almost $19bn, have proven a mystery, with rumours spreading rapidly that a hedge fund or family office had blown up and had moved to wind down billions of dollars worth of its positions. The trades have captivated Wall Street in what is shaping up to be another volatile year, with big shifts wrong footing respected funds.

      The email blasts from Goldman Sachs about the fire sale started well before the trading day had begun, with $6.6bn worth of stock in Baidu, Tencent Music and Vipshop on the block. The Wall Street investment bank told counterparties that the sales were prompted by a “forced deleveraging,” a signal that a fund may have been caught offsides and hit with a margin call, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Goldman upsized the deals several times, they said.

      Money managers assumed the selling was concentrated in US-listed Chinese technology groups ahead of a new measure introduced by the Securities and Exchange Commission under President Trump that could see them delisted from US exchanges.

      But when the big blocks of stock kept coming, with the share sales no longer limited to Chinese groups, speculation became rampant on Wall Street. Some fund managers have taken the fire sales to mean that a major hedge fund or family office was in trouble.
      …

      1. Media conglomerates getting dumped hard. Oh dear…are investors belatedly figuring out “get woke, go broke” isn’t just a right-wing talking point? Who wants to pay for a monotonous diet of Soviet-style fake news, lame globalist propaganda movies, endless lies, omissions, biracial everything in ads and programming, and DNC talking points?

        ViacomCBS, Discovery stock each close down more than 27%

        https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/26/viacomcbs-discovery-stock-continues-to-plunge.html

        Shares of ViacomCBS and Discovery continued their dramatic plunge Friday, each closing down more than 27%.

        That’s led to ViacomCBS shedding more than 50% for the week, while Discovery has dipped about 45%.

  17. all the houses we have put offers in for have gone for $100,000 over asking price.’”

    So I zillowed around Central New York to see what sort of stock is there. City teardowns are under $10K, starter homes in the burbs are $100-$150K. So in order for a house to be $100K over asking, this couple must be looking in only the tony nabes.

    Oh, and the taxes are way outta sight. Example of a MehMansion in a tony suburb. 4/3 on 0.7 acre.
    Listed: $649K
    Zillow calcs: Assume 20% down.
    Principle and interest: $2186/mo
    Property Taxes: $1511/mo. 😮

    https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/702-Front-Royal-Cir-Fayetteville-NY-13066/98119178_zpid/

  18. I know a couple of Corporate Real Estate brokers in Toronto. They were encouraged to be the big swinging dick types especially when they went out drinking. One is merging with a former competitor and the other is trying to win points on LinkedIn by showing how caring he now is.

    1. I hope Newsom turns around and taxes the crap out of them.

      After all hes a union stooge not a tech stooge

  20. HBB Book Club recommendation for new non-fiction title The Stakes: America at the Point of No Return by Michael Anton, published July 2020. I’m about halfway through and it is excellent.

      1. Fun memories!

        I recently saw an old Schwinn 10-speed road bike with the shifters up by the handlebars at a yard sale; I’d forgotten how heavy they were. Yikes! I liked the Navy bell bottoms that the ladies wore back then too.

        1. I recently saw an old Schwinn 10-speed road bike with the shifters up by the handlebars at a yard sale; I’d forgotten how heavy they were.

          The difference in weight between a $500 bike and one of those cheapo ones they sell at Walmart is very noticeable.

  22. I’m going to try to repeat the points of a analysis I heard on a podcast this morning.
    Points were as follows,

    The World doesn’t really respect the Biden Administration or this contrived wokeness, especially China and Russia.

    China didn’t really lock down and they have benefited from the crazy lock downs in USA. The Globalist also benefited and Bill Gates is living out his dream of control and Profit by this vaccine thing.

    He said while the other Countries didn’t like Trump, they still respected his position on wanting to protect the interest of the United States. Apparently Trump didn’t want to join the Globalist or the SKULL and Bones Cult or Deep State , so they hated how he might disrupt their set ups.

    In spite of Foreign Countries bribing US Politicians, they don’t respect these hair brain jerks that might start alterations World wide under the demented Biden.

    Anyway , so I agree with some of the points this Guy was making.
    In other words the insanity of the Biden Administration is actually viewed as a threat to the Whole World by these Countries.

    I have posted before that the Communist and the Globalist have different objectives in the final analysis , in spite of the Globalist using Communist tactics to divide and conquer , the Communist believe the Government should control the means of production, not a bunch of Rich Corporations.
    It’s obvious that One World Order Monopolies Control is not what either Russia or China would want in the final analysis. Recent comments from Russia and China reflect the distain for the narratives of the Woke Biden as a Puppet for the Globalist.
    Who could have any respect for this old corrupt Demented Biden that is attacking his own Country with his radical policies. Who would have any respect for the mayhem and division these ridicules policies would create.

    In other words, Biden and the whole Political cult are nuts .

    .

    1. In other words, Biden and the whole Political cult are nuts .

      Which is why I am concerned that they might start a war that will lead to our destruction. He has already vowed to make Putin “pay”.

    2. I’m more worried about the middle-east since the Obama-Biden administration and Israel never viewed things equally, and the Biden-Harris administration with their diversity cabinet might entice Israel’s enemies to act on that weakness.

  23. What a insane combination of agendas you get when the Government and it’s agencies get corrupted by either money or Foreign enemies.
    I have never seen a President be so dismissive to the actual Citizens as Biden and the radicals are.
    Biden keeps saying that this is what America is, but that’s a lie.
    Obama bailing out the Bankers, and bringing on the Obamacare medical monopoly, while demeaning the Police while starting this racist narrative when he was in office was a taste of what was to come.

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