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Frenzies Come And Go, Beanie Babies Did, So Did Pet Rocks

A weekend topic starting with ABC 7. “Those who know the market say this is not a bubble, it’s a boom, accelerated by the pandemic. Even though the market is slowing down a bit, the numbers are still astronomical. Some houses in the region are literally being sold within days, in some cases, just hours. The best advice Jocelyn Vas, a Real Estate Agent in DC, Maryland, & Virginia can give homebuyers right now is be patient, know the process, be prepared for letdowns, you might make several offers on a home before you actually get one. ‘Real estate is becoming a luxury, it’s not the American dream, it’s a luxury to own. One in five owners of homes never live in the property, meaning these are investors. All of that information is saying to me it’s all really changing quite a bit, the housing market,’ Va said.”

From WGLT. “Karen Campbell has lived in Bloomington-Normal for 20 years and owns a two-story, four-bedroom, two bathroom house with a nearly-finished basement and two-car garage in the Park Place subdivision. She wanted to put her house on the market more than a year ago, but then the pandemic hit and the real estate market dried up. Fast forward a year later, Campbell started realizing how crazy the market is, not only in Bloomington-Normal, but in Indiana where she hoped to move to be closer to her grandchildren. After trying to line up appointments to see homes, she learned over and over again, the properties already were sold by the time her realtor reached out.”

“‘To have them swiped out from under me before I could even see them was exasperating. It didn’t seem like they were taking offers. It seemed like they were taking bids. I thought to myself, ‘Do I make an offer on something I’ve never even stepped foot in?'”

“So are appraisals coming in too low for what’s happening in the McLean County market? Penny Wilson, past president of the Mid-Illinois Realtors Association, said that was the case early on, but not so much now. ‘Now that we’ve had so many homes close now in the higher market, I think the appraisals are coming back better.’ The average home sale price is up a little more than 34% from a year ago, with the average newly-built home coming in at nearly $300,000 and existing homes have an average price of $171,542.”

From Spectrum News. “If you’re a homeowner in New York, you may have noticed your house is worth a lot more. ‘Every day is different,’ said Kellie Jo Maher. ‘I absolutely love it.’ She loves the rush of helping folks buy or sell a home, though she’s never quite experienced a rush like this. ‘They’re all experiencing the same thing. The joke is that ‘I’ll give you $50,000 over asking, my first born, a year of tacos for free.’ It’s ridiculous what you’re trying to throw in the deal,’ said Maher.”

“In Central New York, the median home selling price in April increased by 18 percent compared to last year, according to the Greater Syracuse Association of Realtors. ‘First-time homebuyers and all the other agents, they’re struggling with their buyers who don’t have a lot of money to put down,’ said Maher. ‘They’re waiving home inspections.'”

“It all begs the question: Where will the market go from here? ‘Everyone asks this question. My buyers always ask me this question. I don’t know. We just have to go with the flow,’ said Maher.”

From Bham Now. “The US housing market is as hot as an Alabama summer. You can’t look at the news without hearing talk about whether we’re in a housing market bubble, and if so, when the bubble will burst. According to bankrate.com, ‘A real estate bubble, also referred to as a ‘housing bubble,’ occurs when the price of housing rises at a rapid pace, driven by an increase in demand, limited supply and emotional buying. Once speculators recognize that housing prices are on the rise, they enter the market, further driving up demand. The phenomenon is called a bubble because at some point it will burst.'”

“A sentiment echoed by several of the Realtors we spoke with: instead of a wildly speculative market that’s bound to come crashing down, we’re actually in a very strong market that over time will adjust, but we’re not necessarily doomed to a big crash like we experienced in 2007-08.”

“Buyers are making emotionally-driven decisions. Each Realtor told stories about people buying houses they’ve never been in, making offers not contingent on inspections, paying cash for the amount above the appraised value of the home and more. ‘I want this house and I want it now’ definitely seems to be a driving factor in the current marketplace.”

“Speculators are entering the market, driving up demand. Janet Hamm: President, Greater Alabama Association of Realtors said that this is happening in the Birmingham area, with flippers buying houses, fixing them up and flipping them for a profit.”

“Still, at some point, Birmingham housing bubble or no, there will be a correction in the market. ‘If you look back through all the records, housing is cyclical. It goes up, it comes down. Prices go up, they come down. Interest rates go up, they come down. So everything is cyclical. But houses are still selling, and every day new houses come on the market. I don’t know if it’s a bubble. It’s just real estate.’ – Janet Hamm.”

The Globe and Mail in Canada. “Toronto’s housing market slowed in May, the second straight month of declining sales, as buyer fatigue set in and prices fell in two areas outside the city. ‘We are not seeing the same level of craziness,’ said Shawn Zigelstein, a broker with Royal LePage Your Community Realty, who said some of his clients are exhausted from losing out on numerous bidding wars and are taking a break.”

“During the pandemic, sales activity in the suburbs and smaller cities have been frenetic, with buyers working from home trying to get bigger, cheaper properties. But with prices now 20 per cent to 40 per cent higher than this time last year, those areas are becoming unattainable for more residents. That combined with slightly higher mortgage rates, buyer fatigue and more inventory has tempered some of the real estate activity.”

“‘Prices keep on going up and that is kind of not encouraging for buyers,’ said Paul Singh, a realtor with Justo Brokerage. Mr. Singh, who has closed 40 real estate deals since the fall, said buyers have become a bit more cautious and are saying maybe we should take a break, maybe price increases will stop.”

From Clay Today in Florida. “When I drove over the Shands Bridge last Tuesday, I thought it was for the final time. I was wrong. After selling my condominium a couple of months ago and renting while I looked for a house here in Clay County, I decide to make the move, even if it meant renting for a few more months until people come to their senses with this current real estate market.”

“There’s no real solution on this side of the Shands Bridge. Houses are being sold well above their market values because people are panic buying. These probably are the same people who still have 3,000 rolls of toilet paper from a year ago. Maybe they were sitting in a gas line for hours when the Colonial Pipeline shut down for a few days. Some panic-driven motorists even tried to store gas in zip-lock bags! Heck, I’m old enough to remember filling the backseat of my Ford Pinto with 12 packs of the original Coke when New Coke was introduced.”

“It’s so tempting to cash in now because there are plenty of people who are willing to recklessly outbid your best offer. More frightening is there are plenty of buyers who are willing to skip inspections, appraisals and pay the closing costs. That’s insane.”

“There’s still no reason to fall into this trap, MIT housing economist Bill Wheaton told National Public Radio. ‘Don’t buy into a frenzy,’ Wheaton said. If you factor out inflation, the past one-year gain in home prices is about 10%, he said. ‘It’s never been that high – ever in the last 50 years, so there’s really something going on,’ he said.”

“At some point, supply will kick in and prices will drop. Like a rock. I know the real value of a house is what somebody’s willing to pay, but there’s no logical reason for a house that’s listed at $220,000 to go for $260,000 or more. If houses on a street are generally valued at $225,000 each, once a person cashes in on the frenzied atmosphere, the values of the houses on that street still are $225,000 – including the house that sold.”

“What the seller will learn quickly is once they sell, they likely will realize how difficult it is to find a new place. Turnabout really is fair play. On top of that, everything associated with the housing and moving industries are raising prices to ridiculous levels. Why? Because they can. For now. That 10-by-5 storage unit I needed because my movers didn’t understand they needed to take everything now costs me more than $200 a month. Four months ago, it was less than $100.”

“All of this has made me even more determined not to be lured into this sucker market. I’m perfectly willing to pay fair market value – or even a little above. But I’m not going to be stupid. Frenzies come and go. Beanie Babies did. So did Pet Rocks.”

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This Post Has 151 Comments

  1. ‘So are appraisals coming in too low for what’s happening in the McLean County market? Penny Wilson, past president of the Mid-Illinois Realtors Association, said that was the case early on, but not so much now. ‘Now that we’ve had so many homes close now in the higher market, I think the appraisals are coming back better.’ The average home sale price is up a little more than 34% from a year ago’

    There’s yer appraisal fraud.

      1. Anthropologists have discovered the earliest known Haiku poem in a Japanese cave, written circa 700 B.C. It reads:

        The wind blows
        The snow flies
        Realtors lie

    2. “The average home sale price is up a little more than 34% from a year ago”

      Fundamentals!! —real economists

    3. The average home sale price is up a little more than 34% from a year ago’

      The FED is causing this whole thing, buying $120 billion in MBS per month.

  2. ‘Prices keep on going up and that is kind of not encouraging for buyers’

    This is a key psychological point. Prior, rising prices are reaffirming, emotional issue.

    1. I’ll say: “I want this house and I want it now”.

      Bahahahahaha … imagine what happens to the price when a room is filled with such people as these. All these fools need is access to money.

      This is where I get invited to enter into the picture (and deeply (very deeply) invited to enter into their soon-to-be-incredibly-miserable lives).

      😁

      1. It does seem like the sole purpose of some people’s existence is to serve as a warning to others.

  3. ‘‘A real estate bubble, also referred to as a ‘housing bubble,’ occurs when the price of housing rises at a rapid pace, driven by an increase in demand, limited supply and emotional buying. Once speculators recognize that housing prices are on the rise, they enter the market, further driving up demand’

    This Alabama article is interesting. Check, check and check! It’s rare that we get down to brass tacks on a mania.

    ‘‘Don’t buy into a frenzy,’ Wheaton said. If you factor out inflation, the past one-year gain in home prices is about 10%, he said. ‘It’s never been that high – ever in the last 50 years, so there’s really something going on’

    It’s”going on” because the people who are so smart wanted this to happen and let it get out of control.

    https://betterdwelling.com/canada-says-property-bubble-not-great-for-locals-good-for-foreign-investors/#_

    1. “If you factor out inflation, the past one-year gain in home prices is about 10%, …”

      I’ve mentioned a few times already that homes in our hood are up around 50% in just over a year. I can tell it’s bad because my wife, who normally ignores the financial news, repeatedly informs me how crazy things are getting.

      Hopefully our inflation is not up 40%, though! (I’m not seeing it beyond housing, at least…)

      1. Not seeing 50% in my little burg, just a “mere” 20%.

        The popping can’t be too far off.

  4. ‘I absolutely love it.’ She loves the rush of helping folks buy or sell a home, though she’s never quite experienced a rush like this. ‘They’re all experiencing the same thing. The joke is that ‘I’ll give you $50,000 over asking, my first born, a year of tacos for free.’ It’s ridiculous what you’re trying to throw in the deal’

    I’m Kellie Jo, and I’ma running – with scissors!

    1. “In reading The History of Nations, we find that, like individuals, they have their whims and their peculiarities, their seasons of excitement and recklessness, when they care not what they do. We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first.”
      ― Charles MacKay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

      1. “Money, again, has often been a cause of the delusion of the multitudes. Sober nations have all at once become desperate gamblers, and risked almost their existence upon the turn of a piece of paper.” – Charles MacKay

        😁

      2. “The masses have never thirsted after truth. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.” – Gustave Le Bon

        1. “Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master…”

          Who was that guy who invented Bitcoin, again?

      3. “A crowd thinks in images, and the image itself calls up a series of other images, having no logical connection with the first…A crowd scarcely distinguishes between the subjective and the objective. It accepts as real the images invoked in its mind, though they most often have only a very distant relation with the observed facts….Crowds being only capable of thinking in images are only to be impressed by images.” – Gustave Le Bon

      4. “All the civilizations we know have been created and directed by small intellectual aristocracies, never by people in the mass. The power of crowds is only to destroy.”

        “We see, then, that the disappearance of the conscious personality, the predominance of the unconscious personality, the turning by means of suggestion and contagion of feelings and ideas in an identical direction, the tendency to immediately transform the suggested ideas into acts; these, we see, are the principal characteristics of the individual forming part of a crowd. He is no longer himself, but has become an automaton who has ceased to be guided by his will.”

        – Gustave Le Bon

        1. “He is no longer himself, but has become an automaton who has ceased to be guided by his will.”

          Sounds like the perfect description of a guy who buys a used house at the peak of a buying frenzie because some used home seller convinced him that it was his only option…

        2. “He is no longer himself, but has become an automaton who has ceased to be guided by his will.”

          Sounds like the perfect description of a guy who buys a used house in a bid war at the peak of a buying frenzie, and even agrees to waive the inspection, because some used home seller convinced him that it was his only option…

      5. “The precise moment at which a great belief is doomed is easily recognisable; it is the moment when its value begins to be called in question.” – Gustave Le Bon

      6. “We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it,…” – Charles MacKay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

        “Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.” – Charles Mackay

        “What’s past is prologue.” – William Shakespeare, The Tempest

        “What has been will be again,
    what has been done will be done again;” – Ecclesiastes 1: 9

        “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” – George Santayana

        “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” – Mark Twain

    2. “The joke is that ‘I’ll give you $50,000 over asking, my first born, a year of tacos for free.’ It’s ridiculous what you’re trying to throw in the deal’”

      – I don’t think that anyone’s joking. Read the fine print in the contract. I personally like the free tacos clause. Not sure I want your kid though…

      “I’m Kellie Jo, and I’ma running – with scissors!”

      +1

  5. Crime Crime and more Crime ….. are we happy????????
    North Carolina’s Asheville Police Department (APD) has ordered its officers not to respond to certain types of crimes so that the agency can adequately answer more serious calls for help amid a “staffing crisis.”

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/north-carolina-police-911-staffing-crisis

    An Atlanta man has started a petition to give police more resources and implement a bait car program to prevent car break-ins after he recently fell victim to the crime.

    The Atlanta Police Department has recorded more than 3,700 car break-ins in 2021 alone, according to Fox 5 Atlanta.

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/atlanta-man-petition-police-car-break-ins

    1. Thanks to the successful efforts of the BLM people, cops now have a social license to not respond to crimes that put their lives, careers, and reputations at risk.

      1. Everyone who pulled the D lever in any recent election should have this coded in the 911 system. Since they belong to a patronage and graft racket masquerading as a political party, and are the enablers of soaring crime in Democrat-malgoverned states and cities, police should have carte blanche to ignore their calls or treat them as the lowest response priority.

    2. Brother Ben, I hope you’ll indulge me, but the “Libtards reaping what they voted” headlines are coming fast and furious now that summer is here and the great unraveling is accelerating. Nothing shows the rank incompetence and fecklessness of Democrat-Bolshevik municipal administrations or the inadequacy of police departments purged of the capable and competent like these Mostly Peaceful Protests that erupt every time a vibrant makes a fatal mistake.

      Second night of unrest in Minneapolis: Potestors clash with police as fires rage at vigil for ‘gunman’ who was shot dead by cops after dismantling of George Floyd memorial

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9654685/Minneapolis-protestors-light-fires-vigil-32-year-old-shot-police-say-opened-fire.html

      1. Note to self: do not pay property taxes to sh*thole city that is unable, and unwilling, to protect the lives and property of its taxpayers.

    3. Asheville is supposed to be a hoity toity upper middle class college town that is ultra blue. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving people.

      1. Asheville isn’t really a college town. It’s the IN place for artsy-fartsy granola-headed and liberal-minded folks to retire.
        (Charlotteville, VA. the previous liberal retirement haven, is the college town with UVa.)

        1. It’s the IN place for artsy-fartsy granola-headed and liberal-minded folks to retire.
          Asheville does have a smaller branch of UNC but not a major college town. It’s Artsy-fartsy reputation has been with it since at least the mid1990’s. I used to go there for meetings in the late 1990’s and always enjoyed the place.

    1. Somewhat unrelated: I came up with (another) hypothesis about powerful people and why they crave power. It’s because the way they operate makes a lot of enemies. So they need to maintain that power in order to hold their enemies at bay. Loss of power makes them feel more vulnerable.

      1. Li’l Kim is a great example of that.

        I understand that he attended boarding school in Switzerland as a child (under a pseudonym). Imagine learning that he was a classmate.

        1. You sure it’s Lil Kim? Lil Kim is a 46-year old woman who took up hip-hop with the Notorious BIG.

      2. “So they need to maintain that power in order to hold their enemies at bay.”

        And they need to continuously exercise that power so as to remind everyone that they have it.

        Power: Use it or lose it.

  7. The blatant double standard between how our corrupt DoJ deals with the January 6 “insurrectionists” versus the REAL insurrectionists sponsored by the Democrats’ globalist oligarch bankrollers, tells all.

    As the Big Lie About Sicknick Persists, Alleged Attackers Languish in Jail

    No one killed Brian Sicknick. But that isn’t stopping the Biden Justice Department, the media, every Democratic politician, and now Sicknick’s loved ones from perpetuating the lie.

    https://amgreatness.com/2021/05/28/as-the-big-lie-about-sicknick-persists-alleged-attackers-languish-in-jail/

  8. “Those who know the market say this is not a bubble, it’s a boom, accelerated by the pandemic.

    “It’s different this time.” Sure, like every other time.

  10. “Those who know the market say this is not a bubble, it’s a boom, accelerated by the pandemic. Even though the market is slowing down a bit, the numbers are still astronomical.”

    Can anyone please explain to me how a pandemic which, with the help of the politicians who closed the economy, led to depression levels of unemployment, somehow also sparked a housing boom?

    Do mass disease outbreaks somehow stimulate the urge to load up on investment properties?

    1. “Can anyone please explain to me how a pandemic which, with the help of the politicians who closed the economy, led to depression levels of unemployment, somehow also sparked a housing boom?”

      The decisions of the politicians who closed the economy also allowed thousands of fools to suddenly have to money. Many of these fools (acting as a herd) decided (acting as a herd) use some of this money to bid up the prices of houses and cryptocurrencies and a few other things.

      1. “have to money” = “have access to money”

        “A fool and his money are soon parted.” Give a fool money and he has just gotta get rid of it. Getting rid of it, in this round of nonsense, is performed by buying such things as crypto currencies and houses – both of which can be (and are) bought on margin.

    2. Can anyone please explain to me how a pandemic which, with the help of the politicians who closed the economy, led to depression levels of unemployment, somehow also sparked a housing boom?

      It suggested to me that this market is driven by the wealthier, those who did not fear financial consequences during the pandemic. There was no baby boom, if I understand correctly, and that indicates the mass of people were not so sanguine about their finances.Total sales are like 5-6 million houses, with I’d assume a similar number of buyers.

      Add to that:
      * Those people sitting at home during the day looking for excitement, and retail therapy in real estate is very exciting. Also people looking for projects.
      * Interest rates pushed to historic lows, after a period of decline.
      * The market had been accelerating, as evidenced by less active inventory, for a few years.
      * Fewer people listing due to economic uncertainty.

      Demand supercharged, supply reduced, price of debt reduced, voila.

      Going forward – even those folks who got to telework are facing returning to the office now or very shortly (but probably with more telework); How supply builds back up, I guess is dependent on lower end houses coming back on the market by less wealthy people who are more secure in their (post pandemic) finances. That’ll probably take a while. While demand for houses is always strong (everyone needs a place to live; everyone wants the nicest place they can get), a lot of demand was pulled forward I’d wager. So… slower sales, inventory build by themselves should suppress the dramatic price increases.

      I’m real curious to see how cities play in this market balance. The Movoto market trends links show city markets are slowing, in some cases significantly, while suburbs are red hotcakes. I literally just heard a story on DC news radio about how the DC market is redhot cakes (“average time on market is 7 days”), and checked the Movoto link which shows a different story: https://www.movoto.com/washington-dc/market-trends/ And the movoto links do continue to show red hot cakes for the zip codes I monitor. Incredibly, even the apartment complexes are at or near capacity in these zip codes. How much of a role the “uprisings” and woke criminal justice and economic policies play into the move away from cities is unclear, but I’m sure there is a role.

  11. ‘Real estate is becoming a luxury, it’s not the American dream, it’s a luxury to own. One in five owners of homes never live in the property, meaning these are investors.

    Heckova job, Zimbabwe Ben, Yellen the Felon, and Jerome Powell. Since 1913 the Fed has been usurping and subverting our former republic and turning it into a kleptocratic oligarchy. The Fed can finally say, “Mission accomplished.”

  12. “All of this has made me even more determined not to be lured into this sucker market.”

    Please keep the stories of buyer regret coming.

  13. “‘To have them swiped out from under me before I could even see them was exasperating. It didn’t seem like they were taking offers. It seemed like they were taking bids. I thought to myself, ‘Do I make an offer on something I’ve never even stepped foot in?’”

    The stupid, it burns. Can you not tell this is speculative mania run amok, lady? Buying into a housing bubble is a great way for fools to meet their financial Waterloo.

    1. “Can you not tell this is speculative mania run amok, lady?”

      No, she can’t, nor can the other pukes she is bidding against, hence “interesting” prices for houses (and hefty fees for the lenders of mortgage money 😁).

      1. In today’s buying mania I feel compelled to (mis)appropriate some wise words once uttered by Winston Churchill:

        “Never was so much owed by so many to so few”.

        😁

  14. ‘Every day is different,’ said Kellie Jo Maher. ‘I absolutely love it.’ She loves the rush of helping folks buy or sell a home, though she’s never quite experienced a rush like this.

    Getting to lie with wild abandon to the gullible and stupid flush with borrowed Yellen Bux & buying at the peak of the market would be downright orgasmic for any used house salesperson.

    1. “… would be downright orgasmic for any used house salesperson.”

      An organism also shared by the lender of the money used to buy the house.

      The salesperson does all of the work and as a reward gets to experience one orgasm. The lender does no work at all and gets to experience multiple orgasms – one orgasm a month as the monthly payments come rolling in.

      Life is good.

      😁

  15. Denver businesses are dealing with an increase in crime, blame homeless camps (6/4/2021):

    “It has escalated quite a bit since the beginning of the year, where we have had the homeless moved or migrated,” said Juan Munoz, who runs an inspection specialty company impacted by the crimes.

    Denver police said the department has seen a spike in vehicle-related thefts in the 1200 block of E. 39th Avenue since May, where Munoz operates his business.

    “We’ve been hit with a trailer theft. Our vehicles have been broken into on three separate occasions,” said Dwane Haskins, who owns Custom HPACES in the same business park.

    “I’m a little disheartened with Denver. It just kind of makes you wonder if this is the best place for us. Should we move to another city?” Haskins said.

    https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/denver-businesses-are-dealing-with-an-increase-in-crime-blame-homeless-camps

    Should we move?

    YES!!! You should move, out of Denver and down to Douglas County. And take your property taxes and your sales taxes and your employees with you.

    Denver has made it abundantly clear that taxpaying business owners are NOT welcome in their city.

    1. Democrat-Bolshevik administrations and ideologues have a pathological hatred of the productive and responsible, as these are the antithesis to the culture of dependency and entitlement the collectivists depend on to ensure the continuous growth of their political support base and ability to grow their patronage and graft networks. No Democrat official is going to life a finger to help small businessmen or entrepreneurs who they know despise them and their voting bloc of social parasites, criminals, illegals, and gub’mint workers.

      1. “Democrat-Bolshevik administrations and ideologues have a pathological hatred of the productive and responsible, as these are the antithesis to the culture of dependency and entitlement…”

        “The theory of Communism may be summed up in one sentence: Abolish all private property.” – Karl Marx

        “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” – Karl Marx

        “When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.” – Frederic Bastiat

        “Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others.” – Ayn Rand

        “The government was set to protect man from criminals – and the Constitution was written to protect man from the government.” – Ayn Rand

        “When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing – When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors – When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you – When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice – You may know that your society is doomed.” – Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

        “Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked: ‘Account overdrawn.” – Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

        – Now planning an extended stay in Gault’s Gulch, which is supposed to be somewhere in Colorado, according to the book, but certainly not anywhere near Dumver. 🙂

      1. New Yorkers simply cannot accept that it takes retributive justice and robust law enforcement to keep their city safe. Despite repeated demonstrations of this. More specifically, they cannot accept it until a critical mass of them feel personally threatened. And that is an unfortunate look, because it seems too many of them are perfectly willing to let the other guy suffer from crime.

    3. Denver has made it abundantly clear that taxpaying business owners are NOT welcome in their city.

      It will be a cold day in hell before I attend another event at the Denver Convention Center.

    1. “CNN LOSES NEARLY 70 % OF THEIR VIEWERS.”

      That’s a good thing. That channel was so unwatchable with its 24/7 fake news hate feast going on. Who wants to see that old corrupt demented Biden glorified by them.

      One has to go to alternative news, to get anything, but read fast before its censored.

      So much going on World wide that isn’t being reported also, like protests in England over lockdowns, Civil War about to break out in France, the oppressive lockdowns in Canada. A lot of movements against the vaccine passports, Scientists in Europe objecting to the narratives.
      If you think the medical tyranny is bad in the US , its worse in Europe, and Australia has major lockdowns without any death count that would justify it. Lots of studies confirming the lockdowns and masks don’t work.

      1. I’ll bet the sponsors are still paying full freight to advertise there. Heck, didn’t the NFL just lock down its best TV contract ever, despite their collapsing ratings?

        It’s all rigged.

        Australia has major lockdowns without any death count that would justify it

        Yesterday’s death count in OZ was ZERO, with only SEVEN infections. 12 infections the day before and ZERO deaths. And they lock down for that.

        The only way to solve that is “A Needle in Every Arm”. With every day that passes I become more convinced that the VAX is the actual bioweapon.

        1. In Colorado,
          No kidding what the agendas are. I’m just amazed how many Countries are in on this . It just proves that this One World Order agenda is advancing.

          It really looks like a takeover of sovereign Counties , including the US, by these non elected Entities that have hijacked the Governments of many Countries. There is push back going on in all these Countries, but your not going to see the nightly news coverage of it.
          This censorship of anything but the narratives they want is the worse thing I have ever seen. No freedom of the press, threat of job loss or cancel . Piting groups of people against each other.

          That is why I take their agendas pretty serious at this point. When you find out they have been planning a lot of this stuff for years its mind blowing.
          When I first read about Agenda 21, about 18 years ago, I thought it could never fly because it was to much of a violation of the Constitution and sovereign Nations. It was to much social engineering of populations, and why would people vote for it. People didn’t vote for it, we got rigged elections.
          So, who knows what the Agenda 21 morphed into by now, but I think they will fail in the long run. Its a pretty ambitious power grab in which they don’t have majority support by the people. They are making it obvious that the World they want no-one would want to live in.

        2. Australia has major lockdowns without any death count that would justify it

          Canada too. They are in their very scary “third wave”. Look at Worldometer Canada. There was a spike in testing/cases yet there was no spike in “deaths associated with Covid”. No spike at all.

          The latest amusing news from there is that you can get your second dose with a different vaccine. Totally without logic. Meets the agenda though.

          This is all a very dark comedy.

    2. diet of globalist propaganda and DNC talking points?
      CNN also lost the request for dismissal from an Alan Dershowitz $300 Million dollar lawsuit. It now goes to Discovery and Alan looks like he will make the hacks at CNN’s life very uncomfortable for a while.

  19. dopest?

    Rapper Lil Loaded dies aged 20

    Published4 days ago

    His lawyer Ashkan Mehryari, confirmed the death to Newsbeat, saying the artist, real name Dashawn Robertson, had taken his own life.

    The official cause of death has not been confirmed by the medical examiner.

    The Dallas rapper was arrested in 2020 on a murder charge in connection with the shooting of 18-year-old Khalil Walker. In February he was reportedly indicted on a lesser charge of manslaughter.

    Lil Loaded was known for viral track 6locc 6a6ym, which received over 29 million views on YouTube and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.

    His follow-up song, Gang Unit, was an even bigger hit with over 39 million YouTube views.

    He said he had the “dopest fanbase on Earth” in an Instagram post, responding to the certification.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-57275571

  21. Article for the free sh*tters demanding more gibs.

    The Hill — Local leaders build pressure on Biden to cancel student loans (6/4/2021):

    “The District of Columbia and several other city governments have passed resolutions that call on the federal government to act on student loan cancellations. The moves come as Biden laid out new measures toward economic equity this week, an issue that student loan advocates say could be tackled in part by canceling student loans.”

    https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/556748-local-leaders-build-pressure-on-biden-to-cancel-student-loans

    Nobody ever asks: WHAT DID YOU MAJOR IN?

    If you have a master’s degree in Obama Studies and $80,000 of student loans, you deserve everything you brought on yourself.

    1. One of the best student loan sob stories I ever read was a lawyer who had something like 200k in debt. Their job? Pro bono to help people illegally enter and stay in the USA.

      Yeah, why should I pay that idiot’s tuition back for them?

    2. When I was on the decade long great Phony shack hunt that started back in 2002 here in Region IV, I had a list of what I was looking for and a specific area where I was looking. It was longer than the list shown below but these top 5 points are what I would not and did not compromise on.

      1) area (Jupiter, Tequesta, Palm Beach Gardens)
      2) CBS construction
      3) Hip roof
      4) City water/sewer
      5) No HOA

  23. Looks like they are cranking up the “a needle in every arm” narrative again:

    Hesitant to get the vaccine? Woman who fought COVID twice has a message

    Fought Covid twice? I don’t think so. More likely she got one (or even two) false positives with the PCR test.

    Larimer County now has 73 residents in the age 12-15 category fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

    On Friday, county health officials reported the first in that category to have received two doses.

    So far 5,363 people or 36.5% in that age group, the youngest eligible for vaccinations, have received at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

    So, how long until we are vaccinating toddlers?

    1. Just can’t believe they want to vaccine the lowest risk group , being children . This is really going to far. I have heard of many lawsuits trying to stop this madness.
      Nothing makes sense in this goal to vaccine 70 % of the global population. Its vile, its unjustified, its outright evil.

      1. America’s Frontline Doctors have filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking a restraining order against the use of the COVID-19 “vaccine” in children. Coincidentally, or not, their website is down.

    2. How is giving minors the jab not a crime? How can a minor provide informed consent to participate in a drug trial?

      1. How can a minor provide informed consent to participate in a drug trial?

        IIRC, they don’t even need parental permission in some states.

        1. Wrong. Drug trial rules are not governed by State rules. Check out the Nuremberg Code, Informed Consent and the Belmont Report for starters.

          4. Drug trial rules

            Excuse me, this is not a trial by the rules. It’s an EUA of drugs that were not trialed.

          5. Excuse me, this is not a trial by the rules. It’s an EUA of drugs that were not trialed.

            If you’re saying that the law is being broken … welcome to the USA.

        2. “…informed consent to participate in a drug trial?”

          DRUG TRIALS aren’t governed by State laws. Whether an EUA drug is experimental or not is another question. Drugs that have FDA approval don’t require EUA. That’s why this entire episode of Covid-19 vaccination is so murky and completely unprecedented. Covid-19 immunizations are not FDA approved drugs. This is a problem that hasn’t been litigated yet in court–i.e., whether someone can be forced to be vaccinated.

          2. Everyone knows that.

            Everyone here maybe. I don’t think that the general public appreciates the distinction between an EUA and FDA approved.

          3. Thank the CDC Director for adding to the confusion.

            From the CNN article:

            “The federal government does not actually govern over what kind of consent or assent you need for these teenagers,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a virtual event with The Economic Club of Washington, DC, on Thursday.

            “Each person has to go to their state,” she said. “Many places will say, ‘Your parent doesn’t need to be there, but your parent needs to have information or your parent needs to have signed off.’ So it really does vary by state.”

  24. A weekend topic starting with ABC 7. “Those who know the market say this is not a bubble, it’s a boom, accelerated by the pandemic. Even though the market is slowing down a bit, the numbers are still astronomical. Some houses in the region are literally being sold within days, in some cases, just hours. The best advice Jocelyn Vas, a Real Estate Agent in DC, Maryland, & Virginia can give homebuyers right now is be patient, know the process, be prepared for letdowns, you might make several offers on a home before you actually get one. ‘Real estate is becoming a luxury, it’s not the American dream, it’s a luxury to own. One in five owners of homes never live in the property, meaning these are investors. All of that information is saying to me it’s all really changing quite a bit, the housing market,’ Va said.”

    From Bham Now. “The US housing market is as hot as an Alabama summer. You can’t look at the news without hearing talk about whether we’re in a housing market bubble, and if so, when the bubble will burst. According to bankrate.com, ‘A real estate bubble, also referred to as a ‘housing bubble,’ occurs when the price of housing rises at a rapid pace, driven by an increase in demand, limited supply and emotional buying. Once speculators recognize that housing prices are on the rise, they enter the market, further driving up demand. The phenomenon is called a bubble because at some point it will burst.’”

    “A sentiment echoed by several of the Realtors we spoke with: instead of a wildly speculative market that’s bound to come crashing down, we’re actually in a very strong market that over time will adjust, but we’re not necessarily doomed to a big crash like we experienced in 2007-08.”

    From Clay Today in Florida. “There’s no real solution on this side of the Shands Bridge. Houses are being sold well above their market values because people are panic buying. These probably are the same people who still have 3,000 rolls of toilet paper from a year ago.”

    “There’s still no reason to fall into this trap, MIT housing economist Bill Wheaton told National Public Radio. ‘Don’t buy into a frenzy,’ Wheaton said. If you factor out inflation, the past one-year gain in home prices is about 10%, he said. ‘It’s never been that high – ever in the last 50 years, so there’s really something going on,’ he said.”

    “All of this has made me even more determined not to be lured into this sucker market. I’m perfectly willing to pay fair market value – or even a little above. But I’m not going to be stupid. Frenzies come and go. Beanie Babies did. So did Pet Rocks.”

    https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/jeremy-grantham-housing-bubble-nasdaq-spacs-peak-bear-2021-6-1030486807

    Legendary investor Jeremy Grantham sees a housing bubble in almost every market – and says the Nasdaq and SPACs have likely peaked
    Harry Robertson
    Jun. 2, 2021, 08:09 AM

    “Jeremy Grantham said on Wednesday that real-estate bubbles were popping up in almost every market around the world and that eventually there’d be a “day of reckoning.”“

    “”This time you look around and you find the real estate is suddenly pretty bubbly in almost every interesting market in the world,” he said.”

    “In the US, the Case-Shiller house-price gauge soared 13.2% year-over-year in March. In the UK, house prices shot up 10.9% year-over-year in April as a result of government stimulus and people looking for more space.”

    “You can’t keep an asset class like housing, where the house doesn’t change, and you’re just marking it up in real terms year after year,” Grantham said. “Eventually there’ll be a day of reckoning.”

    – So, Realtors consider this “bubble” an “nothing burger,” meaning it’s a “boom” and not a bubble, while economists and money managers are calling it a bubble… Is someone a lyin’, or just delusional?

    -Insert evergreen quote here:

    “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” – Upton Sinclair

    1. “almost every market around the world”

      Thank yu China! Thank yu for spreading the virus all over the world and as a result making people all over richer than ever.

    2. What is the saying, ‘God please give us at least one more bubble and I won’t screw it up’. Something like that.

    3. ‘Real estate is becoming a luxury, it’s not the American dream, it’s a luxury to own. ”

      Yikes

      1. Shelter is now a luxury. See the tent cities littering every city and town. Let’s start choppin’ some heads.

    1. Bitcoin tumbles following Elon Musk’s cryptic tweets
      By Lydia Moynihan
      June 4, 2021 | 10:59am | Updated
      Bitcoin Prices Sink After Elon Musk Posts Breakup Meme
      Is Elon Musk’s love affair with bitcoin over?

      In a cryptic tweet Thursday night, the Tesla CEO posted a meme of a couple breaking up and added #Bitcoin and a broken-heart emoji. Two hours later, Musk posted an “I miss you” meme.

      By 9 a.m. Friday, the price of bitcoin had fallen more than 5 percent to $36,500. That’s sorely short of the all-time high near $65,000 it had notched in mid-April.

      Musk’s tweets drew thousands of angry, stressed-out and disgusted replies, with many accusing him of “manipulating” the price of the volatile cryptocurrency.

      “The pied piper of crypto,” one Twitter user jeered.

      “My wife is pregnant and my money is in crypto,” another replied. “I hope prices return to normal.”
      …

        1. Business Insider | Business
          Elon Musk’s family once owned an emerald mine in Zambia — here’s the fascinating story of how they came to own it
          Phillip de Wet , Business Insider SA
          Feb 28, 2021
          — Elon Musk’s father planned to fly a plane from South Africa to England and sell it once they got there.
          — Their plane got diverted, which led to a chance meeting with Italians who wanted to buy the plane in cash.
          — With his new riches, Errol also bought half of an emerald mine.

          In the mid 1980s, Elon Musk’s father Errol and a copilot were on their way to England aboard a plane they hoped to sell when they landed there.

          They never made it to their destination. Instead Errol returned to South Africa with a half-share in a Zambian emerald mine, which would help to fund his family’s lavish lifestyle of yachts, skiing holidays, and expensive computers.

          It was that lifestyle, Errol says, that turned Elon into the kind of merchant adventurer who would later break the rules of the motoring business with Tesla, then go on to change spaceflight with SpaceX.

          The way Errol tells it, that all started with an inconvenient religious holiday.

          On their way to England, Errol and his copilot got word that their original flight plan was going to cost a lot of money.

          “We were going to fly into Jeddah and there was a religious holiday and they said if we come in now we have to pay $2,000 but if we wait 10 days we can come in at no charge. So we decided to head back to Lake Tanganyika from where we were, I think we were in Djibouti.”
          …

          1. Elon Musk’s father Errol

            Knocked up his step-daughter. What a role model.

    2. I can’t wait for the day when Elon Musk tweets the shocking news to his zombie Millennial fanbois that housing is a in bubble that is doomed to follow Bitcoin’s path to a 50% off sale.

        2. He’s in a sweet spot. He is the demi-god hero of a farce, which also happens to be the theme of the Globalists. To take him down would be to repudiate the narrative.

  27. The woman who thought NYC had a bank account containing $3 billion titled “tax incentives” now explains how to reduce violent crime.

    AOC’s answer to reducing violent crime? Stop building jails

    By Carl Campanile
    June 4, 2021 | 4:35pm

    Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez urged politicians to stop building more prisons to address violent crime and instead provide more hospital and counseling services to lawbreakers who are mentally ill.

    Her comments drew immediate condemnation from her pro-law-and-order critics.

    “If we want to reduce violent crime, if we want to reduce the number of people in our jails, the answer is to stop building more of them,’” Ocasio-Cortez said during a Bronx event Thursday.

    “The answer is to make sure that we actually build more hospitals, we pay organizers, we get people mental health care and overall health care, employment, etc. It’s to support communities, not throw them away.”

    The New York Rep. slammed jails as “garbage bins” for people who are actually suffering from mental health issues.

    https://nypost.com/2021/06/04/aocs-answer-to-reducing-violent-crime-stop-building-jails/amp/

    Amazon deal reveals AOC’s lack of economic smarts

    By MARC A. THIESSEN | The Washington Post
    February 23, 2019 at 1:25 a.m.

    WASHINGTON — The left complains that conservatives are “obsessing” over Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Well, there is a reason for that: Ocasio-Cortez is driving the agenda of today’s Democratic Party — and her economic illiteracy is dangerous.

    Case in point: Last week, Ocasio-Cortez celebrated the tanking of a deal negotiated by her fellow Democrats in which Amazon promised to build a new headquarters in Long Island City, New York, right next to her congressional district. Amazon’s departure cost the city between 25,000 and 40,000 new jobs. Forget the tech workers whom Amazon would have employed. Gone are all the unionized construction jobs to build the headquarters, as well as thousands of jobs created by all the small businesses — restaurants, bodegas, dry cleaners and food carts — that were preparing to open or expand to serve Amazon employees. They are devastated by Amazon’s withdrawal.

    Ocasio-Cortez was not disturbed at all. “We were subsidizing those jobs,” she said. “Frankly, if we were willing to give away $3 billion for this deal, we could invest those $3 billion in our district, ourselves, if we wanted to. We could hire out more teachers. We can fix our subways. We can put a lot of people to work for that amount of money if we wanted to.”

    No, you can’t. Ocasio-Cortez does not seem to realize that New York does not have $3 billion in cash sitting around waiting to be spent on her socialist dreams. The subsidies to Amazon were tax incentives, not cash payouts. It is Amazon’s money, which New York agreed to make tax-exempt, so the company would invest it in building its new headquarters, hiring new workers and generating tens of billions in new tax revenue.

    https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/02/23/amazon-deal-reveals-aocs-lack-of-economic-smarts/

    1. I for one am delighted to see the Marxist-Leninist wing of the Democratic Party wrest the levers of power from the entrenched old-guard crony capitalists like Comrade Pelosi, Joe Biden, and their ilk. Once the takeover is complete, anyone who casts a D vote will have no excuse for claiming they didn’t know what they were voting for.

        1. the D lever

          No need to pull the D lever. Our elections have been rigged for years.

          2. Our elections have been rigged for years.
            It’s a shame.

            An Election Stolen by Computer Rigging? Again? • Gary North • November 07, 2020
            https://www.garynorth.com/public/21532.cfm

            “Votescam: The Stealing of America” (1992) book by James and Kenneth Collier. Website (not recently updated) – WatchTheVoteUSA.com

            Vote Scam – The Stealing of America’s Elections • (only) 6,536 views • Apr 23, 2011
            https://youtu.be/1oA4nDuuBOg?list=PLVTMrNfIj6L_GswumQQLauLN0EnNIAC1e&t=40

          3. rigged for years.

            Today’s news 30 years ago. Nice find. Audio improves as video goes on.

    2. “Ocasio-Cortez does not seem to realize that New York does not have $3 billion in cash sitting around waiting to be spent on her socialist dreams.”

      I guess the question is whether it works better to invest in keeping people out of prison, or keeping them in prison. Mental health care is expensive, but so is warehousing people for their entire adult lives.

      1. “I guess the question is whether it works better to invest in keeping people out of prison, or keeping them in prison.”

        The paragraph you quoted in your response was from the article about “AOC’s lack of economic smarts” which as he shows is an extreme lack of economic smarts, not about her “answer to reducing violent crime”.

      2. I seriously doubt most felons are susceptible to rehabilitation so
        opening prison doors while assigning counselors will most certainly cause much more loss of property, lives, and public resources.

        1. “I want to see more women in the position to make decisions, control resources, and shape policies and perspectives.” —Melinda French Gates

          1. “I want to see more women…control resources, and shape policies and perspectives.” —Melinda French Gates

            Of course she does. Billionaire pigs want to control everybody.

    3. I read that Matt Walsh set up a gofundme account for AOC’s grandmother. I believe that he was trying to shame AOC. who laughed at him.

      Cucks gonna cuck.

  28. “According to bankrate.com, ‘A real estate bubble, also referred to as a ‘housing bubble,’ occurs when the price of housing rises at a rapid pace, driven by an increase in demand, limited supply and emotional buying. Once speculators recognize that housing prices are on the rise, they enter the market, further driving up demand. The phenomenon is called a bubble because at some point it will burst.’”

    Does the Fed approve this definition of a housing bubble?

    Long time posters will recall the early days of the Housing Bubble Blog, when economists at the Fed and in academia said that bubbles were unpossible and an army of REIC trolls showed up here to tell us how wrong we were to point out the obvious signs.

    1. When the first bubble burst, mortgage rates were at 6pct, and the Fed had never bought an MBS. The balance sheet size was .89 trillion.

      Today, mortgage rates are at 3pct, and the Fed owns 2.2 trillion in MBS. The balance sheet is 7.9 trillion. It’s buying 120 billion in MBS and government debt each month (80B in Treasury debt and 40B in MBS, for a yearly total of 1.44 trillion).

      The Fed was able to engineer another house price runup over the previous decade by trending down interest rates.

      The question becomes, have all these tools maxed out the housing market? IF that is true, and the buyer cools… what next? How much lower can mortgage rates go? I dunno. They’re lower in some European countries.

      To answer the question about the bubble: if the government can engineer asset price increases in an asset class (that everyone needs in some form or another), can it prevent declines in the market?

      With an infinite printing press and an infinite demand for dollars, all things are possible.

      1. With an infinite printing press and an infinite demand for dollars, all things are possible.

        There are consequences, such as runaway inflation. But as Prince Farquaad said in Shrek “Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make.”

  29. JOHN HUMPHRYS: As a dilapidated £800 shepherd’s hut sells for £16,000… It’s time to stop following the flock on house prices

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9653511/JOHN-HUMPHRYS-time-stop-following-flock-house-prices.html

    As must-have properties go, there was not much to recommend it. Forget a designer kitchen or inglenook fireplace, this one had a leaky roof, walls covered in rot, a sheet of old plastic where the window should have been — oh, and wheels covered in rust.

    But that didn’t stop a ferocious bidding war when it came up for sale at auction this week, and it was hard to know who to feel more sorry for: the shepherd who wanted to buy the old shepherd’s hut or the anonymous London businessman who outbid him.

  30. Wanna break your lease, ladies? Just accuse some random dude of sexual assault.

    Sexual Assault Survivors Can Now Escape Their Leases in Louisiana

    Sexual assault survivors in Louisiana now have another tool they can use to escape their abuser: They can break their leases.

    Under a law signed this week by Gov. John Bel Edwards, not only do survivors have the right to get out of their rental contracts early, regardless of whether the assault happened on the premises, but landlords can also evict people who’ve been accused of sexual assault.

  37. “Fake , fake fake fake fake. fake, fake”

    Fake equity
    Fake happiness
    Fake orgasms
    Fake magazine capacity
    Fake retirement account
    Fake stock market

  38. It’s been going on for years:

    Fake moonlandings.
    Fake nuclear weapons/cold war.
    Fake WMDs.

    The bigger the story the bigger the lies.

    Our whole media is nothing more than an outlet for fear and fantasy to keep the proles in line.

  40. “First-time homebuyers and all the other agents, they’re struggling with their buyers who don’t have a lot of money to put down,’ said Maher. ‘They’re waiving home inspections.”

    This cant end well.

Comments are closed.