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Determined To Make An Economy Out Of Trading Non-Productive Assets Between Each Other At Higher And Higher Prices

A weekend topic starting with Kyodo News. “Skyrocketing property prices in South Korea are leaving ordinary people struggling to find affordable housing, especially in the capital Seoul and surrounding areas. A survey showed that the price has come close to doubling during the four years since 2017. In South Korea, a new term called ‘young-gul’ has been coined to describe the position of buyers; it means to ‘gather up everything you can, even your soul’ to make the payment. Lee said she was a perfect example. ‘I was lucky to be able to buy,’ Lee said, although she ended up with a 140 million won mortgage while her annual salary is just 40 million won. Her husband, who is self-employed, has no fixed income.”

“If interest rates, however, rise in the future and housing supply progresses as planned, there could be a glut in the market in a few years. A sense of caution that the bubble will burst and prices plummet is increasing day by day.”

From Global News. “As Canada’s housing market shows tentative signs of homebuyers’ fatigue, some economists are looking ahead at another factor that’s widely expected to put a damper on the real estate frenzy: rising interest rates. Since home prices started heating up last summer, the housing sector has been a key propeller for the economy at a time when few other sectors were growing, apart from government spending. The housing market — including residential construction, home renovations, homeownership transfer costs and spending on furniture, as well as home maintenance and repairs — now makes up nearly 28 per cent of Canada’s GDP, Diana Petramala, senior economist at Ryerson University’s Centre for Urban Research and Land Development says quoting numbers from Statistics Canada.”

“‘If a bank got a new dollar … do they prefer lending that money out into the housing market or lending it out to business?’ asks Jeremy Kronick, associate director of research at the C.D. Howe Institute. Before the pandemic, the answer tended to be that half would go to mortgage borrowers and half to businesses. Now, he says, ‘all of it is to mortgage(s).'”

“This reflects, in part, built-in incentives that predate the pandemic. For example, mortgage default insurance, which is largely government-backed and mandatory in Canada for mortgages with a down payment of less than 20 per cent, means insured mortgages are, essentially, a ‘risk-free loan for a bank,’ he says.”

“However, Canada needs to invest in businesses that can fuel the kind of growth that can lead to greater productivity, a key driver of rising living standards, he says. The housing sector, as important as it is for the economy and the labour market, is not ‘a typically overly productivity-enhancing sector,’ he says.”

From WSAW. “Housing prices in Wisconsin doubled in a year’s time and buyers are still paying the prices. According to the Wisconsin Realtors Association, prices in places like Stevens Point, Wausau, and Wisconsin Rapids are starting to drop slightly, but Marshfield is keeping with the national trend upward. While interest rates could change and possibly impact buyers willingness to purchase, realtor Austin Solomon said ‘I don’t think it’s a bubble.'”

The Florida Times Union. “‘Do we see a $500,000 house going for $700,000, no. But we do see a $1 million listing going for $1.5 million. Yes, we do,’ said Northeast Florida Association of Realtors President Missi Howell. Howell noted that, unlike 2005-2006, this buying frenzy does not represent a housing bubble, and no sudden crash is predicted.”

“‘There is nothing being said by experts in the industry about this being a bubble,’ she said. ‘Typically, when you have a bubble, there is speculative buying without reasoning. There is a buying frenzy with no substance behind it. In today’s market there are real people looking for housing, whether it is to live in themselves, to rent or for second-home purposes.'”

“‘When a bubble happens you have an increase, then it bursts and then the decrease. That is not projected. What is projected is that the steep increase we have seen year over year since last year will probably not continue. It will become more of a plateau,’ said Howell. ‘Everything I am reading about our market is that this will probably continue until the end of the year and then stabilize in 2022. The market will eventually get to the point where it says it cannot bear much more in price increases. Buyers will get to the point they won’t pay much more because they are financing, or they are cash strapped.'”

The Irish Times. “The assumption – held by the same stakeholders and with the same surety – is that property prices can only go in one direction: up. We’re now betrothed to the narrative of ever-accelerating house price inflation: buyers scrambling to get on the ladder; foreign investment funds buying up stock.”

“Estate agents talk of pent-up demand. The Central Bank says ‘significant house price growth’ will continue this year and next. ‘One paradox of the pandemic is that, while job losses are at a scale never seen before, the strength of economic activity in unaffected sectors combined with the level of additional savings owing to a lack of spending opportunities, precautionary behaviour and direct fiscal support, mean that there is ample scope for a liquidity-driven growth in house prices coinciding with never-seen-before economic disruption in some sectors,’ Central Bank governor Gabriel Makhlouf said last week.”

“According to the Central Statistics Office, the average sales price for a property in Dublin in the 12 months to the end of April was €466,211, nine times the average full-time income. The Central Bank’s borrowing rules allow for a loan-to-income ratio of just 3½. These metrics don’t work for most people and they’re likely to put a brake on the current price trend.”

From Dmarge in Australia. “Is it really a problem that property market speculation is Australia’s favourite new hobby? What’s to stop it going on forever? DMARGE spoke to James Whelan, Investment Manager at VFS Group in Sydney, about this earlier this year. Mr Whelan characterized it all as a house of cards… albeit one he couldn’t (when we spoke to him) imagine toppling.”

“The question then, according to Mr Whelan, is: ‘Do you think that our financial regulators are doing enough to ensure people will be able to repay those loans should the underlying interest rates go up (which they inevitably have to do, as they are not normal right now)? Just as 18% is not normal (when it’s up there it needs to come down), 0% is not normal either – it needs to go up. f the answer to that question is, ‘no; we can’t afford to have that changed,’ then absolutely we are over-leveraged.'”

“On the other hand, the banks don’t want to foreclose ‘on an entire nation of people who can’t afford normal interest rates’ either, Mr Whelan told us. ‘No one has a really good answer for what happens if that happens.'”

“He also pointed out that there is a difference between the US housing finance system and the Australian one: ‘Right now usually what happens in a standard system – in America you can walk away, but in Australia the rest of your life is attached to [this investment] – you can’t just walk away, that’s your entire life.'”

From The Spinoff in New Zealand. “Inspired by a map of the US housing market, analyst Emma Vitz created a graph showing how much people needed to earn to afford a property in their region. The answer, unsurprisingly, is often a lot more than the average New Zealand household earns. In Auckland, an income of just over $170,000 is required, which is about $66,000 more than the median household income. Wellington requires an income of $132,000, $30,000 more than the average household actually earns.”

“The New Zealand property market is a fascinating beast. We seem rather determined to make an economy out of trading non-productive assets between each other at higher and higher prices. Even Jacinda Ardern agreed, back in 2011, that our economy is a housing market with a few bits tacked on. However, it seems that the average New Zealand household struggles to get a toehold in this market, and these maps show why.”

The Financial Times. “The strength of demand for housing was welcome at first — and encouraged by governments in the UK, the Netherlands and some Australian states. But the runaway market holds two concerns for policymakers. First, prices could spiral into bubble territory, making economies vulnerable to a sudden market correction that would hit household wealth. ‘I’m not happy about house price increases because real estate is the surest indicator, the most compelling leading indicator for . . . a crash,’ says Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.”

“There are also signs of financial speculation starting to fuel prices in markets where affordability is already a problem. ‘What we’re seeing is more often than not these days, the winning bidder in many of these house auctions sometimes is not a family. It’s a post office box in Delaware, which is an investor who’s never seen the house, wants the house furnished and is going to buy it for investment purposes and rent it,’ said Robert Kaplan, president of the Dallas branch of the Federal Reserve.”

“In response, Christina Lagarde of the European Central Bank said there were ‘no strong signs of a credit-fuelled housing bubble in the euro area as a whole,’ but she added that there were ‘residential real estate vulnerabilities’ in some countries and some cities in particular.”

“‘The disconnect between housing prices and broader economic developments during the pandemic entails the risk of price corrections,’ she said, calling for macroprudential policies — such as national limits on mortgage lending — to be ‘designed carefully to address country-specific risks.’ Asked this month about the risk of monetary policy fuelling a housing bubble, Lagarde said the benefits of the ECB’s decisions ‘largely outweigh the indirect effects.'”

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This Post Has 80 Comments

  1. Note the FT is teetchy about their articles, so I linked to one of those sites that auto-copies the print. It thus can be inaccurate. But I have the original so I believe the above is correct.

    ‘Asked this month about the risk of monetary policy fuelling a housing bubble, Lagarde said the benefits of the ECB’s decisions ‘largely outweigh the indirect effects’

    This mania is globalist policy. The people who get their a$$es kicked are the “losers”. And as always, this crap is doomed to fail – again.

    2. ‘Asked this month about the risk of monetary policy fuelling a housing bubble, Lagarde said the benefits of the ECB’s decisions ‘largely outweigh the indirect effects’

      This thing needs to be arrested and charged with economic terrorism.

  2. ‘the average sales price for a property in Dublin in the 12 months to the end of April was €466,211, nine times the average full-time income. The Central Bank’s borrowing rules allow for a loan-to-income ratio of just 3½’

    There’s yer fraud.

  3. ‘the banks don’t want to foreclose ‘on an entire nation of people who can’t afford normal interest rates’ either, Mr Whelan told us. ‘No one has a really good answer for what happens if that happens’

    Here’s yer answer:

    ‘Right now usually what happens in a standard system – in America you can walk away, but in Australia the rest of your life is attached to [this investment] – you can’t just walk away, that’s your entire life’

    This article is worth reading in full, as are some of the others.

    1. “… in Australia the rest of your life is attached to [this investment] – you can’t just walk away, that’s your entire life.”

      And while you are living your entire life you will be supporting me, for my entire life.

      Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

      1. mr Banker – I suspect you are laughing at those aussie pukes aka “bloody wankers”

        (thats not a non-recourse debt, THIS is a non-recourse debt! hat tip to Mick Dundee)

        1. “mr Banker – I suspect you are laughing at those aussie pukes aka ‘bloody wankers'”

          Yep. I’ll be laughing all the way to the beach.

          😁

  5. Why do people assume interest rates will somehow realign with historic norms, given the ginormous mountains of debt that would have to be served at unaffordable rates?

    1. “If interest rates, however, rise in the future and housing supply progresses as planned, there could be a glut in the market in a few years. A sense of caution that the bubble will burst and prices plummet is increasing day by day.”

  6. ‘If a bank got a new dollar … do they prefer lending that money out into the housing market or lending it out to business?’…Before the pandemic, the answer tended to be that half would go to mortgage borrowers and half to businesses. Now, he says, ‘all of it is to mortgage(s)’

    ‘This reflects, in part, built-in incentives that predate the pandemic. For example, mortgage default insurance, which is largely government-backed and mandatory in Canada for mortgages with a down payment of less than 20 per cent, means insured mortgages are, essentially, a ‘risk-free loan for a bank’

    The latter are subprime. And being issued “risk free”. How is that sound lending? This has been going on for over a decade.

    ‘Canada needs to invest in businesses that can fuel the kind of growth that can lead to greater productivity, a key driver of rising living standards, he says. The housing sector, as important as it is for the economy and the labour market, is not ‘a typically overly productivity-enhancing sector’

    It’s not productive. It just sits there, deteriorating.

    The media never ask a most basic question: what happened to our “productive growth?” Even China has to resort to bubbles time and again.

    Globalism doesn’t work, for anybody. It’s not even designed to work.

    1. “Globalism doesn’t work, for anybody. It’s not even designed to work.”

      Oh it works, but not just for everybody.

      George Carlin: “It’s a private party, and you are not a member”.

      1. Well I’m going out on a limb and saying ending the discussion with old George Carlin phrases isn’t going to cut it. If you read that China Worker article last week, which was a reprint from 2015, you’d see every aspect of lives in China is terrible and getting worse. Pollution, personal rights, opportunity, education, organ harvesting, mass surveillance, mass slave labor camps. Oh and those in the private party? They’ll take billionaires and throw them off a roof, imprison their family never to be seen again and take their money. George Carlin wasn’t talking about globalist communism. Eating bugs and not owning anything? Ginning up phony race wars? Creating and releasing bio-weapons and all the disastrous crap related to that we are still dealing with. Jeebus, just how evil do these people have to get before we put a stop to them?

        1. “Well I’m going out on a limb and saying ending the discussion with old George Carlin phrases isn’t going to cut it.”

          I’m not ending anything, I am just trying to make a point.

          “If you read that China Worker article last week, which was a reprint from 2015, you’d see every aspect of lives in China is terrible and getting worse.”

          Worse for everyone except for those at the top, which is my point.

          “Pollution, personal rights, opportunity, education, organ harvesting, mass surveillance, mass slave labor camps.”

          Yep. Again, my point.

          “Oh and those in the private party? They’ll take billionaires and throw them off a roof, imprison their family never to be seen again and take their money.”

          My point.

          “George Carlin wasn’t talking about globalist communism.”

          He was talking about those in power. Those who are behind this globalist communism are the ones who are in power so, yeah, he was talking about globalist comunism.

          “Eating bugs and not owning anything? Ginning up phony race wars? Creating and releasing bio-weapons and all the disastrous crap related to that we are still dealing with.”

          They are simply using what works.

          “Jeebus, just how evil do these people have to get before we put a stop to them?”

          That’s who they are.

          1. “Oh and those in the private party? They’ll take billionaires and throw them off a roof, imprison their family never to be seen again and take their money.”

            I need to expand on this statement a bit:

            Those possessed with insatiable desires for power gravitate toward each other and form a sort of Private Club and each member of this club uses other members of the club for their own ends. When one member’s usefulness is exhausted then he is cast out of the club. IOW these guys tend to eat their own.

            So some billionaires, those whose usefulness is exhausted, will indeed be thrown off the roof and those other things.

          2. George Carlin was a comedian. He made his living by making people laugh. He made people laugh by telling his audience how they were gettng screwed by those who had power over them.

            He told his audience the truth about how the were getting screwed and his audience laughed because they knew it was the truth.

            Now, how wierd is that?

          5. “When one member’s usefulness is exhausted then he is cast…”

            …off the roof.

            Or perhaps defenestrated…

        2. ” just how evil do these people have to get before we put a stop to them?”

          69 year old man targeted despite not being in the Capitol on January 6

          Jun. 26, 2021 – 5:04 – Four months after the FBI raided his apartment and took all of his devices, Joseph Bolanos is still suffering

          https://video.foxnews.com/v/6261077334001/

          1. After courtroom apology, Indiana woman downplays riot: ‘People were actually very polite’

            Sarah Nelson
            Indianapolis Star
            June 25, 2021

            https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2021/06/25/fox-news-insurrection-january-6-2021-anna-morgan-lloyd-bloomfield-indiana/5348048001/

            ‘The Angle’ speaks to the first person sentenced for Jan 6 Capitol riots.

            Jun. 25, 2021 – 4:42 – Anna Morgan-Lloyd joins ‘The Ingraham Angle’ to discuss.

            https://video.foxnews.com/v/6260923294001

          2. The contrast between how “The System” is going after the January 6th “insurrectionists” as opposed to the kid-glove treatment given to the REAL insurrectionists – violent, globalist-sponsored communist arsonists and looters – tells all.

            Ep50 – “Insurrection” Travesty: the Solitary Confinement of Forgotten American Patriots, Part 1: Ken Harrelson 23jun21

            https://magainstitute.com/ep50-insurrection-travesty-the-solitary-confinement-of-forgotten-american-patriots-part-1-ken-harrelson-23jun21/

            Today we talked with Angel Harrelson, wife of retired U.S. Army Sgt Ken Harrelson who sits in solitary confinement in Washington, DC as the Department of Injustice keeps piling on bogus charge after libelous charge in a vain effort for something—anything—to stick.

            You know the story. It was a cold January 6th when the world turned on its ear and the devious media conspired to malign American patriots by calling every one of us who attended the Stop The Steal and Save America March rallies a “domestic terrorist.”

        3. Jeebus, just how evil do these people have to get before we put a stop to them?

          I have said it before and I will say it again – this will not stop until people start assassinating them. Only when they fear for their lives will they dial back their demented plans.

  7. “Globalism doesn’t work for anybody. ”

    You got that right.
    No sovereign Countries, just a One World Order of Masterminds calling the shots. It was all deliberate and it wasn’t voted for . No matter who the people put in to represent their interest, the Globalist advanced with their treasonous agendas.
    All I got to say is how do you like the Globalist now?

    1. “Globalism doesn’t work for anybody. ”

      Except for these guys …

      “… just a One World Order of Masterminds calling the shots.”

      1. Neuromance nailed it yesterday …

        Neuromance
        June 25, 2021 at 8:36 pm
        What they propose would be worst than any dictorship you have ever heard of

        It would be a return to feudalism. The feudal lord and his knights control the assets which the serfs are allowed to use to create value. In return for giving the lord a certain amount of tax, they are 1) allowed to keep living and 2) gain some protection from other marauders by the the feudal lord and his knights.

        It’s a slide back down to feudalism.

      2. “Except for these guys …”

        ^This. If globalism doesn’t work for anybody then it’s not a thing, and all the hand-wringing over it is for naught.

  8. And, since Globalism doesn’t recognize the rights of the individual, how is it not a direct Innsurrection against the Constitution and Government by the people, all that was established by the Founders of US Government.

    I can’t get over the censorship thingy, one of the more shocking aspects of just taking the first amendment by force by Monopolies.

    1. I can’t get over the censorship thingy, one of the more shocking aspects of just taking the first amendment by force by Monopolies.

      The escalating censorship by the creepy Orwellian tech firms wouldn’t be necessary if there weren’t a growing number of truth-tellers calling out the globalist media-entertainment complex on its lies and false narratives. The best individual response to censorship is to simply refuse to remain silent in the face of pervasive lies and mendacity. Russian dissident Solzhenitsyn was one of the best and bravest examples of a sovereign human being refusing to bend a knee to tyrants and liars.

      On the day Solzhenitsyn was arrested, February, 12, 1974, he released the text of “Live Not by Lies.” The next day, he was exiled to the West, where he received a hero’s welcome. This moment marks the peak of his fame. Solzhenitsyn equates “lies” with ideology, the illusion that human nature and society can be reshaped to predetermined specifications. And his last word before leaving his homeland urges Soviet citizens as individuals to refrain from cooperating with the regime’s lies. Even the most timid can take this least demanding step toward spiritual independence. If many march together on this path of passive resistance, the whole inhuman system will totter and collapse.

      https://www.solzhenitsyncenter.org/live-not-by-lies

    2. “I can’t get over the censorship thingy, one of the more shocking aspects of just taking the first amendment by force by Monopolies.”

      Q. Why do they do that?

      A. Because they can. Because this is who they are. And the people who enable them do so because that is who they are.

  9. Howell noted that, unlike 2005-2006, this buying frenzy does not represent a housing bubble, and no sudden crash is predicted.”

    Once again, with feeling: Realtors are liars.

  10. With history getting ready to repeat itself, this blast from the past is particularly timely and relevant: following 2008 collapse of the “Celtic Tigers,” an Irishman blasts the “greed, greed, and more f**king greed” and corruption that caused the housing bubble.

    Irish Wanking Bankers – An Irishman Abroad.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koY6kXhQDQo&t=8s

  11. And I’m not very happy about Biden attacking the white race, and any of these bogus theories of white privilege, racism , critical race theory, and the abuse of teaching young kids to hate their own race. This is a obvious attempt to create a enemy to blame . This attack on words so as to make it so people can’t think, like the book 1984.

    I’m sure that the Globalist think that the white race will be the biggest objectors to this power grab by the Globalist Monopolies, etc.

    1. There’s no “white race”. This politics based on skin color is destructive and against the principles laid out in the 60s by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

  12. “On the other hand, the banks don’t want to foreclose ‘on an entire nation of people who can’t afford normal interest rates’ either, Mr Whelan told us. ‘No one has a really good answer for what happens if that happens.’”

    Hop on over to the HBB, Mr. Whelan. You’ll find no shortages of “really good answers” for how schlonged your nation of greedy speculators and globalist lap-dogs is going to be.

  13. It’s a post office box in Delaware, which is an investor who’s never seen the house, wants the house furnished and is going to buy it for investment purposes and rent it,’ said Robert Kaplan, president of the Dallas branch of the Federal Reserve.”

    When are the sheeple in each former nation-state, now reduced to globalist looting colonies, going to fight back against the pernicious effects of hot-money flows of central bank funny money turning shelter – a basic human need – into a speculative asset?

  14. Asked this month about the risk of monetary policy fuelling a housing bubble, Lagarde said the benefits of the ECB’s decisions ‘largely outweigh the indirect effects.’”

    We’ll see about that, you leather-faced convicted financial fraudster. The sheeple of Europe deserve everything they’re going to get for letting you and your ilk control their money issuance and monetary policies.

    1. Whenever I see Christine Lagarde, I think “maybe I’ll pick up some beef jerky.”

      Who rules us? Occultists and narcissistic sociopaths; it doesn’t matter if we believe it – they do.

      She forecasts the 2021 crisis (ENGLISH SUBTITLES AVAILABLE)
      301,295 views ∙ Dec 18, 2019 (Video filmed in 2014.)
      https://youtu.be/cU6kwbHArYo?t=118

    1. Globalists gonna globe.

      Are the BLM and Pride flags flying in front of U.S. Embassies around the world also made by globalist slave labor?

    1. Too bad that truth meant she had to lose her job.

      “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re mis-informed.” —Mark Twain

  17. I saw the first Trump 2024 trumper sticker in MA this morning. This is a very good sign.

  18. How do suckers who paid rent last year feel about Governor Nuisance’s proposal for them to help cover their deadbeat neighbor’s unpaid rent?

    Because we’re all in this together.

      1. “Bill allocates federal funds to pay off 100% of back rent for those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

        Bahahahahaha … the Governor of California proposes a bill directing that FEDERAL FUNDS be used to pay the back rent of CALIFORNIA residents.

        2. It’s a step towards Nuisance’s (aka Pelosi’s nephew) run for the WH. Get ready for it…

    2. I doubt that anyone will point out the connection between the eviction ban and unaffordable rents.

  20. A reader sent this one in:

    9045 Algeroma St,
    Bellflower, CA 90706
    $800,000

    https://www.redfin.com/CA/Bellflower/9045-Algeroma-St-90706/home/7409337

    ‘GREAT INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY. Make this your dream home. Property offers 2 homes on this lot. Main house offers HUGE bedroom and private bathroom upstairs, a large den with fireplace in back of house, open concept kitchen and living room, 3 bedrooms/2bath. Back house offers 1bedroom/1bath and loyal paying tenants.’

    2. “Well, unquestionably, housing prices are up quite a bit; I think it’s important to note that fundamentals are also very strong.” —Ben Bernanke

    3. “…and loyal paying tenants….”

      You know things are getting a little iffy in the REIConplex when property description includes a note that the [back house] tenants actually pay.

      Draw you own conclusions about the front house tenants. My suggestion is don’t make any sudden quick moves as you approach the front door and don’t attempt to collect rent during party hour[s].

  21. There is something very satisfying about watching libtards reap what they voted.

    Washington Square Park is plagued by illegal boxing matches in latest blow for local residents who have endured months of after-hours raves, stabbings and drug taking at NYC landmark

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9728619/Illegal-boxing-matches-Washington-Square-Park-residents-enduring-month-antisocial-behavior.html

    New York’s City’s Washington Square Park which has been the scene of a number of late night brawls and scuffles with police over last few weeks has now become host to fighting of a different kind – unlicensed boxing matches complete with a referee and time keeper.

    The Manhattan park appeared more like Madison Square Garden as boxing matches took place in front of hundreds of people, all of which was all caught on camera.

  22. It’s hilarious how the elected officials and bureaucrats in Denver just. don’t. get. it.

    From the Colorado Sun:

    The list of employers snubbing Colorado residents for remote work opportunities continues to grow over at ColoradoExcluded.com, the site where Commerce City software engineer Aaron Batilo is posting job listings he finds — or are sent to him — to document an unintended result of Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act.

    Some companies just don’t want to share how much the job pays.

    Unintended results. No one could have seen it coming. Actually, Republican state legislators warned this would happen, but were ignored.

    Of course what this is also going to mean is that if there is a non-remote position that can be filled at an office outside of Colorado, it will be.

    I harbor no illusions that the state legislators will see the error of their ways and repeal the legislation. If anything, I expect them to double down and use tough language against businesses that will choose to hire outside of Colorado; then wonder why in state hiring, both remote and non-remote, is anemic; or if there is a mass layoff that corporations might choose to disproportionately eliminate positions in Colorado.

  23. “During the run up, wood was hoarded by builders, retailers and others worried about running out of material during a construction season set into overdrive by historically low mortgage rates and federal stimulus payments.’

    “‘Everyone was buying more than they needed,’ said Mike Wisnefski, a former lumber trader and chief executive of online marketplace MaterialsXchange. ‘There was this fear of lack of availability.’

    “Now the market is being flooded by what Mr. Wisnefski calls shadow inventory as businesses that are normally big buyers, such as home builders and companies that prefabricate the trusses that hold up roofs and floors, sell from their own stockpiles.”

    https://www.floordaily.net/flooring-news/lumber-prices-falling-dramatically

    1. Is the Great Graphics Card Shortage Coming to an End?

      ‘Jon Peddie Research reports that cryptocurrency miners bought 700,000 graphics cards in Q1, accounting for a fourth of the total GPUs sold. So weak mining demand should ideally improve supply and help lower GPU prices. That’s what’s reportedly happening in China — the clampdown in mining has reportedly led to a reduction of up to 45% in graphics card prices, according to Tom’s Hardware. China’s sway on the global mining market could lead to a further GPU price correction, especially considering that lower mining profits could force many miners to offload their cards in the pre-owned market.’

      https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/06/25/is-the-great-graphics-card-shortage-ending/

      45%? So many shortages ending. Maybe there never was a shortage of toilet paper and onions?

      1. With globalist hoarders pulling the strings, it’s entirely possible that what the MSM sells as shortages are actually just intentional market manipulations to separate greater fools from their money.

    1. “…if you’re fairly new to cryptocurrency, you should know that digital coins can be far more volatile than stocks, and for that reason alone, you may want to invest only a small portion of your assets in that market. In fact, a good rule of thumb is to go into cryptocurrencies assuming you’ll lose all of your money.”

      Sounds more like casino gambling than investing.

  25. San Francisco, CA Housing Prices Crater 13% YOY As Panic Selling Sends Inventory Soaring Across California

    https://www.movoto.com/san-francisco-ca/market-trends/

    As one industry insider remarked, “There is no ‘shortage’ of housing with 25 million excess, empty and defaulted houses out there. The housing business is notorious for lying.”

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