thehousingbubble@gmail.com
Blog

A Pack Of Fools

A weekend topic starting with Realtor.com. “In today’s wild housing market, it may seem that the only successful homebuyers are either uber-rich or now house poor after spending everything they had on an overpriced home. In the Los Angeles metropolitan area (which includes the suburbs), buyers put an additional 13.4% of their income toward mortgage payments in May compared with a year earlier. Buyers in Atlanta paid 12.4% more of their earnings, while those in Chicago forked over 11.7% more. ‘Once the interest rate increases a little bit, mortgage payments will increase a lot,’ says Realtor.com economist Jiayi Xu. ‘Buyers could be overextended even past the 2008 peak.'”

From US News and World Reports. “With the prices of some stocks, bonds and real estate listings reaching stratospheric levels, investors may fear that they’re facing an ever-expanding asset bubble. And when it comes to bubbles, the concern is what will happen when they inevitably ‘pop,’ causing demand to drop and assets to shed their value. For investors, that could mean holding an asset that is nearly worthless.”

“Are these home price increases sustainable? Or are homebuyers locking themselves into a bubble? ‘There is a point where pricing exceeds the ability to service the debt and the price, and we’re very close to that,’ says Doug Prickett, senior managing director of investments at Transwestern Investment Group, a real estate investment advisor based in Dallas. ‘It doesn’t mean it’s going to go backwards. It just means it’s going to slow down.'”

The Toronto Sun. “It’s been dubbed the ‘perfect storm’: ultra low borrowing costs, tight supply and increased demand for single-family homes have created a super-charged real estate market that’s forcing many Canadians to shift their financial planning strategies. ‘If the purpose of buying an investment property or principal residence was to sell and fund your retirement, you have to ask yourself if it’s going to get much better than this,’ says David Semerak, a senior wealth advisor at Meridian Credit Union. ‘The entry costs of homeownership are just so burdensome that on a beginner salary, almost 100 per cent of your disposable income would go to fund this mortgage.'”

Two reports from Domain News in Australia. “Property prices across Australia are now more than five times household disposable incomes and set to climb higher still, as the property market booms while wage growth remains sluggish. As it is, Sydney’s median house price of about $1.41 million is about 23 times higher than the median employee income in Greater Sydney, Domain modelling shows. The unit median is 13 times higher. Melbourne house prices are almost 18 times higher than local incomes, with house prices also at least 10 times higher than incomes in Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart and Canberra.”

“First-home buyers are swooping on units and apartments in Melbourne’s inner suburbs being sold off by investors hoping to cash out at the top of the market. It comes as rental yields weaken across the city, pushing many investors to make the choice between selling up or holding on. First-home buyers Lizzie Wagner and Mitch op’t Hoog have just moved into a two-bedroom unit in Surrey Hills sold by an investor. Although they are thrilled with their $906,000 purchase, they know they didn’t exactly get a bargain.”

“‘With the market being so hot, we know we definitely paid top dollar,’ Lizzie said. ‘But it was worth it just to be out of the race during lockdown. It was such a stressful time, and while we would have really loved to get it for about $880,00 to $890,000, we thought we just had to do it.'”

A press release. “Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Utah’s housing market has gone from mildly stressful to nearly unbearable for some would-be homeowners. With many new Woodside Homes becoming available each day, you will not be put on a waitlist unlike other housing options. Simply contact Woodside Homes, arrange your build and/or purchase process, and you’re in! No waitlist necessary. ‘My husband and I built and bought our first home through Woodside. Being a first-time homebuyer is scary and we had no idea what we were doing. But Woodside walked us through every step with a professional and amazing kindness,’ wrote one reviewer.”

The Epoch Times. “Valerie Voss, a real estate agent in the Inland Empire area of southern California, reports that the buyers she’s seeing are no longer showing up with $50,000 and $75,000 for a down payment. Indeed, she says, ‘If you’re an FHA buyer with 3.5 percent down, now is the first time in a long time you have a good change to be able to move into a home of your own.'”

From Roseville Today in California. “Local Roseville Realtor, Julie Jalone continues to hear from my buyer clients that the current Sacramento housing market is overpriced. They point out that they are seeing price reductions to prove their point. ‘Recently I read an article that 28 percent of listings in the Sacramento area have seen a price reduction. Many of these sellers are referring to their reduction as a discount. Even in an aggressive market sellers should understand a price reduction is just getting closer to where the price should have been to start.'”

The Washington Post. “After three years of searching for a home in their preferred neighborhood in Silver Spring, Md., Chris Lancette and Won-ok Kim made an offer on a house in a different neighborhood. ‘The moment we turned in the offer, as nice as the house was, I literally started sobbing,’ said Lancette, 52-year-old owner of Orion’s Attic, an estate-liquidation company. ‘Won-ok was depressed, too, but we had put our agent, the lender and the seller’s agent through all that work, and we felt it was too late to back out.'”

“Lancette and Kim were thrilled when they were outbid for that house. Their agent, Carolyn Sappenfield with Re/Max Realty Services in Bethesda, Md., told them afterward that they should never make an offer on a house they don’t love. While Lancette and Kim eventually bought their dream home, in their preferre neighborhood, many buyers in today’s crazy real estate market regret their decision.”

“A survey by Bankrate found that about a third of baby boomer buyers (ages 57 to 75) regretted their decision. According to the survey, 64 percent of millennial home buyers (ages 25 to 40) have at least some regrets about their purchase. The main reason for buyer’s remorse: money.”

The Globe and Mail. “Housing skeptics argue that Canada’s real estate frenzy is a bubble that will inevitably explode, just as the U.S. property boom did in spectacular fashion back in 2007. But what if the skeptics are reading history wrong? The U.S. experience over the past two decades has been widely misinterpreted, according to recent research from a trio of economists. In a paper entitled The 2000s Housing Cycle with 2020 Hindsight, the researchers point out that while U.S. home prices were unquestionably frothy in 2006, they weren’t entirely the speculative lunacy that is commonly perceived.”

“The strongest evidence for that viewpoint is that U.S. home prices recovered strongly after their plunge from 2007 to 2012. Looking back over the course of the entire past 20 years, the pattern ‘is not a boom-bust but rather a boom-bust-rebound,’ write Gabriel Chodorow-Reich of Harvard University, Timothy McQuade of the University of California, Berkeley, and Adam Guren of Boston University.”

“To put that another way, bubble-era speculators were undoubtedly premature, but they were not necessarily wrong. The housing crash devastated home prices for a few years, but it did not leave them in a permanent hole.”

“Fundamental factors appear to have played a larger role then previously thought, according to the researchers. They found that the cities that had the biggest booms in the bubble period between 1997 and 2006 also had the largest busts – but that was then followed by the strongest rebounds. This suggests bubble-era buyers were not, by and large, a pack of fools. These investors were correct in thinking that the long-run outlook for real estate in several cities had fundamentally improved.”

“Where these buyers went wrong was in being too optimistic about the short term and taking on too much debt as a result. This led to financial fragility and a crash that dragged home prices below their fundamental value. However, once that shock was past, strong fundamentals powered an impressive rebound.”

From Asahi on China. “In Shenzhen in the same province, where Evergrande Group’s headquarters is located, a fierce protest rally took place from Sept. 13 to Sept. 14. More than 100 people participated, repeating calls of, ‘Return to us the money that we earned with our sweat and blood.'”

“One protester, a 40-year-old company employee in Zhongshan in the same province, said the construction of an apartment she bought in Zhongshan two years ago has been suspended. The woman also bought an investment product worth 400,000 yuan or about 6.8 million yen ($62,385) from Evergrande Group as it was billed as bearing 10 percent annual interest.”

“‘I trusted Evergrande Group because it is a top player in the industry,’ she said. ‘Under the current circumstances, I may not be able to get even the principal back.'”

Related Posts
This Post Has 95 Comments

  1. ‘Although they are thrilled with their $906,000 purchase, they know they didn’t exactly get a bargain…‘With the market being so hot, we know we definitely paid top dollar’

    A winnah! Think of it like this Lizzie: it’s Australian pesos. So what is 900k in the rest of the world, tree-fiddy?

  2. ‘Return to us the money that we earned with our sweat and blood’

    Come on protestors, according to these professors you were just early!

    ‘a 40-year-old company employee in Zhongshan in the same province, said the construction of an apartment she bought in Zhongshan two years ago has been suspended. The woman also bought an investment product worth 400,000 yuan or about 6.8 million yen ($62,385) from Evergrande Group as it was billed as bearing 10 percent annual interest’

    So she bought an non-existent airbox, paid for an “investment product”, and has a job that can’t pay. A triple winnah!

    ‘I trusted Evergrande Group because it is a top player in the industry’

    You got played alright!

    ‘Under the current circumstances, I may not be able to get even the principal back’

    I’d bet 5 bucks you won’t see a red cent.

    2. ‘I trusted Evergrande Group because it is a top player in the industry’

      How many Enron “investors” said the same thing?

  3. ‘My husband and I built and bought our first home through Woodside. Being a first-time homebuyer is scary and we had no idea what we were doing. But Woodside walked us through every step with a professional and amazing kindness,’ wrote one reviewer.”

    Would you take the advice of a self confessed ignoramus?

  4. Ello Mite

    David Estcourt
    @davidestcourt
    Protesters break through the police line, an officer gets assaulted and trampled by demonstrators, people are screaming and covered in capsicum spray @theage

    https://twitter.com/davidestcourt/status/1439070855418368000?s=20

    Australian police clash with anti-lockdown protesters after failing to suppress dissent with overwhelming force, threat of arrests

    by RT
    September 18th 2021, 5:46 am

    Clashes erupted with police in Melbourne, Australia after a crowd of anti-lockdown protesters gathered to demand an end to weeks of draconian restrictions, despite an all-out effort by authorities to prevent demonstrations.

    Brief clashes with officers were captured on film, with protesters seen hurling bottles as police responded with pepper spray. At one chaotic moment, demonstrators crashed through a police line, setting off a melee as the crowd proceeded down the road.

      1. “Right at 8 seconds a guy does a full body chop on one cop.”

        When you’re covering kickoffs, punts or pissed off people breaking through police lines while protesting unlawful lockdowns you gotta keep your head on a swivel or those blindside hits will happen. 🙂

        Oh well, that’s my football for the weekend. I think it was last weekend my football viewing consisted of a fjb chant in various college stadiums that was posted on this site.

      3. Then he gets mowed down and trampled by the herd🤣…. the stupid bastard.

        Goes to show you that LE power is quite fragile.

    2. The paid government toady posters came out in force on twitter. Calling t he protestors “idiots”. “how hard is it to stay home and do as you’re told?”, etc.

    3. Notice the communist lexicon of labels and descriptions encroaching our / their republic of We The People.
      “Dissent”.

  5. Today is Saturday, September 18th and Joe Biden is not the legitimately elected president of the United States.

    The 2020 election was stolen.

    1. Sponsored content promotion provided by the Southern Poverty Law Center:

      “No sooner have the echoes of the 9/11 memorials faded, than we are being reminded, yet again, of the threat posed by domestic extremists. The “Justice for J6” rally being held in Washington today makes clear that although extremists have been relatively quiet since the Jan. 6 insurrection, they are still active and menacing.”

      https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/572848-domestic-extremists-return-to-the-capitol

      Globalists gonna globe.

      1. Emphasis on the phrase “sponsored content” because the Southern Poverty Law Center is not a civil rights organization, it is a *for-profit* domestic spy agency. They should rename themselves the Defamation League because that is who they are, and what they do.

        Stop being afraid of naming names. These Deep State goons only have credibility because the normies are brainwashed and globalist rags like the Washington Post claim they have credibility.

        1. And no, “Replacement Theory” is not a theory, it’s a blueprint for white genocide.

          The Democrat Party is the party of white genocide.

          I can’t be cancelled, and the only way I can be silenced is to kill me.

          There are over eighty million Lone Wolves out there. F* around and find out, globalist filth…

      2. The “Justice for J6” rally being held in Washington today makes clear that although extremists have been relatively quiet since the Jan. 6 insurrection, they are still active and menacing.”

        “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”

        ― H.L. Mencken

        1. “active and menacing”

          Straight out of the globalist Style Guide (cough, Real Journalists) with that word choice.

          Remember when BLM and Antifa were active and menacing, as in two billion dollars of property damage, dozens of murders, and an incalculable number of carjackings and assaults?

          Globalists, please know that we will be using your own Saul Alinsky tactics against you. And you should be afraid of those of us that can’t cancelled from anything, because we are not afraid of you.

          P.S. the naming of names will continue…

          1. we will be using your own Saul Alinsky tactics against you

            Actually that doesn’t work on them, so take the shortcut.

      1. Like hell they did. This is just a fake narrative of fear so as to ready the sheep to jab the school children forcefully. Suddenly they want to jab children when previously children had natural immunity.

    2. Of course, mountains will be moved to treat him and his family. I’m sure Ivermectin will be used, though not reported.

  7. Nicki Minaj fans march on CDC HQ chanting that star ‘told the truth’ on vaccines

    https://pagesix.com/2021/09/17/nicki-minaj-fans-chat-at-cdc-hq-that-star-told-the-truth-on-vaccines/?_ga=2.157096379.1418635218.1631837548-310975459.1628534074

    “Nicki told the truth to me! Fauci lied to me!” the rabble chanted, referring to White House infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, who said this week there’s “no evidence” backing Minaj’s claims.

    Protest leaders told CBS46 that they trusted the “Chun-Li” star’s word over that of CDC officials and Fauci.

    1. Thanks for posting. She is a hero and this whole controversy is the greatest, most bizarre, absurd and damaging story to ever happen to the totalitarian bureaucratic class.

      The high and mighty “experts” probably never imagined in their wildest dreams they would have to come down from their high horses to debate a hip hop star over her cousin’s friend’s problem.

        1. It’s a sign of the times that encouraging people to think for themselves has become such a radical and subversive concept.

          1. “In a time of universal deceit — telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” – attributed by some to Orwell.

          2. She was NOT born in America so she will get a woke pass…‘Don’t Tell Me I Can’t Agree with a Republican’

  8. Stories about the Evergrande saga are starting to use the c-word. No, not the one that aptly describes all male Biden supporters – the “contagion” word. The “oh dear” moment in time approacheth….

    Teetering property developer Evergrande sparks contagion fears for China’s economy

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/china-evergrande-explainer-1.6179508

    Property developer China Evergrande Group is teetering on the brink of collapse, weighed down by a giant debt load and billions of dollars in real estate it can’t sell as quickly or as profitably as anticipated.

    While trouble has been brewing for a year, it’s coming to a head now, as the conglomerate missed one loan payment in June and more are expected. Evergrande’s offices were the site of angry protests this week, and things could get even uglier on Monday when the company is likely to miss another key interest payment to its increasingly concerned financiers.

  10. As it is, Sydney’s median house price of about $1.41 million is about 23 times higher than the median employee income in Greater Sydney, Domain modelling shows.

    Heckova job, RBA central banker scum.

  11. But Woodside walked us through every step with a professional and amazing kindness,’ wrote one reviewer.”

    Ever heard of a Judas Goat at the slaughterhouse, future FB couple? He seems like a kindly trustworthy fellow, too. “Follow me, little lambs!”

  12. ‘The moment we turned in the offer, as nice as the house was, I literally started sobbing,’ said Lancette, 52-year-old owner of Orion’s Attic, an estate-liquidation company.

    You’ve got a lot more sobbing ahead of you, Lancette.

  13. According to the survey, 64 percent of millennial home buyers (ages 25 to 40) have at least some regrets about their purchase. The main reason for buyer’s remorse: money.”

    Millennials have officially surpassed the Boomers as the most worthless generation these shores have ever raised up.

    1. When they’ve been scr3wed over as viciously as they have by the older generations, the Millennials sometimes see borrowing to the hilt and hoping for hyperinflation as their best shot at a reasonable lifestyle.

      An entirely rational strategy, and at least as morally defensible as the SS program and other darlings of the WWII/New Deal set.

      1. Is that why they came out in wildly excited droves for “free sh!t” Bernie?
        Like the BLM mentality — destroy with a tantrum.

        1. Just try “cutting” Social Security payouts (meaning not increasing them as fast as retirees would like via Cost of Living Adjustments) and you’ll find out what tantrums really are.

  14. More than 100 people participated, repeating calls of, ‘Return to us the money that we earned with our sweat and blood.’”

    Color that money gone, bagholders. Maybe you should dust off your Little Red Books and read up on Maoist-style revolution.

  15. “In Shenzhen in the same province, where Evergrande Group’s headquarters is located, a fierce protest rally took place from Sept. 13 to Sept. 14.

    Sorry, Shenzhen baggies, but stamping your little feet isn’t going to restore your vaporized “investments.” The best we can do is link you up with another bunch of blubbering bereft losers.

    Butt-Hurt Crying Hillary Voters Compilation

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grD_IINiH9c&t=9s

    1. Any Dumver area gun buyers, I recommend Ark Tactical in Lakewood. The staff are very knowledgable and helpful, and there is a good selection for it being a smaller store.

      They have a cardboard cutout of Betaboy O’Rourke (gun salesman of the year 2018 & 2019) in the store. And a poster from Spike Armor that says “Not today, Antifa.” That poster was controversial to the globalist grabbers, because how dare anyone stand up to the Soros goon squad Democrat Party brownshirts 🙁

  17. I understand August prices went up again (haven’t drilled into the report), but I keep reminding myself that I should be fanning these flames! Let them continue as long as possible, it will add to the inventory of upside-down owners and also the spikes always over correct on the bottom proportionate to how high they went. So higher is better, just need to wait a bit longer.

      1. It could make for an “interesting” situation, where 3 out of 4 houses on any street are unoccupied and falling into disrepair, until they collapse. Of course, the Davos crowd might just import 3rd worlders to occupy those shacks. Of course, that means they will still fall into disrepair and collapse.

  19. Do you think Soros gave these Snopes people a raise?

    Did Biden Say ‘My Butt’s Been Wiped?’

    Dan Evon
    Published 26 July 2021

    Claim
    A video shows President Biden yelling “My butt’s been wiped” to a gaggle of reporters near Marine One.

    Rating
    Unproven

    Context
    This is a genuine video, but it’s improbable that the president said “My butt’s been wiped.” While we can’t definitively say what Biden said, neither can anyone else.

    https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/did-biden-say-my-butts-been-wiped/

    we
    Kate Hyde
    @KateHydeNY

    Which reporter will be the one to ask
    @PressSec whether or not he said #MyButtsBeenWiped?

    https://twitter.com/KateHydeNY/status/1419387819953463296?s=20

    1. Great post.

      People need to see what the paid thugs of the ruling class are willing to do. The more it is seen the more people will react like those in Ben’s post of a few weeks ago where a bunch of people jumped in to stop 5 or so police from beating a man who they had on the ground at a sports event.

    1. in late August, 23-year-old Vashante Gray, her two children aged two and six, and her mother, Kristi Brown, 45, found themselves with no place to live.
      Thanks to funding from a local community group, Gray and her two children have been in a hotel since. Her mother is being housed in a hotel as well, but in a different one across town, leaving Gray without childcare and struggling to get herself to work and her children to school as a result.

      Two free hotel rooms and she’s still complaining. Where are the multiple fathers?
      And really? Every parent now gets $300+ per month per kid cash plus all the other taxpayer freebies

      Major tax relief for nearly
      all working families:

      $3,000 to $3,600 per child [per year] for nearly all working families

      The Child Tax Credit in the American Rescue Plan provides the largest child tax credit ever and historic relief to the most working families ever.

      https://www.whitehouse.gov/child-tax-credit/

      Now becoming a permanent payment.

      Border rush?

  22. I have a couple friends who work 100% at home, yet face dismissal if they don’t take the jab.

    Do you have any suggestions for how they can keep their jobs without yielding to dictatorship?

    1. Religious exemption. Being tested weekly to prove your not infected but demand that the test has under 30 revolutions. File a lawsuit against employer or whoever. Let them fire you and wait for other lawsuits that make them reinstate fired employees. Don’t quit I heard a lawyer saying, make them fire you.
      Most people think that the mandates are going to be proven to be against the Constitution. The LA Firefighters have filed a lawsuit against being mandated to take shots.
      I don’t understand why there isn’t a Judicial Stay on enforcement of mandates until the high Court can rule, especially since there are so many lawsuits.
      Losing your job is a extreme punishment for not wanting to be part of Big Pharmacy lab rat expierments.
      In the final analysis don’t take something you don’t really want to take and allow yourself to be fired .
      No doubt they are using this Medical Fraud to destroy business and employment.

      2. An experimental vaccine cannot be mandated.

        The full FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine kinda puts the kibosh on “experimental.” I’m sure the Admin was waiting for that approval before letting the dogs out.

        1. full FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine

          Debatable, but ultimately not my problem. I’m not too inclined to assist someone with the very thing he mocks me about.

        2. full FDA approval

          Without trial or public comment while ignoring adverse effects. The FDA is a joke and a crime.

          1. And IIRC circumvented the very advisory panel that just came back with the 16-2 decision not to recommend boosters for everyone over 16yo.

    3. Isn’t there an option to get tested instead.

      My employer has so far been silent on the mandate. I have received no threatening emails from HR.

    1. I still say why should the 65+ , about 40 million I guess be lab rats for the booster. The original shots aren’t safe and effective and they have valid meds that cure a high percentage of the cases of Covid in elderly Patients.
      I guess its progress that the advisors voted 16 to 2 against booster shots in every arm, but it doesn’t address the original shots being failures that aren’t safe or effective.
      It was Big Pharmacy that decided to launch this questionable new technology that they knew wasn’t safe when tested on animals, so how dare they roll this out under emergency use authorization during a contrived Pandemic.
      The 65+ have a right to not be killed prematurely, or any human of any age. Just saying .

      1. I’m gonna guess that any oldster that already had the jab will be rushing out to get the booster. No coercion required.

  24. “The strongest evidence for that viewpoint is that U.S. home prices recovered strongly after their plunge from 2007 to 2012.”

    I saw a price history the other day –

    9/2021 Listed $1,550,000 +165%
    8/1997 Sold $585,000
    10/1985 Sold $456,000

    That sure is some “recovery,” with prices fairly steady for over a decade then multiplying by 3x in 20 years. Sounds more like a bubble.

    “strong fundamentals powered an impressive rebound.”

    Never mind the unprecedented, globally-coordinated, break-every-rule financial manipulation by central banks post-2012 to get that price way, way, way up.

  26. SFH is rayciss, yo. The globalists’ Great Reset requires us to live in diverse, densely-packed multi-family housing units where we can be more easily monitored, surveilled, and controlled. Forward!

    Editorial: Watch out, NIMBYs. Newsom just dumped single-family zoning

    https://news.yahoo.com/editorial-watch-nimbys-newsom-just-224050979.html

    In one of his first moves after surviving the recall, Gov. Gavin Newsom took his boldest steps yet to fix California’s housing shortage by signing a package of bills that will transform the state by getting rid of single-family zoning and making it easier to build the housing the state so desperately needs.

    Of the three housing bills Newsom signed Thursday, the most consequential is Senate Bill 9 because it will allow up to four units of housing on a single-family lot. Another, Senate Bill 10, creates a voluntary program that makes it easier for cities to upzone any urban or transit-adjacent parcel of land, including a single-family lot, to allow a building of 10 units or fewer.

    1. What’s funny is that I’ve heard of old apartment complexes being torn down and being replaced with pricey SFH in silly valley.

    1. canada’s top health official (and provaxinator) gets bell’s palsy

      Ironically, your link refers to an American man, not Dr. Tam.

      1. it looked like the correct link when i copied it. don’t know what happened. thanks for letting me know. now back to my ironing.

    2. “If we don’t get the money, we can’t eat,” said Li, who’d driven for 24 hours to the Shenzhen headquarters.

      That’s like driving from Seattle to Tucson via Los Angeles.

    3. “Property giants like Evergrande have boomed in the last few decades on a model of vast borrowing and fast expansion, relying on cash flows from apartments it would someday build to construct apartments it had already sold.”

      Pyramid scheme?

  29. Your probably right Colorado because they are so fear based and brainwashed by fake news. High compliance with the 65+ age group. Other options for treatments are being suppressed or smeared.

    Just saw a Documentary on Bill Gates and he’s a evil son of a bitch , no question.

    2. We can’t vote our way out of this. The California recall clearly shows that. The polls showed that it would be close, yet the “official” tally showed Gruesome winning by a huge margin.

      Just wait, when Aus and NZ have their next elections, the incumbents will be “re-elected” by a wide margin. I have no illusion with next year’s midterms wresting control of the House or Senate back from the Dems. The election will be rigged, of that there is no doubt.

      One comforting thought for me is that millions of Americans bought their first firearm in the past two years. I’m sure the tyrants want to find a way to disarm us.

      2. The California recall clearly shows that.

        My ballot is STILL showing as outbound. WTF?!?! I hand-delivered it to a polling place and dropped it in a “secure” yellow bag on Tuesday morning.

        1. The numbers don’t even look right in California at all. I believe it was rigged, but Larry Elder decided not to challenge it .

          People aren’t even going to want to run if the system is rigged against them.

    1. The Financial Times
      Opinion The Long View
      Investors rein in risk for fear of ‘doing something stupid’ before year end
      More cautious mood sinking into markets as economic optimism fades
      Shoppers in Beijing in October 2020. Retail sales in China this week proved much more feeble than economists had predicted
      Katie Martin yesterday

      The end of the year is almost in sight. Pumpkin spice lattes are back and supermarkets are starting to plaster images of mince pies on their apps. (Too soon, in my view.)

      At this point in the calendar, fund managers have one key task: Don’t do anything stupid. The largesse of central banks and governments has propped up their returns rather nicely in 2021, and unless they break that golden rule with an ill-fated blowout bet, most are on track to post respectable figures for the full year.

      “It feels like doing something stupid now would be particularly punishing,” said David Riley, chief investment strategist at BlueBay Asset Management. Ideally, you try not to do it at all, as he pointed out, but doing it now, with the year getting old and risky markets priced for perfection, “would be much less forgiving”.

      That may help explain a big shift in sentiment. Suddenly, investors have grown much more cautious.

      Bank of America’s latest monthly survey of fund managers — a key gauge of the market mood — showed this week that optimism was “tanking”. Out of the 232 fund managers surveyed this month, with a combined $800bn in assets, just a small cohort — a net 13 per cent — are now expecting a stronger global economy.

      A pullback in almost universal optimism from this spring, when we started to emerge blinking from lockdowns, is inevitable. But a month ago, the proportion of optimists was twice that size. Investors have not been this downbeat since April 2020.

      Similarly, expectations for corporate profits have fallen hard. Just 12 per cent think they will improve, down from 41 per cent in the previous month and the lowest since May last year.

      China is really helping to stir nerves here. Perhaps counter-intuitively, that is not because of the debt stress that is hitting the country’s property sector. Rightly or wrongly, global investors believe that the crisis gripping developer Evergrande is akin to a controlled implosion, with few if any domino-toppling repercussions for overseas banks.

      If anything, analysts suspect the Evergrande meltdown may encourage China’s central bank to reinstate more of its coronavirus-era monetary support. The coming weeks will no doubt test that upbeat view.

      Instead, the main concern is that we have passed the point of peak growth, particularly in China, where retail sales this week proved much more feeble than economists had predicted and industrial production has also proved surprisingly flimsy. Investors are wary over which pocket of markets may attract Beijing’s ire next, after its swipes at the education, tech and gaming sectors.

      But it is not only China. Citigroup’s global economic surprise index — a measure of the degree to which economic data releases exceed or disappoint economists’ expectations — has plunged to minus 16 points, down from about plus 90 points as recently as June. In other words, despite the growing wave of pessimism, analysts and economists failed to anticipate how badly the economy would perform.

      Globally, the Delta coronavirus variant is not magically disappearing. And arguably the scariest markets risk of the year — inflation — is proving to be alarmingly sticky.
      …

  34. “A survey by Bankrate found that about a third of baby boomer buyers (ages 57 to 75) regretted their decision. According to the survey, 64 percent of millennial home buyers (ages 25 to 40) have at least some regrets about their purchase. The main reason for buyer’s remorse: money.”

    I told my ex girlfriend’s Son before he left for College:

    “Never, ever make a big money decision that’s influenced by EMOTION…ever. Do your homework, look at all the facts and make sure you take emotion out of the decision process.”

Comments are closed.