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A Wonder Drug That Cures The Macroeconomic Diseases It Causes

A report from Mortgage Professional America. “With more than 20 years’ experience in the mortgage industry, Kirk Tatom, the president of Dallas-based Tatom Lending, started his company back in 2007. As for clients who were still determined to get the home of their choice – no matter the cost or effort – Tatom had this to say: ‘We are being very stern with our borrowers on what they can qualify for. People will try to push it as much as they can.’ He said: ‘The seller still thinks they’re in the driver’s seat, but sellers aren’t going to realize that the party’s over. I always say if it’s on the news, it’s too late.'”

From The Sentinel in Colorado. “An active summer for the Mesa County housing market has given way to what should be a calmer autumn. Active listings are lasting longer on the market now than they have the rest of the year. ‘It’s not nearly as crazy as before, meaning homes would come on the market and then, if they were anywhere close to the market price, they would just fly off the market,’ said Bray Realtor Brian Donaldson. ‘It was just a total frenzy since the beginning of the year, all the way through July even. In August, it started to slow down. The number of buyers has curtailed, at least.'”

“Donaldson partly attributes the increase in active listings to what he calls ‘buyer fatigue.’ ‘We’ve talked about it a lot of here at the office, that buyers, in many ways, had buyer fatigue,’ he said. ‘Buyers were going out there and had to battle with multiple offers. They got tired.'”

The Red Rock News in Arizona. “With the recent housing boom, there are a number of new residents moving into Sedona as current residents take advantage of the high cost of home prices, sell and move away. Many of the other properties, however, are those being purchased by younger people, especially refugees from California or elsewhere who were paying the same or more at home than the asking price to buy property in the Sedona area.”

“But once the newness of Sedona wears off and these residents begin to consider what our region can offer, it becomes questionable how long they will remain or if they will stay in the Sedona area for an extended period of time. Quite simply, there is not a whole lot to do. Other homes are being purchased specifically to use as vacation rentals. That market may reach saturation sooner than homebuyers think. One vacation rental in a neighbor­hood may be appealing, but if there are 10 on one street, they’re competing for the same pool of tourists.”

“Once this housing boom levels off, many of the new residents will find themselves in a small town in a small community, and trying to resell those homes to someone who does appreciate what we offer may be hard for over­priced properties. Some who moved here at the COVID- 19 pandemic have already put their houses back on the market. Right now, they can make a profit, but that won’t last forever.”

“As those who moved here to get away from major cities realize Sedona isn’t Simi Valley and Cottonwood isn’t Carmel, we might be left with a lot of unhappy folks just trying to get out without losing more than they spent.”

From Curbed New York. “For years, 432 Park was the darling of Billionaire’s Row. Unlike One57, with its garish exterior and its reputation for being little more than a safe deposit box in the sky, 432 Park was known as the building where real New Yorkers wanted to live. Not anymore. The building had been plagued by problems, including elevators that shut down during high winds, in one case trapping a resident inside for more than an hour on Halloween of 2019. And now the condo board has filed a lawsuit against the developers.”

“Everyone likes a deal. But no one wants to get stuck with a lemon. Or, God forbid, in an elevator during a windstorm. ‘Mold and leaks are one thing,’ said Donna Olshan, a Manhattan broker, ‘but the feedback I’ve gotten today is ‘Oh my God, I don’t want to be caught in an elevator for hours as the building sways.’ That’s the detail that sends shivers up your spine.'”

“Though the revelations last winter cast a pall over the building, there was a certain amount of willful disbelief that a potential buyer could maintain. It could all be chalked up to a few disgruntled buyers disappointed in how they’d spent their tens of millions and frustrated that they couldn’t offload their apartments during COVID.”

The News Tribune in Washington. “A judge entered an $11.49 million judgment against the Point Ruston project Friday as part of a lawsuit that accused the project of trying to defraud a lender. That lender, AURC, represents 132 immigrants who invested a total of $66 million in the project as part of a visa program that would allow them to get green cards. ‘It’s individual human beings that are not being repaid,’ who each invested $500,000, said Russell Knight, an attorney who represented AURC.”

“The arbitrator noted the transfers were made from entities controlled by the Cohens to entities also owned by the Cohens. Another part of the decision explained: ‘… after the transfers, the debtor’s remaining assets were unreasonably small; and the debtor reasonably should have believed it would incur debts beyond its ability to pay as they became due, since after the transfers, PR II was left with no assets from which to pay AURC.'”

“‘Point Ruston itself won’t go anywhere,’ Knight said. ‘The project will still be a public space that people can go. It will just have different owners.'”

The Irish Times. “Two years ago Dublin City University announced it was about to build ‘affordable’ accommodation for 1,240 students at its Glasnevin campus. It had full planning permission and finance in place – all that remained was for the building to start. It never did. ‘It would have almost doubled our on-campus accommodation,’ says DCU president Daire Keogh. ‘But building costs meant it was going to cost between €140,000-€150,000 per student bed. So, we’d have had to charge something like €15,000-€16,000 a year to students, even though our other on-campus accommodation is €5,500. How could we do that?'”

“‘Providing cheap loans to build accommodation isn’t a problem; it’s that we can’t rent the beds at reasonable prices,’ says one university source.”

From Business World on the Philippines. “Residential property prices in the second quarter contracted at its steepest rate since 2016, primarily due to the continued decline in prices of condominium units and single houses amid the prolonged pandemic. Nationwide, the prices of condominium units declined 14.3% year on year in the second quarter, reversing the 30.1% increase in the same period last year. This is also the steepest contraction since the 15% drop in the third quarter of 2020. It was also the fourth straight quarter of a decline in condominium prices.”

“Demand for property has been subdued, particularly in Metro Manila, said Joey Roi H. Bondoc, associate director for research at Colliers International Philippines. Home prices in Metro Manila decreased 18.3%, mainly due to the lower prices of single attached/detached houses (-22.5%), condominium units (-17.8%) and townhomes (-3.5%).  He noted that only 10,000 condominium units were taken up in the pre-selling market for the first half, adding the industry is unlikely to equal the 36,000 units brought in 2020. ‘We no longer see demand from POGOs (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators), while local end-users and investors are still on a wait and see,’ Mr. Bondoc said.”

The Guardian. “In November 2019, Evergrande’s founder, Xu Jiayin, was speaking at the launch of a car venture, one of the many side businesses spun out from China’s second-largest property group. Two years later, Xu’s empire is in ruins. ‘Xu is a colourful figure. He lived an extravagant lifestyle that is now frowned upon by Xi as he kicks off his ‘common prosperity’ campaign,’ says Dexter Roberts, senior fellow at the Washington DC-based Atlantic Council Asia Security Initiative. ‘For a long time, Evergrande’s business model, borrowing large sums of money and aggressively selling apartments that have not even been built, seemed like a smoking gun.'”

From Nikkei Asia. “As China Evergrande tries to claw its way out of financial crisis and global markets fret over its fate, the lives of the ordinary people who work for the property developer and its many contractors are on hold. On Thursday, about 10 middle-aged people gathered in front of the entrance to the group’s sales office in Taicang, a provincial city next to Shanghai. Sitting on plastic stools and laying out what appeared to be maps of a development project, they have been coming to this spot for days, protesting outstanding payments.”

“‘Evergrande may have defaulted on bond payments as the media reported,’ said the group’s leader, a man who only identified himself as Li. ‘That’s its problem. We just want what’s due to us.’ Some 70 km away at Evergrande’s Riverside Mansion construction site in Suzhou City, a man stood guard at the entrance security post. ‘No money,’ he said when asked why there were hardly any workers. ‘The contractor has not been paid by Evergrande.'”

From ABC News. “Lai Xiaomin’s once-glittering career ended not with the popping of champagne corks and glowing testimonials, but at the hands of an executioner. Once known as the God of Wealth, Lai oversaw one of China’s biggest and most important state-owned enterprises, Huarong Asset Management. But he died stripped of his enormous power and wealth on a bleak Friday morning in late January in Tianjin, most likely via a lethal concoction of drugs.”

“Accused of bribery, embezzlement and bigamy, the 58-year-old’s unseemly end followed three years of investigations and came just three weeks after the High People’s Court dismissed his appeal for clemency. Lai’s demise and the parlous state of Huarong, which was bailed out by Beijing just weeks ago after months of internal bickering and party room machinations, hangs over that other teetering monolith, property group China Evergrande.”

“Established in 1999 by Beijing in the wake of the Asian Financial Crisis, Huarong was tasked with mopping up the bad debts of incompetently run state-owned enterprises. Under Lai, a former banking regulator, it went on steroids, expanded into investment banking and shadow lending, extending credit to firms who couldn’t raise cash elsewhere. Along the way, it turned into a debt-ridden mess and a flashpoint for jittery global investors who had pumped in $US23 billion ($32b) on the understanding authorities viewed the bank as ‘too big to fail.'”

“There’s no doubt a total collapse of Evergrande would severely damage China’s economy. But a complete bailout could be equally disastrous and is looking increasingly unlikely. China’s property market is worth around $US60 trillion ($83 trillion). It represents about 20 per cent of GDP and 62 per cent of household wealth.”

“For years, we’ve been hearing of the ‘inevitable rise of China’ and the advantages of a command economy. Engineering new pathways to wealth is difficult enough. For China, it is even harder after more than a decade of costly and inefficient stimulus, directed largely at housing and infrastructure. That path is no longer affordable. But each time Beijing tries to turn off the stimulus taps, the economy tanks. Each time it has been forced to backtrack, pouring in even more stimulus to fire up a recovery.”

“This is one of those moments. Does it allow Evergrande to implode, forcing millions into poverty, hardship and unemployment? Or does it rescue wealthy local investors at the expense of global investors and risk financial isolation? Or does it merely throw its hands up, rescue Evergrande and kick the problem further down the road? There are no easy answers. Just as there is no ‘inevitable rise.'”

From Project Syndicate. “Where has all the money gone? Amid all the talk of when and how to end or reverse quantitative easing (QE), one question is almost never discussed: Why have central banks’ massive doses of bond purchases in Europe and the United States since 2009 had so little effect on the general price level? A plausible generalization is that increasing the quantity of money through QE gives a big temporary boost to the prices of housing and financial securities, thus greatly benefiting the holders of these assets. A small proportion of this increased wealth trickles through to the real economy, but most of it simply circulates within the financial system.”

“The reason why QE has had hardly any effect on the general price level may be that a large part of the new money has fueled asset speculation, thus creating financial bubbles, while prices and output as a whole remained stable. One implication of this is that QE generates its own boom-and-bust cycles. Unlike orthodox Keynesians, who believed that crises were brought on by some external shock, the economist Hyman Minsky thought that the economic system could generate shocks through its own internal dynamics. Bank lending, Minsky argued, goes through three degenerative stages, which he dubbed hedge, speculation, and Ponzi.”

“At first, the borrower’s income needs to be sufficient to repay both the principal and interest on a loan. Then, it needs to be high enough to meet only the interest payments. And in the final stage, finance simply becomes a gamble that asset prices will rise enough to cover the lending. When the inevitable reversal of asset prices produces a crash, the increase in paper wealth vanishes, dragging down the real economy in its wake.”

“Minsky would thus view QE as an example of state-created financial instability. Today, there are already clear signs of mortgage-market excesses. U.K. house prices increased by 10.2 percent in the year to March 2021, the highest rate of growth since August 2007, while indices of overvaluation in the U.S. housing market are ‘flashing bright red.'”

“In Margaret Atwood’s futuristic 2003 novel Oryx and Crake, HelthWyzer, a drug development center that manufactures premium-brand vitamin pills, inserts a virus randomly into its pills, hoping to profit from the sale of both the pills and the antidote it has developed for the virus. The best type of diseases ‘from a business point of view,’ explains Crake, a mad scientist, ‘would be those that cause lingering illness […] the patient would either get well or die just before all of his or her money runs out. It’s a fine calculation.'”

“With QE, we have invented a wonder drug that cures the macroeconomic diseases it causes. That is why questions about the timing of its withdrawal are such ‘fine calculations.'”

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This Post Has 93 Comments

  2. ‘We are being very stern with our borrowers on what they can qualify for. People will try to push it as much as they can’

    The problem is that the vast majority of no-skin-in-the-game loan pushers are crooks:

    March 26, 2020

    “As America heads into a deep recession, the $11 trillion residential-mortgage market is in crisis. Investors who buy home loans packaged into bonds are dumping even those with federal backing because of panic that millions might not make their payments. Yet one risky sector had started to show cracks long before the coronavirus pandemic sparked the worst financial meltdown in 12 years: the federal government’s largest affordable-housing program, whose lenient terms are geared toward marginal borrowers.”

    “As real estate prices soared in recent years, working-class adults everywhere have increasingly relied on mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration — and U.S. taxpayers. Since 2007, the FHA’s portfolio has tripled in value to more than $1.2 trillion, almost 11% of the market. While private lenders make these loans, they are packaged into Ginnie Mae bonds, common in mutual funds and pensions.”

    “Before Covid-19 started roiling China, a November FHA report found that 27% of borrowers last year spent more than half their incomes on debt, a level it describes as ‘unprecedented.’ The share of FHA loans souring in their first six months has doubled over the last three years to almost 1%.”

    “Not long ago, Alex Castillo drove his shiny black Infiniti SUV through an office park north of the San Antonio airport, along a busy seven-mile stretch of highway that loan officers call ‘Mortgage Row’ because of its abundance of small independent mortgage companies that dominate FHA lending. Castillo, who has the words ‘The Dream Starts Here’ stitched into his jacket, works for Pennsylvania-based American Residential Lending. Oddly, amid the pandemic, his business is booming. His customers locked in FHA mortgages after interest rates plunged this month — adding to federally backed mortgage debt.”

    “‘If the government tells me you’re good enough to get a loan, I have to trust and believe in the government,’ Castillo said. ‘Then we just hope and pray that the client doesn’t get foreclosed on.’”

    “In downtown San Antonio, scores of investors stood on a parched lawn beside the city’s historic granite-and-red-sandstone courthouse. It was the first Tuesday of February, the day of the foreclosure auction. Matt Badders, a San Antonio lawyer who represents lenders, auctioned off two houses. The failed mortgages remind him of the run-up to the financial crisis 12 years ago, when lending to customers with spotty credit nearly brought down the world’s financial system. ‘We’re almost back to 2007, when mortgage originators are waking people up on park benches, saying sign here,’ Badders said.”

    “At the auction, the crowd bid on 338 homes, a third with FHA mortgages, according to Roddy’s Foreclosure Listing Service. One house had dual master bedrooms, a game room and granite kitchen counters. It sold for $202,000 — $52,000 less than the homeowner borrowed only two years ago. The taxpayer-backed FHA insurance fund will take a loss.”

    “Dave Stevens, FHA commissioner under President Barack Obama and former chief executive officer of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said a recession will expose hidden risks in home lending. ‘This should be an alarm bell to policymakers,’ Stevens said. ‘Sometimes you get blinded by a good economy and suddenly look at it and see a bubble of defaults coming.’”

    “The federal government has decided it doesn’t want to pursue — and has asked a judge to dismiss — a lawsuit against Utah-based Academy Mortgage Corp. The judge refused. The suit claims the company’s staff would repeatedly feed information into an automated federal underwriting system, manipulating it until the computer gave the green light. ‘Decline is a curse word,’ Plaintiff Gwen Thrower, a former underwriter, quoted a manager as saying. ‘We don’t use it.’”

    http://housingbubble.blog/?p=3070

  3. ‘132 immigrants who invested a total of $66 million in the project as part of a visa program that would allow them to get green cards. ‘It’s individual human beings that are not being repaid,’ who each invested $500,000’

    Easy come easy go. They really like these visa things up in Washington. We’ve seen several over the years.

    1. Lots of countries have similar programs. Invest a specified amount of money, get an immigrant visa and even possibly a passport.

        1. I spent a total of maybe $750 to get my Irish citizenship and passport through Ireland’s Citizenship Through Birth or Decent program several years ago. My thinking was the same – a handy thing to have if needed. Only problem is Ireland is a bigger socialist hellhole now than it was before covid. I have zero interest in going/living there now.

          1. There is a significant black market economy in Ireland which allows a lot of people to fly under the radar but to combat it the EU is going to move to a digital no cash economy. With respect to being a socialist hellhole, I wouldn’t say it’s worse than many parts of the US. At current immigration rates it will only take a few years before they can flip FL and TX socialist blue. There isn’t going to be anywhere you can hide from the global Marxist onslaught at that point. Some sort of divine intervention might move things in another direction.

  4. ‘But once the newness of Sedona wears off and these residents begin to consider what our region can offer, it becomes questionable how long they will remain or if they will stay in the Sedona area for an extended period of time. Quite simply, there is not a whole lot to do’

    Sedona may be populated by UFO guides and such, but they are realistic. A couple of weekends there and you’ve done it all.

    ‘Other homes are being purchased specifically to use as vacation rentals. That market may reach saturation sooner than homebuyers think. One vacation rental in a neighbor­hood may be appealing, but if there are 10 on one street, they’re competing for the same pool of tourists’

    We’ve seen this movie. Do you want to live with 10 on a street? Cuz you’ll wake up to beer cans after listening to drunk tourist shouting all night. It just can’t last.

    ‘Once this housing boom levels off, many of the new residents will find themselves in a small town in a small community, and trying to resell those homes to someone who does appreciate what we offer may be hard for over­priced properties. Some who moved here at the COVID- 19 pandemic have already put their houses back on the market. Right now, they can make a profit, but that won’t last forever’

    ‘As those who moved here to get away from major cities realize Sedona isn’t Simi Valley and Cottonwood isn’t Carmel, we might be left with a lot of unhappy folks just trying to get out without losing more than they spent’

    Cottonwood is a sh$thole. I’m sure they’re up to 500,000 pesos down there by now.

        1. I’m all for housing them with registered Democrats, and making the latter liable for all the financial and social costs their “guests” incur.

  5. ‘But building costs meant it was going to cost between €140,000-€150,000 per student bed. So, we’d have had to charge something like €15,000-€16,000 a year to students, even though our other on-campus accommodation is €5,500. How could we do that?’

    You paid too much for the land Daire.

    ‘Providing cheap loans to build accommodation isn’t a problem; it’s that we can’t rent the beds at reasonable prices’

    It’s fun to watch the media puzzle over these QE quandaries.

  7. ‘Unlike One57, with its garish exterior and its reputation for being little more than a safe deposit box in the sky…’

    Wa? We just read a NY piece revisit the safe deposit thing?

    “What was that noise? A-Rod flushing another brick.”

  8. ‘It’s not nearly as crazy as before, meaning homes would come on the market and then, if they were anywhere close to the market price, they would just fly off the market…It was just a total frenzy since the beginning of the year, all the way through July even’

    The winnahs!

    ‘In August, it started to slow down’

    DONG!

  10. Just how bad is it really?

    ‘China’s energy crisis is beginning to hit people where they live, adding the risk of social instability to an economic slowdown and global supply chain disruptions.’

    ‘Residents in several northern provinces have already been dealing with blackouts, while traffic lights being turned off are causing chaos on the roads in at least one major city. Guangdong, a southern industrial hub with an economy bigger than Australia’s, is asking people to use natural light in homes and limit air-conditioner use after implementing big power cuts to factories.’

    ‘The impact to people’s homes shows how quickly the power crisis is escalating, as China typically first asks large industrial users to curtail consumption when supply gets tight. Economists at Nomura Holdings Ltd. and China International Capital Corp. have downgraded their growth forecasts for the economy due to the electricity shortages, and cuts to factories are raising concerns of yet another wrench thrown into the works of global supply chains.’

    ‘Guangdong’s provincial energy administration issued a notice on Sunday calling for all walks of society to pitch in to prevent widespread outages. Large-scale cuts to factories have already been implemented, it said, and now it’s asking office workers to use stairs for the first three floors, shopping malls to keep advertising signs on fewer hours, and for homes to use natural light as much as possible and to keep air conditioners above 26 degrees Celsius.’

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-power-crisis-moves-factory-012052407.html

    1. ‘global supply chain disruptions’

      Keep in mind that the commies recently shut down the third biggest port in the world because of 1 CCP virus case. Do you really believe that?

    2. Oh dear…another cockroach makes its appearance.

      Developer Sunac seeks support from Chinese city to stem slowdown

      https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Markets/China-debt-crunch/Developer-Sunac-seeks-support-from-Chinese-city-to-stem-slowdown

      HONG KONG — Property developer Sunac China Holdings has asked for “special policy support” from a city government to stem slowing sales, underscoring challenges faced by once high-flying companies in the world’s second largest economy.

  11. Gosh, I sure hope soaring fuel prices in the UK don’t have a negative impact on millions of FBs’ ability to service their mortgages.

    Angry drivers warn they’ll be ‘priced off the road’ as they accuse petrol stations of hiking fuel prices to as high as £1.54 a litre – amid warnings £1.35 national average could rise by 10p in a week

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10032357/Angry-drivers-accuse-petrol-stations-hiking-fuel-prices.html

      1. that’s why i have always moved as close to work as possible and preferable on a bus route in case of emergencies….only once did i have a 30+ mile commute but even then it was all highways and 3 traffic lights door to door

    2. Do y’all remember just over a year ago, when oil prices briefly dropped below zero? Now they are trying to kiss the sky.

      1. The Financial Times
        Oil
        Oil prices rise above $80 a barrel for first time in three years
        Global gas shortfall and Chinese anti-pollution drive expected to push Brent crude higher
        Oil storage tanks in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, China
        Global energy markets have rallied as competition between Europe and China drove drive gas prices to record levels
        Hudson Lockett in Hong Kong yesterday

        Signs of a global energy crunch pushed oil prices above $80 a barrel for the first time in three years as markets grappled with the prospect of widespread fuel shortfalls heading into the end of the year.

        Brent, the international benchmark, rose as much as 0.8 per cent to $80.19 a barrel during Asia trading on Tuesday, hitting a three-year high for the second consecutive day. Tuesday’s rise brought the price of crude almost 55 per cent higher for the year to date.

        The latest gains for Brent came amid a broad rally in energy markets, with growing competition between Europe and China helping drive gas prices to record levels in recent weeks.
        …

    1. They are blaming this on delivery issues: lack of truck drivers. I wonder where all of the truck drivers went?

      1. Truck drivers my asz. It’s globalist pigmen rigging the system, hoarding and financially benefiting from the associated price increases from “shortages.”

        1. Agreed, hence my “where did all the truck drivers go?”

          There was a similar narrative in the US a few months ago: that the certified drivers who were laid off last year found new work.

          More likely the transport forms caught unprepared and never called drivers back. Or, as you suggest, it was deliberate.

          The notion of paying $9 a gallon is sickening. And we know that’s what they want to do here too.

    1. tj,
      This is such a well laid out report on the Covid story that how can anyone not see what these conclusions point to.
      Thanks for posting it.

          2. I think they were below average last year too. Which means that in reality covid was no worse than a nasty flu strain. And all the stories about overwhelmed hospitals was pure BS.

            I’ve noticed that the Narrative has shifted to attacking Ivermectin. I’m wondering if the FDA will temporarily ban it for “reasons”.

          3. Speaking of Narrative, Youtube is hitting me hard with ads for the Build Back Better bills the Dems are trying to get through Congress — honestly I’ve lost track of which bill is which. Of course they’re framing it as USAUSAUSA JobsJobsJobs, but we know it’s all UBI and freebies while unlimited immgrants do the work.

      2. I am surrounded by the people to whom you refer. 80-90% of the people I see out and about are scurrying around with masks on even when there is no one anywhere near them. They are not going to be moved by facts except to violently reject them as a threat to their survival in the face of a perceived danger. You’d sooner get a North Korean to denounce Kim Jong il.

  14. A report from Mortgage “Professional” America.

    “ ‘The seller still thinks they’re in the driver’s seat, but sellers aren’t going to realize that the party’s over. I always say if it’s on the news, it’s too late.’”

    – “…the party’s over.” Since when has housing been a ‘party’? Since the Fed and Wall St. financial-ized it and Congress looked the other way as too busy trading stonks.

    – Correction: “I always say if it’s on the HBB it’s too late.”

    – We’ve seen this movie before. Don’t forget the popcorn! 🙂

    1. Lots of sellers do realize they are no longer in the drivers seat. I see lots taking their houses off hoping that spring returns the retard house horny types. Good luck with that.

  15. When forced to take their faces out of the Marxist professor’s feeding trough those getting educated get an education.

    Students Love Biden’s Immigration Policies… Until They See Pictures from Del Rio

    108,467 views
    Sep 23, 2021

    Campus Reform

    https://youtu.be/06gsQ6VJyoE

    1. Campus Reform should have taken a group on a field trip 170 miles west. If a picture is worth a thousand words.

  16. LMFAO@ Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL thinks he can tell Tucker Carlson what he can and can’t talk about on his TeeVee show.

    Tell us Jonathan, what office exactly were you elected to? Who elected you? Who granted the ADL the authority of the FCC?

    Oh, right. Nobody did.

    Replacement Theory isn’t a theory, it’s the Democrat Party blueprint for white genocide.

    We are naming names, Jonathan…

      1. Why are all these young men so flippin’ BALD all of a sudden? I NEVER remembered this growing up. Men didn’t lose substantial hair until they were 45+. But in the past decade it seem that half of them are going bald and bearded. Jeeze, bring back the 70s when men had better hair.

        1. Jeeze, bring back the 70s when men had better hair.
          My bf had hair down to his waist. And a shaggy beard. When he cut it all off as a surprise, I shocked at how good-looking he was 😊 LOL

    3. Jonathan Greenblatt

      Per Wikipedia, he was Director of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation from 2011-2014. The Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation was an office new to the Obama Administration, created within the White House, to catalyze new and innovative ways of encouraging government to do business differently. Its first director was the economist Sonal Shah. The final director was David Wilkinson. I’m guessing DJT did away with the position.

      1. As I posted above, he was never elected to anything. Just appointed to a phony job in the phony Obama administration.

        People like this only have *alleged* credibility because Real Journalists have programmed the sheeple to believe they have credibility. Sorry, Jonathan, but we still have the 1st Amendment.

        You’re not the language police, Jonathan. You don’t get to decide what Tucker Carlson can and can not talk about, Jonathan. We are just about done with people like you, Jonathan. And no, you can not, and will not silence us, Jonathan.

        Keep running your mouth like a whiny little b*tch, Jonathan, and I’ll be happy to keep naming your name.

        The HBB is and has always been a blog of peace. But if the weaponized autists of 4chan decide to do something you, that’s not really my problem any more now, is it, Jonathan?

        Anti American trash, GFY 🙂

        1. I never watch Tucker. I don’t watch tv news period. But, from what I seen of him, he is probably the only guy, besides Trump when he was president, to call a spade a spade (or a tiny hat a tiny hat).

    1. The Financial Times
      Markets Briefing
      Equities
      Government bond yields rise as traders react to hawkish signals
      Brent crude rallies to highest level in almost three years
      The Federal Reserve last week said half its policymakers expected rate rises starting in 2022
      Naomi Rovnick and Tommy Stubbington in London an hour ago

      A global bond downturn pushed US Treasury yields to their highest level in three months on Monday, as investors reacted to the prospect of tighter monetary policy by dumping US and UK government debt.

      The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note, which moves inversely to its price, rose briefly above 1.5 per cent for the first time since late June. By late morning, the yield was up 0.02 percentage points at 1.482 per cent.

      The UK’s 10-year gilt yield rose 0.04 percentage points to 0.963 per cent, a level around which it hasn’t traded regularly since May 2019.
      …

  18. Here’s a teardown parading itself as a $350,000 house. Central bankers and politicians should swing for what they’ve done.

          2. This property has ONE defect. It exists. Done.

            The description is a hoot. “Embrace the spirit of DIY.” Yeah. This entire place was some poor bum’s DIY during the Depression.

      2. Usually this type of falling-down shack is accompanied by usable acreage. But this dump comes with 0.17 acres of unusable scrubby sloped forest, right on a busy road. At least it’s near good schools. 😛

  19. My zip 89121, all types median list -26% (SFR much stronger), median days on Movoto +71%, median sq ft unchanged.

    Just had my last visit at one of my doctors who’s strongly anti-vax. He’s shutting his practice down, had enough.

    1. The medical field ain’t what it used to be. I can’t imagine being a doctor today trying to placate your administrators and do the right thing for patients.

        1. I’m sure that a lot of doctors thought that selling their practices to a healthcare conglomerate sounded good at the time. They got a nice lump sum, and wouldn’t have to deal with the business side of the practice any more. They probably never thought that they would have to practice anti-medicine in order to get paid.

          1. I noticed the last time I was at my PCP (different doctor than I saw this AM), his interest was piqued when I mentioned how long it took me to get an appt with another doctor. I’ve also noticed his office has been pretty empty lately.

            I asked the one I saw this morning for the behind the scenes regarding the pandemic. He said the local hospitals were not busy during peak covid, exaggerated. Everybody dance!

  21. The check probably got lost in the mail, bagholders. But I think you have to wait for the 30 days overdue mark to officially declare Evergrande to be in default, and commence the synchronized stamping of little feet.

    China Oversees Accounts, No Bond Payment Yet: Evergrande Update

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-24/silence-on-bond-payment-ev-staff-not-paid-evergrande-update?sref=ibr3A0ff

    China’s housing regulator boosted oversight of China Evergrande Group’s bank accounts to protect funds earmarked for housing projects from being diverted to creditors. The developer’s funds must first be used for construction to ensure project delivery, according to people familiar with the plan.

    Holders of China Evergrande Group’s dollar bonds have been left on edge after several of them said they hadn’t received a coupon payment that was due Thursday. Meanwhile, staff at the firm’s electric vehicle business haven’t been paid, and European banks are trying to reassure investors that their exposure is limited.

  22. I need to see receipts for the $650 you claim you spent at Disney World and your daughter did not report the money she made selling Kool-Aid!

    “$79 billion for the IRS”

    Biden team ripped as ‘economically illiterate’ for claim Build Back Better ‘costs zero dollars’

    The Build Back Better agenda is projected to cost $3.5 trillion

    Published 4 hours ago

    $3.5T spending package includes big money for ‘tree equity,’ bias training and more

    Published 1 hour ago

    Nearly $79 billion for the IRS, $12 billion for electric cars, $3 billion for “tree equity,” $1 billion to turn government facilities into “high-performance green buildings,” and new funding for gender identity issues and bias training — Fox News can now reveal these and other controversial spending items in Democrats’ multitrillion-dollar reconciliation package, following the House Budget Committee’s release and approval of the full draft legislation on Saturday.

    https://www.foxnews.com/

    1. I need to see receipts for the $650 you claim you spent at Disney World

      Has that ever been tax deductible? I mean for a family trip. Yeah, people attend conventions there too, but usually your employer picks up the tab for that.

      I get what you’re saying though: expect to be audited. While I don’t expect that to raise anything meaningful that could pay for the 3.5T heist, it will be yet another way to harass citizens into obedience. Disobey, and a friendly IRS agent will be paying you a visit. Have your checkbook handy.

      1. So-called tax gap plan could let the IRS look into any account with as little as $600

        by: Craig Andres

        Posted: Sep 13, 2021

        WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — The IRS wants to increase funding by $80 billion to go after tax cheats, but some say it could open your account and transactions to the IRS if you have as little as $600 in any account.

        “We don’t know what all is going to happen with the pending legislation and what has been proposed. We are a little bit fearful of it,” said Travis Carr, president of Community Bank in Wichita. “You know many times we’re asked to be the eyes and ears for the government.”

        Carr says reporting is nothing new. And he is clear, he is not getting into the politics of the proposal from the IRS and the government.

        https://www.ksn.com/news/local/so-called-tax-gap-plan-could-let-the-irs-look-into-any-account-with-as-little-as-600/

    2. Nothing matters anymore (unless your on the right). Nobody is held accountable because the neo-marxist media has their backs. At this point, they are just screwing with your head. Shoving the B/S down your throat.

      1. So true, they are just f’ing with us, have been forever.

        If they told some people wear a mask and hop on one leg, they’d do it. I was talking to my lawyer cousin; we both were wondering when everyone lost their critical thinking skills, and/or if they ever had them.

  25. I wonder whether it occurred to the geniuses who work in central banking that printing and distributing copious quantaties of virtual money during a pandemic with limited production capacity might lead to shortages of everything from houses to toilet paper?

    1. Los Angeles
      A record number of cargo ships are stuck outside LA. What’s happening?
      Port complex of Los Angeles and Long Beach, already the busiest in the US, has seen major traffic this week as imports boom
      Container ships sit in the ocean waiting to unload their cargo at the ports of Los Angels and Long Beach on 22 September.
      Dani Anguiano
      Thu 23 Sep 2021 01.00 EDT
      Last modified on Thu 23 Sep 2021 01.28 EDT

      Southern California is dealing with a traffic jam unlike any other, as a record number of container ships have been stuck waiting in the waters outside the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to unload cargo.

      The bottleneck this week at America’s busiest port complex is the result of a shortage of trucks and drivers to pick up goods, coupled with an overwhelming demand for imported consumer products.

      A view of marine traffic around the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

      As of Wednesday, 62 container ships were waiting offshore to unload cargo, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California.
      …

      1. There isn’t enough freeway capacity, so many of the containers arriving on ships into Long Beach harbor are loaded onto trains that carry them 60-mi inland to Ontario where they are fitted to tractor-trailer trucks that transport them up the #15 or east on the #10.

  26. Are you concerned that a deliberate act of political sabotage could lead to a historic U.S. debt default?

    1. The Financial Times
      US politics & policy
      Fed official warns of ‘extreme’ market reaction unless debt ceiling raised
      Intervention from Williams comes as Yellen says failure to increase borrowing limit would be ‘catastrophic’
      The US Capitol
      Republicans in the Senate are blocking a bill to increase the borrowing limit
      Lauren Fedor, Colby Smith and James Politi in Washington yesterday

      A top Federal Reserve official warned that failing to raise the US debt ceiling would have grave consequences as Republicans in the Senate blocked a bill to increase the borrowing limit and stave off a government shutdown.

      John Williams, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said on Monday that the US central bank would be unable to mitigate the impact of a potential default on the government’s debt.

      Williams warned of the risk that investors could become “extremely nervous” and think “I’ve got to get out of things”, which he said could lead to an “extreme kind of reaction in markets”.
      …

      1. the US central bank would be unable to mitigate the impact of a potential default

        Implies we can’t pay the debt we already have without borrowing more. What a Donkey brain.

    2. Could this be the pin that pricks Housing Bubble 2.0?

      Or did it already pop this past summer, but the MSM has yet to catch on?

  27. China and open borders, the gift that just keeps on giving:

    “The Drug Enforcement Administration on Monday issued a rare public safety alert warning Americans of an “alarming increase” in deadly fake prescription pills containing fentanyl flooding the country.
    .
    In its first such alert in six year, the agency said the majority of the counterfeit pills found in the US are being manufactured in Mexico with the help of chemicals supplied by China.”

    https://nypost.com/2021/09/28/dea-warns-of-increase-in-fake-prescription-pills-containing-fentanyl/

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