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Excessive Indebtedness Without Real Income Or Assets To Support It

A report from Bloomberg. “Zillow has essentially dived into the house-flipping business, offering to quickly take properties off sellers’ hands. And in the process it’s helping pull Wall Street even deeper into the $2 trillion U.S. housing market. In August, Zillow raised $450 million from a bond backed by homes it’s bought but not yet sold. The offering was modeled on the loan facilities that car dealerships use to finance floor models. The offering was over subscribed and Zillow is now in the process of selling another $700 million in bonds.”

“More such offerings are almost certainly coming. Zillow is one of a growing field of tech companies, often known as iBuyers, who are taking advantage of the surge in investor demand to fund purchases of houses. As the mortgage meltdown of 2007-2010 showed in the extreme, the mix of housing, easy money, and new forms of financing can be combustible. ‘We could very quickly be talking about more than $100 billion in debt,’ says Tomasz Piskorski, a professor of real estate finance at Columbia Business School, speaking of the companies as a group. ‘What happens to the iBuyers when home prices drop? You could imagine a situation where they have a big inventory of homes, and they aren’t able to repay their debt.'”

From Mortgage Professional America. “Brokers consulted by MPA have expressed concerns about the housing market after mortgage rates rose sharply last week – with fears there could be more increases on the way. Philadelphia-based broker Paul Kwon said clients had been decidedly jittery following the news. The broker said: ‘We never like sudden increases – we like to see gradual ones. So, we had a bit of a bloodbath day yesterday with the bond market getting hit hard. In my 20 years, I’ve seen it three times and usually it’s due to very dramatic economic news, but yesterday there was a little bit of a panic, with the Fed saying that they wanted to do some tapering.'”

“Patrick Stoy, owner-broker of Wilmington-based MC Mortgage Group, said the rate hike meant brokers would have to readjust to new market conditions. He was relatively philosophical about the rate hike, however. ‘I’ve been doing this for 22 years and this is what it boils down to – rates float down like a feather, but they shoot up like a rocket. After the initial news is over, things will settle. We’ve all known (the rate rise) was coming, it’s just the pace of how things are moving.'”

The Reno Gazette Journal in Nevada. “Markets typically don’t turn on a dime. It is usually at least a few months after the fact before we can say with any certainty that a market has changed direction. Nevertheless, it appears that the residential real estate market in the Reno-Sparks area has begun to stabilize just a bit. It appears the market is coming back into balance. Rising prices encouraged some sellers to put their homes on the market. During August nearly 720 homes were listed for sale, and about 550 transactions were closed.”

“As buyers have a greater choice of homes, they are feeling less pressure to make offers above sellers’ listing prices so they can win bidding wars. In the past couple of months median prices have risen far more slowly than they did earlier this year.”

The Honolulu Star Advertiser in Hawaii. “The rules for short-term rentals are looking at a drastic change—increasing the minimum number of days that a property can be rented without a special permit to 180 from 30. When Kate Bliss and her husband were looking to buy their home in St. Louis Heights, they realized that even their combined incomes made it financially difficult. ‘I don’t think they really thought about … what a deleterious effect they would have on people who rely on this,’ she said. ‘My husband and I can’t afford our mortgage without renting these places out.'”

The New York Post. “The Mandarin Oriental Hotel at Columbus Circle, one of the city’s premier luxury lodging establishments, is quietly up for sale, Realty Check has learned. The offering for the 248-rooms-and-suites hotel towering over Central Park comes as the state of the city’s hotel industry has been likened to a ‘depression’ by the American Hotel and Lodging Association.”

“Hotel Association of New York president Vijay Dandapani, noting that ‘foreign owners have their own issues’ beyond the situation in New York, wouldn’t speculate on a possible price. But he cast the Mandarin Oriental offering in the context of the overall hotel situation, which he described as ‘bleak.’ ‘Every single hotel went from a cash-flow crisis to a liquidity crisis to a solvency crisis,’ he said.”

The Los Angeles Times in California. “It’s hard to grasp the enormity of ‘The One.’ Viewed from a drone, the white marble structure once marketed for $500 million looks every bit the fortress towering over the scattered dwellings of a village. Of course, those diminutive quarters are themselves mansions that climb the hills of Bel-Air, houses that are multiple times smaller than the 105,000-square-foot behemoth hovering above them.”

“That such a giga-mansion could be built says much about the asymmetrical excesses of our age — in which the struggle for housing plays out in the valleys as spec homes that only a minute fraction of the world can afford rise above them. It’s also a testament to the will of an obsessive developer driven to build the most extravagant mansion he could imagine — which he now finds slipping through his fingers as he battles a hard-nosed money lender who’s in for more than $100 million on the project.”

“The home has taken a major price cut. It is now going on sale for $225 million. ‘I never called the house The One. I called it The Eleven,’ quips Bel-Air resident Fred Rosen, referring to a well-known chapter of the Bankruptcy Code that does not apply to the house. ‘It was only a matter of time before it was going there.'”

The Daily Mail Australia. “Australians hoping to buy a house and break into the property market could soon have a harder time getting a loan.  Both Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and the country’s best known mortgage broker have hinted that tougher rules are looming. As prices surge at an ‘insane’ pace, John Symond – the founder of Aussie Home Loans –  warned banks could voluntarily introduce stricter lending rules. There would be winners and losers if such a crackdown was to happen.”

“‘You cannot have a housing market where values are going up by 15 per cent, 20 per cent every year – that’s insane,’ Mr Symond said. Even with a 20 per cent deposit, an average full-time worker paying off a typical Australian home, valued at $666,514, would be on the verge of having a risky debt-to-income ratio of six – a level that concerns APRA.”

“Digital Finance Analytics’s Martin North said banks were more likely to be approving loans with a debt-to-income ratio of eight. ‘That really is too high on any measure even with low interest rates because you’ve still got to pay back the debt,’ he said. ‘The average incomes have not gone anywhere over the last few years. The concern is that people are going to get in over their heads.'”

The Globe and Mail. “As Chinese property behemoth Evergrande tumbles toward a financial precipice, financial institutions around the world are falling all over themselves to assure us that their exposure to a teetering Chinese real estate market is minimal, that this isn’t about to snowball into a global problem. Which, history cautions, is a pretty good time to start to worry. Massive financial failures have a way of snowballing. This probably is a global problem.”

“‘There likely will be financial contagion within China,’ economist David Rosenberg said. ‘This event exposed the depths of the property and debt bubble in China, which is in the process of bursting.’ And what a huge bubble it is. The real estate sector has swelled to take a dominant role in China’s economy, accounting for 29 per cent of gross domestic product. ‘It is hard to see how a significant slowdown in the Chinese economy can be avoided, even if banking problems were contained,’ Harvard University economist Kenneth Rogoff wrote.”

From Channel News Asia. “Anger about the missed payments on the Evergrande funds bubbled over this month as some investors vented on social media while others trekked to Evergrande’s glass-tower headquarters. There they were greeted by a dozen police officers and security guards in riot gear brandishing plastic shields. One investor, Mr Wang, had been in Shenzhen for two days, saying he could not bear to tell his elderly parents what had happened. He did not care about the interest payments and was just hoping to get his 100,000 yuan investment back.”

“When asked about the company’s repayment options, including discounted properties or deferred cash over 30 months, Wang just muttered along with his friend: ‘It’s a fraud.'”

From Mises.org. “The bankruptcy of the Chinese real estate company Evergrande is much more than a ‘Chinese Lehman.’ Lehman Brothers was much more diversified than Evergrande and better capitalized. In fact, the total assets of Evergrande that are on the brink of bankruptcy outnumber the entire subprime bubble of the United States.”

“The problem with Evergrande is that it is not an anecdote, but a symptom of a model based on leveraged growth and seeking to inflate GDP at any cost with ghost cities, unused infrastructure, and wild construction. The indebtedness chain model of Evergrande is not uncommon in China. Many Chinese companies follow the ‘running to stand still’ strategy of piling on ever-increasing debt to compensate for poor cash flow generation and weak margins.”

“Many promoters get into massive debt to build a promotion that either is not sold or is left with many unsold units, then refinance that debt by adding more credit for new projects using unsaleable or already leveraged assets as collateral.”

“Evergrande is much more dangerous than it seems: All the ‘Keynesian’ solutions that you are hearing these days have already been implemented. Massive liquidity injections, low interest rates, full implicit and explicit support from the Chinese government … Let’s not forget that Evergrande was the largest issuer of commercial paper in China, $32 billion issued in 2020, a 390 percent increase from 2015, according to Reuters.”

“The problem with China is that the entire economy is a huge indebted model that needs almost ten units of debt to generate one unit of GDP, three times more than a decade ago, and all this catastrophe was already more than evident months ago. With total debt of 300 percent debt to GDP according to the Institute of International Finance, China is not the strong economy swimming in with cash that it was a couple of decades ago.”

“The market assumed that because it is China, the government was going to hide these risks. Even worse, the Evergrande collapse only shows a dangerous reality in several Chinese sectors: excessive indebtedness without real income or assets to support it.”

“This episode comes at the worst possible time, after the government has launched a massive crackdown on large companies. International investors are already concerned about corporate governance and intervention in China and now the fears of credit contagion make the risk even worse. Evergrande is not an anecdote, it is a symptom.”

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This Post Has 113 Comments

  1. ‘the total assets of Evergrande that are on the brink of bankruptcy outnumber the entire subprime bubble of the United States’

    Oh dear…

    1. “One investor, Mr Wang, had been in Shenzhen for two days, saying he could not bear to tell his elderly parents what had happened.”

      The Japanese recommend Seppuku.

      “He did not care about the interest payments and was just hoping to get his 100,000 yuan investment back.”

      FWIW, 100,000 yuan is roughly $15485.00, so how many shirts does he have to iron to recover?

  2. ‘My husband and I can’t afford our mortgage without renting these places out’

    That’s some rock solid lending right there.

    1. ‘I don’t think they really thought about … what a deleterious effect they would have on people who rely on this,’ she said.

      Your inability to afford an overpriced shack isn’t really a concern of their’s, Kate. But hey, you can always turn to prostitution.

  3. ‘rates float down like a feather, but they shoot up like a rocket’

    Golly!

    ‘We’ve all known (the rate rise) was coming’

    Maybe so Pat, but you guys didn’t tell that to the suckers.

  4. Twofer Tuesday from the pearl clutchers at Salon, using the archive website to deny them any clicks or revenue:

    Hillary Clinton tried to warn us — and paid the price. Let’s at least call Republicans what they are:

    https://archive.is/ntNm4

    Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz endorses Tucker Carlson’s “great replacement” theory

    https://archive.is/qvMB1

    Globalists gonna globe.

    1. “You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic — you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people, now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric. Now some of those folks, they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America.”

      They are not America. Globalists love to lecture us about what is and what is not America, simultaneous with enacting the Democrat Party platform of white genocide.

      Replacement Theory is not a theory. These globalist pigs want you and your whole family exterminated.

      100+ million dead civilians murdered by socialist regimes confirms their intent.

      The SPLC and the ADL were never elected to govern anything, and they will be destroyed ☠

      1. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people, now have 11 million.

        That explosive growth would’ve occurred without Trump, Screech, as millions of Americans are being red-pilled as to what the globalists and their minions are doing to the country of their birth.

      2. “Replacement Theory is not a theory”

        It’s not a theory that they emptied the Haitian camp at the border and I saw one of many Greyhound buses with Texas plates Friday rolling southbound on I-95 in Jupiter Fl. just like they did during the Obama administration?

        To be clear, the Obama Greyhounds with Texas plates didn’t have Haitian passengers, they were from Honduras etc.

        Back then the Haitians got here the old-fashioned way, they washed up on Jupiter Island and Palm Beach in the middle of the night and made for film at eleven stories on the local news.

    1. I used to hope for higher mortgage rates. But they always trended down, for decades. But now, they may be at the lower bound. Maybe.

      IF mortgage rates are at the lower bound, and if mortgage rates are the biggest influencer of house prices, ceteris paribus, then the house prices are going to have trouble racing higher.

      However, if rates do up, then they can dust off the old playbook to juice house prices, using interest rate drops as a bellows to fan the flames.

  6. ‘The problem with China is that the entire economy is a huge indebted model that needs almost ten units of debt to generate one unit of GDP, three times more than a decade ago, and all this catastrophe was already more than evident months ago’

    Is it not evident that spending 10 pesos to get growth of 1 peso is gonna end ugly? If you look at the Neverwasgrand-e debt, it was more than clear the current situation was baked in the cake long ago. But this is the globalist scum “model.” And don’t look now but it’s in yer neighborhood too!

    ‘You cannot have a housing market where values are going up by 15 per cent, 20 per cent every year – that’s insane’

    I been a-sayin that John. We’ve had sh$tholes all over the US beating that by double.

  7. Here’s to hoping Zilldo and its bond investors have their asses to them in an Evergrande style.

    “In August, Zillow raised $450 million from a bond backed by homes it’s bought but not yet sold. The offering was modeled on the loan facilities that car dealerships use to finance floor models. The offering was over subscribed and Zillow is now in the process of selling another $700 million in bonds.”

    1. I think they will have their A$$es handed to them.

      I predict Zillow, Opendoor, Offerpad, and Redfin are the new S&L Crisis. We often blame Realtors for being dishonest as we have seen them prop up the market with statements about people from California buying up the homes with a cash offer. In a way they’re right, but those “people from California” are actually i-buyers using corporate bond money that the issuers consider “safe investments.”

      I-buyers claim their business model is revolutionary and technologically advanced. They claim their model is a new way of buying and selling your home. I disagree as I see their model as old as real estate itself. Ever since the Tulip Bulb Mania bubble that popped in 1637, people and companies alike have tried to develop a legitimate business from asset flipping. All of these models eventually fail.

      The funny thing is, Zillow and their peers’ bond issues are what I consider to be the new Subprime market. Moody’s will rate their bond issues with an AA or A credit rating based on growing revenues (not profits) and the i-buyers will use the cheap funds they’ve “borrowed” from investors to buy residential properties with no appraisal or inspection. The bonds are considered a “low risk” by the ratings agencies while their purchases they make are certainly high risk.

      How many termite infested and cracked foundation homes has Zillow and Opendoor overpaid for? Who knows since their idea of an inspection is having the seller provide a video of the home. It’s the bond holders of these companies that may end up being the final bag holder.

      I believe we are witnessing the next financial collapse in the making and in the near future, I predict even the MSM and Wiki will be talking about how the i-buyers created the real estate crash of 2022.

      1. “Ever since the Tulip Bulb Mania bubble that popped in 1637, people and companies alike have tried to develop a legitimate business from asset flipping. All of these models eventually fail.”

        Real wealth comes from labor and land. Everything else is a skim.

    2. A lot of “using debt to seize assets” schemes were predicated on easy money – low interest rates, and in real estate, having the Fed buy vast amounts of MBS.

      If inflation forces them to slow down even a little bit (even the discussion of taper roiled markets so I don’t think they’d voluntarily taper), then it could create some unexpected undesired results for those schemes.

    3. I saw a YouTube video of “Zillow owned” homes that are back on the market, with price cut after price cut, and the asking prices are below what Zillow paid for them. I think most of them were in Phoenix. I will try to find a link to that video.

      1. You can easily replicate it, there is a checkbox for “Zillow-owned” so you can see all their holdings in the area.

        I checked my area (Sacramento) and ALL of them were upside down. And that’s not even factoring in whatever costs they incurred and will incur.

        Prediction – Zillow will remove that checkbox within the next couple months. Just too embarrassing.

  9. Paging AlbuquerqueDan…

    “With total debt of 300 percent debt to GDP according to the Institute of International Finance, China is not the strong economy swimming in with cash that it was a couple of decades ago.”

  10. “As buyers have a greater choice of homes, they are feeling less pressure to make offers above sellers’ listing prices so they can win bidding wars.

    You’d have to be a special kind of stupid to get caught up in a bidding war at the peak of Housing Bubble 2.0. Especially when rates are finally responding to soaring inflation.

  11. Sounds like they’re out of ammo…

    “All the ‘Keynesian’ solutions that you are hearing these days have already been implemented. Massive liquidity injections, low interest rates, full implicit and explicit support from the Chinese government … “

    1. They keep tripling and quadrupling down on the same failed policies, with worse results. Instead they should announce that trying to run an economy on neverending asset price increases was a mistake, and now they aim to crush asset prices.

  12. ‘Every single hotel went from a cash-flow crisis to a liquidity crisis to a solvency crisis,’ he said.”

    Gosh, I hope that hasn’t detracted from the tax base. Democrat patronage & graft rackets aren’t self-financing, you know.

        1. Didn’t these jokers get caught trading their personal portfolios on the exact same bonds and equities that they — the Fed — were printing money for? That alone is enough to make them resign.

  14. He did not care about the interest payments and was just hoping to get his 100,000 yuan investment back.”

    Pretty sure we can move that from the “investment” to the “loss” column, Mr. Wang.

        1. ‘All of them are jumping ship just like they all did back in 2008 right before the crisis hit. In 2008, 4 of 7 Fed seats departed just weeks before markets started imploding.’

          does “ ” not work?

          test line2

      2. To all the Evergrande bagholders “hoping” to get their principle back: remember, hope was the last & most dangerous thing in Pandora’s box.

  15. “As buyers have a greater choice of homes”

    What buyers? These are borrowers…. broke, crippled, down degenerate DebtDonkeys looking to rent from the bank at twice the monthly cost of renting on the open market.

    Why lie?

    Morro Bay, CA Housing Prices Crater 17% YOY As Mortgage Fraud Blankets Central Coast California

    https://www.movoto.com/morro-bay-ca/market-trends/

    As one central coast broker stated, “Fraud is how lazy stupid people do business…… There’s a lot of fraud here.”

  16. “My Build Back Better Agenda costs zero dollars.” — Joe Biden

    This is not a parody tweet. This is from President Biden’s official White House account describing the $3.5 TRILLION “investment” in Democrat patronage and graft rackets, er, I mean, infrastructure. You can’t make this sh*t up.

    To each and every person who pulled the D lever in the last election: a heartfelt “F*ck you,” and I sincerely hope you reap the full measure of what you voted for.

    https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1441924106765602819

    1. I read that piece yesterday linked from another site.

      What has happened to this country since the beginning of 2020 is almost beyond description.

      We need the Day Of The Rope, and we need it soon…

        1. “flying the flag upside down”

          great idea!!

          and daily at 5pm sharp I’m going to go out to the flagpole on bended knee w/green knit hat & skyscream
          “NOOO NOOOO NOOOOOOOO!!”

    1. Nothing as there will be no default.

      I am surprised people still pay attention to this nonsense. It’s a sideshow..nothing more. Debt will be raised. Rethugs are just bluffin’.

    1. The red-pilled quotient of the population must be exploding with all these coercive efforts to deprive the non-compliant of their livelihoods and marginalize them in every way possible short of requiring the wear of a yellow Star of David armband.

    2. Just that fact that NOBODY is allowing a previous infection positive antibody test in lieu of a vaccine is very telling.

  22. Question-

    Is it safe to presume all realtors are democrats? We know all realtors are liars. We also know all democrats are liars.

  24. CR8R alert!

    Market Snapshot
    Nasdaq falls sharply as rising bond yields pressure stocks
    Last Updated: Sept. 28, 2021 at 9:44 a.m. ET
    First Published: Sept. 28, 2021 at 5:27 a.m. ET
    By William Watts
    and
    Steve Goldstein

    U.S. stocks opened lower Tuesday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite leading the way down as Treasury yields continue their march higher.

    What’s happening

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.87% fell 101.36 points, or 0.3%, to 34,768.01.

    The S&P 500 SPX, -1.41% was down 101.36 points, or 0.3%, at 34,768.01.

    The Nasdaq Composite COMP, -2.15% dropped 191.02 points, or 1.3%, to 14,778.95.

    On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA, -0.87%) rose 71 points, or 0.2%, while the S&P 500 declined 0.3% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.5%.
    …

  25. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/case-shiller-home-price-july-2021-130004846.html

    Yahoo Finance
    US home price growth reaches new high for fourth consecutive month
    Amanda Fung – Editor
    Tue, September 28, 2021, 7:00 AM

    “Home price growth in the U.S. soared to new highs in July.”

    “Standard & Poor’s said Tuesday that its S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index posted a 19.7% annual gain in July, up from 18.7% in June — the fourth straight month in which the growth rate set a record. The 20-City Composite posted a 19.9% annual gain, up from 19.1% a month earlier.”

    – The July data is a 3 month average of May, June and July prices.
    – Case-Shiller House Price Index is a (way) lagging indicator.
    – However, this is still a huge increase and shows that the BLS’s BS OER is extremely misleading (aka lying) as an inflation indicator. One could say that the BLS just another propaganda arm of the Federal Gov’t. Think “Ministy of Truth” and you won’t be far wrong.
    – On the plus side, Housing Bubble 2.0 and the ensuing slow-motion train wreck of the economy continues to deflate with the peak of the U.S. market somewhere around June-July, ’21, IMHO.
    – The house price declines will only be accelerated by the bursting of the stonk market bubble, and the corp. bond bubble, along with rising U.S. Treas. bond interest rates due to the “transitory” inflation tsunami.
    – The Fed and the U.S. Gov’t.: The smartest (richest) people in the room.

    – Related, historical quotes here:

    “Investors know that we are there to prevent serious losses” – Jay Powell 2012

    ‘I don’t believe there will be another financial crisis in our lifetimes.’ – Janet Yellen, 2017

    “At this juncture, the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the subprime market seems likely to be contained.” – Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, Congressional testimony, March, 2007

    “There is no housing bubble” – Ben Bernanke 2006

    ‘We will not have any more crashes in our time.’ – John Maynard Keynes, 1927

    “Under the Federal Reserve System we shall have no more financial panics.” – Charles Hamlin, the first head of the Federal Reserve in 1915.

    “The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.” – Ernest Hemingway

  26. He did not care about the interest payments and was just hoping to get his 100,000 yuan investment back.

    In the denial phase of grief, starting to transition into bargaining…

    Your yuan are long gone, Mr Wang!

    1. He did not care about the interest payments and was just hoping to get his 100,000 yuan investment back.

      It sounds a lot like here: you can get 0.1% interest at the bank, or you can speculate.

    2. I thought we needed 70% to be in herd immunity.

      Now 98%. What next, 4 vaccines to be considered “fully vaccinated”?

      Think we have been conned.

        1. I just heard about that today on the news. Pfizer is working on a preventative pill for family members to take for a week to prevent COVID. Redhead thinks it could be reformulated Ivermectin. It certainly sounds a LOT like what family members were doing in India.

          1. Redhead thinks it could be reformulated Ivermectin.

            I’ve seen the suggestion a handful of times. I haven’t done a deep dive.

          2. Redhead thinks it could be reformulated Ivermectin.

            So, while they spin the narrative that Ivermectin is for horses (kind of like how water is only for toilets in Idiocracy), they will offer us a patented and thus very expensive version of Ivermectin, which will be the only one doctors are allowed to prescribe. Which reminds me, I need to order a refill of my horse deworming medicine, before it’s banned.

          3. That’s what I think too, Colorado.

            Pfizer knows darn well they aren’t the best, so they are trying very hard to be pfirst. Just the other day, the CEO said that the next COVID vaccines will last at least a year. Really? J&J already lasts a year.

          6. Assuming its a reformulated or slightly modified version of ivermectin. The suggestion I’ve seen is based on a common mechanism of action; it could very well be an entirely different chemical structure. Patent applications publish after roughly 18 months so it’s too early to dig.

      1. Does anybody have any doubts that the criminals that rigged the 2020 election put Puppets like Joe Biden in to advance their sinister power grab .

        Take a experimental jab or lose your job or other punishments. This is getting really insane fast .

    1. Law
      FBI Data Shows An Unprecedented Spike In Murders Nationwide In 2020
      September 27, 20211:12 PM ET
      Heard on All Things Considered
      Ryan Lucas
      3-Minute Listen

      The number of murders in the United States jumped by nearly 30% in 2020 compared with the previous year in the largest single-year increase ever recorded in the country, according to official FBI statistics released Monday.

      The data shows 21,570 homicides in the U.S. in 2020, which is a staggering 4,901 more than in 2019. The tally makes clear — in concrete terms — just how violent last year was.

      The overall violent crime rate, which includes murder, assault, robbery and rape, inched up around 5%, while property crimes continued their long-running decline and dropped 8% from 2019.

      But the spike in murders jumps out in the FBI report because of the sheer scale of the change.
      …
      https://www.npr.org/2021/09/27/1040904770/fbi-data-murder-increase-2020

    1. Rising interest rates are bad for non-income producing asset classes, such as gold and imaginary currencies.

  31. Saw that Elizabeth Warren said this morning that J-Pow was a dangerous man and wouldn’t support his renomination. However the Fed is merely a tool and a useful scapegoat for the government and Wall Street. To underscore that point, Sherrod Brown is also at the Powell testimony. He is chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, and he said that it’s not the right time to reverse easy money policies. He’s the one who’s actually the shot caller, along with the CEOs of the primary dealers.

    This Fed head renomination show is theater. Whoever gets into the position is going to do what his masters want.

    1. For the life of me, I do not know why you keep posting these things. Just compare price, square footage and price per square foot. Hell, price per square foot is UP. Your headline couldn’t be more wrong. Time after time.

        1. Latest News
          Wall Street stumbles on rising Treasury yields, inflation worries 15 mins ago

          US Markets
          U.S. existing home sales fall in August; price appreciation slowing
          Contributor
          Lucia Mutikani
          Reuters
          Sep 22, 2021 11:38AM EDT

          U.S. home sales fell slightly more than expected in August as supply remained tight, but there are signs that the sharp acceleration in house prices and the COVID-19 pandemic-fueled demand have probably run their course.
          …

          1. Two headlines I saw today:

            Home heating sticker shock: The cost of natural gas is up 180%

            Consumers soon will face severe electricity bill shock: Wood Mackenzie

            FJB

        2. Hey Drums,

          How do I install this for brave? My android phone is saying I have to DL Firefox first….

          Maybe it won’t work on phones? Browsers only?

          Nevertheless,thank you for this tool. I miss using it.

          1. Sorry for not seeing this question sooner…

            Not all mobile browsers support extensions. I don’t know if Brave does or not (I don’t think they do, for privacy reasons)

  33. Looks like there might be a Narrative pivot coming. From the headlines:


    Up to 90% of Americans may have some form of Covid immunity after delta wave, says Dr. Gottlieb

    Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb says the Delta surge will end for good by Thanksgiving.

    Mu COVID Variant, Which Sparked Fears Over Vaccine Resistance, Eradicated in U.S.

    1. UN Agenda 21/Sustainable Development is the action plan implemented worldwide to inventory and control all land, all water, all minerals, all plants, all animals, all construction, all means of production, all energy, all education, all information, and all human beings in the world. INVENTORY AND CONTROL.—-Rosa Koire

      Rosa Koire – Behind The Green Mask

      We are sad to announce that

      ​Rosa Koire passed away May 31, 2021 just 11 days after she was admitted to Kaiser Hospital in Santa Rosa CA due to difficulty breathing. She tested negative for Covid-19. A CAT scan showed that she was suffering from a pulmonary embolism and revealed metastatic lung cancer, a big surprise. She had just recently returned from a long stay at her favorite place in Mexico where she lived part-time for many years. She was so full of life; her sudden passing came as a shock to both friends and family.

      If you ever met her, or watched one of her videos, you know that Rosa was extraordinary. This was especially evident in her dedication to researching and uncovering public policies intended to strip people of our individual rights. In 2011 she published her popular book “Behind the Green Mask, UN Agenda 21”. Subsequently she traveled extensively, both in the US and abroad, speaking and giving interviews. Rosa was a great humanitarian whose words and charisma touched and inspired many people.

      http://www.rosakoire-bgm.com/

  36. Globalist imports have wasted no time transforming formerly safe, stately European cities into versions of what they left behind in the violent cesspools they fled from.

    Were gangsters behind bomb attack on the home of policeman who testified in a major gang trial that ripped through a Swedish apartment block leaving four people in intensive care?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10036269/25-injured-100-evacuated-explosion-apartment-block-Gothenburg-Sweden.html

    Twenty people have been injured in a suspected bomb blast at an apartment block in Sweden.

    The explosion reverberated through downtown Gothenburg at 5am, sending terrified residents fleeing to the exits as others clambered onto the balconies of neighbouring flats to escape the smoke pouring through their front doors.

  38. I am wondering if this is just (the start? of) a second leg down in housing off the 2005-2006 MEGA SUPER DUPER TOP.

    So… sucker rally ending and ANOTHER leg down for the RE bear market?

    Guess it’s possible!

    da bear

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