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Every Roller Coaster Eventually Returns To The Station

A report from the Oklahoman. “Prices for new homes are outpacing appraisals, busting purchase contracts if buyers and builders can’t come to terms and fill the financing gap. Metro-area Realtors discussion mentioned appraised values for new homes falling short of what lenders required to make mortgage loans by $14,000, $20,000, and $22,000. None of several appraisers asked for comment returned messages. Appraisal gaps aren’t necessarily uncommon for resale homes, but now they’re a problem ‘across the board,’ said Aspen Endriss with Home Creations.”

“‘Materials and trades are going up, and companies are responding to this by going up in price as well,’ she said. ‘Appraisals have been used the past to dictate the current prices of homes, but through the pandemic this has taught us this isn’t able to be true right now. The pandemic has brought us to something we never thought we would see again, and how we have had to adapt is by pushing prices higher to keep sustaining.'”

From Ilyce Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin. “Q: We live in a West Coast Florida beach town. We applied for a cash-out refinance in June, so we could consolidate our finances and pay off our mortgage on a long-held home in the north.We were shocked, as was the lender, when the appraisal came in much lower than expected ($575,000). The problem seems to be that there are no appropriate ‘comps,’ since the town is very small, and properties are extremely diverse.”

“A: We asked our friend Jonathan Miller, chief executive of Miller Samuel, a commercial appraisal company based in New York City. ‘The bank appraisal industry is literally feast or famine. The appraisal profession represents one of the last steps in the mortgage process on a purchase or a refinance and is the only one whose compensation is not contingent on the mortgage closing,’ he wrote in an email. ‘What the reader describes is exactly what happened during the financial crisis, where lenders lost their minds and pressured appraisers all day long.'”

“When it comes to financing or refinancing real estate, an appraisal is an opinion about the value of a piece of real estate. Most borrowers don’t realize that the appraiser is not working for them, only the lender. That’s why Miller believes the reader’s frustration is misdirected. ‘The only way an appraisal opinion is worthwhile is if appraisers take ‘full advantage of their third-party status,’ Miller noted, adding: ‘Otherwise, we are back in the housing bubble all over again.'”

From Willamette Week in Oregon. “Last week, WW reported on the effects of Zillow attempting to flip Portland houses using an algorithm. The result: Dozens of homes sit vacant across Portland. Residents of one block in the Piedmont neighborhood say a Zillow-owned home was occupied by squatters. Here’s what our readers had to say.”

“Kate Bowden: ‘Nobody has brought up the point I thought looking at these homes. You can see the price they paid and it was also pretty clear they didn’t actually do any flipping work. Why would anyone want to pay more than what Zillow paid to get the house a few weeks earlier? Also, they didn’t think about the skepticism people would have with a Zillow-bought home. They were not offering market value to the sellers.'”

From Guru Focus. “Zillow certainly sounded confident when it dove into the market head first. CEO Richard Bartons evangelized his daring decision with gusto: ‘We were comfortable saying that in three to five years we could have $20 billion in revenue in our Zillow Offers business alone. It seems like a really big number until you realize the house-transaction market every year is $1.5 to $2 trillion, so that’s maybe 1%, or a little over 1%, of transactions. In a market where we already are doing this, in Phoenix, we think the market share of the combined competitors [like us] is already 6%. In my crystal ball, I see this kind of supernova thing happening, I really do.'”

From Inside Nova in Virginia. “Every roller coaster eventually returns to the station, and when it comes to the past 18 months in apartment-rental costs, it appears one cycle of ups and downs is coming to an end. And the impact is being felt in Arlington as well as across the nation. Wild increases in rental prices that followed a decline – sometimes significant – in many of the nation’s urban areas appear to be calming, and perhaps returning to a more cyclical seasonality.”

“‘The market remains extremely tight, but we’ve not seen continued signs of that pressure gradually beginning to ease,’ said Apartment List. San Francisco remains down 14 percent from the start of the pandemic, Oakland 10 percent, Minneapolis 7 percent, San Jose 6 percent, the District of Columbia 2 percent and Fremont (Calif.) 2 percent. Boise, which has led the pack in appreciation for most of the pandemic era, has seen rents fall back in recent months, and in the latest figures its appreciation rate is not even in the top 10.”

From Buffalo News. “Across Western New York, the Covid-19 pandemic sent many landlords and tenants into a financial tailspin. They’re still trying to recover. At the rate he was withdrawing money from his savings account to pay taxes, repairs and other expenses on his rental properties, South Buffalo landlord Marc Pasquale worried about whether he would have anything left by the end of this year.”

“Pasquale said he was withdrawing up to $20,000 a month from his savings account during the pandemic just to keep up with the bills for 44 South Buffalo rental units. Some of his tenants stopped paying rent, even though they continued working during the pandemic, he said. ‘I’ve had a couple tenants buy houses because they made so much money,’ he said.”

“Pasquale fell behind on utility bills. But he said he was fortunate compared with many of his landlord counterparts, because he doesn’t have mortgage payments on any of his properties. ‘There’s landlords I talk to that are so far behind that they see there’s going to be no way out,’ he said.”

“Appolinaire Lekeuneu, who owns 20 rental units in Western New York, said 13 of his tenants currently aren’t paying rent and owe a collective $156,000. Lekeuneu has tried to sell two of his properties, but the nonpaying tenants living there refuse to allow potential buyers inside for showings, he said. Lekeuneu has missed five mortgage payments on his own home due to the lack of rental payments, he said. ‘I have personally contributed about $42,000 to maintain my rental properties and live off of, and have sold two vehicles,’ he said. ‘Moreover, I will also be unable (to) pay for my children to go to college because I have had to use money from our savings and retirement, as well as my intention on using those funds to save for my children’s college.'”

From CBC News in Canada. “A Toronto city councillor is about to introduce a motion asking the provincial government to bring in a speculation tax aimed at putting a chill into the red-hot housing market. Mike Colle, who represents Ward 8, Eglinton–Lawrence, told CBC News he’ll make the move when city council meets later this month. ‘$1.3 million for a starter home in Toronto. This is insanity,’ said Colle.”

“Real estate lawyer Bob Aaron was just a few years out of law school when the Bill Davis government introduced a 50-per-cent speculation tax on non-principal residences. It was later decreased to 20 per cent, then scrapped altogether. ‘That was April 9, 1974 — the worst day of my career,’ said Aaron, who remembers fielding endless calls the next day. They were from buyers trying to get out of purchases and from sellers wanting to make sure the deals were still going through. There were years of litigation after that. There was … blood in the streets when people saw the equity in their home was just evaporating overnight,’ he said.”

From News Liverpool in the UK. “Residents say they are ‘living in fear’ as government plans to replace unsafe cladding continue to stall. The initial plans will be paused after they proved to be inadequate, Housing Secretary Michael Gove has revealed – but this decision plunges hundreds of leaseholders into uncertainty once again. Julie Fraser, who works with the volunteer group Liverpool Claddiators, said: ‘Leaseholders are living with the fear, every night, that they’ll hear the fire alarm going off – just living in limbo, absolutely trapped.'”

“She bought her flat with cash for £75,000 around five years ago, dipping into her life savings to avoid mortgage on the property, as an investment for retirement. But between 2019 and 2021, the building’s insurance increased from £33,000 to £504,000, and leaseholders had to pay an additional £1,300 per person for a new alarm system.”

“Julie said: ‘These buildings are deemed dangerous, so the first start has to be making them safe. But leaseholders have been made responsible for the cost of this. Why should I be offered a loan to fix a building I didn’t plan, or design, so why should I pay the cost?'”

“Helen Rowe, a young mother of two, has been waiting for a solution for over two years now with no end in sight. Remediation costs, estimated to be upwards of £30k per apartment, ‘would render me bankrupt,’ Helen said. Although Helen is hoping for a change with Mr Gove’s arrival, she reflected that she went from ‘a young first-time buyer to now facing financial ruin.'”

“Pensioner Michael Daine is struggling to pay for repairs in his flat in Runcorn, which he purchased with his pension and savings for retirement. ‘I’m devastated and angry that they have seen me, as a leaseholder, as being responsible for any of the mess and that I should have to pay. I didn’t understand why those in power weren’t listening to the thousands of folk who were suffering because of their inaction and failure to hold those responsible, accountable. I don’t trust anybody now, and that’s sad. I’ve heard so much talk, but as yet, no action. It’s been two years for us now, paying and paying…my worry was either eating or heating.'”

From Nikkei. “China’s downturn in housing prices has spread from smaller cities to some of its largest population centres, prompting authorities to try to put a floor under markets that help fill municipal coffers. In the northeast, Tianjin last month instructed real estate companies to limit price cuts on property. Newly built properties must be sold for no less than 15% below the original price reported to the city government, a source familiar with the matter said.”

“But tougher mortgage requirements are just part of what ails the market. China looks to curb excessive borrowing in the property sector, which has gained global attention with the debt crisis at China Evergrande Group. Some cash-strapped developers have paid contractors in property instead. These contractors, in a rush to sell it, have helped to drive prices downward.”

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This Post Has 122 Comments

  1. ‘What the reader describes is exactly what happened during the financial crisis, where lenders lost their minds and pressured appraisers all day long’

    Oh dear…

    1. ‘Appraisals have been used the past to dictate the current prices of homes, but through the pandemic this has taught us this isn’t able to be true right now. The pandemic has brought us to something we never thought we would see again, and how we have had to adapt is by pushing prices higher to keep sustaining’

      This one’s for you Aspen:

      Yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip, bmm
      Sha-na-na-na, sha-na-na-na-na, ahh-do
      Sha-na-na-na, sha-na-na-na-na, ahh-do
      Sha-na-na-na, sha-na-na-na-na, ahh-do
      Sha-na-na-na, sha-na-na-na-na
      Ahh, yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip
      Mum-mum-mum-mum-mum-mum, get a job
      Sha-na-na-na, sha-na-na-na-na

    1. If it’s any consolation, those deadbeat tenants are going to end up stiffing the banks when they walk away from their underwater shacks as Housing Bubble 2.0 implodes.

      1. Stiffing the banks is no big deal to bankers because our bought-and-paid-for congresspeople will eventually save the day via a bail out – performed, of course, in order to save starving children.

  3. Why should I be offered a loan to fix a building I didn’t plan, or design, so why should I pay the cost?’

    Cuz yer the winnah! Julie.

    1. Although Helen is hoping for a change with Mr Gove’s arrival, she reflected that she went from ‘a young first-time buyer to now facing financial ruin.’”

      That’s the only way the stupid ever learn, Helen. The hard way.

      1. Thankfully (for me) the stupid never learn.

        Helen made my much-coveted Stupid List, the one that I will enjoy milking for as long as it remains productive.

        I will treat Helen as if she is a milk cow, a cow that is regularly milked as all cows are regularly milked.

        But this Helen cow will not be owned by anyone, she will in fact own herself. The milk she produces will end up being mine but her care and feeding will remain her responsibility.

        Life is good if you choose to become a banker, it’s not so good if you choose to become a Helen.

  5. ‘Dozens of homes sit vacant across Portland. Residents of one block in the Piedmont neighborhood say a Zillow-owned home was occupied by squatters’

    Wa happened to my shortage Portland?

    ‘Nobody has brought up the point I thought looking at these homes. You can see the price they paid and it was also pretty clear they didn’t actually do any flipping work. Why would anyone want to pay more than what Zillow paid to get the house a few weeks earlier?’

    Magic 8 ball Kate. Turns out it was a lion.

    1. You can drive through Tahoe, Aspen and every vacation area across this country and a large percentage, in some cases the majority, of houses are vacant. They’ve turned into speculative assets.

      1. There used to be tax advantages for the second home, but that went away years ago. Lake Tahoe levies vacation rental taxes these days, so the place needs to be rented full time.

    1. Denver is literally a giant open air toilet.

      And in case anyone forgot, Denver voted 79.55% for Pedo Joe. Vote like California, become California.

    3. A long list of parasitical groups rake in huge amounts of money actively promoting and enabiling the homeless “problem” in Denver. No reason to discourage any “illegal drug use, public urination and unsafe loitering” as long as it brings in the shekels to the local homeless “services”.

      “In phase one, researchers found that nearly half a billion dollars is spent annually on homeless services in the metro area”.

      https://www.thecentersquare.com/colorado/denver-metro-has-85-organizations-serving-the-homelessness-think-tank-analysis-finds/article_d57c7900-35bb-11ec-a54b-17a0aa723033.html

  7. ‘A high-profile cryptocurrency trading platform has collapsed leaving hundreds of traders furious over losses running into tens of thousands of dollars. The exchange myCryptoWallet, run from Melbourne, has been placed in liquidation and its tattooed founder Jaryd Koenigsmann remains silent about the company’s long-running dramas.’

    ‘Traders complained of big losses, including a grandfather who said he had $40,000 with myCryptoWallet that he could not access. ‘$40,000 grand (sic) invested, and all stuck in that exchange. Sad thing is no government department gives a s***,’ he wrote.’

    ‘Another angry user claimed to have been returned $756, but was still owed $5,000. Aly Sarfaraz tweeted to the company this month pleading for ‘help’ to withdraw his funds as its normal systems would not allow the transaction. ‘Hello can I please get some help. I have come back to mycryptowallet after a year and I need to withdraw money,’ Mr Sarfaraz wrote.’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10281781/Australian-crypto-trading-platform-myCryptoWallet-collapses-founder-Jaryd-Koenigsmann-silent.html

    Various stages of grief here.

    1. “…Sad thing is no government department gives a s***,’ he wrote….”

      Got conned by a crypto site? Of course, no one could see this coming.

      1. One of the big selling points of cryptocurrency is no government regulation.

        Live by the sword, die by the sword.

    2. no government department gives a

      Isn’t that why you bought the imaginary money in the first place?

      1. These fools think these “exchanges” are banks.

        What’s next? A meta realtor will con you out of your virtual property?

  8. We were shocked, as was the lender, when the appraisal came in much lower than expected ($575,000). The problem seems to be that there are no appropriate ‘comps,’ since the town is very small, and properties are extremely diverse.”

    ‘appropriate comps’?🤣🤣🤣

    Did you think all appraisers are willing to risk a prison sentence so you can remain in your delusion? And here’s another bulletin…. there isn’t a house on the planet worth $575k.

    Hollywood, SC Housing Prices Crater 19% YOY As Double Digit Price Declines Blanket Charleston Area

    https://www.movoto.com/hollywood-sc/market-trends/

    As a noted economist stated so eloquently, “If you have to borrow for 15 or 30 years, you can’t afford it nor is it affordable.”

  9. ‘San Francisco remains down 14 percent from the start of the pandemic’

    It’s off more like 30% plus since 2015.

    1. http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=62726

      ‘Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt, a bloodthirsty neocon who used his position to shill America into the war in Iraq and push forced vaccines, died on Monday after suffering from sudden cardiac arrest.’

      ‘Today the Washington Post and the world lost an exceptional journalist and remarkable man: long-time Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt. I will miss his thoughtfulness, professionalism, and warm friendship. Our thoughts are with his beloved family at this difficult time. – Jeff Bezos’

      FJB

      2. Hiatt, 66, “had sudden cardiac arrest on Nov. 24 while visiting his daughter in Brooklyn, said his wife, Margaret ‘Pooh’ Shapiro, and did not regain consciousness,” the Post reported.

        Hiatt’s vaccination/booster status is not clear but as we all know, the sudden surge in heart disease throughout the West is purely a coincidence.

        Now they won’t even acknowledge these people’s vaxx status.

        And yeah, the surge in heart disease and deadly cardiac arrests, especially in people who are not obese and likely have low cholesterol counts is pure coincidence. Riiiight.

        Anyway, another one bites the dust.

        1. Recent gaslighting headlines:

          Up to 300,000 people facing heart-related illnesses due to post-pandemic stress disorder, warn physicians

          Researchers Warn That Cold Weather Can Cause Blood Clots & Heart Attacks

          1. Funny how last year, which was more stressful with the lockdown, but also had no vaxxes yet, didn’t have a surge in cardiac illness.

          3. I would think that if I was having a heart attack I would call for an ambulance, regardless. Now that I recall, last year my wife cut herself by accident, a cut that required stiches. We didn’t think twice about Covid and we went to the ER.

        2. A day will come when unvaxxed family members seek revenge on the portrayers of the lie that is Covid vaccination. Regular doctors will be shot in their practice. Town officials mandating vaccines for employment will die in home invasions. School board members will be run over crossing the streets. Us elder folk may as well go out with a bang and take some with us.

          1. Hence the reason to believe these elected buckets of $hit will do everything they possibly can to maintain power or escape.

            I’m ready….. soooooo ready. I speak for millions.

      3. “Though Hiatt was a rabid neocon when it came to American foreign policy, he was a radical leftist on domestic policy.”

        Odds are none of his three children ever wore the uniform.

        1. Odds are none of his three children ever wore the uniform.

          You can take that to the bank. Neocon wars are fine with them as long as it’s deplorables who bleed and die.

    2. Looking down after Bens tape some more interesting tapes.
      One tape was from a ambulance dispatcher talking about a weird increase in calls about neurological systems, car accidents, etc. Also, in the comment section a guy talking about his girlfriend who works for Allstate who said a major increase in car accidents.
      I also have noticed in the news a bunch of accidents reported where people are running into things like houses, concrete road divides, poles,trees, etc.
      Could it be that people are getting strokes, heart attacks, passing out, etc from the vaccines?
      The other day some truck came out of the blue and almost hit me, than drove erratically down the street in the middle of the day.
      I have to think something is going on here. What do you people think?

      1. What do you people think?

        Could be strokes, or maybe people are doing drugs or driving drunk more than before, or some combination?

      3. The vaccines are perfectly safe and effective. We do not question the Vaccines.

        They were not tested on animals before deployed on all of humanity and previous ones that used mRNA technologies basically killed the animals when they were reinfected with the virus that vaccine was supposed to stop. But they are still super safe.

        People are not dying from heart issues because of the vaccines. People are not having neurological issues or clotting issues from the vaccines. The vaccines will definitely not damage your immune system or cause Antibody Dependent Enhancement.

        The vaccines are perfectly safe and effective. We do not question the Vaccines.

        Please take more Boosters.

        Merry Christmas,
        Klaus Schwab, Bill Gates and Tony Fauci

        1. Recently saw a comment on Reddit: F4M, 33, petite, needing to feel that excitement again. Clean, drug free and educated, likes to explore. Not vaccinated? Don’t bother.

          1. 1 Not vaccinated, don’t bother
            2 Politics to the right of Lenin, don’t bother
            3 Under 6′, don’t bother

            F4M ads without at least one of the above result in the poster being permabanned. That said, if you pass condition #3, numbers 1 and 2 have a funny way of not coming up.

          4. “F4M, 33,”

            “What is F4M? Female seeking male?”

            Yes, female seeking male. The number “33” is also called “The Wall”.

            “… needing to feel that excitement again.” Translation: She wants the attention she used to get before her Sexual Market Value reached its Expiration Date.

          6. She wants the attention she used to get before her Sexual Market Value reached its Expiration Date

            As Jon Lovitz used to say in SNL: “Ladies, lower your standards.”

          7. “As Jon Lovitz used to say in SNL: ‘Ladies, lower your standards.’”

            Amazingly these ladies’ standards rise as their age rises.

            Many of these ladies, during their most sexually desirable years, were passed around among some highly sexually valued males and after each experience they tended to remember the plusses of each experience and forget the minuses.

            After The Wall makes its ugly age-generated appearance these passed-arounds decide it is time for them to “settle down” with one man, a man who is a composite of all the plusses they previously experienced with none of the minuses.

            Such a man exists only in their own minds along with the existence of the delusion that their own sexual market value has retained its value over the years.

          10. 33 is still a good age for a woman. The problem is that old biological clock is screaming. For a guy, you’re going to either need to get on the kid train, or get off of her.

          11. Wow! Lot’s of Red Pilled dudes here! Read Rollo Tomassi’s Rational Male for a true awakening!

          12. The number “33” is also called “The Wall”.

            I thought their thirties were the best years as they’re done expecting fairy-tale weddings and horses.

          13. I thought their thirties were the best years as they’re done expecting fairy-tale weddings and horses.

            I’ve attended more than a few princess weddings where the bride was in her 30’s. The older gals also seem to like the destination wedding, as in Fiji or some other distant and exotic locale.

          15. that old biological clock is screaming

            My husband calls it the diabolical clock. A friend didn’t heed his warning and recently got ensnared.

  14. Oh dear….

    Evergrande fails to make overdue coupon payments: sources

    https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/12/7/evergrande-fails-to-make-overdue-coupon-payments-sources

    A failure to make $82.5m in interest payments would represent the developer’s first offshore default.

    Some offshore bondholders of China Evergrande Group did not receive coupon payments by the end of a 30-day grace period on Monday New York time, four people with knowledge of the matter have said.

    A failure to make $82.5 million in interest payments that had been due last month could represent the developer’s first offshore default on a public bond.

    1. “…first offshore default on a public bond….”

      Here come the cascading defaults.

      Surprised it took this long.

        1. “…more than 1.5 million home buyers, waiting for their properties to be completed by the firm, are holding their breath.”

          Is it possible for these “yella fellas” to turn blue?

  15. The pandemic has brought us to something we never thought we would see again, and how we have had to adapt is by pushing prices higher to keep sustaining.’”

    Don’t blame the scamdemic for the Fed’s debasement of the currency.

  16. ‘The bank appraisal industry is literally feast or famine.

    Every no-talent REIC scribbler who misuses words like “literally” needs to be kicked in the jimmies.

  17. The result: Dozens of homes sit vacant across Portland. Residents of one block in the Piedmont neighborhood say a Zillow-owned home was occupied by squatters.

    It’s funny how the oligarch-funded astroturf groups organizing occupations of vacant housing by Gimme Dat single moms to drive small landlords out of business avoid BlackRock & Zillow-owned housing.

  18. In my crystal ball, I see this kind of supernova thing happening, I really do.’”

    In my crystal ball, I see the Fed’s Everything Bubble blowing up like a supernova and wiping out trillions in speculative malinvestment fake wealth created by fake Yellen Bux.

  19. “Across Western New York, the Covid-19 pandemic sent many landlords and tenants into a financial tailspin. They’re still trying to recover.

    Funny how real journalists at globalist propaganda outlets always willfully misrepresent cause & effect. It wasn’t “the pandemic” that sent landlords & tenants into a financial tailspin. It was the CDC’s unconstitutional eviction moratorium and the lockdown of the productive economy & non-oligarch owned small businesses.

  20. ‘There’s landlords I talk to that are so far behind that they see there’s going to be no way out,’ he said.”

    Welcome to the Great Reset, Marc. Those screwed-over landlords have been targeted for financial destruction by the globalists.

  21. “Appolinaire Lekeuneu, who owns 20 rental units in Western New York, said 13 of his tenants currently aren’t paying rent and owe a collective $156,000. Lekeuneu has tried to sell two of his properties, but the nonpaying tenants living there refuse to allow potential buyers inside for showings, he said.

    I’m starting to think my plan to accumulate effortless riches by become a real estate mogul might have some flawed assumptions, now that we have a Soviet-style planned economy where the globalist Quislings pick winners & losers.

  22. “A Toronto city councillor is about to introduce a motion asking the provincial government to bring in a speculation tax aimed at putting a chill into the red-hot housing market.

    The only way to chill these insane housing bubbles is to put the Keynesian fraudsters at the central banks in check. Better yet, put them in prison where they belong.

  23. From Willamette Week in Oregon. Readers Respond to Zillow’s Failed Effort to Flip Portland Houses

    Zillow was doomed when they decided to start paying above listing price, which means lower anticipated future return.

    1. Zillow was doomed when they decided to start paying above listing price,

      They were just following what their modeling and risk assessment algorithms recommended. No one could have seen it coming.

      2. modeling and risk assessment algorithms

        MBA hocus pocus. Assumed output based on assumed inputs: “in three to five years . . . $20 billion in revenue . . . house-transaction market every year is $1.5 to $2 trillion . . . 1%, or a little over 1%, of transactions . . . market share of the combined competitors [like us] is already 6%.”

        TL; DR: B$ in, B$ out.

        1. Most business plans aren’t worth the paper they are written on. They are based on hollow assumptions and a lot of conjecture.

          Most successful businesses are somewhat accidental. They start out small, and via hard work and heaping scoop of good luck some will succeed and grow into large firms. And even with large existing companies, new successes happen by accident. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard understood this, and encouraged their technical staff to set 10% of their workhours aside to experiment with their own ideas.

          Most of these so called “G-jobs” yielded nothing of real value. But once in a while, they did. HP’s inkjet printer business started by accident, when an engineer accidentally found a way to use semiconductors to shoot ink droplets.

          1. Another great example is the programming language JAVA.
            Scott G. McNealy (then CEO of Sun Microsystems) engaged the developers and foresaw the value of JAVA.

            What does JAVA and the HP inkjet printer have in common? They are something of *value*.

            Not the BS paper imaginary empires based on jacked up home price valuations, or goof ball crypto sites , or even NFT’s.

    2. “Zillow was doomed when they decided to start paying above listing price,”

      The company called Zillow was doomed but its insiders who sold their stock holdings during the company’s cleverly engineered price run-up were blessed.

      1. “….cleverly engineered price run-up were blessed….”

        Could it be that the Zillow business all along was just a front shell with just the primary intention that insiders could cash out a stock runup?

  24. Interesting Twitter thread:

    I think I’ve had discussions w/enough Boomer-tier Trump supporters who believe the 2020 election was fraudulent to extract a general theory about their perspective. It is also the perspective of most of the people at the Capitol on 1/6, and probably even Trump himself. 1/x

      1. It watched like a rigged sportsball game (from when I used to watch sportsball). One example was refusing to award obvious red states (especially Texas) to Trump for hours, regardless of by what margins he led them. The purpose was to manufacture the false narrative that Biden led in electoral votes from start to finish.

          1. Gotta rip the audio stream from that, and make a podcast so I can listen to it while walking our Spaniel.

  26. “Pasquale said he was withdrawing up to $20,000 a month from his savings account during the pandemic just to keep up with the bills for 44 South Buffalo rental units. Some of his tenants stopped paying rent, even though they continued working during the pandemic, he said. ‘I’ve had a couple tenants buy houses because they made so much money,’ he said.”

    Dont be a landlord in a Socialist sh**hole state Pasquale.

    1. Pasquale said he was withdrawing up to $20,000 a month from his savings account during the pandemic just to keep up with the bills

      Easy come, easy go.

  27. Ha Ha Ha, Ho Ho Ho and a couple of housing hens…….

    Reston, VA Housing Prices Crater 21% YOY As Every Northern Virigina Town Registers Falling Prices Year Over Year

    https://www.movoto.com/reston-va/market-trends/

    As one national broker conceded, “I wouldn’t be shocked if prices fell 50% or more. In fact we’re forecasting it.”

  28. Finally!

    A federal judge on Tuesday issued a nationwide injunction against a vaccine mandate for federal contractors, ruling that President Joe Biden probably exceeded his authority by imposing the requirement.

      1. https:// twitter.com/ MatthewDavidHa4 /status /1436067132199116806:

        WH Chief of Staff might regret this retweet.

        Courts consider the intent and purpose of policies and Klain just endorsed the notion that OSHA rule is a “work-around” to enact flagrantly illegal federal vaccine mandates.

      2. Probably?!?!

        You take what you can get. My employer falls under the federal contractor mandate, so this is welcome news.

    1. By that time the depopulationist agenda will have been fulfilled. Not to mention that nearly no one alive today will still be around.

  30. A nod to John Ross….

    Tom Ridge former Secretary of Homeland Security and famous Never Trumper was found dead today in a Motel 6 in Philadelphia. Police said the room was filled with drug and bondage paraphernalia. Suicide has been ruled out as multiple DNA samples were taken from “devices” in the room. There are no suspects at the moment.

    Things happen to bad people.

  31. The Jerome Powell Fed seems determined to not repeat the mistakes of the Arthur Burns Fed that led to double-digit inflation rates in the 1970s.

    Risk asset HODLers, beware…

    1. The Financial Times
      US economy
      Economists predict complete ‘taper’ of Fed bond buying by end of March
      FT-IGM survey shows expectations have shifted amid soaring inflation and falling unemployment
      Federal Reserve
      The survey responses underscore the pivot under way at Federal Reserve as it quickly unwinds its pandemic-era support to focus on fighting soaring prices © Financial Times
      Colby Smith, Christine Zhang and Caitlin Gilbert in New York
      4 hours ago

      The Federal Reserve will end its bond-buying programme by the end of March and raise US interest rates soon after, according to a poll of leading academic economists for the Financial Times.

      The latest survey, conducted in partnership with the FT by the Initiative on Global Markets at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, marks an abrupt shift in the economists’ expectations at a time of surging inflation and tumbling unemployment.

      Their responses underscore how swiftly the economic situation in the US has evolved over just a handful of months, as well as the pivot under way at the US central bank as it quickly unwinds its pandemic-era support to focus on fighting soaring prices.

      More than half of the 48 economists polled said it was “somewhat” or “very” likely the Fed would hasten the withdrawal of its stimulus by several months, bringing a complete stop to bond purchases by the end of March.

      A quicker pace could enable the Fed to raise rates as early as the first quarter of next year, a move that 10 per cent of the respondents now expect. Such an abrupt tightening could jolt financial markets, which do not expect the central bank to act until June.

      Half of the surveyed economists are forecasting a rate rise in the second quarter. Just three months ago, when the survey was last conducted, less than 20 per cent of participating economists thought a rate increase in the first six months of next year was likely.

      “The combination of the high inflation rate and the tight labour market suggests that there is no need for strongly expansionary Fed policies like [bond] purchases,” said Jonathan Parker, a professor of financial economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “To send the signal that [they] are normalising policy is important.”

      Jay Powell, the Fed chair, and other senior officials have in recent weeks adopted a more assertive stance against inflation, underscoring the rising risk of entrenched high prices and the central bank’s willingness to act if necessary.
      …

      1. “The Federal Reserve will end its bond-buying programme by the end of March and raise US interest rates soon after, according to a poll of leading academic economists for the Financial Times.”

        Glad I didn’t pay over asking for an already over-priced house, and then park a new 4×4 truck in its driveway. Phew!

      2. The Federal Reserve will end its bond-buying programme by the end of March and raise US interest rates soon after, according to a poll of leading academic economists for the Financial Times.

        And the Dumver Broncos will win the Souperbowl this season.

  32. December 8, 2021
    12:04 AM PST
    Last Updated 2 hours ago
    China
    China Evergrande shares hit new low amid debt crisis; Kaisa misses pay date
    By Clare Jim
    3 minute read
    The logo of China Evergrande Group is seen on the property developer’s headquarters in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China, Sept. 26, 2021. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo
    Summary
    — Hopes of debt restructuring keep floor under Evergrande shares
    — Evergrande has not yet confirmed default
    — ‘Market will want to wait and see and not give up yet’ -analyst
    — Trading in shares of Kaisa suspended

    HONG KONG, Dec 8 (Reuters) – China Evergrande Group’s shares hit a record low on Wednesday after a missed debt payment deadline put the developer at risk of becoming the country’s biggest defaulter, even as hopes of a managed debt restructuring calmed fears of a messy collapse.

    So far, any Evergrande fallout has been broadly contained, and with policymakers becoming more vocal and markets more familiar with the issue, consequences of its troubles are less likely to be widely felt, market watchers have said.

    Failure by Evergrande to make $82.5 million in interest payments due Nov. 6 on some U.S. dollar bonds would trigger cross-default on its roughly $19 billion of international bonds, with possible ramifications on China’s economy and beyond.

    While the 30-day grace period is over, Evergrande has not announced if the bonds have formally defaulted.

    The developer did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

    “Without the official announcement, the market will want to wait and see and not give up yet; otherwise Evergrande’s share and bond prices should have tumbled a lot more,” said Steven Leung, director of UOB Kay Hian in Hong Kong.

    “The market also wants to wait and see what can be done with local government stepping in now,” Leung added, referring to the move by Evergrande’s home province to help contain the risk.

    Evergrande was once China’s top property developer, with more than 1,300 real estate projects. With $300 billion of liabilities, it is now at the heart of a property crisis in China this year that has crushed almost a dozen smaller firms.

    Trading in shares of embattled smaller peer Kaisa Group Holdings was suspended on Wednesday, after a source with direct knowledge of the matter said it was unlikely to meet its $400 million offshore debt deadline on Tuesday.

    Kaisa, China’s largest holder of offshore debt among developers after Evergrande, had not repaid the 6.5% bond by the end of Asia business hours, the person said, which could push the notes into technical default, triggering cross defaults on its offshore bonds totalling nearly $12 billion.
    …

    1. “While the 30-day grace period is over, Evergrande has not announced if the bonds have formally defaulted.”

      Do the authorities have the CEO’s passport?

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