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A Case Of Golden Promises Or Just Fool’s Gold?

A weekend topic starting with my comment this week. “We really need to stop playing along with the globalist scum media narratives.”

From Bloomberg. “On a technical basis, Bitcoin is seen by some analysts as being caught in a no man’s land between different moving averages. The coin might be forming what’s known as a head-and-shoulders pattern, which would be a bearish development. ‘The problem with crypto is, who’s going to catch that falling knife?’ Cate Faddis, CIO at Grace Capital, said in an interview. ‘I am very concerned about crypto — honestly, it reminds me of ‘08 with the real estate and it could spread to the entire market.'”

The Boston Globe. “Walk around Boston, and you’ll find storefronts that emptied during the pandemic taking on new lives. Former sleep stores or diet clinics are being converted to mini-warehouses for a wave of ‘instant delivery’ startups aiming to dominate the ‘last mile’ of last mile delivery, and fueled by deep pockets of cash to do so. Promising to shuttle bananas or ice cream to your apartment in 15 minutes, these companies are renting storefronts and turning them into packing centers, then employing couriers on e-bike or scooter to make deliveries within a mile or two.”

“These ‘dark stores,’ as some call them, are coming, powered by huge sums of venture capital investment — $5.8 billion in the first nine months of 2021, according to research firm CB Insights, on top of $496 million last year and $1.1 billion in 2019. Some analysts warn this whole industry could amount to a flash in the pan, pumped up by investors chasing the next big idea and winding up not so different from the business it aimed to disrupt. Just as their start-up ancestors, Uber or WeWork, did.”

“‘It’s the next VC money pit is what it really is,’ said Sucharita Kodali, a retail analyst at Forrester.”

From Multi-Housing News. “The single-family build-to-rent sector has been described during a panel at the National Association of Real Estate Editors conference as a growth business that is only just now findings its legs. When Richard Ross of Quinn Residences founded his company a month prior to the start of the pandemic, his goal was to raise $250 million. The company recently closed out its capital raise at a whopping $900 million.”

“But in an earlier session on the future of the post-COVID suburb, panelist Alex Kamkar of Bold Fox Development shared his negative thoughts on the BTR concept, essentially calling it perhaps the worst thing to hit the housing market. ‘Housing is not a commodity, but the investment guys think it is,’ said Kamkar, whose firm develops master-planned communities. ‘Houses are being taken offline to the benefit of Wall Street,’ but to the determent of local home buyers.”

“Kamkar warned that there are only so many top-notch investors to go around. ‘The Blackstone Group is the creme-de-la-creme,’ he told Multi-Housing News after the session, ‘but the next buyer won’t be Blackstone. This thing is going to go broke eventually.'”

From CNBC. “With the inventory shortage, chances are homes will continue to go fast, says Glenn Phillips, CEO and lead economic analyst for Lake Homes Realty. ‘When buying a home in the next year or longer, it will be important to watch new listings, including ‘coming soon’ listings, and be very prepared to not only visit the home quickly, but prepare to decide and extend an offer almost immediately,’ says Phillips.”

“Acting fast doesn’t mean overpaying, though. ‘Buy competitively, but still be prudent,’ Phillips says. ‘There are home sellers who are pricing at such a high price that only suckers will buy.'”

From Bloomberg. “A hawkish turn from the Federal Reserve and the omicron variant have erased more than 10% off the market value of cryptocurrencies, $50 billion from newly public companies and 14% from a basket of meme stocks. While day-trader resolve has been tested before, it’s been years since it happened without the open-ended support from central banks.”

From Arlington Now. “Historically low interest rates have been one of the main drivers of the rapid housing price appreciation we’ve witnessed over the last 12-18 months. The charts below, courtesy of the National Association of Realtors, show that low interest rates have kept affordability, based on mortgage payments vs income, lower than the ’05-’07 housing bubble despite housing prices soaring relative to income; even higher than ’05-’06 peaks.”

“For years, we’ve been reading/hearing pundits say that it’s hard to imagine mortgage rates getting lower, often coupled with overly salesy messaging from the real estate industry that you must buy now because\ rates have never been so low and likely will not remain this low much longer. The problem with those claims is that mortgage rates have been dropping for about 40 years now (with relatively minor fluctuations along the way)…”

The Army Times. “More homebuyers are using Veterans Affairs home loans than ever before. In fiscal 2021, department officials guaranteed more than 1.44 million loans valued at roughly $447 billion, a new record high and up 15 percent from the prior fiscal year. John Bell, acting executive director of VA’s Loan Guaranty Service, attributed the jump to ‘historically low interest rates driving demand and increasing home values driving sales.'”

“Individuals who qualify can receive lower interest rates, smaller closing costs and often do not need to make any down payments to finalize the loans.”

The La Grande Observer in Oregon. “According to Federal Reserve Economic Data, the median listing price in La Grande reached an all-time high of $385,000 in May. From December 2020 to February 2021, the median listing price in La Grande jumped from $232,450 to $339,000. That median price has leveled out since, coming in at $285,000 in October. Across the country, the median price of a new house sold increased from $344,400 in September 2020 to $408,800 in September 2021.”

“‘It’s something that I haven’t quite wrapped my head around — the prices,’ said Holly Walker, of RE/MAX in La Grande. ‘I would have never imagined when I started this business 26 years ago that I would see this level of interest.'”

“‘During the summer and spring there was a lot of competitiveness for properties,’ said John Howard, of John J. Howard & Associates Real Estate in La Grande. ‘Some people paid over value, but they just wanted that particular house and were willing to go over and above other buyers.'”

The Park City Record in Utah. “According to the Park City Board of Realtors, in the second quarter of 2021 the median price of a single-family home within the Park City Limits rose to $2.75 million. That compares to $1.82M in Santa Monica $1.7M in Vail, and $2.3M in Greenwich, Connecticut. Within Park City Limits, the number of total single-family home sales more than doubled over 2020, to 367. Meanwhile, the sales volume tripled, from $390 million last year to $1.2 billion this year.”

“All neighborhoods saw a massive price increase. In Old Town, the median single-family home price topped $2.1 million. In the exclusive Aerie neighborhood, the median price more than doubled year-to-year, to $3.4 million. Snyderville’s median price rose 37%, to $1.75 million, while sales also spiked around the Jordanelle reservoir: In the Tubaye/Hideout area, the median rose 40% to $2.4 million. The number of sales units in Promontory went up a staggering 118%, but the dollar volume saw an even more impressive 154% hike.”

“It’s been noted that the amount of vacant land purchased in the past 18 months represents 4 to 5 years of historic sales. The Board of Realtors speculates that this may be investors looking for a safe place to put their money, as much as those who intend to actually build.”

“It’s not always easy being the most popular kid in school. According to the Park City Board of Realtors, sellers are encountering more buyer resistance as shoppers react to the unprecedented price increases. That means although plenty of people are looking for a home, there are fewer written offers, as buyers wait to see if the market will dip.”

From NBC Dallas in Texas. “For those of you not ready to buy a home, in the heart of downtown Fort Worth, construction is well underway for a new 27 story high-rise. It will be the first of its kind downtown because the luxury residences are for rent. DECO 969 right off Commerce St., just walking distance from Sundance Square will feature one, two, and three-bedroom apartment homes and penthouses with resort style amenities.”

“The first 7 floors will be just parking. Above that, expect some incredible views from the art deco building. We talked to the CEO of Southern Land Company, who says this project has been in the works for years. ‘After 12 years of looking, we found this site, and we’re thrilled about doing it. We’re kind of amazed. Downtown Fort Worth is one of the nicest downtowns I think in the country,’ said Time Downey.  ‘I think what’s been done at Sundance Square and maybe what the Bass family has done is incredible. It just needs more people living there.'”

From Prestige Online. “Investing in whisky: a case of golden promises or just fool’s gold? They call it ‘liquid gold’ – and as an investment, whisky is starting to live up to the name. Last May, at Bonhams Fine and Rare auction in Hong Kong, two bottles of The Macallan 1926 sold in separate lots to different bidders for more than US$1 million each, breaking world records for the spirit set just a month before. But gains aren’t always guaranteed, and research and at least a little interest are considered essential. ‘More than 99 percent of all whiskies will not appreciate in value over time,’ says Joseph V Micallef, independent whisky expert.”

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This Post Has 100 Comments

  1. The reader that recommended the first quote asked this be on Sunday, but I had to run it today, so I apologize.

    ‘It just needs more people living there’

    I haven’t been to downtown Ft Worth for a long time. But I’d bet it’s still a sh$thole.

    1. “globalist scum media narratives”

      Stop giving these people money. No corporate social media. No cable or satellite TeeVee. No Hollywood pedo movies. No print or online subscriptions to Real Journalist “news” papers. Stop using “apps” on smart phones that generate data they can monetize.

      We starve them.

      1. Who are the Real Journalists? This is a Real Journalist:

        “A senior producer at CNN has been arrested and charged with enticing minors as young as 9-years-old to engage in unlawful sexual activity.

        Griffin later transferred over $3,000 to the mother for plane tickets so the mother and her 9-year-old daughter could fly from Nevada to Boston’s Logan airport. The mother and child flew to Boston in July of 2020, where Griffin picked them up in his Tesla and drove them to his Ludlow house. At the house, the daughter was directed to engage in, and did engage in, unlawful sexual activity.

        According to the report, Griffin had been with CNN since 2013, working on New Day when Cuomo was the host.”

        This is what the Real Journalists support.

        When you give money to these people, this is what you are giving money to.

  2. There’s so many articles I could have posted on this topic, like this one:

    The 10 big problems with simply replacing fossil cars with electric

    ‘Behind the rapid growth in battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales lie a wide range of supporting policies. And behind these policies are governments that want to tap every last bit of marketing value from this highly visible climate action poster child. This is why pure BEV companies are now worth as much as the entire legacy auto industry, even though these companies (mainly Tesla) sell only about 1% of global light-duty vehicles.’

    ‘This article will cover ten fundamental problems with BEVs as a leading climate change mitigation option. The aim is not to discredit electric cars as a sustainable technology (they can certainly avoid CO2 and reduce fossil fuel dependence). Instead, this article aims to illustrate the huge disconnect between the ongoing BEV investment boom and the questionable societal benefit of the technology.’

    ‘Enthusiasts like to equate the rise of the electric car with the rise of the car itself. A little over a century ago, mass-produced automobiles quickly displaced horses as the primary mode of transport. This is not surprising as the car is a superior transportation medium in almost every way.’

    ‘But applying this analogy to BEVs displacing internal combustion engine (ICE) cars is flawed. First off, as we’ll see in the next three problems, BEVs are nowhere near as superior to ICE cars as cars are to horses. More importantly, though: they’re still cars.’

    ‘Back to our analogy, BEVs are just heavier and shinier horses that eat smaller quantities of a more expensive and (mostly) cleaner feed. The real horse-banishing automobiles in this analogy are the twin forces of virtual mobility and human-oriented city design.’

    https://energypost.eu/the-10-big-problems-with-simply-replacing-fossil-cars-with-electric/

    I know the solution: let’s just have a tube hooked to the back of our necks and have lab grown vegan cheese pumped in. And get a free check every week. Or forever stamps, I’m not sure about the financing part.

    1. Or we could cut to the chase like the globalist scum have been talking about for decades. We could engineer a massive world-wide human death event. Now that’s some climate action Greta can sink her fangs into!

    2. virtual mobility

      What a horrible euphemism. It’s almost as bad as “connected.” And human-oriented city design? Again, people who think they can solve the world’s problems by just riding their bikes to the store. Because as we all know, food grows right in the store.

    3. 2021 will go down in history as the year of Peak Con Man/Woman. Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Klaus Schwab, Bill Gates, Dave Ramsey, Cathie Wood, the list is endless.

      1. “Cathie Wood”

        Haven’t listened to her spiel before, but just a few minutes of hopping around YouTube suggests that she’s too wordy explaining the problems, and like other fund managers she mentions the pandemic’s costs, but avoids mentioning the last twenty years in the middle-east.

    4. Alternative energy cannot sustain an industrial civilization. It’s another utopian fantasy that will end in immeasurable human suffering and misery.

      There will never be enough renewable energy and renewable resources for everyone to drive electric cars. So what will follow will be rationing of cars and rationing of how many miles you can drive. You can see where things go from there. When you have to ride a bicycle but the factory can only make so many bicycles because of energy rationing. So then you have to walk, but the factory that makes shoes can’t make enough shoes for everyone because there isn’t enough energy to run the factory.

      This is The Green New Deal that awaits us.

  4. it could spread to the entire market

    What a wonderful “entire market”, pivoting around something that doesn’t exist.

  5. ‘In fiscal 2021, department officials guaranteed more than 1.44 million loans valued at roughly $447 billion, a new record high and up 15 percent from the prior fiscal year’

    The last time I saw a comparison, VA loans went from 2% of the market last decade to 12% a few years ago. This data means it’s probably 12% of the total market or more today.

    This is zero down, 12% of the market and that’s just VA.

    ‘John Bell, acting executive director of VA’s Loan Guaranty Service, attributed the jump to ‘historically low interest rates driving demand and increasing home values driving sales’

    Like the UT sales increases, sales shouldn’t go up with higher prices. Unless people are speculating.

  6. ‘It’s the next VC money pit is what it really is’

    Yeah we really need guys riding around on bicycles delivering bananas. This is what VC can come up with anymore? Grilled cheese trucks made more sense.

    1. his is what VC can come up with anymore?

      Well, as we know, stuff like self driving cars that aren’t deathtraps are next to impossible.

      Also, given how hard it’s become to hire people for menial jobs they might need self driving bicycles to deliver the bananas.

      1. “…hard it’s become to hire people for menial jobs they might need self driving bicycles to deliver the bananas….”

        Bananas aside, what happens to those bicycle drivers when the weather is 20 degrees below? Asking for a friend.

        1. what happens to those bicycle drivers when the weather is 20 degrees below?

          Doesn’t Uber have an app for that?

          But yeah, inclement weather could affect bicycle deliveries. I know they use bikes to deliver meals in London, and it rains there, quite a bit.

  8. Re: the discussion earlier this week on the gray text/contrast issues with BLOCKQUOTES:

    I published a new version of the JT Extension which makes the text darker/contrast WCAG-compliant. Should be published/active for both Chrome and Firefox (v4.10.3), if your browsers didn’t auto-update things.

    4. And just to test, for fun:

      This text is a blockquote and hopefully is more readable now. Normal text is #070707 (nearly black) and blockquotes are now #555555 (mostly black, but the each digit can be a value from 0-15, so it’s “30% black” if you will).

      Personally, I prefer quotes being somewhat de-emphasized from the commentary…

      1. so it’s “30% black” if you will)

        I fail at math/analogies, as it’s arguably 2/3 black (vs 1/3), and more like 5/8 than 2/3. Anyway…

        1. Can you undo the italics?

          It’s technically possible and I considered it, but I believe italics to be a good treatment of quoted text, to make it easier to parse the overall comment/what’s quoted, what’s commentary from the poster, etc.

          If you feel strongly about it, I can point you at the file to edit to change it locally for you, if you desire 🙂

          1. IIRC, things that are italicized in quoted text lose distinction once everything else becomes italicized. I’m admittedly hypersensitive to that sort of thing after bluebooking in law school.

          2. that sort of thing

            You young folks! We only had one typeset or darkness when typing. Indentations were our visual que.

          3. things that are italicized in quoted text lose distinction once everything else becomes italicized

            This is certainly true, though do you find yourself quoting text that itself has italicized portions?

            You’ll notice that I quote text I’m replying to by italicizing it (and the extension will automatically do that with any selected text when you click “reply”). Not to say that’s necessarily the *right* approach, but when I first worked on things that seemed like a good way to make it clear which were the words of the poster and which were not (somtimes folks just copy + paste without formatting on here, which is really hard to follow IMO).

            My thinking/reasoning is the treatment should be similar with blockquotes for consistency. However, users have provided better ideas than my own in the past, and I remain open to input/discussion. Maybe send me an email via the address on the extension web page and we can discuss further?

    5. I published a new version of the JT Extension which makes the text darker/contrast WCAG-compliant.

      Fingers crossed…

  9. The Federalist — Obsessing Over ‘The Health Of The Nation’ Conjures Some Very Dark Places (12/8/2021):

    “Hatred of vaccine dissidents—even ones in pain or despair—expresses itself first in marginalization and demonization. Then it advances to punishment of the non-compliant. We are in the early stages of coercive retribution. But the Society’s vindictive decision hints at a larger end game that has little to do with public health.

    Some media greeted the Society’s mandate as an absurdity. But no. It is much more than that. What appears absurd has purpose behind it.

    Germany is the seedbed of Karl Schwab’s megalomania and the aligned ambitions of globalist elites. They view nonconformity to vaccination diktats as insubordination, a threat to the utopian bottom line. Resistance to the reigning narrative is denounced as irrational. In the mind of our betters, it suggests mental illness, and poses a danger to the common good. Science denial is an error that has no rights.”

    https://thefederalist.com/2021/12/08/obsessing-over-the-health-of-the-nation-conjures-some-very-dark-places/

    1. It is chilling to see what is happening in other countries. The “Wellness Camps” in Australia. The threats of fines and imprisonment in Europe. Not being allowed to shop for food in Canada.

      And as the vaxxed increasingly drop dead like flies, the unvaxxed will be blamed.

      I’m certain that the number of vaxxed injured, and I’m not talking about those who had a fever for a few days after getting the booster, is in the millions, and they are too injured and sick to work at a menial job making fast food or stocking shelves at the store, hence the “labor shortage”.

    2. In not going along with the globalist agenda, choice of words is important. There is a subtle coercion in their terminology and many other manipulative tactics.

      “Hatred of vaccine dissidents—even ones in pain ….”

      Dissidents? It may be sarcastic but I tend to dislike most sarcasm.

      Dissidents?
      Vaccine refusers indicates a choice denied.

      Inherent in the term dissident is acknowledging Fraudski and his murderous gang as “official”authority.

      Per our Constitution, he, and they, are not our authorities or officers especially when issuing corrupted science, illegal mandates, or other unscrupulous and illegal mandates, orders or announcements.

      I refuse a death shot. The corrupted changed the definition of vaccine recently but what ever they call it, It is a lethal injection.

    1. Happy twenty two month anniversary of “two weeks to flatten the curve.”

      Ben, get the ropes ready. We got some globalists to take care of here…

  11. ‘I am very concerned about crypto — honestly, it reminds me of ‘08 with the real estate and it could spread to the entire market.’

    I’m missing the concern entirely. If cryptocurrency prices fell by a large percentage, that would give a much larger number of people an affordable entry point to one of the most incredible wealth creation devices ever invented.

    Wherever cryptocurrency prices go from here is good, particularly given that it is deregulated and hence devoid of the need for any government regulatory interventions or bailouts.

    1. No one who bought BTC at $400 or $4,000 — and a I know a few at these entry levels — are “concerned”. They are laughing.

      2. Veritasium is going to be a household name in 2 years.

        i agree. he’s extremely smart and picks great counterintuitive topics. i think i posted one of his ‘can this wind sail cart go faster than the wind speed?’ videos here. a physicist made him a $10,000 bet that it couldn’t, and the physicist lost.

          1. considering the context of the thread, you’re probably right. i saw the name and got locked onto the utuber. comical when you think about it.

            i’m in agreement with ‘the jackal’ on many other topics though.

            thanks for taking the time to set me straight.

          2. Youtuber: Veritasium
            Crypto: Veritaseum

            That’s really easy to confuse. I looked up veritaseum. It appears to be a token which uses the Ethereum platform. Right now you can use veritaseum to buy VERI tokens to purchase services from the Vertiaseum fintech software service.

            At least that’s what I think it does. And I really don’t care to learn more. It seems to be another altcoin that’s going to be washed out with the next crash. Just like pets dot com.

    3. I wonder if this whole “high stocks / assets begets prosperity” theory that is foundational in economics is actually a post hoc fallacy. Like the prosperity happens first and then the bubble starts as people have excess cash to play with.

  12. Longer piece written by Michael Anton, the author of The Stakes: America at the Point of No Return (December 2021):

    The “Great Replacement” is not just happening; under the Biden-Harris regime, it is accelerating. Among the few promises Biden has kept are those not to build a single new inch of the border wall or to enforce immigration laws. As a result, illegal migrants are pouring across the southern border at an unprecedented rate. The ridiculous former practice of “catch-and-release”—catch an illegal immigrant, release him on American soil—has been replaced by “catch-and-bus” or even “catch-and-airlift.” The U.S. government places illegal border-crossers on buses and planes and distributes them throughout the heartland, unannounced, often followed by official denials. Naturally, none of these people is vetted in any way—not for covid, which has the rest of us in semi-permanent lockdown, nor for criminal records or anything else. Couple this with the regime’s policy to settle throughout middle America as many unvetted Afghans as possible—some of whom are likely terrorists, several of whom have already committed sex crimes—and it is fair to describe current practice as demographic warfare. The concept is not exactly new; tyrants have been known from time immemorial to move populations around so as to hold conquests more securely. What’s unprecedented is a regime importing foreigners to harm its own people.

    The question of immigration is inseparable from that of race. “Critical Race Theory,” much in the news lately, is but the latest iteration of intellectual and academic anti-whiteness that has been central to leftist ideology since the mid-1960s. The ur-specimen is Susan Sontag’s 1967 belch that “the white race is the cancer of human history.” Examples are so numerous today that cataloguing them all would be a full-time job for an entire think tank—but a pointless one, since the Left will in the same breath deny and affirm their own words quoted back to them: “We didn’t say that, and it’s good that we did.” Many whites, apparently, believe they deserve to be replaced because their race makes them uniquely, and irredeemably, evil. While cultural self-loathing is hardly unknown to history, I know of none so explicitly race-based or widespread—or so eager to pursue self-abnegation all the way to the end.

    This hatred of the core stock of the nation, by other members of that same stock, also appears to be unprecedented. Examples can be found of a new elite rising to preeminence above an older one, which it then displaces with prejudice. But of a ruling class coming to despise its own (broadly speaking) ethnic group and seeking ways to rob their fellow co-ethnics of power, standing, and influence? I can’t think of any other such cases.

    The matter becomes even more complicated when one reflects that this is mostly an intra-white civil war. One group of whites pronounces the entire white race evil, seeks policies to hurt it, but somehow exempts itself. So far, these upper-caste whites have found ways to protect their own privilege but haven’t developed consistent rhetoric to defend that privilege. They appear to believe that no matter how much anti-white poison they vomit or how many destructive policies they enact, none will ever blow back on them. In particular, they seem to believe that the “allies” in whom they stir up anti-white hatred will never turn and bite them; at least, they appear not to have seriously considered the possibility. This situation, too, is unprecedented.”

    https://newcriterion.com/issues/2021/12/unprecedented

    2. CRT, you never ever talk about black people behavior, so whats left? race

      I remember i think a Boston legal show where they were all walking around a globe, you have to look at all 360 degrees of a case, and then look for whats not there……..i actually learned that in the paralegal school i went too

    3. An excellent essay, except that he doesn’t seem to be able to accept that their intent is to destroy Western civilization.

  13. I didn’t think to check this before, but look at historical mortgage rates. They were in a range of 5-6% in the 00’s bubble…and then dropped from late 2008-12 from 6.5% to 3.3% – in concert with the dropping prices.

    What happens to a market with softening prices if rates can’t go down…and in fact go up?

    1. if rates can’t go down

      During times of sanity, rates would go up to stop inflation. But history shows plenty of examples where inflation raged and nothing was done to stop it. And the people running the country are the looniest ones I’ve ever seen.

      And the longer the medicine is postponed, the more bitter it is. Anyway, I predict more can kicking until inflation becomes so unbearable that even hard core leftists will scream for relief.

  15. No link because ZH’s headline says it all: Ponzi? Insiders Dump Stocks To Their Own Companies At Record Pace

      1. “The tsunami of insider selling consists of Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, cosmetics billionaire Ronald Lauder, Walton family heirs to Walmart, and Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc, among others. Many of them have dramatically accelerated stock sales.”

        1. Do any of those companies produce anything of value? Perhaps Google’s Android OS, which is just a gussied up version of Linux. Anyway, most of Google’s income is from selling online advertising.

          WalMart is has completely struck out selling stuff online, and may eventually suffer K-Mart’s fate.

          It is interesting that Musk is selling some of his Tesla stock, but only a small portion, relatively speaking. Is he doing it to infuse cash into SpaceX, or is he paying off debt with overpriced Tesla stock?

          1. I read somewhere that Wal-Mart’s biggest profit comes from the grocery half of the Supercenters. KMart never really got into food, which was part of their downfall.

          2. WalMart is has completely struck out selling stuff online, and may eventually suffer K-Mart’s fate.

            Interestingly (or not!), I often prefer to order from Walmart rather than Amazon due to all the fakes on Amazon.

            For example, motor oil and filters. I don’t trust Amazon’s mixing of stock from 3rd party vendors, so I order from Walmart instead

          3. The margins are extremely tight for real food in the grocery business, so a high volume is necessary to remain profitable. OTOH, the processed sugary goodies are where the money is minted.

          4. Neither re Tesla.
            Several reasons, after years of California residency, he can finally liquidate some holdings as he is now a Texas resident and will save literally several billion in State taxes.
            Other reasons too but this one is big.
            He does not draw a salary and so stock options and such are his only employment income.

        2. Anyway, what I was trying to say is that when the stock market finally crashes, I would expect the “Emperor’s New Clothes” type of companies to crater far worse than those that actually produce value.

      2. “Most of the insider dumping was in the technology sector, amounting to $41 billion in sales.”

        1. FWIW, the NASDAQ’s combined market cap is about $5T. So insiders unloading $41B really isn’t all that much.

          What does cross my mind is that this year’s Federal budget deficit (should build back better be passed) would be equal to the NASDAQ’s market cap. And the Dems wonder why there is inflation

          1. FWIW, the NASDAQ’s combined market cap is about $5T. So insiders unloading $41B really isn’t all that much

            Could also be related to Washington state’s upcoming capital gains tax (starts in 2022) for Seattle-based companies, as well as potential federal cap gains taxation.

  16. ‘ A CNN producer who worked alongside former host Chris Cuomo has been arrested and charged with luring minors to his home for sexual activity. The accused pedophile wanted to “train” his victims to be “sexually submissive.”

    ‘John Griffin, 44, worked alongside disgraced CNN host Chris Cuomo on ‘New Day’, and most recently served as producer for John Avlon, the liberal network’s senior political analyst. Outside of work, however, the Connecticut man’s interests were dark and disturbing, and Griffin was arrested on Friday and charged with three counts of attempting to entice minors to engage in unlawful sexual activity.’

    ‘Chris Cuomo hit with sexual misconduct accusations after CNN ouster READ MORE: Chris Cuomo hit with sexual misconduct accusations after CNN ouster’

    ‘According to a statement from the Justice Department, Griffin used instant messaging apps last year to contact the parents of minor daughters, persuading them “to allow him to train their daughters to be sexually submissive.”

    ‘A “woman is a woman regardless of her age,” he allegedly said.’

    https://www.rt.com/usa/542903-cnn-producer-sex-abuse/

    There’s more.

    1. Real Journalists.

      When you see the term “Real Journalists” on this blog, this is who they are, and this is what they do.

      People give money to these Real Journalists like it’s on default mode, they don’t know they can stop giving money to these Real Journalists.

      All you have to do is STOP GIVING THEM MONEY.

  17. A reader sent this in, I don’t have a subscription:

    ‘Moderate Democrats are pushing the Federal Reserve to move more aggressively towards tighter monetary policy to stamp out inflation, in a sign of their mounting concern about the political fallout from high prices.’

    “The Fed needs to start tapering immediately and then they need to raise interest rates. Both those things can be done by March,” Jake Auchincloss, a Democrat from Massachusetts and member of the House of Representatives financial services committee, which oversees monetary policy, told the Financial Times.’

    “I think chair [Jay] Powell would do well to end the decade of easy money,” he added.’

    ‘The growing Democratic hawkishness is taking a variety of forms — including renewed criticism that loose Fed policies are driving disparity. Jon Ossoff, the Democratic senator from Georgia, pressed Powell about what specific economic purpose the bond-buying programme serves at a time when aggregate demand is “quite strong” and capital markets are “highly liquid”.

    “Does it not for example, while it provides additional liquidity to capital markets, worsen inequality by driving up equity and asset valuations and shifting more cash on to the balance sheets of major financial institutions, high net worth individuals and investors?” Ossoff asked.’

    1. in a sign of their mounting concern about the political fallout from high prices

      If they do that, housing prices and 401K balances will collapse, and a great many will be unhappy.

      They’ve painted themselves into a corner.

    2. If the Fed stops printing, then who is going to fund their multi-trillion build back better bill? Or have these Dimocrats not connected those dots yet?

      1. My understanding is that the progressive democrats want the BBB bill while the moderate democrats want to get re-elected.

      2. If the Fed stops printing, then who is going to fund their multi-trillion build back better bill?”

        I’m sure more tax the working poor plans will be forthcoming

        “Starting next year, the federal threshold for issuing the 1099-K will drop to $600 with no minimum transaction level, due to a provision in the recently enacted American Rescue Plan Act. (Some states already have lower minimums.)

        1. Online seller thing used to be 20K before he seller would get a 1099-K. So you want to sell your used whatever on Ebay? be careful and have fun proving its a loss to a automated IRS collection demand.

  19. Oh dear green energy causing power grid problems ?
    Is time of use mandatory in California?
    The three large IOUs (PG&E, SCE and SDG&E) in California are required to transition to default Time Of Use (TOU) plans. This mandate does not include municipal utilities or Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) providers. However, many municipal utilities also offer TOU rates.

    1. Watching this video and the massive amount of support for Trump one year ago, thinking about Delaware Joe back in his basement today after not being able to fill a parking lot with his campaign rally’s and considering the massive theft they were able to pull off with the election is truly mind boggling.

      1. and everyone, (including biden supporters) is now paying a staggering price for that theft. far beyond what many people understand. sowell told us that biden was the point of no return. we can only pray that sowell is wrong this time.

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