thehousingbubble@gmail.com
Blog

The Belief That The Value Will Only Go Up Can Turn Into Bubble Behavior

A weekend topic starting with two reports from Bloomberg. “To cryptocurrency true believers, Bitcoin is the ultimate store of value, the most solid hedge against the rampant inflation manufactured by reckless central banks and their money-printing. To skeptics, the crypto world as a whole is a mirage whose massive run-up past $2 trillion was simply the speculative byproduct of the extraordinary amount of easy cash that’s been sloshing around in the global economy — in effect, a big bubble. Both of those theories are about to face their biggest test yet.”

“Another way of thinking about the tech wreck: At no other point since the bursting of the dot-com bubble have so many companies fallen like this while the index itself was so close to a peak. ‘Valuations are at historical highs, companies are raising billions based on fairy dust, and the Fed is signaling a tightening cycle,’ said Jason Goepfert, chief research officer at Sundial Capital Research. ‘All of these are scaring investors that we’re on the cusp of a repeat of 1999-2000.'”

The Boca Raton Tribune. “The frenzied housing market appears to be cooling in many Western U.S. markets, even as prices continue to rise nearly unabated in the Eastern part of the country, according to a new study. Los Angeles and Boise, Idaho are among a growing number of Western metropolitan areas developing a ‘pricing crown’ – a leveling off of home price gains that typically precedes a market slowdown. Other markets gaining pricing crowns include San Diego and San Francisco, as well as Ventura and Stockton, California.”

“‘These latest results suggest that the long-anticipated housing downturn is already beginning in the Western half of the U.S.,’ said Ken H. Johnson, Ph.D., an economist for FAU. ‘This is not totally surprising because it is in the West where the greatest separation between actual housing prices and projected housing prices has occurred to this point.'”

From Marketplace. “It’s getting a little more expensive to take out a mortgage. For those in the market for a second home, costs are going up even more, thanks to higher fees coming in a few months. Demand for second homes has gone through the roof in the last couple of years, as newly remote workers seek more space and better scenery. ‘There is a long-term trend that we’ve seen of second-home purchases increasing,’ said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin . ‘I think part of that just goes along with wealth inequality in the rich getting richer and being able to buy more second homes.'”

“This week, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced it’s increasing the upfront fees for second-home loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by as much as about 3.9% starting in April. Fairweather said regulators may be trying to get a handle on what could be an emerging bubble in the housing market. ‘If a whole lot of people are buying up second homes with the belief that it’s a great investment because the value will only go up, that can turn into bubble behavior,’ she said.”

From Bitcoin Magazine. “The Ponzi Scheme is a simple concept. ‘A Ponzi scheme is an investment fraud that pays existing investors with funds collected from new investors. Ponzi scheme organizers often promise to invest your money and generate high returns with little or no risk. But in many Ponzi schemes, the fraudsters do not invest the money. Instead, they use it to pay those who invested earlier and may keep some for themselves.'”

“‘With little or no legitimate earnings, Ponzi schemes require a constant flow of new money to survive. When it becomes hard to recruit new investors, or when large numbers of existing investors cash out, these schemes tend to collapse.'”

“If we replace investors with lenders, we can look at a similar type of Ponzi. Let’s look at an example: Let’s say Acme Corp takes out a $1 million loan for one year against their $10 million in assets. They spend that $1 million, but they still need to pay back the bank $1 million plus 5% interest. So, Acme takes out another loan for $2 million plus, pays back the first loan, and keeps another $1 million to spend in the second year. In the third year, Acme owes that $2 million plus with interest, so they take out $3 million, plus enough to cover last year’s loan payment, with $1 million to spend in the third year.”

“As long as a lender is still willing to lend to Acme, this can technically go on as long as Acme’s interest rate is lower than the growth rate of their assets. Acme can even use borrowed money to buy more assets, further fueling this machine.”

“The longer Acme is able to run the infinite money machine, the higher the nominal value of Acme and its assets goes, and the harder they and their investors fall when a sudden drawdown triggers a margin call from creditors. For a real world example, see one of China’s biggest companies, Evergrande. From the article in the Financial Times. ‘There is no way we can repay so many creditors with our limited resources,’ said an Evergrande executive, who asked not to be identified. ‘We will let judges decide who gets paid and how much.'”

“Seems like a dangerous game to play, but Acme is just one company. In our modern economy, however, we have endowed interest rates with a divine status, allowing central bankers to set these rates instead of participants in a free market. Central banks like the Federal Reserve change rates using their monopoly on the creation and destruction of reserve money, which they use to buy and sell assets within the commercial banking system. These actions are convoluted, but their stated intent is to influence all other interest rates in the economy to move up or down.”

“Central banks and governments cannot stop taking on debt and printing money, because our currencies themselves are a key part of a massive infinite money machine Ponzi. The source of this infinite money machine is central banking. A corporation or individual needs to show a lender that they are creditworthy, but the central bank is a special type of lender. This lender bears no cost to lend their currency, so they can lend to anyone, anytime, at any rate. Governments utilize this special lender as their literal infinite money machine. And they even admit it’s an infinite money machine.”

“However, a central bank and its fiat currency have the same Achilles heel as a Ponzi Scheme: ‘With little or no legitimate earnings, Ponzi schemes require a constant flow of new money to survive. When it becomes hard to recruit new investors, or when large numbers of existing investors cash out, these schemes tend to collapse.’ If central banks and governments stop printing money, or if demand for their debt or currency falls, the entire ruse will collapse.”

From Mises.org. “Runaway house price inflation continues to characterize the U.S. market. House prices across the country rose 15.8% on average in October 2021 from the year before. U.S. house prices are far over their 2006 Bubble peak, and remain over the Bubble peak even after adjustment for consumer price inflation. Unbelievably, in this situation the Federal Reserve keeps on buying mortgages.”

“It buys a lot of them and continues to be the price-setting marginal buyer or Big Bid in the mortgage market, expanding its mortgage portfolio with one hand, and printing money with the other. It should have stopped before now, but the purchases, financed by newly created fiat money, or monetization, go on. They proceed at the rate of tens of billions of dollars a month, stoking the house price inflation, making it harder and harder for new families to afford a house.”

“The balance sheet of the Federal Reserve has grown to a size that would have amazed previous generations of Federal Reserve governors and economists. The total assets of the Federal Reserve reached $8.7 trillion in November 2021. This is just about double the $4.5 trillion of November 2016, five years before—and we thought it was really big then. Today’s Federal Reserve assets are ten times what they were in November 2006, 15 years ago, when they were $861 billion, and none were mortgages.”

“Our closing questions on the outlook are: If the Federal Reserve stops being the Big Bid for mortgages, how much higher will mortgage interest rates go from their present abnormally low level? When the mortgage rates rise, how quickly will the house price inflation end?”

Related Posts
This Post Has 159 Comments

  1. It’s an interesting day when bitcoin magazine calls out central bankers for ponzi. But it’s still worth a read as is the Mises piece.

  3. ‘The balance sheet of the Federal Reserve has grown to a size that would have amazed previous generations of Federal Reserve governors and economists’

    OK, I gotta take a minute on this. As I’ve said, I’m an accountant and focused on financial accounting. The nut and bolts of debits, credits, classification, financial statements.

    New money is created, so CB says “Debit” asset Cash! Woo hoo!

    So what’s the credit? Is it a liability? “Credit” Thin Air Payable to UH…

    The central bank doesn’t have a balance sheet. It doesn’t really balance, it’s made up. Oh and they aren’t audited, publicly. We have no idea what’s on it.

    2. They are above public scrutiny by design, and essentially operate as a Congressional financial cookie jar.

  4. ‘At no other point since the bursting of the dot-com bubble have so many companies fallen like this while the index itself was so close to a peak. ‘Valuations are at historical highs, companies are raising billions based on fairy dust, and the Fed is signaling a tightening cycle’

    “They’re renting f$@%ing desks!”

      1. i am really interesting in finding out what % is office sub-lease? I think that there was over acquisition pre-covid – and they have to start saving

        1. Downtown along Santa Clara street from Almaden and east to 2nd Street has lots of mixed use, retail street level and office space above, but they’re not occupied, some are even boarded-up. Then head north toward the 237 tech area, and there’s vast empty office space. Somebody is hurting.

    2. I remember hanging out at the Free Speach Cafe on UC Berkeley’s campus while the tech stock mania unraveled. What most amazed me as I watched the daily news feed on a large screen television was how many days and even months on end of collapsing stock prices it took to unwind. It was quite a contast to the one-day-long 20% down Black Monday crash in October 1987.

      2. ‘ amazed me as I watched the daily news feed on a large screen television was how many days and even months on end of collapsing stock prices it took to unwind.’

        If memory serves me right, the unwinding did not stop until the announcement of going back in to Iraq in 2003. This was 20 years ago. Before smart phones, Obama, Covid and MetamucousBook.

  5. Boo asked on yesterday’s thread “what is a Glowie?”

    Gateway Pundit — Feds on Parade: The Mysterious Khaki-Clad Federal Patriot Front Is Back — This Time They’re Protesting in Chicago (1/8/2022):

    “Patriot Front breaking off from the March for Life, with some carrying shields and wearing shin guards as they march through Grant Park in Chicago. One of their members is photographing press that are taking pictures/videos”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/01/feds-parade-mysterious-khaki-clad-federal-patriot-front-back-time-protesting-chicago/

        2. The feds weren’t there as a false flag. They were doing something else covert likely scooping up the cell phone signals of everyone at the March. Domestic terrorists remember are the biggest threat. They’re looking to set up a fake scheme to bomb an abortion clinic just like all the other fake crimes they set up. Prolifers are a great out group to slander as domestic terrorists.

  6. ‘Los Angeles and Boise, Idaho are among a growing number of Western metropolitan areas developing a ‘pricing crown’ – a leveling off of home price gains that typically precedes a market slowdown’

    These economists are studiously avoided by the REIC media because they demonstrate a semblance of reason regarding shack prices. Leveling off turns into run for the hills cuz of greater fool.

    1. The other problem with leveling off is that it provides a dog whistle for speculative investors like Zillow to get out before the crash. Once prices stop rising, the reason for speculators to buy becomes a reason for them to sell. And the transition of speculators from buyer to seller puts ever more downwards pressure on prices.

      At times like this, gravity matters more and more as the market shifts.

  7. ‘Tim Duy, the chief U.S. economist at SGH Macro Advisors, remarked that were no more dovish voices on inflation. “It matches our view that the consensus has moved markedly in a hawkish direction and most likely any new personnel will fall in line with that consensus,” said Duy. On the balance sheet, he remarked that “this conversation indicates the Fed is considering going sooner, faster, and further with [quantitative tightening] than in the last cycle.” Remember during the last balance sheet tightening, the Fed waited until rates were at 1% before reducing the balance sheet.’

    ‘An interesting take came from Michael Batnick, director of research at Ritholtz Wealth Management, who wrote a blog on rules about buying crashing growth stocks. First, he sounded a note of buyer’s regret, twice buying Robinhood without success.’

    “Fundamentals didn’t keep a ceiling on these stocks when they were rising, and fundamentals won’t put a floor on these stocks when they’re falling. When high multiple stocks are being liquidated, it’s best just to stay away,” he said.’

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/here-s-one-take-on-how-to-catch-a-falling-knife-after-the-growth-stock-crash/ar-AASuEUZ

          3. Are we then going to compare which dynasty profited the most from their public service?

    3. It’s open season on whites and Asians in every Democrat-Bolshevik malgoverned city where Soros-installed DAs with their hug-a-thug criminal justice policies and anti-white agendas preside. Note that you won’t hear a peep from “civil rights” shakedown outfits like the SPLC at such non-Narrative Complaint hate crimes.

      Asian man, 61, who was repeatedly kicked in the head in NYC hate crime that left him in a coma dies eight months after the savage attack: Thug charged with attempted murder has been arrested 15 times

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10383109/Asian-man-61-left-coma-hate-crime-dies-eight-months-attack.html

      An Asian father of two who was repeatedly kicked in the head during a hate crime attack, leaving him in a coma, has died eight months after the brutal beating by a homeless career criminal in crime-plagued New York City, the NYPD said.

      Yao Pan Ma, 61, died on December 31 after the April assault by Jarrod Powell, 49 – who has been arrested 15 times since 1988, the NYPD said.

      The Big Apple reported nearly 474 hate crimes through November of last year – a 96 percent increase from 2020 during the same time frame when there were 242 such attacks.

        1. “help if Asians stopped pulling the D lever on election day.”
          Amen:
          Affirmative action is screwing them the most. See Harvard, Yale and California College admittance cases. In CA Asians are claiming to be white to help them get admitted.

  9. President Donald J. Trump statement on January 7th, 2022:

    “What we witnessed yesterday was the last gasps of a corrupt and discredited left-wing political and media establishment that has, for decades, driven our country into the ground—shipping away our jobs, surrendering our strength, sacrificing our sovereignty, attacking our history and values, and trying to turn America into a country that our people can barely recognize.

    These radical leftists in Washington care NOTHING for American Democracy. All they care about is control over you, and wealth and riches for themselves.

    But they are failing. No one believes them anymore. And the day is quicky coming when they will be overwhelmingly voted out of power.

    Joe Biden’s voice is now the voice of desperation and despair.”

    Did you know that the 2020 election was, in fact, stolen?

    “The American People also see that January 6 has become the Democrats’ excuse and pretext for the most chilling assault on the civil liberties of American citizens in generations. It is being used to justify outrageous attacks on free speech, widespread censorship, de-platforming, calls for increased domestic surveillance, appalling abuse of political prisoners, labeling opponents of COVID lockdowns and mandates as national security threats, and even ordering the FBI to target parents who object to the radical indoctrination of their children in school. And this week, January 6 is also the Democrats’ excuse for trying to pass a radical Federal takeover of state election law. They are trying to BAN voter ID and other basic measures that can ensure the sacred integrity of the vote.

    The reason the Democrats are doing all of this is not because they believe they will win a fair and honest election. It’s because they know they will overwhelmingly LOSE one.

    Remember, I am not the one trying to undermine American Democracy—I am the one trying to SAVE American Democracy.

    Today, I am more confident than ever in the strength and common sense of the American People. They are counting the days until we will no longer have to be constantly lectured, lied to, and dictated to by corrupt politicians and their media partners. When we will no longer have to put up with this broken establishment’s hoaxes and its manufactured media narratives—And as Biden and his radical handlers know, that day is coming fast. Because in the months and years ahead, the American People are going to speak up, take action, and VOTE in massive numbers, and we are going to TAKE BACK OUR COUNTRY.”

    You can’t be a globalist and an American.

    If you are a globalist, this isn’t your country.

    The Day Of The Rope is coming, soon…

    1. Ray Epps inspired song for the new National Holiday.

      Pelosi can have the cast of Hamilton perform this next year.

      Although it was stolen from the Stones.

      https://youtu.be/knp9-GY6fHE

      Ohhhhhhh

      Happy Insurrection Day
      Happy Insurrection Day
      Happy Insurrection Day
      Happy Insurrection Day
      Happy Insurrection Day!

      1. January 6th is a joke.

        Burn Loot Murder and Pantifa murdered dozens of people and caused $2+ billion of property damage in 2020.

        The “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” in Seattle was, by definition, an insurrection.

        Get the ropes ready, we’re taking our country back 🙂

    2. January 6 has become the Democrats’ excuse and pretext for the most chilling assault on the civil liberties of American citizens in generations

      Initiated by Fed-protected agent provocateurs like Ray Epps.

      1. Remember Charlottesville 2017?

        That was like ten actual Nazis and 500 Feds. Heather Heyer died of a heart attack, weighing 400 pounds wasn’t helping her.

        1. i watched a lot of videos on that when it happened. it looked to me like fields was railroaded into a confession. he was afraid they’d be able to force a verdict of guilty and give him the death penalty. so he confessed instead. it looked to me like he may have been trying to escape something, rather than attacking anyone. he may have been in a panic from people behind him hitting his car with bats and thinking what they’d do to him if they could drag him outside.

          we’ll never know the truth because if he talks they’ll bring back the death penalty for him. he’ll never open his yap now.

          and then there’s this…

          https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/01/armed-antifa-professor-admits-chasing-charlottesville-driver-rifle-deadly-crash/

        2. Remember Charlottesville 2017?

          The one that resembled the Ukraine color revolution in 2014? Tiki torches, anyone?

    3. And the day is quicky coming when they will be overwhelmingly voted out of power.

      Not until the integrity of the electoral process can be assured, which the globalists and their Democrat-Bolshevik Quislings will fight tooth & nail.

    4. These radical leftists in Washington care NOTHING for American Democracy. All they care about is control over you, and wealth and riches for themselves.

      It’s ALL of DC – the Uniparty as I’ve seen it called. It’s evident when Dick Cheney and Karl Rove show up on the scene for “solidarity.” Congress is the enemy of the American people.

  10. ‘With little or no legitimate earnings, Ponzi schemes require a constant flow of new money to survive. When it becomes hard to recruit new investors, or when large numbers of existing investors cash out, these schemes tend to collapse’

    All ponzi schemes collapse as do bubbles. The fed is gonna take an a$$ pounding on California MBS for example, as people can’t get out fast enough. Didn’t see that coming did ya?

    1. “All ponzi schemes collapse as do bubbles.”

      True dat. But, if all works as planned, the people promoting the bubbles get to keep the money they extracted during the bubble creation stage.

      It all has to do with the time element:

      The (choke) “investors” are those ignorant pukes whose minds live in the future and their stupid behavior are powered by promises the future has to offer.

      The bubble promoters, on the other hand, live in the present and their extractions of money are conducted in the present. The primary tool these money extractors employ are promises – words – that are made to the “investors”.

      1. Don’t forget the bailouts that happen after the collapse, which put still more money into the pockets of those who promoted the bubble.

        It’s a small club, and if you are reading this, you probably aren’t a member.

    2. The contrarian financial pundits have been predicting a serious market crash — 50-70 %in 2Q 2022, or perhaps 3Q 2022, catalyzed by the end of free money from Fed tapering and stimmies. The pundits are now modifying their stance. The 70% crash is what would happen if the market was allowed to crash all the way to true fundamentals, but politicians can’t tolerate that. So the prediction is now that the stock market will only crash about 30%, at which point Powell will be forced to start printing again.

      1. You’re a degenerate gambler.

        Why would anyone on this blog take financial advice from someone who borrows money from and pays interest to a bank?

        1. Shall I buy you a gift certificate to McDonald Farms Water Delivery, so you can actually live on your new little slice of heaven?

          1. Water Delivery

            That’s funny! What would you do if your government stopped supplying you with drinking water at your little slice of heaven?

          2. I haven’t done this yet, but my intention is to set up a couple 40 gal rain barrels and run rainwater through a Berkey. But my larger issue would be the neighbors for sure.

      2. The problem with the “printing again” hypothesis is that this is what the Fed has been doing since 2009 and is now supposedly going to unwind. At some point, it seems like the virtual printing press operation might collapse of its own weight, regardless of Fed jawboning or headfakes.

        1. The problem with the “printing again” theory is that we can no longer export the resulting inflation. Biden’s got a choice: stock market crash or $20 bacon. Either way, I’m sure they’ll use whichever financial disaster to dust off their BBB bill again. They will say, the people are going to need help paying those inflated bills.

  11. REVEALED: Canadian military officer calls for a probe into a ground zero ‘Covid’ outbreak at Wuhan forces games TWO MONTHS before world was alerted to the ‘mysterious new illness’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10382127/Canadian-military-officer-calls-probe-ground-zero-Covid-outbreak-Wuhan-games.html

    A Canadian military officer who fears he was at the ‘Ground Zero’ of Covid two months before China officially acknowledged the virus has demanded an investigation into the suspicious outbreak of illness there.

    The long-serving officer, who cannot be named as he is still in the forces, was among the scores of athletes who fell sick with a debilitating illness after attending the World Military Games in Wuhan in October 2019.

    He said foreign competitors found the city of 11 million people ‘like a ghost town’, and so many cases of a mysterious virus afflicted the Canadian team that a quarantine section was set up on their military flight back home.

    1. My daughter visited Wuhan with a group from her university just a few months earlier. I guess she narrowly dodged the proverbial bullet.

  12. ‘This is not totally surprising because it is in the West where the greatest separation between actual housing prices and projected housing prices has occurred to this point.’”

    What about the separation between median income and median shack prices? What about the impact of soaring inflation and heavier taxation under the Biden Regime? What about the mass exodus of the productive and successful from Democrat-Bolshevik malgoverned states & municipalities?

  13. ” the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced it’s increasing the upfront fees for second-home loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by as much as about 3.9%”
    My money says these “2nd” homes will magically become the persons main place of occupancy and will be sold to Freddie as Primary homes to avoid the additional fee. But maybe I am too cynical.

  15. ‘There is a long-term trend that we’ve seen of second-home purchases increasing,’ said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin . ‘I think part of that just goes along with wealth inequality in the rich getting richer and being able to buy more second homes.’”

    The globalist oligarchs who have captured our institutions of governance, and their Republicrat duopoly hirelings, must be casting a nervous eye at the REAL insurrection in Kazakhstan. The approved MSM narrative is that the riots were due to a doubling of LNG prices, but they gloss over the real cause: longstanding public anger and disaffection over a corrupt, parasitic oligarchy that rigged the game in its own favor, amassing vast fortunes while the ordinary people sank into debt and saw their standard of living go from bad to worse with each passing year. Since the populace had no way to seek redress from the crooked kleptocratic system, an uprising was assured once the right catalyst ignited popular discontent. Coming soon to a corrupt, rapacious plutocracy near you….

    Kazakh despot’s daughter, 41, splashed £220m fortune on £18m luxury jet and £8.75m mansion in London spending spree

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10383503/Kazakh-despots-daughter-41-bought-18m-luxury-jet-8-75m-mansion-London-spending-spree.html

    The daughter of the former president of Kazakhstan splashed her £220 million fortune on an £18m luxury jet and an £8.75m mansion in London during a spending spree after moving her fortune out of the country.

    Aliya Nazarbayeva, 41, purchased the home in Highgate, north London, with the aim of obtaining British residency, and a Challenger Bombardier jet after instructing two financial advisors to transfer money into offshore trusts and companies from Lichtenstein to the British Virgin Islands.

    1. I read that the Kazak government has issued shoot to kill orders against its citizenry, meaning that the situation has become grim for the elites that rule the country.

      1. The government has lost all legitimacy with its own people. They may have quelled the rebellion for now, but I wouldn’t bet on their long-term prospects when they are hated & despised by the vast majority of the population.

        1. They can’t issue those orders here, not yet anyway.

          Shooting rioters & looters to restore law & order is one thing, but if orders ever come down to fire on Americans exercising their God-given, Constitutionally-protected rights, I think that will be the tipping point for millions, veterans in particular, who are already fed up with government overreach and where the country is headed. Forcing thousands of service members to end their careers and be treated like pariahs because of their refusal to take the vaxx jab is only going to add to the pool of embittered, disaffected veterans who are already near the end of their tether. Someone posted this vid in the HBB awhile back: it was eye-opening, and a warning of what’s percolating under the surface among some in the veteran community.

          U.S. Veterans Preparing For War

          https://rumble.com/vnper7-u.s.-veterans-preparing-for-war.html

          1. Our humble blog host posted this.

            Thanks for posting again because I forgot to bookmark it.

            We will NEVER allow this country to turn into Canada or Australia.

            300+ million guns in the hands of civilians is the only defense against these tyrants.

            Unelected globalists attempting to subject us to tyranny are Enemy Combatants, and they are going to die ☠

          2. The exemplary exit from Afghanistan probably didn’t endear the Administration to those veterans either.

    2. Not that I follow or care about cryptocurrencies, but I did see that Kazakhstan is the world’s second-largest center for bitcoin mining at roughly 20%. And in other news, Hunter Biden had business dealings with Kazakhstan oligarchs.

      1. Bitcoiners believe that the rebellion in Kazakhstan caused the weakness in Bitcoin over the past month. Which makes NO sense. Less bitcoin mining –> fewer Bitcoin supply ?–>? higher price? But instead, the prices are lower. So I think it’s something else.

          1. Bitcoin is the most pure form of speculation in history – people literally buying and selling NOTHING to each other. And then the billionaires, never able to satisfy their greed, jumped in and took over. The entire space needs to collapse to zero and go away forever.

          2. I don’t think it was the oligarchs dumping bitcoin. It’s just that the protests disturbed a couple private mining operations. I wouldn’t want to care either, except that I’m on the precious metal side of things. Crypto vs. metals is a battle worse that Apple vs. PC. We tell them that their coin is worth nothing, and they tell us to get with the program and have fun staying poor.

        2. Why did all thise cryptocurrencies crater at the exact same time?

          My take is that the market is shifting due to the Fed’s announced plans to increase interest rates. The higher returns go on loanable funds, the less appealing purely speculative investments, like cryptocurrencies, become.

          2. Haven’t hundreds of them gone away over the years? A long time ago I would amuse myself watching “I lost everything on bitcoin” videos.

          3. Because if one entity goes down, it’s perceived as a weakness in the sector and the rest go down in sympathy. We’ve seen this in tech, airlines, and financials too.

  16. Crazy people gonna cra cra.

    “To cryptocurrency true believers, Bitcoin is the ultimate store of value, the most solid hedge against the rampant inflation manufactured by reckless central banks and their money-printing.”

    1. “To cryptocurrency true believers” i.e. millennials, aka the ones with $200K in student debt for their BA degree in Gender and Race Intersectionality Studies, with which they are eminently qualified to identify rock solid investments like AMC and digital photos of kittens.

      1. “…aka the ones with $200K in student debt for their BA degree in Gender and Race Intersectionality Studies,…”

        There’s a much shorter description of this type of investor: Greater Fool

  17. Now that economic recovery is in full swing, California is using other peoples’ money to pay off other homeowners’ mortgages. Because California homeowners are special needs people.

    1. Keep in mind that they are threatening to tax the incomes of those who leave the state for up to 10 years.

      1. “The news comes one day after the state unveiled details of a mortgage relief program for middle- and low-income homeowners, providing up to $80,000 per household to owners behind on payments and facing possible foreclosure.”

        This is gravy to prop-up the MBS market, but it is also disguised in order to buy D votes too.

  19. Turns out the “wise Latina” Supreme Court justice is an imbecile. Maybe, just maybe, merit & qualifications should trump diversity & “inclusivity” when it comes to such crucial positions.

    ‘3,500 kids are in hospital, not 100,000’: CDC Director Wallensky corrects liberal Justice Sotomayor’s wildly false claim that ‘over 100,000 children are seriously ill with COVID, many on ventilators’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10383925/CDC-Director-Wallensky-corrects-Justice-Sotomayors-obscenely-false-claim.html

    1. “CDC Director Wallensky corrects liberal Justice Sotomayor’s wildly false claim”

      I saw that on the CBS Evening News.

      Then I woke up.

      1. Even the dullest of the sheeple must realize by now that Kamala Harris is woefully unfit for any public office other than dog-catcher. She never would’ve gotten her law degree had she been held to the same standards as white or Asian applicants. Every time she opens her mouth, her incoherent babbling and inappropriate cackling reinforce that she’s completely out of her depth. So if Biden installs her in the Supreme Court, any vestiges of legitimacy for that globalist-captured body will be completely stripped away.

    3. 3,500 kids are in hospital

      With or from Delta or Omicron? We’re not allowed to know.

      Poor Rochelle. I get the feeling that she is/was a real doctor who is now forced to toe the party lines. The other day she said that Omicron would peak in the US just like it did in South Africa, and like it appears to be doing in the UK. Oops, can’t be having any of that.

      2. “forced to toe the party lines”

        By forced you mean she has to lie to keep getting her taxpayer funded salary? Most highly qualified people would just quit.

        1. By forced you mean she has to lie to keep getting her taxpayer funded salary?

          Upton Sinclair knew what he was talking about.

        2. They wouldn’t fire her outright, but they might demote her to a less visible position, likely at the same salary. No, what usually happens to high-level managers is that the power goes to their heads and they get greedy. Or, they’ve spent so much time hanging out with the private sector that they start sympathizing with the private sector.

          1. “No, what usually happens to high-level managers is that the power goes to their heads and they get greedy.”

            You said Poor Rochelle initially as if she’s being forced to lie against her will. Now you’re calling her corrupt. Which is it?

          3. I know, it sounds inconsistent. I think she’s struggling. It’s clear that the aim of the CDC is to push the shots at all cost, despite the fact that the shots stopped the spread only with Alpha, and now they clearly don’t stop infection or mild symptoms with Omicron. She’s being watched too closely to get away with the usual hand-waving or wordsmithing.

        1. “Over 75% of deaths occurred in people with at least 4 co-morbidities.”

          People with at least 4 co-morbidities?

          Unwell to begin with?

          But Corn Pop’s buddy said it was the unvaccinated that were the problem.

  20. Again ,this mass testing going on has nothing to do with people ending up in ICU with a life threatening case, or the death count from a so called real case of Covid.
    The globe was already fooled with round one of the testing scam by PCR to determine cases in 2020.

    So, now round two of the testing fraud to determine cases where healthy people are lining up in droves in California to get their free test where this test is even more bogus than than the one taken off the market on Dec 39, 2921.

    And apparently one of the High Court Justices gets her facts from CNN.
    Just unreal.

  22. I dunno whats up with the gov letting people borrow for huge 2nd homes? my landlord has a small cabin on 4 acres with a pond in the catskills, and a waterfall in the back, he bought off a his korean vet friend. 50 years ago, he said it was an impulse buy that his kids now grand kids really enjoyed. I grew up with a neighbor owning a cabin on Lake Candlewood upstate CT, so they invited the kids over the summer to their place, ok we had bunk beds sleeping bags on the floor real luxury accommodations….. but a little private beach we went boating swimming and didn’t have to deal with the “public” areas. not a bad childhood. but still houses were cheap.

  23. Prediction: nursing homes will be dropping like flies in 2022. Who know that paying sh*tty wages to unmotivated, mostly “disadvantaged minority” workers while enforcing vaccine mandates would ever result in staffing shortages?

    ‘Crippling’ Staff Shortages Push Nursing Home Chain Into Bankruptcy

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-07/-crippling-staff-shortages-push-nursing-chain-into-bankruptcy?sref=ibr3A0ff

    Staffing shortages helped push an Iowa chain of nursing homes into bankruptcy as health-care providers continue to struggle with pandemic pressures.

    QHC Facilities LLC filed for bankruptcy last week, citing “crippling staffing and employee retention issues” in a court filing. The Clive, Iowa-based company operates eight skilled nursing facilities and two assisted living homes with a total of about 750 beds in the state and 300 workers.

    1. “…paying sh*tty wages…”

      That’s the dark side of inflation. It’s really difficult to render previously *fixed* contract services while inflation is eating away your labor and supplies.

    1. Mr Vandenbroucke said: ‘Now, knowing that we really need to vaccinate 100 percent of the population – which was not our idea a year ago, we thought that 70 was enough – we still need some sort of generalised take up’

      As I’ve been saying there is no “pivot” and they aren’t waving any white flags. They want everyone jabbed, no exceptions. And since Belgians are no doubt disarmed, they are going to have a hard time fighting back. They can march all they want, their government doesn’t care.

      1. a hard time fighting back

        I am a marksman, but I believe that a determined people can always find a way to fight back.

          1. non-compliance

            Isn’t that what European resisters are doing? And yet, their governments double down. Civil disobedience works when the government and the majority of the citizenry have a sense of decency and honor.

      2. Saw this headline in the WaPo:

        In much of the West, the walls are closing in on anti-vaxxers

        The article blames the unvaxxed, even though it is the vaxxed who are getting sick and spreading the virus. The UK is 90%+ jabbed and Omicron is unstoppable there, yet the “answer” is the spike protein. Anyway, the enemy is doubling down. A needle in every arm, regardless if you want it or not.

        I also read about a new jab, something called “Cobrevax”. Articles claim that it is “old school”, but I’m not so sure about that. Sure, not mRNA based, but neither is the J&J jab. I did read something about a “sub protein”, which sounds to me like it’s just another spike protein jab.

          1. Immune Pathology. The test animals (some kids) died.

            If the current global experiment were an actual trial, it would have been stopped already.

          2. If this guy hadn’t quickly flipped after the 2020 election to The Narrative, I might . . . just might . . . consider Cobrevax, but given that and his affiliation with the Gates Foundation, ain’t no way I’m touching that sh!t.

          3. The test animals (some kids) died.

            AFAICT, people conflate all of these studies regarding coronavirus vaccines with studies using the mRNA technology. IIRC, mRNA technology is not tolerated on repeated dosing, hence Moderna’s pivot from therapeutics to vaccines. I’d have to dig for the article discussing this. It’s been a while since I read it and it could very well be scrubbed now.

          4. ain’t no way I’m touching that sh!t.

            I was wondering if it might be a trick to get some resisters to roll up their sleeve. Of course, now its main pitch is that it’s “affordable” and can be used in poor, 3rd world countries that can’t afford to buy mRNA jabs.

            Perhaps an eventual global population of 500M is actually the goal? Given the hysterics over Omicron, I think it might be so.

  25. This is a pearl-clutching article. Globalist propaganda mouthpieces are predictably enraged that opponents of “wokeness” – the globalist-orchestrated, systematic effort to tear down Western civilization and culture, and marginalize whites – are mobilizing to fight back.

    The ‘anti-woke’ crusade has come to Europe. Its effects could be chilling

    https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/07/europe/war-on-woke-europe-cmd-intl/index.html

    London (CNN)If 2020 renewed calls for racial equality as Black Lives Matter protests exploded throughout Europe, 2021 brought in the backlash as parts of the political establishment waged a so-called “war against woke.”

    Stripped of its original meaning of a person being awake to progressive issues, “woke” has been appropriated from the Black vernacular and turned into a political lightning rod in the West’s culture wars. It is now used pejoratively by lawmakers and pundits from both left and right, criticizing the perceived excesses of social and racial justice movements.

    1. Please please please stop posting CNN links. This is the same article, screenshotted on the Archive website:

      https://archive.fo/kOZtX

      Loading that CNN link earns CNN $0.0001 of revenue, let’s please stop giving money to these globalists.

  26. The globalists and their Democrat-Bolshevik Quislings, having declared SFH to be rayciss (except for Comrades of Proven Worth who rate such accomodation for their exertions on behalf of The People), want to pack us all into high-density, multifamily, culturally diverse skybox towers. I think I’ll pass, not least because such buildings would be death traps during natural or man-made disasters.

    One dead and at least 31 people are seriously injured in 5-alarm apartment block fire in the Bronx: Screaming families are seen climbing out of windows to escape blaze as 200 firefighters attend

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10384341/People-seen-jumping-windows-Bronx-apartment-building-fire.html

  27. “To find out who rules over you, simply learn who you are not allowed to criticize.” — Voltaire

    Marco Rubio is accused of using ‘anti-Semitic trope’ in his criticism of ‘upscale liberals who control the media and Democrat party’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10384093/Marco-Rubio-accused-anti-Semitism-slamming-liberals-control-media-January-6.html

    Florida Senator Marco Rubio was accused of anti-Semitism over the weekend for attacking ‘upscale liberals who control the media’ in a Twitter post criticizing coverage of the January 6 Capitol riot.

    The GOP lawmaker’s tweet came hours after Vice President Kamala Harris compared the deadly insurrection to the bombing of Peal Harbor and the September 11 terror attacks in a speech marking the day’s one year anniversary.

    2. The Financial Times
      US employment
      Reddit ‘antiwork’ forum booms as millions of Americans quit jobs
      Members of online community encourage each other to resign — and complain about the boss
      The antiwork movement traces its ideology back to Marxist texts suggesting that humanity could evolve beyond the requirement to work for a living
      © Timothy A.Clary AFP/Getty
      Taylor Nicole Rogers in Chattanooga
      9 hours ago

      Doreen Ford spent 10 years working in retail stores in the Boston area and hated it.

      So in 2017, when Ford’s grandmother suggested that she give up her traditional job altogether and leverage her love of dogs to make ends meet, she went for it. Ford walks dogs part-time, but otherwise has not held a traditional job since and says she has never been happier.

      “Usually, at best, [working was] pointless,” said Ford, 30, “and at worst it was degrading, humiliating and exploitative”.
      …

    3. The ideal in early America (prior to the Civil War) was to only work for wages for long enough to acquire sufficient capital to go into business for yourself. Working for someone else past a certain age was a source of shame. See “free labor” vs. “wage labor.”

    1. “Police said no arrests have been made and did not provide descriptions of the suspects.“

      We know what that means. 🙂

  30. walks dogs part-time, but otherwise has not held a traditional job since and says she has never been happier.
    “Usually, at best, [working was] pointless,”
    I wonder if she is living rent free at Grandma’s. I’m guessing she doesn’t have her own place.

    1. I wonder if she is living rent free at Grandma’s.

      Most likely. I’ll bet most are also single and childless. Makes it much easier to crash in a basement and live off whatever you saved from your stimchecks, plus whatever odd jobs you find. And it’s likely many have been living in the basement for a while, even before quitting. I have a niece who sponges off her parents: pays no rent and eats their food. She has managed to save $20K from her menial job, which, you guessed it, she recently quit.

  32. AOC, who is fully vaccinated & has had a booster shot (naturally), just came down with COVID. Of course she bleats that we should all be fully vaccinated & boosted, just because.

    2. A big Florida FU from us in Florida to AOC. I hope you enjoyed your maskless trip to the tranny bar.

    1. I am not following the meta thing. Is this another way to extend and pretend social media and make some money along the way with laundering?

      1. It’s a virtual reality/video game. It falls short as a form of neo-gnosticism, as its not immersive as say the Matrix would be if it was real. Maybe someday idjits will have a socket implanted into their skulls to make the immersion seamless. In the meantime they will buy “unreal estate” in make believe land.

        1. Sounds like a distraction. I can appreciate VR if it helps someone solve a technical problem like manipulating a repair tool in a hard to see place. Maybe I am a fuddy duddy but some of these things seem like a solution looking for a problem.

    2. IIRC didn’t China ban Bitcoin? I suspect these metaverse buyers are the same crowd who got kicked out of crypto, and are looking for some other way to get rich by uploading themselves to the Matrix. I for one am glad of it. At least they aren’t buying arable land in the US and colonizing with anchor babies.

  34. Some fun sportsball news:

    Joe Ellis hears ‘disgruntled’ Mayor Hancock’s concern about Broncos ownership transfer

    Oh, man, wouldn’t it be a hoot if after being sold the Broncos packed up their bags a moved the team to another city? The San Antonio Stallions has a nice ring to it, I think.

  35. Fully vaccinated Bob Eager dead at 65. He was on a Comedy tour and they found him unresponsive in his hotel room.

Comments are closed.