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Does Anyone Benefit?

A weekend topic starting with Reuters. “The great unwinding of bloated central bank balance sheets could start as soon as next week. While investors have been in thrall to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s hawkish anti-inflation twist in 2022, the Bank of England is widely expected to hike UK interest rates for the second time in less than three months next Thursday and double its main policy rate to 0.5% in the process.”

“Much like the Fed, the process of so-called ‘quantitative tightening’, or QT, will be passive at first — the Bank will simply stop re-investing coupon payments and maturing gilts and reduce its holdings as they come due. Outright selling of securities is probably some distance off and will probably depend on how markets react to passive QT first. And its this last bit makes it all feel like a laboratory experiment for the central banking community as a whole.”

From DS News. “‘The Federal Reserve has signaled the end of the easy money era is near. In order to combat inflation, the Fed is expected to increase rates as soon as March. Mortgage rates typically follow the same path as long-term bond yields, which are expected to increase due to the Fed’s tightening of monetary policy, higher inflation expectations and an improving economy,’ said Mark Fleming, Chief Economist at First American. ‘The consensus among economists is that the 30-year, fixed mortgage rate will increase from its November rate of 3.1% to 3.7% by the end of 2022. Some forecasters predict rates will reach 4%, which is still historically low, but well above what buyers have grown accustomed to in recent years.'”

From Reuters. “The Bank of Canada’s decision to delay a rate hike for five more weeks will add fuel to Canada’s scorching housing market as buyers scramble to clinch deals before borrowing costs rise, realtors said. Derek Holt, head of capital markets economics with Scotiabank, expects prices to surge again over the next few weeks until the Bank hikes, likely on March 2. ‘The Bank of Canada seems to be dramatically downplaying the role of easy money as a contributor to hot housing markets,’ Holt said.”

The Financial Post. “The era of ultra-low pandemic interest rates, which has helped drive Canadian home prices to all-time highs, may be coming to end. Mortgage expert Rob McLister told the Financial Post that those holding variable-rate mortgages will be hit first, with the costs passed along between one day and one week following a rate hike. McLister added that a 0.25 per cent rate increase, which is the amount the market is expecting as a first hike, would have no impact on qualifying since the minimum qualifying rate is already more than 235 basis points over five-year fixed rates.”

“‘For prospective prime borrowers, discounted five-year fixed rates would have to jump over 36 basis points for borrowers to start facing qualification challenges. And it would only be an issue for more highly indebted mortgage applicants (I’d estimate roughly 1 in 5 mortgage applicants),’ McLister wrote.”

From ABC News. “Domain’s latest House Price Report revealed the median cost of houses in Australian capital cities rose to $1.06 million in the December quarter. In Sydney, it’s considerably higher at just over $1.6 million —that’s an average increase of $1,100 per day over the course of 2021, or a total rise of $400,000. ‘We’ve seen record low interest rates support buyer activity, and we’ve also seen a high level of household savings,’ said Domain’s chief of research and economics Nicola Powell.”

From Stuff New Zealand. “The coming year is likely to be a tough one for investors, forecasters warn, with weakness predicted across most assets.
Data shows house price growth slowing with predictions of small falls later this year.”

“Inflation, which has reached levels not seen in more than three decades, is quickly changing the picture for investors who have become used to an environment of low interest rates and stimulus. The whole investing environment has flipped from ‘central banks are going to be printing money and keeping rates low forever’ to ‘central banks have a big job to do on inflation and they’re going to have to grit their teeth and keep going even if asset prices get a decent wobble,’ said ANZ chief economist Sharon Zollner. She said, if interest rates were going up, ‘the maths can change quite quickly for the likes of equities and the housing market.'”

“‘In the middle of last year the Reserve Bank was really out on a limb being the only ones talking about the need for higher interest rates, now everyone is on the same page… It’s a more volatile environment than investors have become used to.'”

“Zollner said volatility had been abnormally low recently because of the ‘morphine’ that central banks had been dosing the world with. She said there was a risk that central banks had painted themselves into a corner and had to keep hiking interest rates ‘until something breaks.’ ‘We could end up with a hard landing. Historically when central banks have realised they’ve got a massive inflation problem to address it ends in a hard landing.'”

From WFTV Orlando in Florida. “Week after week, Lucas Ragsdale watched neighboring apartments lease for higher and higher monthly amounts. Less than six months after he moved, the average apartment in his complex now rents for 50% more than he is paying. In generations past, blue collar and middle-class workers forced away from the downtown toward cheaper options would’ve sought starter homes. That road is being blocked, too.”

“Fewer than 2,000 were listed on the market as of mid-January, a historic low. At the same time, the price of available homes soared. Orlando’s median home sale topped $340,000 for the first time ever at the end of 2021, Orlando Regional REALTOR Association data showed. There’s also a new class of competition for young workers: investors, who swarm lower-priced investments in desirable areas, including starter homes and condominiums. The Orlando Business Journal calculated 11% of home purchases were by investors in the third quarter of 2021, a number that’s expected to grow.”

“Meanwhile, so-called starter homes are a hot commodity of older couples looking to downsize. Their life-long investments are tough to overcome by renters like Ragsdale, who sometimes pay up to 50% of their income on apartments. ‘It all becomes a lot more difficult when half your income is going to rent,’ he said. ‘It makes us worse consumers too, because we’re just living to survive.'”

From WINK News. “People in Southwest Florida are frustrated, as workers’ wages are not going up as quickly as housing prices. ‘You’ve got to do a lot of research and figuring out exactly what you can afford, because prices have increased dramatically,’ said Shelton Weeks, professor and director of the Lucas Institute for Real Estate Development & Finance at Florida Gulf Coast University. ‘And, unfortunately, wages have not kept up with the home prices.'”

“So does anyone benefit? Weeks says if you’re selling an existing home or downsizing, you’ve certainly benefitted from housing prices, but not so much people who are working or trying to save up for a home. The increase in wages has not only not kept up with housing prices, it has been significantly below housing price increases. ‘Sellers’ biggest concerns are where will they go once their house sells?’ Realtor Devin Sweazy said. ‘Sure, they can sell for an incredible profit, but then they are in the same position as all the others buyers… sell high, buy high.'”

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This Post Has 146 Comments

  1. ‘It all becomes a lot more difficult when half your income is going to rent,’ he said. ‘It makes us worse consumers too, because we’re just living to survive’

    This is all so absurd. And what happened? Landlords refi cash out, get to where they aren’t making much. Same with new construction: paid too much for the land, etc. Cash flow negative, looking to flip.

    What we spend on housing could go to other things or savings. Using shacks and airboxes as away to flog the dead horse economy is central planning stupidity.

    2. “Landlords refi cash out, get to where they aren’t making much.”

      Landlords should know better, but greed is a powerful thing. They refi and pull out money to buy more properties in the midst of a bubble, which puts all of their properties in jeopardy, especially when socialists are hell bent on protecting tenants at all costs- who knows how far that will go or how long it will last.

  3. Bitcoin’s New Floor Is $30,000 as 50% Rout Destroys Old Supports

    “Crypto market capitalizations across the board became hugely inflated and priced in a tremendous amount of growth due to a dovish Fed, and the tightening path the Fed is pursing is bringing liquidity out of the system and resetting outlandish valuations that weren’t keeping up with true usage,” said Avi Felman, a portfolio manager at BlockTower.’

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-floor-30-000-50-164719299.html

      1. $37K I think

        Suppose the reason to declare $30K as a “floor” is the trough between the two peaks last summer?

  4. ‘it would only be an issue for more highly indebted mortgage applicants (I’d estimate roughly 1 in 5 mortgage applicants)’

    Is that a lot?

      2. Serf’s up! Who doesn’t love waking up at 5 a.m. everyday to go to work to earn money to pay interest, errr “put food on the table”?

  6. Original content published by Revolver News.

    The Big Lie 2024: A Peek Inside the Ruling Elite’s Playbook to Kneecap Trump, Purge Military, and Neutralize MAGA (1/28/2022):

    “In 2020, despite unprecedented efforts to rig the outcome with delayed vaccine trials, suppression of the Hunter Biden story, rewritten election rules, and ballot harvesting, Joe Biden eked out a “win” by the smallest of margins. Now, one year into his administration, the old man is gruesomely unpopular. ’70s-style inflation is back, dozens of cities are setting murder records, the Afghan War ended in profound national humiliation, and Biden’s signature legislative initiative is Build Back Deader. Endless Covid panic, critical race theory in schools, and the urban crime explosion may finally break apart the Democratic coalition of the fringes that focuses all of America’s hatred onto a dwindling population of white middle class kulaks.

    America’s governing class and its media apparatchiks have repeatedly labeled Trump’s complaints about the 2020 election “the Big Lie.” But there is a Bigger Lie afoot, one with a much greater bearing on the future. The Bigger Lie is this: That the January 6 Capitol incident was an “attempted coup,” and that this coup was launched by a wider pro-Trump “anti-democracy” movement (as opposed to the anti-Trump, anti-democracy movement known as the FBI). This movement, the Bigger Lies goes, is a “danger to our democracy” and must be hunted down to destruction.

    In the name of this Bigger Lie, America’s governing class of academics, security staters, elected lawmakers, and media propagandists are preparing to sweep away what remains of America’s democratic process. Their goal: To render the 2024 election null, with a preordained outcome that poses no danger to the ruling elite’s wishes. And the planning for this revolution is happening right out in public.”

    https://www.revolver.news/2022/01/globalist-big-lie-upcoming-2024-election-coup/

    See also: Yahoo News — Nearly 6 in 10 Republicans say they will not vote for any candidate who admits Biden won ‘fair and square’ (1/27/2022):

    https://news.yahoo.com/poll-nearly-6-in-10-republicans-say-they-will-not-vote-for-any-candidate-who-admits-biden-won-fair-and-square-162231610.html

    Joe Biden did not “win” anything because the 2020 election was stolen.

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

        1. State Unconstitutional in PA.

          “[P]roposed constitutional amendments, after passing both chambers of the General Assembly two sessions in a row, become referenda that voters can approve or reject in the following election. If a majority of voters approve an amendment — and it survives any legal challenges — it goes into effect and becomes part of the constitution.”

          https://www.dailyitem.com/news/a-complete-guide-and-amendment-tracker-for-proposed-changes-to-pennsylvania-s-constitution/article_a9519442-7e99-11ec-9cc3-073c6b9e269e.html

          2. I’m clarifying that the mail-in voting was ruled unconstitutional according to the PA state constitution, not the US Constitution. Amending the PA state constitution is not easy, but not impossible. But they certainly can’t do it by the midterm elections.

          3. unconstitutional according to the PA state constitution

            This has implications for the 2020 elections.

          4. Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are making strides to decertify their electors. I would expect DJT to address both of these at his rally this evening.

          5. Amending the PA state constitution is not easy, but not impossible

            Republican Senate in PA. Impossible yes.

      2. the Ruling Elite’s Playbook

        Let’s name them: Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, George Soros, Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein, Warren Buffett – in other words, all the wealthy fvcks who are selling the American worker down the river for an extra buck through global wage arbitrage. They’re strip-mining the country.

        1. Let’s name them

          And their minions are legion. Every one who borrows long to “buy” a house and every one who fills their home with cheap crap made in China. They may pretend to be innocent, but they are willing cogs in the machinery harvesting their own society.

    2. Was anyone expecting 75 million TrumParty voters to go away? Make no mistake about it, have no doubt in your mind, irrespective of our silence(it’s only temporary), we’re not going away.

      Pick a party…. if it’s not TrumParty, you’re on the wrong side of history.

  7. Market drop to cut valuations for Canadian tech firms raising capital

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-theyre-going-to-get-hammered-market-drop-to-cut-valuations-for/

    ‘This month’s sell-off in publicly traded technology companies will spread to private markets, resulting in downward revaluations of enterprises that have relied on venture and growth capital to fuel their expansion, some top Canadian technology financiers warn.’

    “You’ll start to see this impact private market valuations,” said John Ruffolo, who led pension giant OMERS’ venture capital group for years until the end of 2018 and is now managing partner of technology-focused Maverix Private Equity. “They’re going to get hammered, especially those companies that are not profitable and will be needing capital soon.”

    “The market is going through rate-driven indigestion,” said Nitin Babbar, global co-head of equity capital markets for RBC Capital Markets. “Tech just happened to … have the loftiest valuations. In an environment where central banks are taking away cheap money … it is those that are the most highly perched in valuation that are impacted first.”

    ‘In the past few years, as capital flooded into private and public markets, forward valuations for cloud-based software companies shot up, peaking above 20 times sales about a year ago. At its peak in July, 2020, Shopify traded at 46.7 times forward revenues, according to National Bank Financial analyst Richard Tse.’

    ‘With the sell-off, however, average software multiples have fallen back to around 10 times – closer to the historical range, but still above it. Shopify’s multiple, meanwhile, slipped to 17.8 times Monday, still high, but close to its pandemic-low of 15 times. “Is it a reversion to the mean? No doubt,” Mr. Tse said.’

    ‘In addition, many Canadian technology companies that went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange from July, 2020, through the end of 2021 now trade at less than their issue price, although that was also mostly true more than a month ago, after many Canadian software companies went to market with a relatively weaker mix of revenue growth and profit margins than well-received tech offerings in the past. “The market is now simply reflecting that some of these companies should never have been public,” Mr. Ruffolo said.’

    Woe to the self flying taxi. Or a money losing concept stock like the steaming pile of zillow. K-da really sees itself as a playa in this so called tech crap.

    1. Dog Walking Startup Wag In Merger Talks With CHW SPAC

      Jan 14, 2022 — Dog-walking startup Wag Labs Inc. is in talks to go public through a merger with CHW Acquisition Corp., according to people with knowledge …

      2. In my area I’ve seen a large number of “dog poop cleanup” trucks driving around. I guess that will be the next big thing. Some people have (temporarily) too much money.

        1. When I had a dog it was one of the few downsides. That said, I wasn’t going to pay someone $100/month to do it.

          2. While I miss my dog (he died in 2017) I don’t miss “puppy patrol” (cleaning up after him), so I don’t have a dog now.

            Walking him was an evolving experience. He weighed 90 lbs, and when I took him out he was like a locomotive when he was young. He slowly mellowed out and towards the last years he would walk beside me.

        2. “…“dog poop cleanup” trucks driving around.”

          Their app would make it easy to upload photos of droppings with GPS coordinates for the roving truck crews!

        3. In California they need “people poop” cleanup trucks. Perhaps a combo would work; just an “all animal poop” cleanup truck.

      1. “Iguanas falling out of trees?”

        That’ll be tomorrow morning, 🙂

        Although I haven’t seen any in my hood they have made it North to Jupiter, but if any happen to fall out of a tree in my yard they ain’t never gonna wake up.

        1. I dunno, but crouching up here in the top branches, ready to drop my non-declawed half-feral cat on any unsuspecting realtors who skulk into my ‘hood, I’m beginning to think of better ways to spend a Saturday morning.

          1. “any unsuspecting realtors who skulk into my ‘hood,”

            I told the Realtor handling the short sale of the house I was renting in I believe 2010 from the Deadbeat landlord who has pocketed close to $100k in rent without paying the mortgage from 2006 – 2010 that I didn’t want anybody looking at the house on Sundays being that I was still living there with my family although at that point paying a reduced rent of $1,200 a month instead of the $1,700 I had paid for all those years.

            Well, two weeks later on a Sunday morning I heard my wife scream and came out the bedroom to see a young couple and a greasy Realtor peering in through the back slider. Needless to say I trough open the sliding door, started screaming, chased them out through the back and front yard into the street where their cars were parked and in the words of Charlie Daniels from Uneasy Rider…

            “I had them all out there steppin and fetchin
            Like their heads was on fire and their asses was catchin”

          3. Cat-dropping sounds like a good activity for a Sunday afternoon, when all the open houses are. Gets you away from all the kneelybawl games too.

          4. to see a young couple and a greasy Realtor peering in through the back slide

            Isn’t the used house seller supposed to call before a showing?

          5. “Isn’t the used house seller supposed to call before a showing?”

            The used house seller (Deadbeat LL) was 1200 miles away. The Realtor handling his short sale had made arrangements with me to call the day before he was going to show the house and agreed there would be no showings on Sundays. He sent his sleazy understudy over with a couple unannounced 2 weeks later on a Sunday. That was the last time he did.

  10. Maryland county school CEO suggests students will be required to wear masks until ‘COVID no longer exists’

    “I have not been thinking about a maskless classroom,” Prince George’s County Public Schools’ CEO Monica Goldson said in Capitol Heights, WTOP reported. “The only classroom I’ve been thinking about is one where teaching and learning takes places from the time the kids walk in until the time they leave.”

    “The only off-ramp I want is the one where COVID no longer exists,” Goldson said. “I don’t think that that off-ramp will exist. I think this is how our life will be.”

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/maryland-county-school-ceo-student-mask-mandate-until-covid-no-longer-exists

    1. Note to self: don’t live in Maryland, don’t have kidz in Maryland, don’t pay property taxes in Maryland.

      Metro Dumver is lifting the mask mandates on February 3rd, but pearl clutchers will be wearing them while driving alone for the rest of their lives.

      1. Only high-testosterone feminists with their unfortunate physiognomies should be required to cover their faces.

  11. Old definition of racism by the Anti-Defamation League

    “Racism is the belief that a particular race is superior or inferior to another, that a person’s social and moral traits are predetermined by his or her inborn biological characteristics. Racial separatism is the belief, most of the time based on racism, that different races should remain segregated and apart from one another.”

    New definition of racism by the Anti-Defamation League

    Racism

    Racism: The marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people.

    © 2022 Anti-Defamation League. All rights reserved.

    https://www.adl.org/racism

      1. The ADL and SPLC have been out front in the effort to condemn the huge surge in vibrant racist assaults against Asians.

        Oh, wait….

          1. Asians to stop pulling the D lever.
            Don’t see it happening anytime soon. Especially not the Chinese. My Chinese friend has been trying to go back to China for several months because her daughter and grand daughter are there. She can’t go back yet and she isn’t sure when she will be allowed back.

        2. “The ADL and SPLC have been out front…”

          A snippet regarding the Progressive’s view of Israel as viewed by the diaspora in Washington DC: “AIPAC is aiming to keep elected officials in line, Smith postulated. “Increasing numbers of members of Congress are opposing AIPAC and Israeli government initiatives in Congress, and to AIPAC that just isn’t acceptable.” According to Smith, AIPAC may fear losing political relevancy to other pro-Israel groups like the Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI), as well as wanting more pro-Israel politiicans in Congress to counter the wave of criticism coming from progressive Democrats.”

          LOLZ!

  12. ‘The daily interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage jumped back over the 4% mark today, averaging 4.069%. The increase breaks a five day streak of declining rates. All other loan types are higher today as well. The average rate for a 30-year refinance loan increased to 4.178%, while the rate for a 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage moved up to 2.607%.’

    https://tucson.com/business/investment/personal-finance/today-s-mortgage-rates-move-above-4-january-28-2022/article_25751a93-3f31-5c47-91e4-7f51dd366ca4.amp.html

    1. “‘The daily interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage jumped back over the 4% mark today, averaging 4.069%.”

      In 1982 I got my first mortgage at 14.61%

    2. Time for all the “experts” to adjust their opinions, and we’re still in January:

      ‘The consensus among economists is that the 30-year, fixed mortgage rate will increase from its November rate of 3.1% to 3.7% by the end of 2022.

          4. 10% of purchases waive the appraisal, yikes.

            Waiving the appraisal for re-fis with no cash out is SOP. Anyone who refis with no cash-out probably has a bennie-large in equity anyway.

    1. Powerful storm Kenan slams into NYC dropping up to two inches AN HOUR as ‘historic’ bomb cyclone threatens to dump two feet of powder on East Coast and 75million people hunker down
      More proof of Global Warming!

        1. “Messaging has pivoted to “Climate Change!”
          Sorry, my bad! Guess I gotta pay more attention to the narratives from the MSM!

  17. COVID “vaccines” are not vaccines:

    “Many parents across the United States are eagerly waiting to see whether Joanna and other trial participants can help them.

    They are upset that more than a year after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the vaccines for emergency use for adults, they are still not available to children under five.

    Now, as the number of new Covid cases continues to fall in parts of the country and talk has returned of figuring out how to forge a ‘new normal’ after the pandemic, some parents of the young children – and their pediatricians – feel as though that population has been left behind.

    They think the FDA has not acted with enough urgency to make the vaccines available, leaving young children vulnerable to the virus and unable to return to ordinary life.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/29/us-parents-kids-under-five-covid-vaccine

    1. And when the jab kills their kids they will say it was the right thing to do and they would do it again.

      return to ordinary life.

      Since when?

        1. We’ve been doing this since Roe vs. Wade. By some estimates, in the US alone, 50 million babies have been sacrificed to Moloch and Baphomet.

  19. Salon — Canada’s “Freedom Convoy”: Is this Jan. 6 for the Great White North? (1/29/2022):

    “Reporters and researchers have also pointed out that the convoy movement is inextricably tied to Canadian far-right groups, including members of radical, neo-Nazi-linked “accelerationist” networks, Holocaust deniers and supporters of the white nationalist Great Replacement theory, “sovereign citizen” types with quixotic plans to dissolve the Canadian government and, of course, QAnon adherents.”

    https://www.salon.com/2022/01/29/canadas-freedom-convoy-is-this-jan-6-for-the-great-north/

    Sorry, the Archive website is not working correctly now.

    “Security officials at Canada’s House of Commons warned that demonstrators have been searching for the home addresses of members of Parliament.”

    That sounds like trouble.

    Aim lower, go for some “soft targets” like the author of this article (No Glowie!)…

    2. Reporters and researchers have also pointed out that the convoy movement is inextricably tied to Canadian far-right groups

      The Canuck Real Journalists are also claiming that 90% of Canadian truckers are jabbed. Sure, they are. That’s why PM Zoolander is hiding in his basement.

      Smart Canadians will have already stocked up their larders, and the Marxist city dwellers can stare at the empty shelves at their grocers.

    3. Fidel Jr. just scurried out of town under cover of darkness.

      Justin Trudeau and his family leave their home in Ottawa for a secret location amid security concerns as thousands of ‘Freedom Convoy’ truckers march in front his office in protest at vaccine requirement to cross the US-Canada border

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10455357/Canadas-Freedom-Convoy-march-Parliament-Hill-protest-vaccine-requirements.html

      Justin Trudeau and his family have left Ottawa for a secret location as a large crowd of Canadian truck drivers pack Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Saturday to protest against vaccine mandates for drivers.

      Canada’s Prime Minister and his family have left their Ottawa home amid security concerns as demonstrators marched up and down the streets in front Justin Trudeau’s office waving flags- including the Canadian flag, the Quebec flag and American flag- to rally against the vaccine mandates for truck drivers crossing the Canada-U.S. border.

  20. The wealth extraction from motorists is about to get more onerous.

    ‘You’re about to get a lot more speeding tickets!’ Critics slam ‘Pothole Pete’ Buttigieg’s plan to fix the nation’s roads crisis with MORE speed cameras and lower speed limits that will guarantee fines for drivers

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10453445/Youre-speeding-tickets-Pete-Buttigiegs-speed-camera-plan-SLAMMED.html

    Pete Buttigieg’s plan to add more speed cameras to America’s roads as a way patrolling them more ‘fairly’ has been panned by critics who say it will only lead to more speeding fines under the guise of equity and road safety.

    Buttigieg announced the plan yesterday and claims it will reduce the number of deadly road collisions.

      1. I dunno, but Pete’s first-hand knowledge of buggery seems to have informed his ideas of how to deal with motorists.

    2. Unless he puts speed cameras on Eisenhower highways, he’s out of his Constitutional swim lane.

      Now imagine slashing the speed limits on roads like I-80 and I-95 and I-70. If you thought the supply chain was bad now…

  21. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree with this one. Of course the DNC’s FBI Chekists will do a pro forma investigation, then issue the standard “Nothing to see…move along” statement when they whitewash any and all felonies committed by the Nomenklatura & their spawn.

    EXCLUSIVE: Nancy Pelosi’s son is embroiled in SIXTH FBI probe – this time into San Francisco official who was allegedly bribed to remove permit violations against squalid flop house ‘The Pit’, owned by his ex-girlfriend

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10448863/Nancy-Pelosis-son-embroiled-FBI-bribery-probe-San-Francisco-official.html

    Nancy Pelosi’s son is embroiled in an FBI investigation into a San Francisco official who was allegedly bribed to turn a blind eye to a corrupt real estate plot.

    Paul Pelosi Jr. and at least three of his associates were interviewed by agents in a five-year investigation that resulted in an indictment of a prolific building permit fixer for allegedly bribing a city official.

  22. Mortgage rates: The consensus among economists is that the 30-year, fixed mortgage rate will increase to 3.7% by the end of 2022. These rates are for PRIMARY homes only. So, let’s talk 2nd homes. A while ago Ben posted about Freddie/Fannie increasing (making worse) 2nd home and investment home pricing. How much did they increase (make worse) you ask. Fannie/Freddie announce they will increase pricing on 2nd homes. Everyone in the business knows and front runs the rate/pricing increase. So my buddy says to his current client buying a 2nd home: We’d better lock in today as I don’t think you like the new Freddie pricing. So, on Tuesday, they lock in a 2nd Home pricing rate of 4.25% for 30 years. This is before the pricing increase. Then on Thursday my buddy checks the rate for the same loan and it’s 5.75%. (Not a typo, his words and he is a real straight shooter.) He says Investment rates went up as well but not near as much. (Investments were priced higher (worse) than 2nd homes before the increase)
    2nd homes tend to be more expensive then primary/first homes so let’s assume the average 2nd home has a $500,000 loan attached to it. P&I Payment at 4.25% is $2,460 for 30 years. PI Payment at 5.75% is $2,918 for 30 years.
    Payment increases $458/month. I gotta believe this will make an impact in the vacation areas. For the same payment of $2,460 at 5.75% you can now buy a 2nd home priced at: $421,490.

    1. his is before the pricing increase. Then on Thursday my buddy checks the rate for the same loan and it’s 5.75%.

      This will affect small landlord wannabes. Blackrock and friends won’t have to pay that much interest and will now have less competition to buy up shacks to rent. Anecdote: a relative tells me that he is now surrounded by corporate rentals. When he moved in there wasn’t a single one.

    2. So, let’s talk 2nd homes.

      I’m still waiting for something other than a $1M pig 1st home. Lipstick on that pig now costs $1.25M.

        1. 17351 Saint Andrews Dr, Poway, CA 92064 should be fun to watch.

          Date Event Price Price/Sq Ft
          01/28/2022 Listed $1,899,000 $734
          08/06/2020 Sold $952,500 $379
          06/17/2020 Listed $899,999 $358
          10/01/2019 Listing removed
          08/21/2019 Price Changed $890,000 $354
          08/01/2019 Listed $915,000 $364
          12/23/1998 Sold $325,000 $139

        2. The Tam house needs $20K in bathrooms and $30 in the yard, easy. The house with the bad Scrabble and the giant Christmas ornaments… I dunno.

          1. I dunno

            The former golf course views will be a new 160 home development. You can’t change a home’s location.

    1. I’m starting to warm up to these yokels spending millions on a few electrons. In fact, I hope the Chinese go all-in digital real estate. That will distract them from getting any ideas to buy up poorer towns in the US and colonize the houses and farmland.

  25. Must be tough to be a border patrol agent when the globalist Quisling regime in Le Cesspool Grande is implementing the “Great Replacement” agenda of their bankrollers and puppet masters.

    Frustrated Border Patrol agents are seen getting into heated exchange with leadership during visit from DHS chief Alejandro Mayorkas in leaked

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10455277/Border-Patrol-agents-filmed-heated-exchange-complain-politics-interfering-work.html

  26. Back in the old days when the First Amendment was operative , you just turned off something you didn’t like.
    Now Joni Michael wants Joe Rogan banned for misinformation on Covid, after the rant of Neil Young.

      1. That was my thought too. The Woodstock generation is about to get a lesson in OK slightly-older-than-Boomer.

        Young/Mitchell: Protest! Resist! Tune out (or in? up? over?)
        Joe Rogan fans: Thanks for the offer, slightly-older-than-boomers, but we aren’t just going to blindly believe you. We want to talk together and work out what’s really happening before marching and protesting.
        Young/Mitchell: Not allowed! You’re supposed to believe us, bcuz Woodstock!
        Joe Rogan fans: 🥱😴

        2. “Who’s Neil Young” is a common refrain. Even fewer know Joni Mitchell since she’s been washed up for like 40 years.

          1. I had to rent a Jetta once. It shut off at every stoplight, had a weird push-button ignition system that rolled me backwards down a hill, had windshield wiper controls which were upside down, and I’m still not going to forgive the emissions cheat. Pass.

          2. “I’m guessing you want the standard…”

            Yeah, I’m a manual shift kind of guy.

            The Golf R is a cornering car, not a drag racer. There are faster cars, but they’re also larger too. I just want a small hatch-back that has low center of gravity. Plus, it gets 30-mi/gal in comfort mode.

          3. “I had to rent a Jetta once.”

            In 1982 I moved to Florida from Connecticut in a 1974 VW Bus with my first wife, most everything I owned and a dog named Clyde.

            I miss Clyde and the VW Bus.

            🙂

          5. “There are faster cars”

            Can’t be too many and not much faster.

            2022 Chevrolet Camaro SS Coupe 0 to 60 in 3.5 seconds.

          6. “It shut off at every stoplight”

            “A lot of cars do that now.”

            My 2020 Silverado does that. It has what they call a 5.3L EcoTec3 V8 with something called Dynamic Fuel Management It shuts down cylinders from 8 to 4 or whatever when they are not needed on the highway which is unnoticeable. It also shuts off when you stop, you can push a button to shut the auto stop off when you start the vehicle if it bothers you but as I tell people, before I went to rehab most of the vehicles I drove shut down at red lights and they weren’t designed to.

            They say the Chevy gets 17 MPG city and 23 highway but I have been getting 18 around town and as much as 26 highway which is off the charts for the V8 trucks I have owned. Damn thing is fast, powerful and seamless. Not to mention goes further on a 20 gallon fuel tank with it’s 5.3 V8 engine then my 2004 F-250 does with a 40 gallon fuel tank and a 5.4 V8 engine.

            In fairness to Aretha Franklin (my beat-up 2004 F-250 which commands a lot of R E S P E C T from people on the road because they know I don’t GAF if they hit me or not) It is a 4 wheel drive 2004 truck.

          7. When cars encounter a corner most offer little assistance to overcome physics, i.e., mass prefers to continue in a linear direction. Many of the modern cars now sense the corner and gently apply the brakes to the inside wheels in order to help “pull” it into the corner. The modern sports cars also transfer power to the outside wheels, a concept known as torque vectoring. Overall, the entire effort is to reduce under-steer, but in 2022 this remains an expensive endeavor.

          8. “The modern sports cars also transfer power to the outside wheels,:

            I saw that in one of those videos. “Drift Mode” sends all the power to one of the rear wheels. That’s one high tech rear differential.

          9. to help “pull” it into the corner.

            A few years ago I visited with my younger cousin. Riding in my truck, she exclaimed “Oh my, you accelerate into corners too!” Yeah, my dad taught her dad to drive.

    3. I used to enjoy these singer/songwriters back in the day. I mean, as a young child in the 1970s their music brings back happy memories of a time when my parents were alive, etc.

      But now they are just annoying, burned out hippies who need to STFU. I saw Joni Mitchell talking not long ago and she has been smoking so long that I could smell her through the computer screen. Yuck.

  27. Prime Minister Zoolander has fled Ottawa and is in a “secret location” for safety concerns.

    Imagine if that had been an armed mob instead of peaceful truckers! The entirety of the Canuck Gooberment and Deep State would have run for the hills.

  28. The sooner we take out the journalists the sooner eyes will open. Were one in a terminal condition, one could do wonders for their fellow man by taking a journalist for a visit to the other side.

    1. terminal condition

      What’s with this fantasy of having feeble, cancer stricken old men do the actual fighting?

      1. I think it’s kind of funny, myself. I mean, if you are terminal, might as well do society a solid before you leave this mortal coil.

    2. How long will it take the sheeple to “connect the dots” when a quantity of Blue Checkmark Twitter loudmouths start getting “randomly” assaulted in parking garages or targeted in what appears to be some kind of “follow home” robbery and then pistol whipped in their own driveway?

      All of course just idle speculation…

      1. Once said dots are connected the likely outcome is a lot of people are going to want in on the action.

        Get your pound of flesh.

  30. [WATCH] Russell Brand Calls Out Fake News Media for Convoy Protest Blackout, Goes Viral

    https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/megan-fox/2022/01/29/watch-russell-brand-calls-out-fake-news-media-for-convoy-protest-blackout-goes-viral-n1554186

    Russell Brand has made a podcast that is closing in on a million views. In it, he exposes the mainstream press for ignoring the massive truck convoy that is rolling across Canada right now. “There’s a great big convoy headed across Canada to protest vaccine mandates,” he says before pointing out that there are no stories about it in the press. “What’s going on?”

    Then Brand lays out the important story, which mainstream media outlets won’t report, for the public. His report is trending on Twitter, and millions of people are discovering Brand’s awesome podcast for the first time and claiming he’s been “red-pilled.” As a longtime fan of Brand’s, I can assure you that this is who he has always been (at least for the last several years).

  31. Now is the time for the 99% to go on the offensive against the pre planned takeover by the 1% with Globalists Monopolies determined to take over and enslave Countries by a One World Order Dictorship and Great Reset.
    The 70 miles of Truckers is like a army of steel making a statement they won’t comply with a fake Government of creepy traitor Klaus Schwab students , and fraudulent Medical Tyranny.

    Time to go on the offensive .

    1. 70 miles of Truckers

      OK, they don’t have miles up there, it’s kilometers. But yes, and F*ck Justin sounds kind of familiar. The State Media up there has pushed the it’s like the “Jan 6 coup d’état” theme. Do they think we actually did that?

  33. The stock market sure has cratered a lot lately on the Fed’s stimulus withdrawal plans, given they haven’t even begun to implement them yet.

    Any thoughts on how many more months it will take stonks to find the bottom Jim Cramer has assured everyone is just around the corner?

    “The great unwinding of bloated central bank balance sheets could start as soon as next week.”

  34. Canada Fake news trying to block news on the Trucker rebellion and all the Canadians coming out in support of the Truckers.

    Talking heads are predicting that they will probably try to stage a false flags event like Jan 6 in US to demonize or criminalize the Truckers.

    1. If Biden doesn’t torpedo the stock market, then he will rocket inflation. His popularity will pay a price either way.

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