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Despite Winning The Bid, None Of Them Paid

It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “The Spokane Association of Realtors’ December snapshot shows sales down 7.2% compared to this time last year. So, why are some houses sitting on the market longer than usual?  ‘A lot of times when they are sitting on the market, they are priced too high,’ explained Real Estate agent Perry Domini. ‘And then you’ll start seeing a couple of price drops. And now the buyer is kind of in the driver’s seat because the sellers got to get rid of it.'”

“The red-hot housing market is starting to cool off in the Jacksonville area. The median price of a single-family home actually fell in January, and more homes were listed for sale, the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors reported. ‘The frenzied pace of demand seems to be returning to normal season levels’ — with closed sales down 9.4% and pending sales down 6.3% from last year, said Mark Rosener, president of the local Realtors association.”

“Dallas-Fort Worth led the country in single-family home starts last year. ‘Starts climbed by over 20% in 2021, hitting a new record level of over 58,000 units,’ said Ted Wilson, principal with Dallas-based housing analyst Residential Strategies. ‘But sales closings have not been able to keep pace and have climbed by only 7.7% during the year to just shy of 46,000 units.'”

“The U.S. Bankruptcy Court has approved the sale of Barclay Tower, a recently constructed 23-unit residential building in Flushing, according to A&G Real Estate Partners. Sunlight Barclay Tower LLC, a newly formed entity, was the winning bidder in A&G’s bankruptcy auction, acquiring the seven-story structure for $10.15 million.”

“Everything is more expensive these days. A lot of people are in the same boat and most of them are trying to stay afloat. ‘You know, we’re at the point now where I’m like, ‘Well, maybe I just won’t eat lunch today,’ shrugged Marci Prag while standing in front of her Cortez Hill condo tower. ‘Everything’s going up,’ said Jan Paul Sanchez in front of his Chula Vista home. ‘I’m not using the AC. I don’t use the heat,’ he said. ‘So, you got to start making adjustments. Start not doing some of the things you used to.'”

“‘We don’t eat a lot of hot meals right now because you don’t want to turn on your power,’ said Prag. ‘I’m angry but I can’t spend my time being angry about things because it’s not going to solve the problem. And then I’m making 25% less right now for the past two years because my company’s desperately trying to stay in business,’ sighed Prag.”

“Location, Location, Location presenter Kirstie Allsopp has taken to Twitter to hit back at claims that she’s a ‘rich b***h’ following comments she made in an interview which came out over the weekend. Speaking about the housing crisis, the TV star, 50, claimed that young people can get on the property ladder if they cancel their Netflix and gym subscriptions and forgo takeaway coffees.”

“She also suggested that they’d be able to save for a deposit if they moved in with their parents for three years or decided to look elsewhere for cheaper homes. Kirstie added that it required ‘enormous sacrifices’ but said that she often becomes ‘enraged’ when young people say they can’t afford to buy. Either you think I’m an out of touch rich b***h who doesn’t get how hard it is to buy a home in many parts of the UK or you don’t.'”

“The good news is the housing market has turned and we are now officially in a buyer’s market. Barfoot and Thompson put out some data yesterday showing that of the 135 houses that went to auction in the week leading up to 4 February, less than a third of them sold; only 27% of those properties. The reason this is good news is because it should finally put a brake on those runaway house prices we’ve seen for the last couple of years. If you don’t’ have crazy levels of buying, it should cool prices.”

“The bad news is that it’s turned because first home buyers are struggling to get mortgages. Tony Alexander puts out an excellent survey which last week showed that a net 65% of real estate agents reported an exodus of first home buyers from the market last month. So, when we say it’s a buyer’s market it’s an anyone-but-first-home-buyer’s market. And the reason for that is because the thing that has finally accelerated the housing slowdown is the new you-can’t-have-netflix-if-you-want-a-mortgage lending rules that kicked in on December 1.”

“According to Le Duy Minh, director of the HCMC Tax Department, Binh Minh sent a document to related agencies on February 8, proposing canceling the deal to buy the land lot that covers over 5,000 square meters in Thu Thiem. The land lot was successfully auctioned at VND5.026 trillion, or 6.9 times higher than the reserve price.”

“Prior to Binh Minh’s proposed withdrawal, Tan Hoang Minh Group, whose subsidiary Viet Star Real Estate Investment Co., Ltd won the auction for the land lot coded 3-12 in the Thu Thiem New Urban Area, officially canceled a contract to buy the land lot late last month and lost its deposit of nearly VND600 billion. Real estate developer Binh Minh Investment and Trading Company Limited has rejected the purchase of land at Thu Thiem New Urban Area, Thu Duc City, despite initially winning the bid for it at auction. The move comes after Tan Hoang Minh Group earlier also did not go through with a planned purchase.”

“Le Duy Minh, director of the City Tax Department, said the first phase of payment, in which winners have to pay 50 per cent for the land, ‘ had expired for 30 days, but none of them paid.”

“Zhenro Properties Group Ltd.’s shares and dollar bonds plunged Friday, with traders citing concern that the Chinese builder won’t redeem a $200 million bond next month as planned. The 10.25% perpetual note in question slumped to 35 cents on the dollar from 93 cents Thursday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and some other dollar bonds were on pace for record lows after falling at least 10 cents. Shares ended down a record 66% in Hong Kong and an onshore bond maturing in 2024 fell 23%, the most in over a month.”

“Zillow said it’s winding down its home-flipping business, selling houses ‘faster than we anticipated at better unit economics than we projected.’ The stock has lost three-quarters of its value since reaching a record almost a year ago. The company lost $261 million in the fourth quarter and $528 million for the year, with the entire deficit attributable to the homes business. But, Zillow said it sold 8,353 homes in the period, beating its outlook for approximately 5,000 sales, and ended the quarter with about 10,000 homes in inventory.”

“‘We feel even more confident today that exiting iBuying and eliminating the housing market balance sheet risk to our company and our shareholders was the right decision,’ Zillow CEO Rich Barton wrote. At the time of the announcement in November, Zillow also said it was cutting about 25% of its workforce. ‘We want to acknowledge the past few months have been challenging for us all — Zillow leadership, employees, and investors,’ Barton wrote. ‘But innovation is a bumpy road.'”

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This Post Has 93 Comments

  1. ‘we’re at the point now where I’m like, ‘Well, maybe I just won’t eat lunch today…I’m not using the AC. I don’t use the heat,’ he said. ‘So, you got to start making adjustments. Start not doing some of the things you used to…We don’t eat a lot of hot meals right now because you don’t want to turn on your power’

    Well it was cheaper than renting.

    2. Marci Prag is carrying at least 125 pounds of usable food on her; Jan Paul Sanchez about 45 pounds. Skipping lunch is a GOOD thing. I just did another back-of-the-env calc: Most overweight women can survive on ~$160 food/month if she can fry an egg and put meat in an oven. Overweight men can live on $210 if they double the eggs and meat.

      [per day: women, 2 eggs in butter, 1/4 pound chicken breast, 1 pound froz veg in olive oil, 1/4 ground beef, 1 cup milk in 4 cups tea/coffee. 85 g prot 72 g fat 30 g carb, 1135 cal. Men: 155 g protein,114 g fat, 31 carb, 1650 cal]

      2. Sounds like something from Psaki- “See poor people, inflation is good for you! You will lose weight, end up eating your cat thereby saving on cat food, and you won’t drive anywhere thereby saving the environment! A win win win for everyone, except the cat”

    3. Well, maybe I just won’t eat lunch today

      “One thing’s for sure, we’re all gonna be a lot thinner.”. – Han Solo

  2. ‘The company lost $261 million in the fourth quarter and $528 million for the year, with the entire deficit attributable to the homes business. …‘We feel even more confident today that exiting iBuying and eliminating the housing market balance sheet risk to our company and our shareholders was the right decision’

    That’s some red-hotcakes right there.

    ‘innovation is a bumpy road’

    Any damn fool can lose money Rich.

    1. He doesn’t seem willing to own the untimely decision to enter the iBuyHomes business in the midst of a market frenzy that made valuations meaningless.

    2. Like all of these “disruptors,” Zillow was just running up the price of housing. Same thing Carvana is doing in autos, etc. None of these companies make money or “innovate,” they are just IPO scams designed to fleece investors. Brought to you by the FED.

      1. Carvana is doing in autos

        Buying a used car, sight unseen, is almost as foolish as waiving inspections when buying a shack.

        1. “waiving inspections when buying a shack”

          Please do not insult my customer base.

          Their expensive FOMO mistake is money in my pocket, and there’s been alot of these mistakes made in Dumver the past few years 🙂

        2. “Buying a used car, sight unseen, is almost as foolish as waiving inspections when buying a shack.”

          I bought my daughter’s Honda V6 Accord EX-L Coupe back in FEB 20202 just prior to the inflation spike in used cars. I had no idea it was coming; just luck of the draw. It was a paid AutoTrader listing from a private party.

          It was someone’s baby, always garaged, detailed twice a year, drives like it’s on rails and it can pass cars on the freeway like they’re parked.

      2. see the following article (ironically published today) about Carivana. Oh my god the inmates and venture capitalists have gone crazy

        Well, a writer for The Verge managed to sell his 2014 Honda Fit to Carvana sight-unseen for $20,905—$90.20 more than he paid for it brand new off a dealer lot.
        …
        the actual quote you’re seeing primarily revolves around three factors: what the car would sell for on the wholesale market today, what Carvana projects it will be worth, and which cars Carvana needs to stock in its inventory. “The miles on it, the accidents on it, the condition that you’ve reported — all of those things are adjustments,” says Taira. But they’re not at the algorithm’s core.

        https://jalopnik.com/carvanas-algorithm-bought-a-7-year-old-honda-fit-for-mo-1848522255?utm_campaign=Jalopnik&utm_content=1644607805&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1kg1HKJ5cCdGo1hQ2mDxfTzLi1zkTDjrRBWStN_LSTC2bGJ2AdvXuWTGs

          3. Even 12K is absurd for a 7 year old car with 100K miles that cost 20K when new. It should be worth 5-6K at most. Probably less.

  4. ‘the first phase of payment, in which winners have to pay 50 per cent for the land, ‘ had expired for 30 days, but none of them paid’

    That was fast.

    ‘Zhenro Properties Group Ltd.’s shares and dollar bonds plunged Friday, with traders citing concern that the Chinese builder won’t redeem a $200 million bond next month as planned.The 10.25% perpetual note in question slumped to 35 cents on the dollar from 93 cents Thursday’

    Is that a lot? Another day, another broke a$$ Chinese company you never heard of.

    1. did the local bankers/traders know that they would not be redeeming before the rest of the world?

      I am wondering if the insiders took some money early and ran. And stupid mutual fund mangers stayed in

  5. ‘Starts climbed by over 20% in 2021, hitting a new record level of over 58,000 units…But sales closings have not been able to keep pace and have climbed by only 7.7% during the year to just shy of 46,000 units’

    DONG!

    1. Some Blue Checkmark Twitter nobody from the King Obama regime and currently at Harvard says that the truckers blocking the Detroit / Windsor bridge should have their tires slashed.

      This person is an example of a “soft target.” Imagine her walking around in Cambridge, MA and getting randomly assaulted in a parking lot, or followed home and pistol whipped in her own driveway.

      “They’re not sending their best”

      1. “They’re not sending their best”

        I hope not.

        Biden’s New DoE Hire is a Queer Activist Who Brags About ‘Puppy Play’ Gimp Kink

        by Paul Joseph Watson
        February 11th 2022, 6:13 am

        The Biden administration’s latest Department of Energy hire is a “queer activist” who brags about his “kink” of leading other gay men who are pretending to be dogs around on leashes before having sex with them.

        Sam Brinton was recently hired by the DoE as the Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition Deputy.

        https://twitter.com/MillerStream/status/1491857912502767621?s=20&t=-qGPi8-MsDMR-A2tTOKoYQ

          1. “but nobody should ever know about it.”

            We have had great friends who were lesbians and I know a couple of gay dudes (probably more I don’t know about} and they are all cool.

            An older lesbian couple lived across the street from us for years when my kids were growing up and they were fantastic people, great to my kids and I was their go to guy for things they needed done around the house. The gay dudes I know are good people.

            Neither my wife or myself ever discussed our sex lives with them nor did they discuss theirs with us. They were friends or neighbors and never told us about dog collars and chains while demanding to call them by a certain pronoun.

            I like many others really don’t care about someone’s sexual preference, it’s the in your face we’re here and we’re queer LGBQTV call me by this in your face sh#t which is done for effect that is found objectionable.

          2. I like many others really don’t care about someone’s sexual preference, it’s the in your face we’re here and we’re queer LGBQTV call me by this in your face sh#t which is done for effect that is found objectionable.

            Ask your awesome gay neighbors if they support drag queen story time at the local library.

          3. Ask your awesome gay neighbors if they support

            MAPs (aka pedos), because that’s where LGBTQIA+ is heading.

          4. MAPs (aka pedos), because that’s where LGBTQIA+ is heading.

            It’s going to be upon us with little to no warning. Just like

          5. I predict in 30 years Joe Biden’s Wikipedia entry will include something like this:

            “President Biden was also the first openly MAP president, although bigotry and hatred from the far right Nazis kept him from being able to publically declare his sexuality, President Biden’s true identity was widely known”

          1. “Ask your awesome gay neighbors if they support drag queen story time at the local library.”

            I haven’t seen them since we moved from that hood in 2005. But believe it or not those 2 were more conservative than the average bear and I can assure you they would have considered “drag queen story time at the local library” child abuse.

          2. But believe it or not those 2 were more conservative than the average bear

            The definition of “conservative” has indeed changed. Just because someone doesn’t like paying taxes doesn’t make them conservative.

        3. That’s a distraction.

          We will hold the bridge until Anthony Fauci’s scrawny little neck is wrapped in a noose, and he is chucked off the bridge like a bag of puppies that need drowned.

          Just some idle speculation there…

          2. Man, you gotta stop these fantasies. Have you looked for well water yet?

            You don’t “look for well water,” you hire a driller and start drilling.

    2. This is a urine soaked mattress article.

      GOP Pundits, Naturally, Are Championing The Canadian Trucker Protest (2/11/2022)

      https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bc-us-canadian-truckers-protest_n_62066bf2e4b0328e002577b6

      David Bauder is the author of this article, and his employer is the Associated Press.

      Imagine him stepping onto an elevator with a few well-dressed, seemingly harmless strangers. Who then grab him and shove a rag soaked in chloroform under his nose.

      Just some idle speculation. Nothing but idle speculation happening here…

    1. Opinion
      Macroscope by Anthony Rowley
      As US stocks fall, a bear market is all but inevitable in 2022
      – After years of rising prices, the US stock market is on the brink of a long-term shift from bull to bear
      – While some investors insist the recent fall in profits is purely corrective and continue to buy the dip, the reality is that greed must soon give way to fear
      Anthony Rowley
      Published: 9:15pm, 6 Feb, 2022

      Greed and fear are primal instincts, and greed has been red in tooth and claw in battling against fear during what amounts to the longest ever bull market in stocks. But fear, too, is powerful, and the smell of it is pervasive now as the rules of engagement change.

      The great bull market on Wall Street and elsewhere roughly coincided with the adoption of quantitative easing by the US Fed and other central banks in the wake of the 2009 global financial crisis. The bull came roaring in with quantitative easing and is now about to exit, bloodied and bowed.

      There has been little need for caution during the bull market. Investors could afford to jump off a cliff in taking risks knowing that the Fed’s parachute would slow their descent until a thermal updraft of monetary warm air or fiscal stimulus lofted them back up again.

      The parachute, the updraft of air and even the safety net have gone now. This fact has not fully dawned and there are still many who are ready to make a suicidal leap into the dark. Faith in the “cult of the equity” will no longer guarantee them a safe landing, however.
      …

      1. The FED is not going to do an emergency hike. They are quite happy with this inflation, Bullard’s remarks notwithstanding. He’s like the child who speaks for his parents based upon his own wishful thinking.

        1. It’s a tsunami wave of liquidity lifting asset prices of all denominations to the sky.

          And the tide is about to go out.

  11. The Financial Times
    liveUpdated 21 minutes ago
    Live news: US inflation surge thumps consumer sentiment to lowest level since 2011
    21 minutes ago
    US inflation surge thumps consumer sentiment to lowest level since 2011
    Alexandra White in New York

    US consumer sentiment weakened in February to its lowest in more than 10 years as surging inflation made Americans feel less optimistic about the economy and personal finances.

    The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index dropped to 61.7 from a final January reading of 67.2, which is its lowest since October 2011. Economists polled by Refinitiv expected the index to improve to 67.5.

    In the February survey, one-third of all consumers said higher inflation adversely affected their personal finance and almost half expect inflation-adjusted incomes to decline this year.

    “The recent declines have been driven by weakening personal finance prospects, largely due to rising inflation, less confidence in the government’s economic policies and the least favourable long-term economic outlook in a decade,” said Richard Curtin, chief economist for the University of Michigan’s consumer surveys.

    US inflation surged to 7.5 per cent in January, data on Thursday showed, the fastest annual increase since 1982. The Federal Reserve is expected to approve its first interest rate increase of this cycle next month and traders are increasingly ramping up bets for a quicker pace of policy tightening this year.
    …

    1. US inflation surge thumps consumer sentiment to lowest level since 2011

      And the reason for that, is that everyone can see it’s much worse than the official 7.5% number. Include all those “volatile” commodities (like gas and food) which show no signs of coming back down and it’s no wonder people are starting to panic. My nat gas cost per therm is up almost 40%. Even though it has been unseasonably warm this year in my neck of the woods, my bill is still bigger than last year.

    2. Gee, it’s almost like you can’t just print your way to prosperity. Whoulda thunk it? If you want to see who benefited, check out the net worths of the 1%.

  12. Deplorable’s “This is a urine soaked mattress article.” comment got me thinking (dangerous i know).

    Since PBS is a defender of all things left and the Democrat party shouldn’t they have a This Old Tent show to benefit the homeless.

    They could have a Homeless Bob Villa hook up with a homeless Norm while he is shooting up before they show how to properly apply a vinyl patch to a leaky roof top. How to apply Gorilla glue to a broken cooler hinge and they could do a whole show on how to refurbish a “urine soaked mattress”.

    1. I’m working out in the southwest suburbs now, but you have no idea how bad it is in central Denver, which Real Journalists now report has an estimated 11,000 homeless.

      Was at the local beer store the other day, and the owner had to 86 a urine soaked customer who was stinking up the store.

      He has a blatant sign on the door that says “NO 40 OUNCE NO TALL CANS” but they keep coming in anyway.

      “They’re not sending their best”

    2. ** “This Old Tent”

      love it !

      and just think of the oh-so-many weird doodads as they play “guess what THIS funky thing is . . . ?”

  13. ‘I’m angry but I can’t spend my time being angry about things because….”

    because you voted for this mess Marci.

  14. This is an involuntary defecation article.

    The Guardian — Maple leaf flags, conspiracy theories and The Matrix: inside the Ottawa truckers’ protest (2/11/2022):

    “What began as a protest against vaccine requirements for truck drivers has grown into a widening movement as Trudeau refuses to engage with demands.

    Lurking below the surface, though, is the same undercurrent of populism that powered the January 6 Capitol insurrection and the yellow vests movement: a powerful current fed by disinformation, conspiratorial thinking and deepening social divides.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/11/canada-ottawa-truckers-protest-covid-vaccine-mandates

    We’re taking our country back, and we’re taking back Canada too!

    Alphabet glowcucks can not stop this movement.

    And there will be arrests, trials, convictions, and executions. Unelected globalists, this is your cordial reminder that the punishment for treason is DEATH ☠

  15. This is a Mass Formation Psychosis article.

    The Atlantic — How to Reclaim Normal Life Without Being ‘Done’ (2/10/2022):

    “The pandemic has always been a tricky behavioral landscape for individuals to navigate. But now? It’s like all of us are walking an isthmus between islands of dread, the mainland still very much out of sight.

    There is also, regrettably, no universal map—and most of our internal compasses probably feel shot. Two years into the global crisis, individual choices and circumstances have stretched the vulnerability spectrum so that it now spans young, healthy, and at least three vaccines deep all the way to old, immunocompromised, and totally unjabbed.”

    https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/02/covid-normal-life-grace-period-done/622051/

    Imagine going through life with this level of neurosis and delusion?

    People like this shouldn’t be allowed to vote or to breed.

    1. Imagine going through life with this level of neurosis and delusion?

      They are addicted to fear and hate anyone who isn’t.

      1. I went for a walk today outside, passed a slightly obese person. She saw me coming and put on a blue paper mask. Oh well.

        2. Ridiculous! Doesn’t she know the “science has changed”?? Smart people stopped getting jabbed and wearing masks outdoors at least two months ago!

      2. From the article:

        “all of us”

        All of who, specifically?

        I had a different attitude about this Plandemic in spring / summer 2020, when some older relatives got infected by the CCP Flu that was created in a lab in China and funded by U.S. taxpayers, versus now February 2022.

        But the LIES, the censorship, the LIES, the cancel culture, the LIES, the Fentanyl Floyd riots, the LIES, the stolen election, the LIES, the proof that these alleged “vaccines” don’t work and are more likely to maim or kill you, the LIES, the endless LIES, the LIES, LIES, and more LIES.

        Mass Formation Psychosis is the only explanation for people whose brains have been so warped and tainted that they still believe all these LIES.

        1. the LIES, the endless LIES, the LIES, LIES, and more LIES.

          I think that to a limited degree, some true believers are starting to get it, but cannot yet come to terms with the fact that they were hoodwinked. So they try to keep believing the lies.

        2. All of who, specifically?

          The bed wetters. I plan on going to the movies this weekend, to watch Kenneth Branagh try to be as good a Poirot as David Suchet was. And masks are no longer required.

    2. I love knowing that this is a scam for the past 2 years. I breath easy every day and don’t have to readjust to the normal world.

          1. Just between you and me, it looks like some things will improve slightly in the short term. We might have a very pleasant spring and summer and relax, thinking everything will be just fine. I sure hope so anyway, I’d like to have some fun. However, take the time to harden your situation. The people who have been misleading and abusing us haven’t gone away and they’re not done.

          2. they’re not done

            Prominent HIV/AIDS researchers dying in the last few years. HIV inserts in SARS-CoV-2. VAIDS. Moderna mRNA HIV vaccine clinical trial. Messaging about testing for HIV status. Their goal appears to be AIDS for everyone.

          3. The people who have been misleading and abusing us haven’t gone away and they’re not done.

            They might take a breather, but yeah, I expect they will return with more fake stats and fear porn. The doctors on the evening news, shrieking at us to get jabbed will be back.

          4. THe Globalists Corporate Governance criminal Innsurrection has a minor back off after two years of damage that so far no redress on this attack on populations of the World.
            They are just going to plan their new attacks to advance this overall dictorship One World Order , Great Reset , 4 th Industrial Revolution .
            I predict a bigger clamp down on controlling what they call disinformation. Perhaps a new Pandemic or new Covid mutation , or new vaccines to impose on the globe. Maybe climate change emergencies, or unsupported wars.
            My point is that unless the killing spree, fraud and looting of the last two year isn’t addressed for what it was, being a collusion by WEF , Big Pharmacy and people like Bill Gates, Klaus, Soros, etc, they will attack again.
            That Traitor puppet Biden will do any crazy agenda these unelected Nazi like psychopaths want .
            So, they can’t be allowed to do a second attack , and they need to be held accountable for this two years attack on the globe that was fraudulent , and was based on a Medical Scam of epic evil.
            Private Parties, Stakeholddrs, Monopoly Corporations trying to take over a good portion of the World by everything fake , including their fake toxic vaccines, in collusion with infiltrated corrupted Governments .
            Its time for humanity to go on the offense against these 1% that want to enslave , kill and take over the free World.

  16. Is that business about skyscraper construction as a real estate crash indicator factually accurate?

    1. The Financial Times
      Chinese business & finance
      Chinese developers selling off more London property to raise cash
      Shanghai-based Greenland is latest to exit with £40mn sale of Ram Brewery site
      The Ram Brewery site
      Chinese developer Greenland purchased the Ram Brewery site in south-west London in 2014 for about £140mn
      © Charlie Bibby/FT
      George Hammond, Tabby Kinder and Thomas Hale
      12 hours ago

      One of China’s biggest developers has sold a flagship London project, in the latest sign that Beijing’s squeeze on the real estate sector is triggering a sell-off of assets beyond the country’s borders.

      Shanghai-based Greenland Holdings touted a £600mn development opportunity when it purchased the Ram Brewery site in south-west London in 2014 for about £140mn, its first investment in the UK. The deal was agreed during a push by then prime minister David Cameron and then London mayor Boris Johnson to encourage Chinese investment.

      Greenland is now backing away from completing the scheme having sold more than 300 homes. It has sold the remainder of the project to British housebuilder Berkeley Group for about £40mn, according to two people close to the deal.

      Taotao Song, chief executive of Greenland UK, said the company would retain control of the completed portion of the site, adding: “We look forward to working alongside [Berkeley brand] St George as neighbours who are both invested in the long-term success of Wandsworth town centre.”*

      Greenland is the latest Chinese developer to abandon its once-grand UK ambitions in order to raise capital to repay debts. The sector has been hit by a liquidity crisis and the collapse of Evergrande.

      Almost half of China’s 30 biggest developers including Greenland were in breach of at least one of Beijing’s recently introduced rules on property sector leverage, according to a Financial Times analysis.

      Other Chinese developers have defaulted on loans and stopped paying bills on London projects as Beijing cracked down on the highly levered sector. One of the largest projects, the Royal Albert Dock development owned by Beijing-based Advanced Business Park, is on the brink of collapse after creditors appointed administrators to recover unpaid debts last week.

      Greenland’s other London project, an undeveloped site in Canary Wharf in London originally intended to be western Europe’s tallest residential tower, has been stalled for years.

      Last week, Shanghai-based Shimao sold a £370mn office complex, close to St Paul’s Cathedral in the City of London, to Goldman Sachs, which had previously leased the building, according to React News. Shimao bought the complex in 2015, its first purchase in the UK, for about £270mn. Shimao said in January it had defaulted on a domestic loan and would consider selling more assets “in order to reduce the indebtedness of the group”.

      The head of real estate at a large UK law firm said: “With the fallout from Evergrande, they have to divert resources to make sure home buyers and home banks are looked after and deficits are repaired.”

      The retrenchment is a big shift for Chinese developers, which ploughed £3.5bn into UK commercial and residential property between 2013 and 2018, according to Real Capital Analytics.

      “Chinese and Hong Kong investors were about 25 per cent of the commercial market five years ago; that’s just stopped,” said Andrew Hawkins, international partner at Cushman & Wakefield, a property services company.
      …

  17. Barron’s
    Markets
    Markets Now
    Stocks Tumbled After U.S. Warned Russian Invasion of Ukraine Could Happen ‘Any Day Now’
    By Jacob Sonenshine and
    Jack Denton
    Updated Feb. 11, 2022 4:19 pm ET / Original Feb. 11, 2022 5:13 am ET

    The stock market sold off Friday. President Biden ordered 3,000 additional troops to Poland, amid concerns that Russia could invade Ukraine “any day now.”

    Those were the words of National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, and they helped sink a market that was already slipping on concerns about inflation, the Federal Reserve and consumer sentiment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 504 points, or 1.4%, while the S&P 500 fell 1.9%, and the Nasdaq Composite plummeted 2.8%.
    …

    2. Biden is a fearmonger. Have you noticed how many times he’s warned that Russia is about to invade, including bogus reports where his Coup said they’d already invaded? I trust Putin more than this illegal Coup d’etat.

  19. A little context about Kirsty

    Allsopp is the daughter of Charles Allsopp, 6th Baron Hindlip, a former chairman of Christie’s, by his marriage to Fiona Victoria Jean Atherley McGowan (1947–2014). She has a younger brother, Henry, and two younger sisters, Sofie and Natasha.Owing to her father’s peerage, she is entitled to use the courtesy style The Honourable Kirstie Allsopp.

    I leave to the dear reader to make their own decision on the question is she a rich female dog 😉

    1. Is This What Winning Looks Like?
      Modern Monetary Theory, the buzziest economic idea in decades, got a pandemic tryout of sorts. Now inflation is testing its limits.
      By Jeanna Smialek
      Published Feb. 6, 2022
      Updated Feb. 7, 2022

      The sun was sinking low over Long Island Sound as Stephanie Kelton, wearing the bright red suit jacket she had donned to give a virtual guest lecture to university students in London that morning, perched before a pillow fort she had constructed atop the heavy wooden desk in her home office.

      The setup was meant to keep out noise as she recorded the podcast she co-hosts, a MarketWatch production called the “Best New Ideas in Money.” The room was hushed except for Ms. Kelton, who bantered energetically with the producers she was hearing through noise-blocking headphones, sang a Terri Gibbs song and made occasional edits to the script. At one point, she muttered, “That sounds like Stephanie.”

      What Stephanie Kelton sounds like, circa early 2022, is the star architect of a movement that is on something of a victory lap. A victory lap with an asterisk.

      Ms. Kelton, 52, is the most familiar public face of Modern Monetary Theory, which posits that if a government controls its own currency and needs money — to make sure its citizens have food and places to live when, say, a global pandemic pushes many out of work — it can just print it, as long as its economy has the ability to churn out the needed goods and services.

      In the M.M.T. view of the world, “How will you pay for it?” is a vapid policy question. Real-world resources and political priorities determine how much lawmakers can and should spend.

      It is an idea that was forged, and put to something of a test, during a low-inflation era.

      When Ms. Kelton’s book, “The Deficit Myth,” was published in June 2020 and shot onto best seller lists, inflation had been weak for decades and had dropped below 1 percent as consumers retrenched in the pandemic. The government had begun to spend rapidly to try to prop up flailing households.

      When Ms. Kelton appeared on a Bloomberg podcast episode, “How M.M.T. Won the Fiscal Policy Debate,” in early 2021, inflation had bounced back to around 2 percent.

      But by a chilly January afternoon, as ducks flew over the frosty estuary outside Ms. Kelton’s house near Stony Brook University, where she teaches, inflation had rocketed up to 7 percent. The government’s debt pile has exploded to $30 trillion, up from about $10 trillion at the start of the 2008 downturn and $5 trillion in the mid-1990s.

      The good news: The government has had no trouble selling bonds to fund its spending, contrary to the direst projections of deficit scolds.

      The bad news: Some economists blame big spending in the pandemic for today’s rapid price increases. The government will release fresh Consumer Price Index data this week, and it is expected to show inflation running at its fastest pace since 1982.

      And that may be why Ms. Kelton, and the movement she has come to represent, now seem anxious to control the narrative. The pandemic spending wasn’t entirely consistent with M.M.T principles, they say — it wasn’t assessed carefully for its inflationary effects as it was being drawn up, because it was crisis policy. But the situation has underlined how hard it is to know just where the economy’s constraints lay, and how difficult it is to fix things once you run into them.
      …
      https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/06/business/economy/modern-monetary-theory-stephanie-kelton.html

      1. and how difficult it is to fix things once you run into them

        It’s easy to fix: raise interest rates and make it hard to borrow money.

  21. “Ms. Kelton, and the movement she has come to represent, now seem anxious to control the narrative.”

    Translation: the wolves are at the runners, time to throw another formerly useful idiot off the sled.

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