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Those Bubbles Have Been Premised On The Assumption That Interest Rates Would Stay Low Forever

A weekend topic starting with the Globe and Mail in Canada. “‘When you can borrow money for 1.5 per cent a year and invest it in an asset rising 20 per cent a year, you have to be an idiot not to sign up for that deal,’ says John Pasalis, a real estate researcher and owner of Realosophy Realty Inc., a Toronto real estate brokerage.”

The New York Post. “A million dollars may sound like a lot of money to spend on a house, but in more US cities than ever, it’s just the average. According to Zillow, a record-breaking 146 American cities surpassed the million-dollar mark in 2021, the most ever recorded to breach that price point in a single year.All those freshly minted locals have brought the total recorded number of US cities in which an average crib goes for $1 million or more to 481 total. To put that number into perspective, 2021 saw the addition of more $1-million cities than the past six years combined, and triple the number added in 2020.”

“Zillow reported some outliers are in more surprising areas. These include Idaho, Montana and Tennessee — states that, before 2021, had never had a single city in the million dollar club. ‘[We’re] seeing how the geography of wealth in the US has begun to shift, as 2021 was the first year for both Idaho and Montana to place any cities on this list, and now those Western states boast three million-dollar cities each,’ Zillow economist Jeff Tucker wrote.”

From NerdWallet. “The 30-year mortgage rate has risen rapidly to its highest level since 2019, around 4%. A few days before Christmas, the 30-year mortgage averaged around 3% APR. Tuesday, it averaged 4.03% APR. Let’s say you can afford $2,000 a month in principal and interest on a mortgage. If you started looking at homes before Christmas, when the 30-year mortgage was around 3%, you could have borrowed about $474,400 to get a $2,000 monthly payment. But with a mortgage rate of 4%, you could get a $418,900 loan with that same $2,000 a month in principal and interest. That’s a reduction in affordability of about $55,500.”

The Times Standard. “The housing market may be showing signs of cooling off across the rest of the country, but things are still red hot in Humboldt County. Even though median home prices in the county dropped 5.6% from $450,285 in December to $425,000 in January, prices are still 16.1% higher than January 2021 when they were around $366,000, according to the California Association of Realtors. Jordan Levine, chief economist for the California Association of Realtors, said in a statement that he expects the favorable lending environment won’t last long.”

“‘A surge in interest rates in the past few weeks is concerning and will likely create affordability headwinds for buyers, which may result in housing demand being curtailed in the upcoming months,’ Levine said.”

From Florida Realtors. “The Jacksonville area’s booming housing market has left home values a little inflated, say a pair of academics warning that flush times for home-sellers across the state could be ending. If the researchers’ expected pricing was correct, overpaying has apparently become standard nearly everywhere. The researchers aren’t forecasting a market collapse, but they say the crush of buyers that drove up prices nationwide last year could soon taper considerably.”

“‘Mortgage rates have been near historic lows for the last two years and have helped keep housing demand strong through the pandemic,’ said Florida International University professor Eli Beracha. ‘Now we’re seeing rates rise, and that’s going to take some buyers out of the market and curtail price gains.'”

The Portland Press Herald. “Maine’s housing market has been tough for moderate-income buyers since the start of the pandemic, and with scant inventory and rising interest rates on the horizon, it’s only going to get worse. Real estate experts say an expected jump in mortgage rates will further squeeze an already tight market as the Federal Reserve attempts to tamp down rising inflation.”

“As interest rates climb, what people can afford will go down, said Leo Bourgeault, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker in Saco. ‘Instead of a $400,000 house, they’re going to have to buy a $300,000 house, which you can’t find,’ he said.”

From Coastal Illustrated on Georgia. “The past two years have been among the busiest for Realtors in the history of the Golden Isles. In the Golden Isles, the average sales price in March 2020 was $363,478, rising to an average of $511,918 by July of the same year, and increasing to an average of $606,192 in September 2020, said Realtor Sherrye Gibbs. ‘By 2021, the average sales price leveled off to the mid-$500s and in the first two months of 2022, prices are averaging just below $500,000,’ Gibbs said.”

“Nearly two months into the year, Gibbs said it appears housing prices are leveling off. ‘With the promise of rising interest rates on the horizon, I believe that prices will remain stable, but do not expect a major correction,’ she said.”

The Valley Record in Washington. “‘It’s nutso right now,’ said Karin Simpson, owner of the downtown North Bend-based Simpson Realty Group. ‘I have buyers sitting on the sideline who are waiting and waiting — then they see a house and there’s 20 offers on it.'”

“In Snoqualmie, housing prices in December 2021 were up about 20% compared to last year, at a median sale price of $1 million, according to Redfin. Current median housing prices are just below the five-year high of $1.1 million set in May 2021. North Bend is following a similar trajectory, seeing median housing prices in December 2021 rise roughly 13% from last year, for a median sale price of $936,000. That sale price is also near the city’s five-year high of $1 million set in Oct. 2021.”

From Stuff New Zealand. “Housing affordability in New Zealand has deteriorated to the worst level on record, with the average property worth 8.8 times the average income at the end of last year, a property analyst says. That ratio was up from 8.3 just three months earlier, and from 7.0 in the last part of 2020, according to CoreLogic’s latest housing affordability report. It was significantly higher than the long-term average of 5.9, and than previous cycle peaks of 6.1 in 2007 and 7.0 in 2016 to 2017.”

“CoreLogic chief property economist Kelvin Davidson said the mechanics behind the ‘sharp’ decline were simply that steep house price rises had far outpaced any increases in the average household income. ‘Since March 2020 when Covid hit, property prices are up 38 per cent while household incomes rose by less than 3 per cent.'”

From News.com.au. “Homeowners across the country might have to pay higher mortgages as early as June, with signs indicating interest rates will rise by then. That could spell disaster for an estimated one million property owners who have never lived through a rate hike before as they have only recently entered the market. Although a 1 per cent rise sounds like a tiny amount, it could add hundreds or even thousands of dollars extra every month for the average Australian mortgage.”

“It’s not just relatively new homeowners that will feel the sting of higher rates, either, warned Gareth Aird, the CBA’s head of Australian economics. People on variable home loans would of course be impacted immediately by the rate hike. But the rising cash rate would also soon catch up with those on fixed mortgages. Mr Aird said a whopping $500 billion worth of fixed home loans was set to expire over the next two years, putting them at the centre of the rate hike.”

“‘As a result, borrowers rolling off fixed rates will be refinancing their loans at a materially higher interest rate, which will have a significant impact on the interest cost of debt and household finances,’ he added.”

From RT News. “The US real estate market could crash this year, leading economist Desmond Lachman predicted in an interview with Nikkei Asia. Adjusted for inflation, house prices in America are now higher than they were 15 years ago, before the last housing bust, he added. According to Lachman, the trigger for the real estate market collapse would be a hike in interest rates, which is expected to be introduced by the US Federal Reserve in March in an attempt to curb soaring inflation.”

“‘Those bubbles in the equity and the housing markets, they’ve been premised on the assumption that interest rates would stay low forever. So, as soon as the Fed starts raising interest rates in an aggressive way, there’s the real risk that it bursts the asset price bubbles and that could, then, move us into a recession,’ Lachman said.”

From The Street. “With every new piece of inflation data and every market reaction from bond traders, one thing becomes blatantly clear – the Fed has really let this thing get away from them. It’s amazing to think that as of this point today, interest rates are still at 0% and the Fed will buy another $30 billion in Treasury securities in February even though the inflation rate is at 7.5%, Treasury spreads are plummeting and GDP growth expectations are getting slashed.”

“I don’t expect to see any kind of emergency rate hike this week from the Fed, but, if it’s truly looking to solve this inflation problem, it’s going to need to hike rates so aggressively that’s it almost certain the central bank is going to overshoot. History has shown us that the Fed only acts months, if not quarters, in arrears, long after the damage has been done.”

“The Fed has a history of a ‘bend until it breaks’ approach and the current environment may be the most shining example of them all. Even as economic growth was recovering rapidly and the unemployment rate has falling, the Fed continued with 0% interest rates and tens of billions of dollars worth of QE. ‘There’s no inflation’ and ‘inflation is transitory’ were the justifications even as it seemed inevitable that all this liquidity was eventually going to lead to something negative.”

“Inflation did show up and the Fed did all it could to talk it down, but the year-over-year rate is now at 40-year highs and may not have peaked just yet. Now, we’re nearly through an economic cycle and the Fed has just now decided to raise interest rates for the first time – into a period of economic decline and heightened recessionary risks. Maybe the Fed steers us through this, but I see no reason to believe that this likely won’t end up being a big mess again.”

“As I say often, the bond market gets it right far more often than the stock market does. We’d be wise to pay attention to the signals. It’s possible stocks squeeze out more gains in the short-term if the Fed doesn’t surprise on its policy decisions, but the bill looks like it’s about to come due.”

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This Post Has 127 Comments

  1. ‘Instead of a $400,000 house, they’re going to have to buy a $300,000 house, which you can’t find’

    You know what that means Leo:

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

    1. Everyone just got “Priced Out Forever”, just like in 2006 when prices never came down and….oh wait.

      Seriously, every day now I see a quote or headline that is deja vu all over again to the beginning of the end in 2006.

      1. Most people are so caught up in the moment that they cant see the forest for the trees. The wave of bankruptcies that clearly marks the end of this cycle is coming very soon. The stress has been building for a while now, we are just waiting for the inevitable signs on the locked door saying the boss has decided to spend more time with his family. Who is going to be this era’s New Century Financial? Wait, what? They are still around? Check out newcenturyfinancial.com where you can Sell Your Unpaid Invoices and Turn it Into Immediate Funds! :smh:

  2. ‘In the Golden Isles, the average sales price in March 2020 was $363,478, rising to an average of $511,918 by July of the same year, and increasing to an average of $606,192 in September 2020, said Realtor Sherrye Gibbs. ‘By 2021, the average sales price leveled off to the mid-$500s and in the first two months of 2022, prices are averaging just below $500,000,’ Gibbs said’

    ‘Nearly two months into the year, Gibbs said it appears housing prices are leveling off. ‘With the promise of rising interest rates on the horizon, I believe that prices will remain stable, but do not expect a major correction’

    Look kinda like you already had one Sherrye.

    ‘In Snoqualmie, housing prices in December 2021 were up about 20% compared to last year, at a median sale price of $1 million, according to Redfin. Current median housing prices are just below the five-year high of $1.1 million set in May 2021. North Bend is following a similar trajectory, seeing median housing prices in December 2021 rise roughly 13% from last year, for a median sale price of $936,000. That sale price is also near the city’s five-year high of $1 million set in Oct. 2021’

    DONG!

  3. ‘2021 saw the addition of more $1-million cities than the past six years combined, and triple the number added in 2020’

    How spot a bubble, let us count the ways. Highest prices, highest payments, near 5,000 year low in interest rates. Look at the ‘wealth’ spread across the globe to every sh$thole, frozen backwater crap town on the map.

  4. ‘There’s no inflation’ and ‘inflation is transitory’ were the justifications even as it seemed inevitable that all this liquidity was eventually going to lead to something negative’

    How could creating more money that existed in the 90’s not blow up somehow?

    1. I have a similar question about how much concrete the Chicoms recently pored over a few years’ time. Through the lens of history, we’ll see it as part of the same bubble.

        1. “Thousands of constructions schemes have screeched to a halt as its feared the country’s property boom is about to collapse – with debts of an estimated £86billion ($117billion).”

          The article later clarifies that $117billion is the amount of Chinese real estate debt maturing in 2022 alone. I give the reporter an A for topic choice, but a C in grammar and an F in financial mathematics.

      4. The Financial Times
        Letter: An end to the China bubble would risk a Minsky moment
        From Paul Hodges, Chairman, New Normal Consulting, Stäfa, Switzerland – Our most-read letter of the last week
        © AFP via Getty Images
        October 11 2021

        There is an extra dimension to your excellent analysis of the potential impacts of an Evergrande default (“The real meaning of China’s Evergrande problem”, Opinion, Free Lunch, FT.com, September 30; “The end of ‘build, build, build’”, Big Read, September 23). This is the likely fallout on the global economy from China’s decision to burst the speculative bubble in its real estate market.

        The bubble was based on China’s massive post-2008 stimulus programme, which essentially became “subprime on steroids”. And unfortunately, it led many suppliers outside China to expand capacity in the belief that China had suddenly become middle class by western standards.

        They saw its auto sales expand almost fourfold between 2008-2017 to become the world’s largest market, and failed to notice this was largely due to speculative property gains. Similar excitement was seen in areas as diverse as oil, metals, plastics and luxury goods.

        Yet in reality, as government data confirms, 600m Chinese currently live on less than $150 a month and per capita wage income is currently just $3,135 a year. President Xi Jinping has highlighted since 2017 that the government believes “houses are for living in, not speculation”.

        As your correspondents have warned, it therefore seems likely that the end of the bubble is now under way, along with China’s land-driven development model.

        This creates a real risk of another Minsky moment (the term coined by US economist Hyman Minsky), as seen at the end of the US subprime bubble. The collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 meant investors suddenly realised they had overpaid for their assets, and they ran en masse for the exits.

        Investors now risk another acute case of buyers’ remorse, given that real estate is 29 per cent of China’s gross domestic product.
        …

        1. “Yet in reality, as government data confirms, 600m Chinese currently live on less than $150 a month and per capita wage income is currently just $3,135 a year.”

          In other words, China is in much worse shape than California is.

          1. True.

            California’s welfare recipients with their housing, Medi-Cal and cash benefits live larger than those 600m poor Chinese!

    1. The article says they can’t hire new police officers. Gee, I wonder why? It must be racisms or sexisms because the mayor is a black woman. It couldn’t be because of this:

      “After Black Lives Matter protesters last year demanded that cities “Defund the police,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed held a press conference to announce that her city would be one of the first to do exactly that. Breed cut $120 million from the budgets of both San Francisco’s police and sheriff’s departments. A spokesperson for the police officers’ union warned the cuts “could impact our ability to respond to emergencies.”

      The midterms should be the most epic beatdown in US history.

      1. The real crime in the Kim Potter case is that she was an “inclusivity” hire who was made a supervisor over men who were far more experienced and qualified. Society is going to pay a heavy price for its insistence on putting unqualified women into emergency responder positions where competence, coolness, and solid judgement are required in crisis situations.

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10526209/Ex-cop-killed-Daunte-Wright-learn-sentence.html

        1. she was an “inclusivity” hire who was made a supervisor over men who were far more experienced and qualified

          I watched quite of bit of her trial. That was not the impression I got. She had a long history in law enforcement and was well-liked.

          2. she made a mistake with a lifetime criminal

            The prosecutors wanted a scalp and the jury was willing to supply. It was a miscarriage of justice. The matter should have been resolved in civil rather than criminal court.

      2. “The midterms should be the most epic beatdown in US history.”

        They will be.

        The Democrat Party is the party of lockdowns, destroying the economy, forcing masks on children (aka psychological terrorism), unscientific medical tyranny, stolen elections, burning down cities, looting, anti white racism, tents, needles, feces, legalized shoplifting, carjacking, gun confiscation, anti Americanism, anti Christianity, hyperinflation, food shortages, drag queen story hour, and raping kids.

        This is the “brand” of the Democrat Party.

        This is what they’re running on for 2022.

        1. How do you like the Globalists now?
          That’s why they had to rig the 2020 election with a perfectly timed pre planned faked Pandemic, with fake PCR tests , fake lockdowns and useless masks, than fake vaccines.
          But don’t worry, Plizer announces a new vaccine to be ready at the end of March.
          Recently Bill Gates claims another Pandemic coming , but it will be a different pathogen.
          Interesting how Bill Gates can predict a Pandemic coming . It took about 100 years from the Spanish flu to have a global pandemic, that many believe was faked with Covid 19. Many researchers say the Spanish Flu was pneumonia and a bacterium , rather than a virus.
          As I suspected, one of the reasons Big Pharmacy likes the gene tampering vaccines is its cheaper to produce than traditional vaccines. So, on top of everything else these Big Pharmacy product makers are cheap asses , at the expense of people.

      3. The midterms should be the most epic beatdown in US history.
        I don’t know about that. The people I know have no intention of voting anything but D. Only hope I see is if gas gets over $5/gallon. than 1 guy might switch. Other than that, no.
        Free Sh$t and the expectations of more Free Sh$t is a very powerful force.

        1. You hang out with the wrong people! 🙂

          That is also why I said “should”. I do not underestimate the stupidity level in this country.

        2. Only hope I see is if gas gets over $5/gallon.

          And how much more inflation flares up this year. I don’t expect prices to “stabilize” or for the increases to be “transitory”. That they are considering a gasoline tax holiday shows how desperate they are.

          I too know people who are going to pull the D Lever, regardless. Most of them are high income and they see inflation as a nuisance, or even as a necessary evil for the cause.

          1. considering a gasoline tax holiday

            Only a reasonable response if gasoline taxes was what caused the biggest expansion of debt in human history.

  6. Dead men tell no tales.

    Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘pimp’ Jean-Luc Brunel dies in prison ‘suicide’: Frenchman who procured ‘a thousand women’ for paedophile financier and slept with Virginia Roberts ‘hangs himself’ – a week after Prince Andrew settlement

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10530247/Jeffrey-Epsteins-friend-Jean-Luc-Brunel-prison-suicide.html

    Jeffrey Epstein’s French modelling agent friend Jean-Luc Brunel, who allegedly procured more than a thousand women and girls for the paedophile financier to sleep with, died today in an alleged prison suicide.

    It comes days after Prince Andrew, 62, agreed to settle Virginia Roberts’s lawsuit accusing him of sex abuse after they met through Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

    1. The Financial Times
      Central banks
      Investors brace for central banks’ retreat from bond markets
      ‘Quantitative tightening’ will mark profound shift after years of large-scale asset purchases
      Montage showing the exterior of the Bank of England the Federal Reserve’s seal
      The Bank of England fired the starting gun on quantitative tightening earlier this month while the Federal Reserve will probably begin the QT process later this year
      © FT montage/Charlie Bibby
      Tommy Stubbington in London and Kate Duguid in New York yesterday

      The biggest buyers in bond markets are now poised to become sellers, as central banks who purchased trillions of dollars of debt since the 2008 financial crisis start trimming their vast portfolios.

      Leading central banks such as the US Federal Reserve and Bank of England are widely expected to kick off the process of “quantitative tightening” in the coming months, complicating the outlook for bond investors who are already grappling with runaway inflation and the spectre of aggressive interest rate rises this year.

      The looming tightening of monetary policy marks a stark contrast to the coronavirus response measures implemented in early 2020, when central banks around the world cut borrowing costs to historic lows and launched the type of large-scale asset purchase schemes that were used to arrest the global financial crisis a decade earlier.

      “Central bank balance sheets will shrink in aggregate in size for the first time in history,” said Ralf Preusser, global head of rates research at Bank of America. “Some central banks may also experiment with [actively selling bonds], where we also have no experience.”
      …

    2. Are you ready for more central banking experiments on human subjects?

      Are you conceding gene therapy experiments on human subjects?

          1. Apparently, you need to be reminded that Trump’s plan included therapeutics like HCQ and monoclonal antibodies. The vaccines were intended for a small segment of the population. Fauci hijacked Trump’s plan in favor of Big Pharma. Perhaps you should break out of your MSM silo and read other things like Peter Navarro’s In Trump Time and RFK Jr’s The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health. But of course you won’t, because you’ve been brainwashed to think that they’re conspiracy theorists.

  8. 4chan, are you listening?

    Because somebody* needs to take out Justin Trudeau. If that little fascist ever visits the United States, he’s not gonna make it back to Canada alive ☠

    * All posts on this topic are strictly satire (waves at Glowie) and refer to hypothetical, fictional events.

  9. The researchers aren’t forecasting a market collapse, but they say the crush of buyers that drove up prices nationwide last year could soon taper considerably.”

    The researchers never forecast a market collapse. Their paycheck depends on sanguine outlooks.

  10. “As interest rates climb, what people can afford will go down, said Leo Bourgeault, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker in Saco. ‘Instead of a $400,000 house, they’re going to have to buy a $300,000 house, which you can’t find,’ he said.”

    Stick around, Leo. When the Fed’s Everything Bubble implodes, trillions in fictitious Yellen Bux valuations are going to fly off to debauched currency heaven. And when the real civil unrest starts, prices will drop even further and faster.

  11. “Housing affordability in New Zealand has deteriorated to the worst level on record, with the average property worth 8.8 times the average income at the end of last year, a property analyst says.

    New Zealand cucks elected globalist Quislings, then let themselves be disarmed. They purely and simply deserve everything that’s coming to them.

  12. “CoreLogic chief property economist Kelvin Davidson said the mechanics behind the ‘sharp’ decline were simply that steep house price rises had far outpaced any increases in the average household income. ‘Since March 2020 when Covid hit, property prices are up 38 per cent while household incomes rose by less than 3 per cent.’”

    Un-possible! According to our fake, Soviet-style CPI data, housing costs only increased by 3.3% last year.

  13. Some local news:

    https://kdvr.com/news/local/colorado-chronic-homelessness-nearly-tripled-since-2007/

    Nearly tripled, is that a lot?

    I recently moved, a distance of less than two miles, but still in the city, and there are almost ZERO tweakers and junkies in my new neighborhood.

    It’s going down to minus 0°F in a few days, time to catch a one way Greyhound to California, and take your fentanyl and meth with you!

    “They’re not sending their best”

    1. More local news:

      https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/investigations/new-data-shows-car-thefts-are-up-again-in-the-denver-metro-area

      I’m paying an extra $50 a month for garage parking now (there was no garage at the old building) because I have so much money left after “throwing money away on rent” every month that I don’t know where to throw it.

      And BTW, alot of the car thefts and catalytic converter thefts I hear about in Denver happen in the driveways of single family loanowner shacks.

      Renters rule, loanowners drool 😛

        1. The problem with most is that their garages, even though their houses have basements, are full of cr@p and there is no room for the cars. So a $40K car sits on the driveway because the garage is full of worthless junk.

          Hoarder nation.

    2. I recently moved, a distance of less than two miles, but still in the city, and there are almost ZERO tweakers and junkies in my new neighborhood.

      As I sit on my curb drinking Mad Dog 20/20 out of a brown paper bag, I see no dubious elements in my hood, either.

  14. Who’s Marion Isabeau Ringuette?
    February 16, 2022 4:50 pm

    Marion Isabeau Ringuette, who was director of communications for Ontario Lawyer Normal Sylvia Jones, misplaced her job 10 days after making the donation, in keeping with the Toronto Star.

    After hackers stole and leaked the donor record of a GiveSendGo marketing campaign supporting the protests this week, Isabeau-Ringuette’s identification was apparently deciphered and reported to her employer, although she solely used her initials. when making the donation.

    https://citigist.com/bio/whos-marion-isabeau-ringuetteontario-solicitor-normals-high-aide-is-forced-out-after-donating-100-to-freedom-convoy-cops-cost-4-males-with-plotting-to-homicide-officers-wikipedia-biog/

    “We’re not going to make any additional feedback as this can be a personnel matter.”

    It comes as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau considers utilizing his extraordinary powers below the Emergencies Act to determine exclusion zones in Ottawa to quell remaining protests within the nation’s capital.

    Trudeau has come below hearth from critics who accuse him of imposing ‘martial legislation’ to crush protests over vaccine mandates and different pandemic restrictions.

    1. misplaced her job

      Is that Canuck for getting fired?

      I have to say, the forces of evil seem very well organized and competent, which leads me to think that the elections in November won’t be turning out the way we think they will.

      1. “Is that Canuck for getting fired?”

        Yup

        Queen’s Park staffer out of a job after $100 donation to Ottawa blockade, others under scrutiny

        Published Wednesday, February 16, 2022 6:49PM EST
        Last Updated Wednesday, February 16, 2022 6:49PM EST

        “For the communications director to be financially supporting an unlawful, illegal occupation is definitely concerning,” said NDP MPP Catherine Fife

        Isabeau-Ringuette worked as a political staffer as recently as Sunday for Ontario’s Solicitor-General, the position that oversees police and other law enforcement in Ontario.

        The $100 donation was anonymous publicly on GiveSendGo, but in a line in a pair of leaked documents totalling nearly 100,000 donations, one line reads “M.R.” with an email address that contains Isabeau-Ringuette’s name.

        Also in the data is an employee of the federal correctional service and the name of another Ontario government employee. The latter only said, “No comment” when contacted on the phone by CTV News Toronto.

        https://www.cp24.com/news/queen-s-park-staffer-out-of-a-job-after-100-donation-to-ottawa-blockade-others-under-scrutiny-1.5784447

        1. I find it interesting that people are being punished for crimes committed before they were crimes. Some “Democracy”.

          1. Since I’m not a Canadian, they can’t touch me (at the moment). I am getting a new breed of scam emails though from north of the border.

  15. I’m in the middle of reading “War Of The World” by the British historian Niall Ferguson, specifically the chapters about Germany in the 1930s.

    If you took the fascist rhetoric of today’s globalists, and replaced the word “unvaccinated” with the word “Jewish” you would be hearing and reading the same thing.

    This is not an exaggeration, or a trivialization of the events of the 1930s and WWII.

    These globalists are literally enacting medical genocide.

  17. The globalist Quislings drop the mask more each day.

    SHOCK POLICY: Ottawa may euthanize truckers’ pets as punishment

    Canadian PoliticsCOVID-19Vaccine Mandate Feb 17, 2022 Written By Keean Bexte

    The same day that videos emerged of Ottawa and Quebec police gearing up to go after peaceful Convoy supporters in the capital, the Ottawa government has warned protesters that their pets may be confiscated following their arrest.

    Moreover, position statements issued by the Ottawa Humane Society reveal that they may unilaterally euthanize any animal that they deem to be “not suitable for adoption.” Arbitrary behavioral and health tests would be used to make the call.

    These decisions about the life of a trucker’s pet would, thus, be made without their consent or knowledge while they are imprisoned for indefinite periods of time via the Emergency Powers of the Trudeau regime.

    https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4039692/posts

    1. SHOCK POLICY: Ottawa may euthanize truckers’ pets as punishment

      Knowing that they want us dead and gone, is this not shocking at all.

      Or do we live in a world that is so messed up that people shrug when peaceful protestors are beaten and arrested, have their savings and livelihoods taken from them; but become indignant when a dog is put down?

      1. You don’t get it, do you?

        There are a thousand Timothy McVeighs out there, right now, just waiting, waiting, waiting.

        They don’t post on this blog, they don’t post on social media, they don’t communicate about anything electronically, and they sure as sh*t don’t talk about groups or joining groups.

        You may have been a potential Glowie recruit back in the day, but you have no idea what the Leaderless Resistance is capable of.

        And here’s another hint, they’re not in Ottawa right now.

        The Day Of The Rope is coming…

        1. So what are these Timothy McVeigh’s waiting for? Where were these patriots when the usurper was sworn in as President?

          All I see is big talk, but nothing ever happens.

          1. “nothing ever happens”

            Keep telling yourself that, but don’t demoralize this blog.

            Kyle Rittenhouse happened, and last I checked, he’s walking free.

            McVeigh is a bad example because innocent children died, but his target was on point.

            There are millions of young males in this country with absolutely *NOTHING* to lose. Most of them will waste their potential on video games and porn and weed.

            But all it takes is one, a few, a handful of them to say “f* it, it’s Go Time!”

            As a native of Mexico, you are here in the U.S. for a reason, because it’s better. You could live in any number of places around the world, but you choose to live here.

            I was born here, and I have nowhere else to go, and no choice but to fight for this country.

            And to any young demoralized men reading this, take the advice of the Western Rifle Shooters Blog:

            “In the absence of orders, find something communist and kill it”

          2. As a native of Mexico, you are here in the U.S. for a reason

            I’m not a native of Mexico. I was born in the US.

          3. Sooner rather than later some children or other loved ones who were denied organ transplants for being unvaxxed will die.

            As a father I know what I would do. “Soft targets” would fall.

            I’m sure there are like-minded dads out there.

    2. I see this sort of thing as part of the ongoing mass formation psychosis phenomenon. We’ve been living with it so long it doesn’t sink in that it’s designed to destabilize yer thought process. If that’s possible, what could ‘they’ do next? This is what’s going off my back like water on a duck. No actual cases of this happening, just another sensational trial balloon released to scare people.

  19. “When you can borrow money for 1.5 per cent a year and invest it in an asset rising 20 per cent a year, you have to be an idiot not to sign up for that deal,..”

    Do the little people ever pause long enough to consider why this low hanging fruit is ignored by the sophisticated investors?

  20. Financial institutions have started freezing protesters’ bank accounts based on RCMP information, Chrystia Freeland says

    JAMES BRADSHAWBANKING REPORTER
    BILL CURRY
    PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 17, 2022

    Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said financial institutions have started freezing bank accounts belonging to protesters involved in blockades based on information from the RCMP, and predicted the number of accounts being targeted will rise in the coming days.

    The minister, who is also Minister of Finance, said she has specific statistics about how many accounts have been frozen so far and intends to make them public “in due course, and soon.” But she withheld those details on Thursday after discussions with law enforcement, in an effort to avoid jeopardizing what she called “operational actions.”

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-financial-institutions-have-started-freezing-protesters-bank-accounts/

    1. Chrystia Freeland’s granddad was indeed a Nazi collaborator – so much for Russian disinformation

      Author of the article:David Pugliese • Ottawa Citizen
      Publishing date:Mar 08, 2017 • March 8, 2017 • 3 minute read

      What are the sources for the information that Freeland’s grandfather worked for the Nazis?

      For starters, The Ukraine Archival Records held by the Province of Alberta. It has a whole file on Chomiak, including his own details about his days editing the newspaper Krakivski Visti. Chomiak noted he edited the paper first in Crakow (Cracow), Poland and then in Vienna. The reason he edited the paper in Vienna was because he had to flee with his Nazis colleagues as the Russians advanced into Poland. (The Russians tended to execute collaborators well as SS members).

      See archive entry below:

      So what was the Krakivski Visti? It, like a number of publications, had been seized by the Nazis from their Jewish owners and then operated as propaganda outlets.

      Here is what the Los Angeles Holocaust Museum has to say about Krakivski Visti and a similar newspaper, Lvivski Visti, both publications associated with the Nazi regime.

      “In 1943 and 1944, both Lvivski Visti and Krakivski Visti hailed the German-approved formation of the 14th Waffen SS Division Halychyna, composed of Ukrainian volunteers,” the museum pointed out.

      So much for Russian disinformation.

      https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/chrystia-freelands-granddad-was-indeed-a-nazi-collaborator-so-much-for-russian-disinformation

  21. Here is your daily dose of housing insanity, courtesy of Dumver’s 9News.

    BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — A developer is reaching out to victims of the Marshall Fire to see if they are interested in selling their burned lots. More than 10 properties are up for sale in Louisville and Superior.

    As of Thursday, one was listed for nearly $800,000.

    “We all live here and we all want to see something beautiful when it is done,” said David Janis, a developer in Boulder.

    Janis sent letters to Marshall Fire victims, and he said some residents were giving him calls back.

    “One type of person is older and they have been thinking about downsizing anyway,” he said. “Like sometime in the next five to 10 years.”

    Most of the lots up for sale are in the Sagamore neighborhood in Superior. Those are starting at $300,000. A property on West Enclave Circle in Louisville was listed for $799,000 on Zillow Thursday.

    “I could see a house on that lot selling for $3 million, three years from now,” said Janis.

  22. “As interest rates climb, what people can afford will go down, said Leo Bourgeault, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker in Saco. ‘Instead of a $400,000 house, they’re going to have to buy a $300,000 house, which you can’t find,’ he said.”

    Does it ever occur to these realtors that today’s $400k house will be tomorrow’s $300k house, and that his commission will also be reduced accordingly?

  23. Anecdotal: I am posting from elevation 11,500 feet, while wearing *snowshoes* because people with mortgages can’t do that.

    They can’t even afford to buy gas to drive to the trailhead (I left Dumver at 4:30 this morning and started hiking at 6:30) because they are BROKE, BROKE, BROKE.

    Loanowners are BROKE, the closest they’ll ever get to climbing a mountain is watching it on YouTube.

    Pics for Jeff on tomorrow’s thread…

    1. “Pics for Jeff on tomorrow’s thread…”

      Looing forward to it and sending a shoutout to Beau the famous “how did you get that dog up there” mountain climbing Canine and hoping he is enjoying his retirement years.

    2. Yes, but they somehow still find the time and money to wait in the Starbuck’s (morning) and Ronnie Mac’s (evening) drive through lines everyday for their nourishment, while idling in leased SUVs. The goyims are very obedient! Well, most are anyway.

      1. The truth is that few of them see mountain climbing as something that would be fun. Being loanowners doesn’t seem to stop them from buying expensive cars or taking pricey vacations; though they might be using home equity to fund those endeavors. We remember what happened the last time the bubble popped.

        1. Considering how little actual money it takes to drive a new BMW/Mercedes/Range Rover/Yuppiemobile, they’re not really a status symbol anymore.

          1. I looked at the local BMW dealer online. A mere 3 Series costs $50K+. Even if you lease it, it will probably set you back $500 a month, if not more.

          2. The real costs in owning one of those Euro trash cars is once they rack up 100,000 miles. About that time the transmission goes out, and you realize it will cost $8,000 to fix off warranty. There’s so much plastic junk in a BMW and it all starts to fall apart after a few years. That’s the reason their resale value craters to 15% after only 5 years. Absolute money pits. This is why if you have to drive one, lease it and get a new one every 3 years.

          3. This is why if you have to drive one …

            Does anyone “have” to drive one?

            And I agree that driving one impresses few these days. And the cost of ownership, especially if serial leases are involved, can really add up.

            Not having a monthly nut on a car that isn’t going to fall apart on you: priceless.

            It makes you wonder how it is that the Koreans can make a car that will run trouble free for many years, but the mighty Germans can’t.

        2. “We remember what happened the last time the bubble popped.”

          Ah yes, back when banks were figuring out how to repossess breast enlargements.

  24. “To put that number into perspective, 2021 saw the addition of more $1-million cities than the past six years combined, and triple the number added in 2020.”

    Never forget Herbert Stein’s Law:

    ‘If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.’

  25. “Let’s say you can afford $2,000 a month in principal and interest on a mortgage. If you started looking at homes before Christmas, when the 30-year mortgage was around 3%, you could have borrowed about $474,400 to get a $2,000 monthly payment. But with a mortgage rate of 4%, you could get a $418,900 loan with that same $2,000 a month in principal and interest. That’s a reduction in affordability of about $55,500.”

    It’s great to see the MSM has picked up on the mortgage maths tutorial I occasionally post here.

    1. It’s obvious, but worth mentioning, that a reduction in affordability of $55,500 off a
      $474,400 base suggests a loss approaching 12%. And this has already happened before the Fed has gone beyond talking about removing the punchbowl.

      Small wonder home sales have dried up, as sellers didn’t get the memo about demand falling off a cliff. Got CR8R?

      1. “ suggests a loss approaching 12%”

        Everyone one put down 20%, so we’re good. But seriously, now they can’t sell without scrounging loose change from the sofa, can’t refi, can’t take a job elsewhere since they can’t sell, and are simply stucco. Until all hope is lost and they start defaulting en masse, here we are. Gridlock.

        1. I couldn’t agree more with your post. I hope all the recent savvy buyers enjoy their home debtors’ prisons.

    2. Being a “How-Much-A-Month” total failure at life sounds so depressing. It’s like a pre-packaged consumption plan for un-imaginative retards with too much money.

      See also: Aurora, Colorado.

      1. Too much borrowed money.

        See also: all of Adams County.

        The place where all those cash out refis only went bad. The “Inland Empire” of Colorado. Where all those carjackings, those vehicle thefts, burglaries happen.

        As long as it all stays “down there” and not up here in Larimer County, right?

        America isn’t a country, it’s a game.

    1. The Financial Times
      Gold
      Gold outperforms stocks and bonds as traders seek haven assets
      Rise fuelled by Russia-Ukraine tensions and concern that higher US rates could slow growth
      Workers pour gold from a crucible into a mould at a refinery smelter in Sydney, Australia
      The metal, used by investors as a store of value in times of stress, has climbed more than 5% this month and rose above $1,900 a troy ounce on Friday
      © David Gray/Bloomberg
      Neil Hume, Natural Resources Editor 4 hours ago

      Gold has made a positive start to the year, outperforming bonds and equities as skittish investors scour the market for safe places to park cash.

      The metal, used by investors as a store of value in times of stress, has climbed more than 5 per cent this month and broken above $1,900 a troy ounce on Friday before easing back to $1,888.

      The crisis in Ukraine has provided the impetus for the advance, although analysts reckon gold is also benefiting from concerns that US growth could slow as the Federal Reserve is forced to act aggressively to get inflation under control.

      “The potential for a [inflation-induced] monetary policy error and elevated recession risks are providing support,” said Citigroup analyst Aakash Doshi, who thinks the yellow metal could hit $1,950 over the next three months.

      Others are more bullish. Goldman Sachs believes gold could top its August 2020 record of above $2,000.
      …

    1. Size of mortgage covered by $3,000 monthly payment:
      4 years ago: $600k
      3 years ago: $600k
      2 years ago: $670k
      1 year ago : $730k
      Today : $640k

      https://mobile.twitter.com/JohnArnoldFndtn/status/1494708951857967114

      Danielle DiMartino Booth

      ‘The sheer magnitude of apartments under construction gives new meaning to “supply shock” which is coming just in time to collide with the Game Over moment in U.S. CRE as we’ve written extensively’

      https://mobile.twitter.com/DiMartinoBooth/status/1494681249251794945

      2. “$3,000 monthly payment:
        …
        Today : $640k”

        Our rent on a 4br home in San Diego, recently identified as the most overpriced market in the U.S., is just slightly more than that.

        But the Zestimate is $1.2+ million. And the Rent Zestimate is $3,900+.

        Small wonder Zillow lost their azz in the iBuy business.

  30. Something not mentioned much is the return to office impact on wallets. My company in the middle of LA wants workers back in the coming months. $7 a gallon is going to add a big hurt to those already over extended who won a house in the outer commuter areas. Those will be the first houses to see brown lawns.

      1. Yikes! I used to live in Irvington, I think my monthly pass was under $100 and that was a combo train and subway pass. But that was many years ago.

    2. FWIW, we were told at work that while offices are reopening, anyone who so desires can continue to work from home.

      I know that we have been having a devil of a time at attracting candidates and hiring them. I suspect the company is afraid of losing people.

    3. The problem for employers to get people to show up at the office is very easily solved: Reimburse their commuter expenses, just as air travel and out-of-town hotel stays have traditionally been reimbursed.

      Good luck to the employers who don’t catch on.

      2. But Professor…how do you compensate them for a 3 hour a day commute? if you take a train most people need a spare old car to leave at the station” which means another added expense.. and the cost of a parking space at the station……

  31. “The poll found that that 57% of voters in competitive congressional districts agree with the statement, “Democrats in Congress have taken things too far in their pandemic response,” and 66% of self-defined “swing” voters in competitive districts agree with that statement … The poll also did not define what “taken things too far” means.

    https://www.sfgate.com/national-politics/article/Democrats-polling-reveals-COVID-warning-16927032.php

  33. Microwave Energy Weapons Deployed Against Canberra Freedom Convoy

    by Jamie White
    February 19th 2022, 1:06 pm

    Australian police have been deploying directed energy weapons (DEWs) against the peaceful Freedom Convoy protesters around the capital, according to reports.

    Disturbing videos and photos circulating social media show Canberra protesters, including women and children, who appear to have been badly burned by directed microwave energy weapons, with blisters on their faces, arms, and torsos.

    One protester captured footage of a DEW retrofitted onto the top of an incognito law enforcement vehicle before it sped away.

    https://www.infowars.com/posts/microwave-energy-weapons-deployed-against-canberra-freedom-convoy/

      1. From all of the research I’ve done in the last 6 years since I’ve unplugged from MSM, I’ve come to the conclusion that Nazism was never defeated. It went underground and dispersed with the help of the Luciferian brotherhood and programs like Operation Paperclip. History Channel’s Hunting Hitler documents some of the dispersion using declassified FBI files.

        1. Except that now the Nazi’s hate white people.

          But I agree with you that demonic forces are behind what is happening around the globe.

          1. hate white people

            They simply hate people. They want to make you hate your neighbors, in any way possible.

        2. 👍🏻 See Antarctica. Doubt we’ll ever find out why all the pilgrimages by prominent figures years ago. Nazis? Aliens? Nazi aliens? 🧐

          What did Buzz Aldrin mean and WHY did he delete this tweet?
          “We are all in danger. It is evil itself.” pic.twitter.com/tYb9IFCfZk
          — slone (@slone) December 7, 2016

          Love this stuff, but not as much I used to since it all started being real.

        3. the conclusion that ***ism was never defeated

          History is full of such things, going all the way back. The banner that evil flies doesn’t matter much. It always has to be removed in the same way.

          1. Well….. without splittin’ hairs….. the only good control freak in a position of authority(communist, etc) is a dead control freak in a horizontal position.

  34. After all these centuries of Western Civilization building the values it did, the Globalists want the opposite.

    Not only is the Globalists vision for the Globe not what the natural spirit of the human craves, they want to alter genes and introduce trans humanism.
    You would have to alter humans into drone like slaves , not allowed any thoughts other than what these psychopathic Tyrants are planning.
    A small number of dangerous nuts planning the fate of over 7 billion , as if they were Gods that own the World and they define the fate of the humans.
    The people of the World should decide their own fate and these Hitler like control freaks that have done nothing but cause pain and suffering, death and destruction need to be eliminated once and for all.
    They are out in the open now, exposing the insanity of their plans, the extent of their corruption and infiltration of Governments .
    Look at Klaus Schwab, Bill Gates, Soros, Dr Fauci , and the Puppet Biden displaying their agenda, never voted for.
    They are parasites, fraudsters, looters, war mongers, mad hatter scientists, lawless masters of corruption, extortion, bribery and destruction. And the worse is they think they have the right to murder people , turn people into lab rat expierment pin cushions for their fake vaccines.
    They think they have the right to censorship of anything but their fraud and disinformation.
    Criminal Big Pharmacy product makers wanting to subject the World to Medical Tyranny by contrived Pandemics, ridiculous lockdowns and useless masks, and obstruction of cheap med cures for respiratory afflictions, that killed thousands.

    They are a underground cancer where the tumor is obvious now and must be cut out now. A temporary retreat on their part, after 2 years of their mayhem and damage isn’t enough. They can’t be allowed their next attack on the World.
    They will attack again , and rigging elections are no doubt part of the agenda.
    The intent is to destroy all Constitutional protections and democracies and bring on a One World Order Dictorship by the 1% and Monopoly Corporations.
    Private Party Corporation , Stakeholders , Money Changers and billionaires ruling the World, where they think they have the right to depopulation , and God knows what else they will do. The World is for them, not for the 71/2 billion .
    Sorry, I just woke up this morning wanting justice for all the victims of this takeover by something this sinister.

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