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Because Everyone Made The Same Bet Everyone’s Balance Sheet Starts Unraveling At The Same Time

A report from the Oregonian. “The Regional Multiple Listing Service’s January 2022 market action reports show that median sale prices, while still high, have dropped from 2021 peaks everywhere in the region except Clark County in southwest Washington. The average asking prices in the Portland area have also appeared to have crested. Home shoppers eager to buy will hold price growth above its longterm average this year, predicts Matthew Gardner chief economist for Windermere Real Estate, but ‘the rampant pace of price growth that markets across the country experienced in 2021 was never going to continue forever.'”

The Real Deal on New York. “Help! An ex-Beatle needs somebody to … advise him on real estate. Paul McCartney and his wife recently sold their penthouse co-op unit at 1045 Fifth Avenue for $8.5 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The sale price is barely half of the $15.5 million the couple bought it for in 2015.”

From Mansion Global on New York. “One Seaport was one of a handful of condo skyscrapers conceived in the mid 2010s, when the Manhattan condo market was booming. They were designed to bring a taste of Billionaires’ Row to lower Manhattan. Supertall and slimline, they were bold and architecturally significant with prices to rival those uptown. Nearly a decade later, many of these plans were dropped or stalled, thanks in large part to a subsequent decline in the New York luxury market and, in some cases, construction difficulties and developer infighting. Here’s a look at some of the projects that remain in limbo.”

“To walk past 125 Greenwich Street these days, one might be forgiven for thinking that the building is complete. Look a little closer and it is clear that the shiny glass facade of the 912-foot-tall skyscraper hides an empty, unfinished shell of an interior. ‘[The construction] took a little bit longer than we expected and we sort of missed the window,’ said Michael J. Campbell, chief executive of Carlton Group. The sales push wasn’t successful. In July 2019, United Overseas Bank filed to foreclose against the developers alleging that they had breached the terms of the deal and owed roughly $200 million in unpaid loans. Fortress Investment Group has since purchased the debt and inherited the right to the foreclosure suit. A spokesman for Fortress declined to comment.”

“Mr. Campbell said he and his partners expect all their collective equity to be wiped out in a foreclosure. Meanwhile, the building sits empty. ‘It just needs a new parent,’ Mr. Campbell said.”

From Heavy. “Another reality star is getting her own HGTV series. Kim Wolfe will star in the upcoming new series, ‘Why the Heck Did I Buy This House?’ It is set to premiere on Wednesday, March 30, 2022. According to a press release, the San Antonio-based designer ‘will come to the rescue of homeowners who have major buyer’s remorse.”

The San Francisco Chronicle in California. “San Francisco was particularly vulnerable when everything shut down in March 2020. Our biggest industry was tourism. We were riding a tech boom. Everybody wanted to live here, we were told. All that’s changed, and maybe forever. All those big glass towers. Even the venerable skyscrapers along Montgomery Street. Almost empty.”

From The Sun. “From half-built stadiums and crumbling skyscrapers to eerie abandoned theme parks, China is littered with decaying buildings and half-finished projects.Thousands of constructions schemes have screeched to a halt as its feared the country’s property boom is about to collapse. For years, property firms in China have been given free reign to borrow obscene amounts of cash from the banks in the race to build bigger and better. Chilling pictures show the abandoned and sometimes half finished structures which have been left to rot as companies go belly up.”

“Michael Pettis, professor of finance at Peking University, said everyone in China, including developers, had ‘made the same bet’ on exponentially rising property prices. ‘The problem of course is if property prices ever stop rising, because everyone has made the same bet everyone’s balance sheet starts unravelling at the same time, and it immediately becomes a systemic problem. That is what has happened in China.'”

“Dr Marco Metzler from Deutsche Marktscreening Agentur warned the collapse of the company could spark the crash of the world financial market. He told the Express: ‘This is the first domino of the collapse of the market. It will be even worse than the 2008 financial crash. The market is bigger than what the US was.'”

The Globe and Mail in Canada. “New census data released last week has shone a brighter light on the question of whether the high price of housing is simply the result of a lack of housing supply. ‘If you don’t diagnose the problem correctly, you end up with the wrong solution. The census data provide concrete evidence that the insufficient supply argument is incorrect, and has been overhyped, including this week with the release of the report from the Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force,’ says Steve Pomeroy, an urban planner who has 38 years of housing research behind him. ‘I believe that demand factors are the larger culprit – the combination of strong income growth and very low interest rates substantially improve borrowing capacity and are augmented by accumulated equity in current homes. And three-quarters of buyers are existing owners.'”

From Better Dwelling. “The call is coming from inside the House. Canadian real estate is significantly overvalued, according to the government’s own research. The report concludes real estate prices grew far more than income and credit. By their calculations, some markets are now over 50% overvalued with many more just under that. Language is also worth diving into a little further. The PBO uses the term ‘above affordable levels’ instead of ‘overvalued.’ It’s an IMF model, and the term overvalued is an objective and non-political term, so that’s what we use.”

“The PBO is non-partisan but still plays politics like other government agencies. Canada measures the same data points as other countries, but often softens the language. This results in Canada having unique and industry-friendly lingo that’s inconsistent with more direct international terms.”

“For example, Canada doesn’t have ‘vacant’ homes but homes ‘not occupied by a usual resident.’ Foreign buyers are a myth, but non-resident purchasers of housing exist. Money launderers are probably now referred to as global liability reduction money managers. We stick to the international and objective terms used by the agency. Sorry, eh.”

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This Post Has 124 Comments

  1. ‘median sale prices, while still high, have dropped from 2021 peaks everywhere in the region except Clark County in southwest Washington. The average asking prices in the Portland area have also appeared to have crested’

    Wa? Say it ain’t so!

    ‘the rampant pace of price growth that markets across the country experienced in 2021 was never going to continue forever’

    Well now you tell us Matt. Cuz you never mentioned that before.

    1. Just had friends sell a house in corvallis Oregon and they got 80 thousand over asking. It keeps going, at some point it’s has to stop and reverse. What will cause it? Interest rate increase, energy costs, no more buyers.

      1. Appraisal fraud and defective mortgages have that effect.

        Portland, OR Housing Prices Crater 22% As US Homeowners Slip Deeper Underwater

        https://www.movoto.com/or/97214/market-trends/

        As one national broker explained, “Remember folks… current asking prices of resale housing is 350% higher than long term trend and double construction costs. Now prices are falling.”

      2. So he posts that prices have started falling and you show up with “$80k over asking.” Are you a REALTWHORE?

        2. over asking

          Can still happen even when averages are falling. A house sold in my family last week. The offer was over asking, just a little.

  2. ‘Dr Marco Metzler from Deutsche Marktscreening Agentur warned the collapse of the company could spark the crash of the world financial market. He told the Express: ‘This is the first domino of the collapse of the market. It will be even worse than the 2008 financial crash. The market is bigger than what the US was’

    Several years ago I posted a report, from South Africa IIRC, that stated 100% of global GDP growth was due to China. If they could blame the entire global wipe out last decade on US subprime, isn’t this China collapse much worse?

    I want to note Metzler was the guy who made a key point a few months ago when the globalist scum media was covering up for the chicoms: the reports would say, ‘Evergrande made a last minute payment, hurray!’ He would just say, no they didn’t.

    Here today, who was telling the truth?

    1. Have you noticed that every time there’s one of these meltdowns, the moneyed special interests get even wealthier as they accumulate a higher percentage of all assets? Gee, it’s almost like it’s planned.

  3. ‘Everybody wanted to live here, we were told’

    Every bubble area is a fantastic, gleaming place til the bubble pops and they look around and say, what a sh$thole SF is. Speaking of:

    ‘Mr. Campbell said he and his partners expect all their collective equity to be wiped out in a foreclosure. Meanwhile, the building sits empty’

    So this is so-called ‘billionaires row’. Ex billionaires maybe. Oh the safe deposit box in the sky! REIC doesn’t mention that anymore.

    I watched a fascinating video on it recently. It’s just a few buildings. What they have in common besides architectural oddities is they were basically not built to live in. These were pure mania riding vehicles, and as such, the prices were purposefully insane. All the more to park yer ‘wealth’!

    ‘all their collective equity to be wiped out in a foreclosure’

    1. ‘penthouse co-op unit at 1045 Fifth Avenue for $8.5 million…The sale price is barely half of the $15.5 million the couple bought it for in 2015’

      UHS don’t talk about it much but NYC peaked in 2016 and has been sinking like a turd in a well since. Paul took an yuuuge a$$pounding along with the others.

    2. So this is so-called ‘billionaires row’. Ex billionaires maybe.
      Back around 2010 or 2011 my boss joked that he “used to live in a Million dollar house.”

    3. Land prices are delusional right now. I was reading somewhere lately where some celebrity type – maybe Tom Brady – paid like $30 million or something for a scraper in Florida, a couple acres, so they could build.

  4. ‘Another reality star is getting her own HGTV series. Kim Wolfe will star in the upcoming new series, ‘Why the Heck Did I Buy This House?’

    Interesting.

  5. Dozens of banks had rejected Ann Marie and Dan Ellis when they opened Bank of America Corp. checking accounts last February to fund their southern Arizona network of automated teller machines.

    In April, the bank closed the accounts. Their money—used to fund around $450,000 in weekly customer withdrawals—was frozen. Branch managers told them to call the bank’s risk and fraud department.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/gas-station-atms-are-a-banking-battleground-11645266781

    I’ve played enough”oldies” and classic rock for 5 lifetimes, I would love to see Billie Eilish in concert.
    https://www.brooklynvegan.com/billie-eilish-made-a-triumphant-madison-square-garden-debut-review-videos

  7. Sponsored content article provided by the National Association of Realtors:

    “Ultimately, two people bid for the house using unlimited escalation clauses — a tool that allows a buyer to outbid any given offer. One such clause in a sale is rare. Two is virtually unheard of. Both went well over $100,000 of the asking price.

    “We are probably the last ilk in the city to be able to buy a starter home and then trade up, so to speak, like we did. There’s no way we would have been able to buy our new house if we hadn’t have bought our old house,” he said. “It’s the game you got to play.”

    https://denverite.com/2022/02/15/this-millennial-couple-with-a-pandemic-baby-decided-to-sell-their-chaffee-park-starter-home-and-buy-a-bigger-place-in-montclair-they-were-gobsmacked-by-the-process/

    “the game you got to play”

    How about no?

    2. I recently started hearing about “best and final offer” ploy, where a seller receives multiple offers, then creates one additional round of raising the ante by telling bidders that he has multiple offers and wants to see your “best and final offer”.

      It’s quite remarkable.

  8. The Globe and Mail in Canada. “New census data released last week has shone a brighter light on the question of whether the high price of housing is simply the result of a lack of housing supply. ‘If you don’t diagnose the problem correctly, you end up with the wrong solution. The census data provide concrete evidence that the insufficient supply argument is incorrect, and has been overhyped, including this week with the release of the report from the Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force,’ says Steve Pomeroy, an urban planner who has 38 years of housing research behind him. ‘I believe that demand factors are the larger culprit – the combination of strong income growth and very low interest rates substantially improve borrowing capacity and are augmented by accumulated equity in current homes. And three-quarters of buyers are existing owners.’”

    From Better Dwelling. “The call is coming from inside the House. Canadian real estate is significantly overvalued, according to the government’s own research. The report concludes real estate prices grew far more than income and credit. By their calculations, some markets are now over 50% overvalued with many more just under that. Language is also worth diving into a little further. The PBO uses the term ‘above affordable levels’ instead of ‘overvalued.’ It’s an IMF model, and the term overvalued is an objective and non-political term, so that’s what we use.”

    https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN1LR2AV
    Tue Sep 11, 2018 / 2:56 PM EDT

    Breakingviews – Chancellor: The mother of all speculative bubbles
    Edward Chancellor

    LONDON (Reuters Breakingviews) – In 1776, English man of letters Horace Walpole observed a “rage of building everywhere”. At the time, the yield on English government bonds, known as Consols, had fallen sharply and mortgages could be had at 3.5 percent. In the “Wealth of Nations”, published that year, Adam Smith observed that the recent decline in interest had pushed up land prices: “When interest was at ten percent, land was commonly sold for ten or twelve years’ purchase. As the interest rate sunk to six, five and four percent, the purchase of land rose to twenty, five-and-twenty, and thirty years’ purchase.” [i.e. the yield on land fell from 10 percent to 3.3 percent].

    Smith explains why: “the ordinary price of land … depends everywhere upon the ordinary market rate of interest.” That’s because the interest rate discounts and places a capital value on future income. All the great speculative bubbles in the past – from the tulip mania of the 1630s through to the global credit bonanza of the last decade, have occurred at times when interest rates were abnormally low.

    The trouble is that after the Lehman Brothers collapse, central bankers refused to accept this fact. The position of Ben Bernanke’s Federal Reserve was that the real-estate bubble was caused by lax regulation rather than his predecessor Alan Greenspan’s easy money. If this were true, then taking short-term rates down to their lowest level in history – to zero in the United States and negative in Europe and Japan – was sensible. But if Smith was correct, then monetary policy in the wake of Lehman’s bust was a case of the hair of the dog.

    “ Like a dog that returns to his vomit
    is a fool who repeats his folly.” – Proverbs 26:11 ESV

    “That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.” – Aldous Huxley

    “What’s past is prologue.” – William Shakespeare, The Tempest

    “What has been will be again,
    what has been done will be done again;” – Ecclesiastes 1: 9

    “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana

  9. OMG – some of us were fooled by the hype. The salesforce tower, all the new condo building for workers in lower in the bay, all the tech industry moving to mainline SanFran. Even if there was human poop in the main square, they were talking about the economy of the future blah, blah blah ….
    It was still tourism (and the $20/hr jobs) that drive the economy. And they got to continue the fairytale – and keep up the narrative – or they will really go down. Who wants to go to San Fran for holiday, ride the cablecar, eat in China town and have refreshing microbeers.

    Warren Buffett had the best visual – when the tide goes out, you see who is naked.


    But through it all, the essence of the city remained. It still is a place that has grand opera, a parklet restaurant that looks like a Lisbon tramcar, another one that offers Japanese Peruvian cuisine, has a landmark like the Castro Theatre, dozens of little libraries on neighborhood street corners, and people who care about the city.

    The trick, of course, is to keep what makes San Francisco special. Right now, I think is a special time in this effort, especially because everything has shifted. The people who gave up on the city seem to have already moved out, and those of us who are left look like they will stick with San Francisco.
    —
    “San Francisco was particularly vulnerable when everything shut down in March 2020. Our biggest industry was tourism. We were riding a tech boom. Everybody wanted to live here, we were told. All that’s changed, and maybe forever. All those big glass towers. Even the venerable skyscrapers along Montgomery Street. Almost empty.”

    1. The salesforce tower

      While some of Silicon Valleys icons moved away, to, gasp, Texas of all places!

      Oracle announced that it was moving its annual OpenWorld convention to Las Vegas well before the pandemic hit. Why? Because attendees were complaining about the homeless and the human excrement, and how they felt unsafe in San Francisco.

  10. US Agencies Quietly Studying Reports of Post-Vaccination Neurological Issues

    ‘Nath and Safavi also grew distant as 2021 wore on. They eventually stopped examining patients. Nath urged Dressen to stop referring people to him, telling her that “we do not have any clinical trial for … vaccine related complications.”

    ‘Dressen responded in January that she will “always be indebted to you and what you did for me,” crediting Nath, alongside her husband, with keeping her alive. However, she added, her “heart is shattered.”

    “I am more confused now than ever about what my active and willing engagement in the scientific process actually meant, or has led to,” she wrote. “This will be the last email I send.”

    “Looking back on this, I can see how unethical it was even when they were helping us,” Dressen told The Epoch Times.’

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/us-agencies-quietly-studying-reports-of-post-vaccination-neurological-issues_4262395.html

    1. ‘we do not have any clinical trial for … vaccine related complications’

      This is a strange thing to say. You didn’t have any trial for the death injection but you went ahead. Just how do you have a trial for something you insisted didn’t or couldn’t exist? I have doubts about the CCP virus existing.

      The crimes against humanity will all come out. There’s nothing to stop it and it’s too large to cover up or ignore.

    2. All the money that was looted by Big Pharmacy, Bill Gates , Monopoly Corporations, etc. over this pre planned criminal unjustified and fraudulent Pandemic, need to be taken back for the victims of these medical crimes. Criminals should not prosper from crimes and a collusionary defrauding of the public by censorship news.

      Now you know why they rigged the election in 2020, with their pre planned Pandemic , perfectly timed to advance their crimes against humanity .

      Allowing these Psychopaths any more murderous crime and parasite looting of tax coffers and destruction of current systems cannot be allowed.

      Since the Governments have been infiltrated and corrupted into advancing the agenda of these criminals , the people can’t comply with Governments overtaken by criminal Private Parties.
      Your a Nazi if you want freedom. Isn’t this the double speak outlined in the book 1984. War is peace, tyranny is freedom, black is white etc.
      This enemy uses all the tactics of Hitler, and 1984, , and all the villains of history, and the Rockerfeller model of Monopoly control.
      They want to get rid of words to erase the ability to think. They want to erase history and replace it with fraud. Like in 1984, they just want one big screen fake narrative daily brainwashing .
      Hard to believe this is happening, but these monsters are definitely making their move against the World.

  11. California SB-866 Minors: vaccine consent.
    This bill would additionally authorize a minor 12 years of age or older to consent to vaccines that meet specified federal agency criteria.

    https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB866

    Introduced by Senators Wiener and Pan
    (Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Wicks)
    (Coauthor: Senator Newman)
    (Coauthors: Assembly Members Aguiar-Curry, Friedman, Low, Ting, and Akilah Weber)

    Do any of these officials have 24/7 security details?

    Asking for a California parent.

  12. – Is the U.S. becoming more like Bedford Falls, or Pottersville? (rhetorical)

    – You will own nothing and iike it!

    – Not to worry though, because Congress and Brandon are diligently working on the major problems we face, such as climate change, and the Fed is doing “all they can” too!

    https://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/news/2022/02/17/investors-market-share-2021.html?utm_source=st
    Investors gain market share at close of 2021, buying $50B worth of homes

    By Ashley Fahey – Editor, The National Observer: Real Estate Edition,
    Feb 17, 2022, 10:04am EST

    Investors continued to snap up homes at a record rate at the end of 2021, buying $49.9 billion in homes in the last three months of 2021 alone.

    In total, investors — which includes anyone from so-called mom-and-pop, part-time landlords to private equity giants — made up a full 18.4% of home sales in the fourth quarter, which is a record, according to Seattle-based Redfin Corp. (NASDAQ: RDFN).

    Though not solely responsible for today’s ultra-competitive housing market, the growing dominance of cash-heavy investors in Q4 is making buying a house more challenging.

  13. Intelligence analysts believe the “Zs” painted on Russian tanks massed at the Ukraine border are code for “Realtors are liars.”

    Russian armoured tanks painted with a letter ‘Z’ move towards Ukraine border in huge convoys and eastern region is rocked by shelling as British expats vow to ‘fight like devils’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10532343/British-expats-vow-fight-like-devils-Russian-armoured-tanks-painted-letter-Z.html

    A Russian invasion force of armoured tanks painted with a letter ‘Z’ and huge convoys were seen rolling towards the Ukraine border – as the eastern region continues to be rocked by shelling and British expats have vowed to ‘fight like devils’.

    Around 200 military vehicles were spotted in Shebekino, Russia, just across the border from Ukraine’s Kharkiv Oblast, with ‘Z’ markings ‘applied hastily’ to the backs of most vehicles.

  14. Maybe its high time that the special snowflakes start taking an active interest in how the Fed & its private equity accomplices are shafting them.

    Rent prices reach ‘insane’ levels across U.S. with no end in sight

    https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/rent-prices-reach-insane-levels-across-u-s-with-no-end-in-sight/

    Krystal Guerra’s Miami apartment has a tiny kitchen, cracked tiles, warped cabinets, no dishwasher and hardly any storage space.

    But Guerra was fine with the apartment’s shortcomings. It was all part of being a 32-year-old graduate student in South Florida, she reasoned, and she was happy to live there for a few more years as she finished her marketing degree.

    That was until a new owner bought the property and told her he was raising the rent from $1,550 to $1,950, a 26% increase that Guerra said meant her rent would account for the majority of her take-home pay from the University of Miami.

  16. Consider yourselves warned.

    Bill Gates says Covid risks have ‘dramatically reduced’ but another pandemic is coming

    https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/18/bill-gates-covid-risks-have-reduced-but-another-pandemic-will-come.html

    Bill Gates said Friday that the risks of severe disease from Covid-19 have “dramatically reduced” but another pandemic is all but certain.

    Speaking to CNBC’s Hadley Gamble at Germany’s annual Munich Security Conference, Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said that a potential new pandemic would likely stem from a different pathogen to that of the coronavirus family.

    1. And what Pathogen could the man that makes billions off of vaccines be predicting.?

      Ok, so Gates has said words to the effect that terrorists could release small box at airports. He has also stated that the next Pandemic could be worst than Covid.

      These criminal fraudsters need to be arrested before they unleash some new Pandemic on the Globe , either faked or real.
      Historically global Pandemics didn’t happen that often. It was 100 years from the Spanish flu to Covid.
      So, while medical Science takes credit for the eradication of many a disease, Gates is saying Pandemics are coming. So, they have changed the definition of a Pandemic to a disease that is lethal to under .50 of population , mostly the elderly over 75 with co morbidities. Not a justified Pandemic or grounds for mass vaccination of the globe, destructive lockdowns and useless masks. Oh,just because Corporate owned censorship news hyped it into a Pandemic, while obstructing cheap medical cures , that ended up killing thousands so they could bring on their failure vaccines.
      These gangster criminals who infiltrated protective agencies and Governments need to be stopped before they try some even more sinister attack.
      If they get away with the last 2 years of their assault on the World, they will only get worst.
      I dont really think its that easy to start a Pandemic or a flu or bacterium, or even a toxin is limited. Maybe they could release infected insects or mosquitos, who knows.
      I don’t even believe this bat flu was released in China and it was just one big false flag play act.
      I don’t know if they could fake Ebola because the symptoms are bleeding.
      If Covid was real they wouldn’t of needed fake tests and bribes to hospitals to up the Covid counts.
      Anyway, when Bill Gates talks he reveals that he is a force of evil in the world , a true psychopath.

      1. HIV/AIDS/VAIDS is the next one. If you got the poke you’ll test positive. The media is starting to prep for an AIDS crisis for heterosexuals. AIDS that was given to them by el jabbo.

        1. Because the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein of the virus and the jabs has 4 HIV inserts, antibodies to the spike protein may cross-react with HIV antibody tests. HIV will likely be blamed when people develop VAIDS. Coincidentally (or not), a number of HIV/AIDS experts have died in the last few years.

  17. How’s that “Build Back Better” working out for ya?

    Whip It! US Misery Index Highest In Modern History As Energy, Food And Building Material Prices SOAR (Flexible CPI Overwhelms Declining Unemployment Rate)

    https://confoundedinterest.net/2022/02/20/whip-it-us-misery-index-highest-in-modern-history-as-energy-food-and-building-material-prices-soar-flexible-cpi-overwhelms-declining-unemployment-rate/

    It is truly a miserable time for many Americans as demonstrated by the Misery Index (inflation rate + unemployment rate). But rather than using the CPI YoY measure at 7.5%, I am using the FLEXIBLE CPI YoY to compute the misery index. And is it ever miserable!

    In January, the CORE flexible CPI YoY + U-3 unemployment rate hit a modern high at 22.99%. Or at least since 1967.

    1. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ppi.pdf

      Check out intermediate producer cost increases in the middle of the document. It’s been running at 30-50% for the last year. The headline inflation the media likes to report is about 1/5th of that. Inflation is officially out of control.

      Sure looks like an inflection point where the Fed actually follows through with tightening and crashes the everything bubble or inflation rages and destroys everything in its path. Deflation or inflation. Take your pick but it’s looking it’s one or the other.

      3. I am trying hard to understand. Can you explain a little bit more about what you are seeing in this report? [unfortunately, i dont think that i am reading this correctly]

        The index for unprocessed goods for intermediate demand declined 2.0 percent in January after falling 4.8 percent in December. Most of the January decrease is
        attributable to prices for unprocessed energy materials, which dropped 4.7 percent.
        —
        For the 12 months ended in January, the index
        for services for intermediate demand advanced 7.3 percent.

  18. Headline from The Atlantic:

    Mask Mandates Don’t Need to Make Sense

    We don’t need no stinkin’ logic.

  19. Facing the specter of WWIII with this clueless diversity hire as 2nd in Command is enough to make me run screaming into the night.

    Kamala says U.S. must ‘put ourselves out there’ to help divert Russian war following meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky in Germany and VP admits there will be ‘some costs’ associated with involvement and says diplomatic path is ‘narrowing’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10532711/We-divert-war-Kamala-admits-costs-US.html

    Kamala Harris told reporters Sunday that the U.S. may face ‘some costs’ associated with involvement in Europe should Russia invade Ukraine, which she claims is all but certain.

    When asked before departing Germany for the U.S. if Americans should be braced for economic fallout from involvement, the vice president said ‘sure.’

    1. Triple-jabbed Queen, 95, could have a headache and runny nose

      So, in other words, no symptoms. Could her test be a false positive and there is nothing wrong with her? She probably gets tested every day, so the chances of a false positive are not trivial.

      1. Other news reports say she’s having mild symptoms. I think the “could” is an English literary device which means “yes, we know that the queen has symptoms” (but they would have been worse without the jabs.)”

      1. Un-possible. All the ads on TeeVee show that mixed-race couples where the guy is black & the wife/girlfriend are white are blissfully happy together in their upper-middle class surroundings.

  23. If war breaks out in Ukraine, it might be awkward for the globalist Quislings in London to explain why they sold off so much prime London real estate to Russian oligarchs.

    UK ‘weakening threat to Kremlin by failing to close property loophole’

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/feb/20/uk-weakening-threat-to-kremlin-by-failing-to-close-property-loophole

    Britain has frustrated its EU allies and weakened the west’s financial threat to the Kremlin by failing to close a loophole that will ensure London real estate remains a safe haven for Russian money, according to diplomatic sources in Brussels.

    New legislation, described as the “toughest ever” by the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, gives the UK government powers to freeze the assets of individuals linked to the Russian state in the event of an invasion of Ukraine but fails to “capture” property owned via anonymous offshore structures.

  24. Ottawa Police Chief: Protesters Will Be Hunted Down and Punished Even If They ‘Retreat And Go Home’

    by Jamie White
    February 20th 2022, 11:14 am

    Ottawa’s interim police chief Steve Bell warned that police would continue to “actively identify” and prosecute anyone involved in the Freedom Convoy – even if they disperse and go home – “for months to come.”

    “If you are involved in this protest, we will actively look to identify you and follow up with financial sanctions and criminal charges,” Bell asserted on Saturday.

    Ottawa police update on operations in the capital | Freedom Convoy protests Canada

    Feb 19, 2022

    https://youtu.be/ukijigH6vEE?t=1095

      1. “Fire in the heart of this Canadian”

        That’s one of those racist Nazi protesters Justin Trudeau has been talking about.

    2. Kinda like the FBI going to the ends of the earth to hunt down all the J6 protestors, while giving the BLM-Antifa rioters the kid-glove treatment and completely disregarding their corporate and oligarch sponsors.

    4. “Ottawa Police Chief: Protesters Will Be Hunted Down…”

      The beatings will continue until morale improves!

  27. This is a urine soaked mattress article.

    “MSNBC Reporter Admits Many Democrat Voters Don’t Want Life To Go Back To Normal (2/20/2022):

    “A reporter for MSNBC recently admitted on the air that many Democrat voters are not ready for life to go back to normal, suggesting that many of them don’t even want it to.

    He actually says that Democrats view mask wearing as a sort of virtue signal …

    a recent Politico/Morning Consult poll showed a whopping 65% of Democrats who say it’s “too early to rescind mask mandates,” which is far more than the 43% of overall Americans, including just 20% of Republicans.”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/02/msnbc-reporter-admits-many-democrat-voters-dont-want-life-go-back-normal-video/

    Sounds like a Mass Formation Psychosis.

    1. China has 65 million apartments sitting empty in its ghost cities. We have 66 million Democrat-Bolsheviks who voted for Brandon, signifying their desire to live under Communism. This seems like a match made in heaven, and would enable us to offshore the most base elements of the population.

    2. That would be the fault of the CDC continuing to pretend that Omicron is Alpha/Delta. I’ve tried to challenge the commie snoflakes and all they can answer is that “we’re following the CDC guidance.”

      Unfortunately, MD is showing a tiny uptick in the charts. I really don’t want to be yanked in and out of masks again. Hope it’s just a statistical anomaly, or an artifact of testing.

      1. You can always refuse to wear a mask. People in my county have been mostly ignoring them, prior to the county removing the mandate.

      2. According to worldometers, Maryland had a mere 854 new cases yesterday, down from a high of almost 18,000. That is noise, especially when one considers that most of those case were no worse than a cold.

        Here in the Centennial state Boulder County was masked and Douglas County was not. They had nearly identical infection rates and curves. The masks made zero difference.

        Anyway, I think an article in The Atlantic summed up the Left’s attitude quite nicely: “Masking Rules Don’t Have To Make Sense.” In other words, you should wear one because you are told so, not because of “science”.

        1. I understand 🙂, but the problem is that MD is basing their restrictions on the old CDC thresholds for low-moderate-substantial-high-very high transmission. That system may have worked for Alpha/Delta, but for Omicron it’s overkill.

          The counties recognize this, but some stupider officials and businesses are still hooked on “muh CDC,” using it to push mask-forever and boost-forever policies, especially in schools. The sheeple libs are dutifully staying under the bed, waiting for the CDC to tell them it’s ok to go outside again.

          The only way this state is going to end is if the CDC updates its guidance. And the CDC doesn’t want to do that. When they do, they give up their power to push the vax. They would rather wait for their holy grail of “low transmission,” and with constant testing for Endemic Omicron, we might never get there.

          1. The only way this state is going to end is if the CDC updates its guidance.

            There is another way: people refuse to comply and just say “no”.

            I ran out to Safeway this morning to pick up a couple of things for tonight’s dinner. There was a sign that “recommended” wearing a mask if you’re unjabbed. I took that recommendation “under advisement” and filed it away.

        2. Everyone enjoy your Floriduh jokes but I haven’t worn a mask many months.

          It’s a different country here. Ask Sandy.

          1. It’s a different country here.
            I was in Florida last weekend NO ONE had a mask on and I sure as H$ll didn’t see anyone driving alone in a car wearing a mask as I see in NC.

  28. Remember when Biden said US Border Patrol agents “will pay” for something it turned out they never did?

    I’m still waiting for his comments on the woman who was trampled and killed while she was peacefully protesting in Ottawa.

    By Steven Nelson, Callie Patteson and Bruce Golding
    September 24, 2021

    President Biden vowed Friday that US Border Patrol agents on horseback who tried to stop illegal Haitian immigrants from crossing the Rio Grande “will pay” — even though the photographer who captured the activity said his images had been “misconstrued” amid unfounded claims the reins were used as whips.

    https://nypost.com/2021/09/24/biden-says-border-agents-on-horses-will-pay-for-treatment-of-haitians/

    Who Was Roberta Paulsen And What Was Her Cause Of Death? Woman Trampled By Police Horse Ottawa
    By Amjad Khan -February 20, 2022

    The Vigilant Fox 🦊
    @VigilantFox
    Ottawa Police Horses Trample Protestors Increasing Tensions Between Protestors and Police

    https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1494808224008179714?s=20&t=2qBYUyGmpXHfCqocw–1_Q

      1. I watched that video a couple of times and they were not dispersing the crowd. They showed up all of a sudden to the side and just rode through 2 horses wide. They didn’t say anything. I didn’t know the lady with the walker died until today.

  29. ‘The problem of course is if property prices ever stop rising, because everyone has made the same bet everyone’s balance sheet starts unravelling at the same time, and it immediately becomes a systemic problem.

    China’s birthrate has plummeted as young couples can’t afford to have kids, giving the soaring cost of living. That seems to have captured Xi’s attention. Not Brandon’s, though.

    1. That seems to have captured Xi’s attention. Not Brandon’s, though.

      Unlike Brandon, Xi does not welcome third world vibrants as replacements for Han Chinese. If no more white babies are born in the US, that would be fine with Brandon and the Democrats. In fact, that does appear to be their ultimate goal.

      1. The globalists and their Quislings systematically marginalize white males, then clutch their pearls when the latter become radicalized into embracing “extremist” ideologies. Cause and effect, globalists.

    1. AOC skips coach, flies first class back from Texas

      I would have expected her to charter a Gulfstream. Flying commercial, even first class, is for the little people.

    2. Federal travel rules are very strict with separate budget object codes for the coach ticket, luggage, parking, etc., so they must have a special deal for members of congress.

    1. “When a person decides to pick up a gun and use it to threaten, harm, and take away another person’s life, it doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It sends shockwaves across our entire community,” said District Attorney Mike Schmidt. “As your District Attorney, I remain committed to holding perpetrators of violence accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

      Translation- the homeowner is going to jail for a long time. The others, not so much.

      2. Maybe the homeowner could use the Alec Baldwin defense – the gun just went off on its own volition. Although I’ve been handling guns since my early teens, and never once known that to be the case. But maybe firearms react differently in the hands of anti-gun Hollywood libtards.

      3. The Portland DA is another Soros plant, meaning he’ll throw the book at any armed citizen who interferes with the Soros scum in the performance of their assigned missions.

    2. 9 shots, 1 dead, five wounded.

      Must have been the NRA card carrying home owner doing the shooting.

      Some Antifa thug shooting with his gun sideways couldn’t hit sh!t.

  33. Oh dear. What if the Russian oligarchs who have been buying up all that high-end London real estate start getting their mansions seized? I fear this could have a negative impact on London shack prices.

    UK must deal with Russian money in the City, Johnson says

    https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-must-deal-with-russian-money-city-johnson-says-2022-02-20/

    LONDON, Feb 20 (Reuters) – Britain has an issue with Russian money funnelling through the City of London and it must be dealt with, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday.

    1. Ukraine, Russia crisis causes heavy impact on Americans financially
      Experts say if a war begins, there’s no telling what gas prices could rise to or when Americans could see relief.
      By Jaclyn Lee and 6abc Digital Staff
      Sunday, February 20, 2022 7:29PM

      PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The likely invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces is poised to have ripple effects not only in Europe but throughout the entire world, affecting Americans in their wallets.

      “It will change the energy equation for much of the world because Europe, for example, gets a lot of energy from Russia, a lot of fossil fuel energy from Russia,” said Lincoln Mitchell, a Columbia University research scholar. “If that changes, they’ll have to get it from somewhere else. That will drive prices up. We are already are having a problem with inflation.”

      And American consumers are already battling rising prices at the pump.

      “I don’t even fill my tank up all the way, just fill up to whatever $30 give me,” said Kevin Frias of North Philadelphia.

      Gas prices are soaring to levels not seen in eight years, caused mostly by the situation in Eastern Europe.

      “We’re looking at tension, we’re looking at an imminent attack in an oil-producing region, and that is what will likely drive crude oil prices up even further,” said Jana Tidwell, AAA spokesperson.
      …

      1. “I don’t even fill my tank up all the way, just fill up to whatever $30 give me,”

        Does it matter how much he drives? Or how often he fills the tank?

    2. The Financial Times
      Opinion Markets Insight
      There is more to market volatility than Ukraine
      Investors need strong stomachs to deal with large swings in asset prices
      Mohamed El-Erian
      Tensions in Ukraine have contributed to volatile trading in markets
      © Reuters
      Mohamed El-Erian 2 hours ago

      The writer is president of Queens’ College, Cambridge, and an adviser to Allianz and Gramercy

      It is tempting to pin the recent volatility in markets only on the fluidity of the Russia-Ukraine situation.

      After all, every day we seem to get competing indications of a stand-off that confronts Europe with the highest possibility of an armed conflict with Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

      After an initial flurry of activity, markets settled into mostly trading the conflict within a range bounded by the hope of an eventual diplomatic resolution and the more protracted period of “no peace and no war”.

      This has accounted for most of the daily volatility in the main US stock indices in the past few weeks when we have seen swings of 0 to 1.5 per cent. The stronger moves occurred when markets sensed the possibility of a decisive move towards one of these bookends.

      After all, depending on which scenario is in play, the global economy would either benefit from a sharp reduction in commodity prices or, at the other end, deal with a major stagflationary shock.

      But this should not blind us to two important structural issues that will be with us for a while, almost regardless of how the conflict plays out.

      First, markets are losing the anchor of abundant and predictable liquidity provided by central banks. This unifying theme proved an extremely powerful driver to repress volatility, insulating markets from a wide range of worries while driving asset values higher.

      With a US Federal Reserve belatedly seeking to tackle high and persistent inflation, markets must now navigate a fundamental shift in their liquidity regime. This involves not only higher interest rates but also a contraction in the Fed’s $9tn balance sheet.

      Equity valuations may be more attractive than they were a few weeks ago but have not reached the level needed to constitute an obvious standalone and generalised investment case to buy stocks.

      This is not to say that markets are without anchors. Solid corporate earnings and behavioural conditioning of investors tempted to ‘buy the dip’ are still in play. But these are inherently less strong and highly sensitive to the Fed being able to deliver an economic soft-landing.

      The likelihood of this has been significantly undermined by the extent to which the Fed first mischaracterised inflation and then dithered in adjusting policies. Even today with 7.5 per cent consumer price inflation, the Fed is still injecting liquidity into the economy.

      I would estimate the probability of a comfortable soft landing for the economy and markets over the next 12 months at 10 per cent, well below three other macroeconomic scenarios.
      …

  36. ‘The problem of course is if property prices ever stop rising, because everyone has made the same bet everyone’s balance sheet starts unravelling at the same time, and it immediately becomes a systemic problem. That is what has happened in China.’

    Luckily that could never happen here, cause this is ‘Murica.

    1. In all seriousness, my ongoing decision to keep renting in SoCal puts me so far outside of the mainstream that I even have begun to question my own judgement.

      But looking at the numbers is telling: For the monthly we pay, a 4% mortgage could only fund a $680,000 home loan, which is over $500,000 less than what Zillow claims the place we live in is “worth”.
      And of course, this ignores all the other expenses of home ownership besides paying off the mortgage, such as taxes, insurance, HOA fees, landscaping and groundskeeping, maintenance and repairs, … the list of HODLing costs is endless!

      I’ll believe that San Diego home prices can keep trending skyward from present levels when I see it!

      1. my ongoing decision to keep renting in SoCal

        My landlady died last night. 😢 Her son, who lives locally, is an appraiser. 😬

  37. World Economic Forum’s “Young Global Leaders” Revealed

    by Admin
    February 8, 2022, 1:44 pm

    In 1992, Klaus Schwab and World Economic Forum launched a program initially called Global Leaders of Tomorrow. In 2004, this program was turned into the Forum for Young Global Leaders

    a 5-year program of indoctrination into WEFs principles and goals. The aim was – and is – to find suitable future leaders for the emerging global society. The program has since its inception has included politicians, business leaders, royalty, journalists, performers and other cultural influencers who have excelled in their fields but have not yet turned 40 years of age (originally 43 in order to include Angela Merkel). It has since grown into an extensive global network of dedicated leaders with enormous resources and influence, all working to implement the technocratic plans of the World Economic Forum in their respective nations and fields.

    As Klaus Schwab says in the introductory quote, it has become very successful. Already in the first year, 1992, a number of highly influential candidates were elected. Among 200 selected were global profiles such as Angela Merkel, Tony Blair, Nicolas Sarkozy, Bill Gates, Bono, Richard Branson (Virgin), Jorma Ollila (Shell Oil), and José Manuel Barroso (President of the European Commission 2004–2014).[1]

    More examples of influential Young Global Leaders

    https://theparadise.ng/world-economic-forums-young-global-leaders-revealed/

    1. More examples of influential Young Global Leaders

      Jacinda Arden, Prime Minister, New Zealand

      Watching the video in the post below shows Jacinda Ardern Prime Minister, New Zealand and Prime Minister Trudeau took the same classes at the Global Leaders of Tomorrow program.

      Protest at Parliament looks ‘imported’, Jacinda Ardern says, questions the motivations of those involved

      Michael Daly
      08:50, Feb 14 2022

      Ardern told Breakfast on Monday that, while New Zealand had a strong history of protest, “what I’ve seen here has not been the way that we’re used to seeing protests in this country”.

      “It feels like an imported protest to me. I’ve seen Trump flags on the forecourt, I’ve seen Canadian flags on the forecourt,” Ardern said.

      https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/127764002/protest-at-parliament-looks-imported-jacinda-ardern-says-questions-the-motivations-of-those-involved

      1. Protest at Parliament looks ‘imported’, Jacinda Ardern says, questions the motivations of those involved

        How can that be since Kiwiland’s borders are closed?

    2. Video: Canadian MP’s Audio Feed CUT When He Asks Why Klaus Schwab Brags About Having “Infiltrated” Parliament

      by Steve Watson
      February 21st 2022, 7:01 am

      When it came the turn of conservative Oshawa MP Colin Carrie to speak, he started to question about “outside influence” in the parliament, specifically via the WEF and globalist Klaus Schwab.

      Carrie asked legislators why Schwab has used a public platform for “bragging” about “infiltrating governments around the world,” including “half of Canada’s cabinet.”

      Carrie then asked “in the interest of transparency,” which members of Canadian parliament are under the control of Schwab, prompting the speaker of the house to cut the audio feed and start saying “order, order, order.”

      The speaker then said there was a “very very very bad audio” connection (no there wasn’t) and simply ignored Carrie’s comments.

      The next MP to speak did address Carrie’s comments, charging him of engaging in “open disinformation.”

      Watch:

      https://www.infowars.com/

  38. Happy Presidents’ Day!

    Today is Monday, February 21st and Joe Biden is not the legitimately elected president of the United States.

    The 2020 election was stolen.

  40. ‘You are seen’: A record 7.1% of US adults now identify as LGBTQ, new poll shows

    Susan Miller
    USA TODAY

    Feb 17, 2022

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/02/17/record-number-us-adults-identify-lgbtq/6802482001/

    Since there is no “H” in LGBTQ for heterosexual and we are evidently not “seen” I have ripped off the lyrics from Herman’s Hermits Henry The VIII to jot down a little jingle for the unrepresented 92.9 %

    I’m Hetero the eighth I am
    Hetero the eighth I am, I am
    I got married to the widow next door
    She’s been married seven times before

    And every one was a Hetero (Hetero)
    She wouldn’t have a Lesbian or Trans (no Trans)
    I’m her eighth old man, I’m Hetero
    Hetero the eighth I am

    Henry The VIII, I Am

    Herman’s Hermits

    https://youtu.be/b6EJxYNQxvw

    1. ‘You are seen’: A record 7.1% of US adults now identify as LGBTQ, new poll shows

      Right, just like 959,000 Americans have “died of Covid”

      To paraphrase the late Bob Hope, how long until being LGBTQ is mandatory?

  41. ‘You are seen’: A record 7.1% of US adults now identify as LGBTQ, new poll shows
    Ain’t buying it. Just like back in the 2010-2014 time period every teenager was BI-sexual.
    Well, both of my former girlfriend’s “BI” children are totally straight including one who has been married several times and the other one with several “girl” friends really wanting a relationship with a woman. Just said they were bi on social media to get their Dad upset.
    Reminds me of my PSYCH class in 1975 when 8% of the men said they were gay. (Auditorium sized class) It turns out a bunch of guys, just to f#ck with the Prof. said they were gay.

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