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The Power Of Bubbles To Deceive

A report from CBS 8 in California. “Trisha Cortez, 35, said she started her search for her first home with her partner back in 2021. They needed to move from the North Park property they had been renting for 10 years because their landlord was doing renovations. ‘[We submitted] 33 offers before we finally got an accepted offer,’ she said. Cortez said she finally bought a home in the College Area. It’s a one-bedroom condo a little over 500 square feet. ‘We paid $60,000 or $70,000 over asking price,’ she said.”

“According to University of San Diego Economics Professor Alan Gin, the median home price in San Diego last year was $764,000, a 26% increase compared to the year before. Gin said the median price is eight times the median income in San Diego.”

From ABC 30 in California. “Los Banos Mayor Tom Faria says the median sales price of a home is up to $425,000 — too high for many who grew up here but a deal for people moving in from out of town. Faria says over 60% of the Los Banos workforce commutes to Fresno and Stanislaus counties but even more to the Bay Area.”

“‘People can’t afford a house there, so they move here and then of course, that puts pressure on this housing market,’ he said. ‘But these wages won’t support those prices and then these people are forced to move.’ Residents priced out of the market have been moving to cities like Chowchilla.”

From City Watch LA. “The scheme relied on constant population growth, presuming eternal desire for Southern California’s lifestyle and land. The recent dip in population suggests that presumption has been punctured. The decline is real – an empirical data point. It also aligns with perceptions in many precincts that Southern California’s promise is being spoiled by public corruption, homeless encampments, and a push for residential density that flies in the face of the backyard-as-rec-room culture that has defined the place.”

“There are more specific reasons for concern in a recent report from Chapman University titled ‘Restoring the California Dream,’ penned by Joel Kotkin and Marshall Toplansky. ‘Nearly 80 percent of all jobs created in the state over the past decade paid less than the median income, a percentage far below our prime competitors. The inconvenient truth is that in key metrics such as housing costs and income growth, most Californians are doing worse than their counterparts elsewhere.'”

“The region’s dominant city and driving force—L.A.—is looking disheveled these days, like a place that’s just a recession away from being broke. Walk a few blocks from City Hall—or drive around and check the freeway underpasses – and L.A. feels like New York circa 1970.”

From CBS 4 in Colorado. “Dozens of families in the Green Valley Ranch community of Denver have faced foreclosure at the hands of the Master Homeowners Association. According to the Denver Department of Housing Stability, the MHA was behind 50 of the 119 total HOA-related foreclosures in 2021. Gil Gonzalez Ramos is one of those who lost his home in a judicial foreclosure. Gonzales Ramos admits he failed to pay fines handed down by his HOA. However, he only expected a lien on his home. He never realized the HOA had legal power under Colorado law to push for a foreclosure.”

“Gonzales Ramos said he purchased the house 17 years ago as affordable housing. He told CBS4 he has never missed a payment to Wells Fargo on his mortgage. However, he confessed he ignored fines he was being cited for property upkeep by his HOA. ‘It is frustrating to deal with this, especially when I have to explain to my children what is going on,’ Gonzales Ramos told CBS4’s Dillon Thomas. ‘Apparently I no longer have a home. They sold it,’ said Ramos.”

From ABC News. “Residents across western Queensland claim the banks are either flatly denying loans based on their remote location or requiring deposits of up to 50 per cent. The big four banks — Commonwealth, National ustralia Bank, ANZ and Westpac — said there was no postcode ban on finance, and they actively lend to buyers in the outback. Mechanic Rob Warner in nearby Thargomindah said he came up against ‘every barrier possible’ when trying to buy his local roadhouse.”

“‘When we approached the big four and the brokers, as soon as we put the postcode in, they pretty much said everything changes and no,’ he said. The situation was so dire, Mr Warner had to ask the roadhouse’s seller to guarantee him the loan to get it approved. ‘We were lucky that we knew the seller, but it’s postcode discrimination,’ he said. ‘It’s a disincentive for anyone to move to the outback. If people need a 40 per cent deposit no one is going to do it.'”

From Stuff New Zealand. “Almost a quarter of properties listed on Realestate.co.nz in February dropped their asking prices after listing, in a possible sign of sellers’ price expectations no longer aligning with what buyers are willing, or able to pay. The phenomenon of more properties dropping asking prices has been seen across a number of online sites, including Trade Me, where the number of price-drops almost doubled in January compared to the year before, and Homes.co.nz, which saw a modest increase year-on-year.”

“Realestate.co.nz figures suggest price drops had been relatively common for months, with 18 per cent of listings in December dropping their prices, and 14 per cent in January. Asking price reductions usually equated to price drops of between 6 and 8 per cent. Homes.co.nz chief data scientist Tom Lintern said changes in advertised listing prices indicated a shift in buyer and seller expectations, and that the market was changing.”

“‘It is becoming evident that sellers are expecting prices to grow in a similar way to 2021, but buyers are not willing, and some are unable to match these expectations,’ Lintern said.”

From Forbes. “It is a common misperception, going back to the 1970s, that rapid oil price increases lead to recessions. Contractionary Fed policy is what has occurred historically. In fact, the Fed has had contractionary monetary policies in place prior to all three oil price shocks, mostly out of concern about inflation as I discuss below. These policies have preceded our recessions and most of the oil shocks that we have experienced, and hence they have caused our recessions. Furthermore, in the 1970s, the Fed compounded the effects of the oil price shocks by increasing their monetary stance in response to oil price increases, worsening the effect of the shock.”

“To recap: the oil embargo was concurrent with the 1973 recession, as was the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait concurrent with the 1990 recession. Thus, in both these instances, it is clear that oil price spikes did not cause the recessions. The 1979 energy crisis preceded the 1980 recession, and many think it also caused the 1980 recession. For all three recessions, the Fed was more concerned with controlling inflation than supporting economic growth, and therefore had contractionary policies in place before the recessions, thereby causing the recessions.”

From Mises.org. “During the 1980s Japan was feared as an economic and technological powerhouse. Most observers attributed their stock market bubble and high growth rates to easy monetary policy, management style, and government managed technological development. Since 1990, the Japanese government has been fighting price deflation with monetary inflation and trying to increase growth by government deficit spending. By all accounts it has not worked.”

“In retrospect, the new-era thinkers of the Japanese bubble economy seem conceited and hopelessly naïve, but that is the power of bubbles to deceive. One of the few observers to correctly identify and characterize the bubble was Christopher Wood, who wrote that Japan ‘became so arrogant in the late 1980s because it really believed it was immune from the natural laws of the marketplace. This really was one of the most astonishing acts of mass delusion ever, and future historians … will marvel at it.'”

“In the wake of the bubble and bust, Japan experienced a long series of corruption scandals, a procession of failed prime ministers, the ousting of financial ministers, the conviction of bureaucrats for corruption, and the breakup of its one-party system. However, the Japanese have failed to truly recognize the cause of their bubble and to liquidate their economic mistakes. Instead they embarked on a post-bubble course of easy credit, public works, and deficit spending that has only served to condemn the Japanese economy to continuing economic doldrums.”

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This Post Has 121 Comments

  1. KDVR — Post-pandemic anxiety among children may last years (3/12/2022):

    “As the pandemic begins to wind down, doctors are reminding parents that pandemic stress may linger for some children.

    In 2021, Children’s Hospital Colorado declared a “state of emergency” when it comes to youth mental health. The unprecedented move came a little more than a year into the pandemic.

    “We started seeing an influx of patients, young children, coming in with symptoms of anxiety,” UCHealth Licensed Clinical Social Worker SJ Purcell said.

    According to Purcell, kids experiencing social anxiety often exhibit oppositionality and clinginess to a parent.

    “It’s for kids who, prior to COVID, weren’t exhibiting any of the symptoms of anxiety. They were living and loving life and then the world changed overnight”

    https://kdvr.com/news/local/post-pandemic-anxiety-among-children-may-last-years-experts-say/

    Happy TWO YEAR anniversary of “two weeks to flatten the curve”

    1. The globalists, the DNC, & the Comrades of Proven Worth (D) at our NEA indoctrination mills are basking in the glow of victory.

  2. The Mises article is worth reading.

    ‘Nearly 80 percent of all jobs created in the state over the past decade paid less than the median income, a percentage far below our prime competitors. The inconvenient truth is that in key metrics such as housing costs and income growth, most Californians are doing worse than their counterparts elsewhere’

    ‘The region’s dominant city and driving force—L.A.—is looking disheveled these days, like a place that’s just a recession away from being broke. Walk a few blocks from City Hall—or drive around and check the freeway underpasses – and L.A. feels like New York circa 1970’

    This idea of manias resulting in pie in the sky thinking is something I’ve long mentioned. In the 80’s, Dallas had the hottest real estate market (mostly CRE) on the planet 4 years straight. It had the big TV show, the big football teams. The most women in the nudie mags. Everybody wanted to live there. It all crashed fairly quickly. Why? Cuz it wasn’t real. And we did have oil. But the corruption had gone unnoticed in the boom. The S&L’s broke that spell.

    1. ‘Nearly 80 percent of all jobs created in the state over the past decade paid less than the median income, a percentage far below our prime competitors. The inconvenient truth is that in key metrics such as housing costs and income growth, most Californians are doing worse than their counterparts elsewhere’

      ‘The region’s dominant city and driving force—L.A.—is looking disheveled these days, like a place that’s just a recession away from being broke. Walk a few blocks from City Hall—or drive around and check the freeway underpasses – and L.A. feels like New York circa 1970’

      Yet many there will insist it’s richy rich, when it’s the opposite. Broke a$$ and poorly run. Bubbles make you poor and then they pop.

      Chowchilla…

        2. ‘The median household income was $30,729 and the median family income was $35,741. Males had a median income of $32,306 versus $20,538 for females. The per capita income for the city was $11,927. About 16.5% of families and 19.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 27.1% of those under age 18 and 7.6% of those age 65 or over.’

          ‘The median list price of homes in Chowchilla, CA was $392,495 in February 2022 , compared to $334,000 in 2021.’

          https://www.movoto.com/chowchilla-ca/market-trends/

          2. Nothing says Poverty better than houses >10 x Income. Debts that can never be repaid.

            I think we’ve reached that nationally now. At any rate, this crop of crony politicians and central bankers should be arrested. They spent the last 50 years looting the country and now it’s collapsing – the entire thing.

        3. Chinchilla’s name is from an American Indian word that means “murderer”

          The Wiki entry is incorrect. The Chaushila Indians indigenous to the area were infamous for their violence, but even more so for their deception and treachery. Thus “Chowchilla” is a derivative of the Chaushila expression that translates as “Realtors are liars.”

    2. “But the corruption had gone unnoticed in the boom. The S&L’s broke that spell.”

      Any thoughts on what is destined to become the 2020s analogue of the S&Ls (1980s) and subprime mortgages (2000s)?

      1. I remember owning a CD in an S&L (Missouri Savings) that went broke in the 1980s. I thought it odd that they could afford to pay an above market rate of 8%. I also was later surprised when they made us whole on the interest as well as the principal…first bailout I ever was on the receiving end of…

      2. Subprime Mortgages, Part Deux. The cratering will intensify as Da Fed is forced to sell off its portfolio of MBS.

        1. The FED is not forced to sell anything off their balance sheet. The moment that things fall apart, they will immediately stop. They answer to nobody.

    1. Maybe because so many American investors want to buy them…or at least they did before Evergrande started to implode.

    2. So why are fitch etc, even rating these criminal enterprises?

      Because Fitch, Moody’s, etc. are part of the fraud.

  5. BTW, I’m not used to doing day light savings time.

    ‘median home price in San Diego last year was $764,000, a 26% increase compared to the year before. Gin said the median price is eight times the median income’

    There’s yer subprime.

    1. BTW, I’m not used to doing day light savings time.

      You and me both, and I’ve been dealing with it my entire life. This is the dumbest thing ever. It takes me several days to adjust.

  8. Southern California’s promise is being spoiled by public corruption”

    7.0 dollar a gallon gas. Last July, the tax increased from 50.5 cents per gallon to 51.1 cents per gallon. This upcoming July, it is scheduled to increase to 53.9 cents.

    CA is farming homeless the more money they spend the more homeless show up. More profitable than almonds ?

    1. Having been told that we’re all gonna die by a NY bartender, one has to wonder if it makes sense for bay aryans to drive from Los Banos, where locals drive from Chowchilla.

      1. No mention of the impact of higher fuel prices in the video clip. Realize that Los Banos really is in the middle of nowhere; you have to commute for everything.

      2. drive from Los Banos, where locals drive from Chowchilla

        All of these places are historically known as San Joaquin sh!tholes. They were filthy and overrun with illegals back in the 1980s. Now they are almost unlivable.

        Have you ever heard the term “New Appalachia?”

        New Appalachia is the concept that the quality of life in the San Joaquin Valley of California is comparable or worse than the traditionally impoverished Appalachia region of the Appalachian Mountains and therefore shares similar hardships

        In 2011 Forbes, after taking the fluctuation of median home values, five of the top twenty “most miserable cities” were located in the San Joaquin Valley….persistent crime, unemployment and poverty were common factors

        Wikipedia has an entire page dedicated to it.

  9. ‘The state of emergency that San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared for the Tenderloin last December has a lot of people talking but no one is paying closer attention than the people who live there. There are some who expect major improvements and many others who are skeptical that there will be much change at all. Still the question on everyone’s mind is: Can the city clean up the Tenderloin?’

    ‘Parents like Maggy Fungula will have to get their children to school, with or without an organized escort. “Sometimes I’ve got to go out in the street with my baby,” Fungula said of the drug dealing and drug use. “I don’t want my baby to see that environment.”

    ‘Neighbors like Alex Alvarado will spend another day trying to keep that environment at bay. “My territory is my territory, man,” Alvarado explained. “And I tell them both — both the users and the dealers — I don’t want the drugs in front of my door.”

    ‘Then there are the thousands, at least 8,000 people without homes in the city, many of them living along the alleys and sidewalks of this neighborhood. Neighbors are giving out some high marks in one regard and that is the cleaning blitz. Finding a street blocked for a pressure-washing crew is part of daily life here now and a lot of neighbors love it.’

    “Having a clear path, to be able to see a couple of blocks down, is a blessing,” Alvarado said after a cleaning crew moved through. “They clean up everything but, after one hour, they come back and garbage is everywhere,” Barkouki observed. “They have to be on a daily basis.”

    “It just keeps continuing, over and over again,” said Tony Kushmaul. “It’s a weird situation of doing the same thing over and over again, nothing really corrects the problem.”’

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/kpix-special-report-san-francisco-tenderloin-e2-80-93-a-state-of-emergency/ar-AAUHWGe

    Maybe send them to Chowchilla?

    1. “It’s a weird situation of doing the same thing over and over again, nothing really corrects the problem.”

      Cause & effect, Tony. Vote blue, go zoo.

      1. They have a cleaning crew that comes in every day or two. So there’s a semi-clean patch of the pavement that you can piddle on. Nice! But when yer lamp posts fall over from urine damage, the answer might not be hosing it off with good smell-um water.

    2. From the comments in the MSN piece: “No money now. The hook nosers that control the media, the lies, the hatred, & the u.s. have it earmarked for their kind in the Ukraine in their global conquest. Let these people starve. BTW, how are they getting a new batch of dope every 10 years?”

      They can’t fool everyone! LMAO

      1. People are incensed over what’s transpiring in the US, and they know what’s going on. The quality of life is deteriorating at an absolutely alarming rate. The rich focks like Jay Powell and his buddies, and all the wealthy pols have completely lost touch. They don’t even understand how hard it has become to survive. Hence my question yesterday: How long until they just start killing the Jay Powells of the world? This is unsustainable.

        1. How long until they just start killing

          You don’t have to “just start killing” to fight against these powers. Certainly sitting in front of your screen waiting for “them” to will do you no good.

          The USA is a very easy place to “survive” and do it in style. Use your imagination.

  11. Weekend long read on various topics of interest.

    Dr. Klaus Schwab or How the CFR Taught Me to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (3/10/2022):

    “The World Economic Forum wasn’t simply the brainchild of Klaus Schwab, but was actually born out of a CIA-funded Harvard program headed by Henry Kissinger and pushed to fruition by John Kenneth Galbraith and the “real” Dr. Strangelove, Herman Kahn. This is the amazing story behind the real men who recruited Klaus Schwab, who helped him create the World Economic Forum, and who taught him to stop worrying and love the bomb.

    In 1972, the Club of Rome’s founder Aurelio Peccei had published his controversial book “The Limits to Growth”, a book that had been commissioned by the Club of Rome and which took a Malthusian approach to overpopulation. The book would call into question the sustainability of global economic growth and Peccei would be invited by Schwab to make the keynote speech at the 1973 World Economic Forum. This risqué public relations strategy paid dividends for Schwab and his organisation. From that point on, the forum would grow in size, scale and power. But it all began with a CIA-funded course run by Henry Kissinger at Harvard.”

    You will eat the bugs, you will live in the pod, you will own nothing and be happy.

    “Schwab has become more than just a technocrat. He has been very vocal on his intention to fuse his physical and biological identities with future technology. He has become a living caricature of an evil bond-like villain, conducting secretive meetings with the elites, high up in the mountain-top chalets of Switzerland. I do not think that the image we have of Schwab is an accident. In the postwar years, something very unique happened in Western culture, when the government began using mainstream media as a tool to target the public with military grade psychological operations.

    If people perceive you as an all powerful evil villain then you may not gain the support of the common man, but you will gain the attention from those who seek power and wealth, or, how Klaus Schwab would refer to them, the “stakeholders” in society. This is very important to understand – the projection of extreme wealth and power will attract and bring the “stakeholders” of society to the World Economic Forum’s table. With those “stakeholders” on board, Klaus Schwab’s main ideological product, “stakeholder capitalism”, will see the transfer of power away from true democratic processes and onto a system of governance by a small preselected leadership group, who will be trained to continue the agenda set for them by the previous generation, as predicted by Herman Kahn. They will hold all the cards, whilst the common people will be left with just illusory pseudo-democratic processes, poverty, and constant absurd psychological operations to distract us all constantly.”

    https://unlimitedhangout.com/2022/03/investigative-reports/dr-klaus-schwab-or-how-the-cfr-taught-me-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-bomb/

    You are nothing more than cattle to these people.

    1. You are nothing more than cattle to these people.

      And as my ol’ grand pappy used to say “if you let the government take your guns away, they’ll be able to herd you around like cattle”. This is their goal.

      2. if you let the government take your guns away, they’ll be able to herd you around like cattle

        They can still herd you around by forcing you to transact in cashless electronic currency which is trackable, programmable, and perishable.

        1. “forcing you to transact”

          That sounds like a problem for people who earn all of their income from work that is reported to the IRS on a W-2 form.

          Get out of Dee Cee / Maryland and open your eyes, there’s a whole country out here that is not Dee Cee…

          1. You must have missed the “cashless” part of the cashless electronic currency. This is what CBDC is about. If they don’t like you, they can simply program your debit card to flag, or even freeze up, when you try to buy gas, or pay the water-haul delivery truck, or stop in at the Tractor Supply for something. And they zap that debit from Dee Cee, two thousand miles beyond the range of your gunz. So start your silver-based commune now, and hope you don’t need to buy ANYthing.

          3. hope you don’t need to buy ANYthing.

            DC is there only with the consent of the people. Currency is an important thing, important enough to have been incorporated in our constitution.

          4. These are not my fantasies. They are the fantasies of the oligarchs. Yes, it’s unconstitutional. The Supreme Court will eventually hand down a ruling saying as much. And Biden and Powell will say “Now let the Supreme Court enforce it.”

        2. herd you around by forcing you

          Some of us are more fragile, fearful, compliant and dependent than others.

          1. There ya go….. DebtDonkeys generally are herded around….. like DebtDonkeys.

            Arrington, TN Housing Prices Crater 31% YOY As Rural Lot And Land Prices Plunge

            https://www.movoto.com/arrington-tn/market-trends/

            As a national land broker explained, “There is a globe full of land were fully 95% of it goes undeveloped. Land is essentially worthless dirt. If you paid more than $500 an acre, you got ripped off.”

    2. Why is it that guys like Klaus Schwab , Kissinger and the other Ivory Tower eggheads, never come up with theories that are beneficial to humans.
      So, Klaus Schwab thinks that stakeholders ruling the World , and a bizarre idea that mankind will be altered to be the perfect drone like slaves, aren’t the ramblings of unbalanced intelligence that detached from their souls , probably traumatized in childhood.
      They do talk like humans are cattle , but they are just forming power groups, no different than gangs, Hitler, any forced power .
      They can’t stand the idea of humans being in charge of their own destiny with any freedoms.
      And Schwabs classic statement that, ” you will have nothing and be happy.” Is pretty bizarre and sadistic. No, people are not happy having nothing. I don’t think they want to eat bugs either.
      Anybody feel comfortable will Bill Gates wanting to repeatedly vaccinate the globe ,
      They are out in the open now , after years of operating covertly to set up this take over.
      Revolt against the homicidal Elite nuts , like Klaus Schwab, Gates, Soros, all the groups.

        1. Was Fauci a factor outside the US? For instance, when I read the Mexican media, I never see him mentioned. Mexico has its own Fauci, some guy named Gatel.

        2. Published just now:

          “Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said on Sunday that a fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine will be necessary to continue to help keep hospitalizations manageable and sicknesses more mild.

          “Right now, the way that we have seen, it is necessary, a fourth booster right now. The protection that you are getting from the third, it is good enough, actually quite good for hospitalizations and deaths,” Bourla said while appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

          https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/598026-pfizer-ceo-says-a-fourth-booster-shot-is-necessary

          3. I don’t listen to his music, but I did read a blurb that Justin Bieber’s wife just had a stroke.

            At age 25. A stroke at age 25.

      3. And Schwabs classic statement that, ” you will have nothing and be happy.” Is pretty bizarre and sadistic.

        As Goebbels once said “repeat a lie often enough and people will believe it”

        It worked like magic with the Rona. People swallowed two lies:
        1) That the Rona was the black death
        2) That the mRNA jabs are safe an effective. 250 million Americans have been jabbed at least once.

        1. two lies:

          3) That everyone lighting up the fake PCR test (40 cycles and designed for the common cold) died because of the plague.
          4) That nobody’s immune system could stand up to the plague without shots.
          5) That there was no treatment for the plague aside from poison and having a pipe shoved down your throat.
          6) That the “authorities” were truthful.
          7) That hospitals were overrun with plague victims.
          8) That a napkin over your face was like garlic to a vampire.
          9) That two way traffic in the isles of a store would lead to a catastrophic head-on collision.

      4. Why is it that guys like Klaus Schwab , Kissinger and the other Ivory Tower eggheads, never come up with theories that are beneficial to humans.

        The only thing you need to understand is malignant narcissism. These people are gravely mentally ill. You can see it in Bill Gates’ face and hear it in his words as he talks. He’s lost his mind. His ex-wife realized he was so bad that she couldn’t remain hitched to his wagon anymore, and she’s mentally ill, too.

        Rapacious greed destroys the conscience and morality. It leads people down a path where they become so detached and sick that they start dehumanizing others in their unquenchable thirst for more. And by the time they have accumulated more wealth than they could possibly spend in 100,000 lifetimes, this insatiable desire has morphed into a need to control people and tell them how to live and serve them.

  12. “Cave-in’s, constant exposure to toxic, radioactive water, dust, and dangerous air loaded with cobalt, lead, and uranium with other heavy metals breathed into lungs day-after-day so western citizens can feel good about their Tesla or wind turbine. Cobalt ore is sent to China since one of the larger mines in the Congo is Chinese-owned Congo Dongfang International Mining Company.”

    Joe Biden’s Electric Car Plans Support The World’s Worst Humanitarian Abuses

    by Tom Harris | RealClear Energy
    March 13th 2022,

    In a normal 1,000-pound Li-ion EV battery, there is about 25 pounds of lithium. Since lithium brines typically contain less than 0.1% lithium, about 25,000 pounds of brines are needed to get the 25 pounds of pure lithium. This is mainly extracted from Tibet and the highlands of Argentina-Bolivia-Chile (according to the U.S. Geological Survey, 58% of the world’s lithium reserves are found in Chile) known as the “lithium triangle.” Lithium production in Tibet results in dead, toxic fish, and carcasses of cows and yaks floating down the Liqi River. The Ganzizhou Rongda Li mine in Tibet has thoroughly poisoned this river.

    Similarly, native peoples in the lithium triangle face contaminated streams needed for human consumption, livestock watering, irrigation systems with mountains left desolate over discarded salt from the lithium brining process. A report titled, “COMMODITIES AT A GLANCE Special issue on strategic battery raw materials” issued in 2020 by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development explained:

    A 1,000-pound Li-ion EV battery typically also contains about 30 pounds of cobalt. Cobalt ore grades average about 0.1%, so we need to process almost 30,000 pounds of ore to get 30 pounds of cobalt. With 50% of the world’s cobalt reserves, the Democratic Republic of Congo contributes almost two-thirds of global cobalt production. This is causing immense humanitarian abuses. Congo has at least 40,000 children—some as young as 4-years old—working with their parents for less than $2 a day. They are exposed to multiple psychological violations and abuse as well as significant physical risks. Engineer and energy consultant Ronald Stein and Todd Royal, an independent public policy consultant focusing on the geopolitical implications of energy, go into more details in their book Clean Energy Exploitations – Helping citizens understand the environmental and humanity abuses that support ‘clean’ energy”:

    1. That’s unpossible! Saint Greta never said anything about all this.

      Laughs in I drive a company van with a gas card 😛

      And yes, we do residential service calls if you would like to convert some burning coal into electricity for your Nissan Leaf.

      1. Joe Biden’s Electric Car’s kill Yaks!

        “Lithium production in Tibet results in dead, toxic fish, and carcasses of cows and yaks floating down the Liqi River.”

        The yak (འབྲོང་། ) is considered the backbone of Tibetan nomad life, with this animal being important to the economic and personal wellbeing of the family. From the products crafted from yaks, the nomad family is able to clothe, shelter, and feed their family, so it is little wonder that some say their yaks are treated with similar importance as members of the family.

        https://extravagantyak.com/products/yaks

        1. Tibetans and other 3rd Worlders will suffer, and that’s a sacrifice we are willing to make!

  14. “Trisha Cortez, 35, said she started her search for her first home with her partner back in 2021.

    All of these FBs-to-be buying houses with “partners” makes me wonder how long said non-committed, marriage-averse partner will stick around once the shacks slide underwater.

    1. Or how long they will stick around at all, even with the magic piece of paper, which is the easiest contract to break in the whole world.

    2. I’ve been telling people that if you’ve found a luvvy and you want to buy a house, have a baby, or quit a career job, you need the protection of rings and papers. Anything else you can probably extricate yourself from without much lasting damage.

      1. Rings and papers don’t offer much protection, especially for whoever is the main breadwinner. A marriage contract is very easy to dissolve, hence the term “no fault divorce”. Marriage papers aren’t need to be awarded child support dollars.

        1. Rings and papers protect the non-breadwinner. For example, say the woman* quit a promising career job to move several states to be with luvvy and they bought a house. He (or she) decides to stray, and now how to you split up the house. Who contributed how much of the down payment, who was making repairs, who’s on the mortgage or deed… and now the she has to start the career all over again (possibly with a baby) because she quit her job. This messy situation shows up all the time on advice columns.

          ————–
          *I’m using the woman as an example simply because she’s more likely to do the moving or quit the job and end up as the lower breadwinner.

    3. I’ve found people under 40 often use the word “partner” interchangeably with married. Several of my colleagues do this despite being married.

      I don’t because marriage is an actual commitment and therefore should be called what it is.

  15. Gonzales Ramos admits he failed to pay fines handed down by his HOA. However, he only expected a lien on his home. He never realized the HOA had legal power under Colorado law to push for a foreclosure.”

    I bet Ramos thinks that auto insurance is optional, too.

  16. “Gonzales Ramos said he purchased the house 17 years ago as affordable housing. He told CBS4 he has never missed a payment to Wells Fargo on his mortgage. However, he confessed he ignored fines he was being cited for property upkeep by his HOA.

    “Affordable housing” tends not to be inhabited by people who are diligent about property upkeep.

    1. Gonzales Ramos likely grew-up with their toys strewn about the yard, dogs at large and chickens standing on broken-down cars.

  17. “Residents across western Queensland claim the banks are either flatly denying loans based on their remote location or requiring deposits of up to 50 per cent.

    Soaring fuel costs are going to make those remote locations even less viable going forward. Central bankers can’t print gas.

  19. “Faria says over 60% of the Los Banos workforce commutes to Fresno and Stanislaus counties but even more to the Bay Area.”

    Here is the commute info from Los Banos to San Francisco, according to Google Maps:

    “1 hr 52 min (122 miles)
    Via I-580 E and I-5 S”

    This driving time is current, i.e. Sunday morning without traffic. I have been on that stretch of freeway in rush hour, and it’s horrible. Throw in $6/gallon gasoline prices, and you have some serious lifestyle issues with that commute.

    1. These people are idiots. I’d rather pay $3,500 with no commute than $1,500 with that commute. They place no value on their time.

      1. “They place no value on their time.”

        “Rich People plan for three generations. Poor people plan for Saturday night.” —Gloria Steinem

    2. This brings to mind the drive-until-you-qualify supercommuters from the 2007 bubble.

      Specifically I remember reading a story of some guy who commuted 90 minutes one-way to his loading dock job in Los Angeles so that he could afford some run-down overpriced house in the Inland Empire. I thought, this is ridiculous. He doesn’t need to be in LA to work on a loading dock. He’s better off finding a loading dock job in podunk flyover and living in a much nicer house, with no commute. The story led to the HBB Oil City plan.

      Trisha Cortez could use an Oil City plan herself. She’s a pharmacy tech at Scripp’s hospital. She could probably do that job in a hundred small cities all over the US, and do better than a one-bed condo for her $300K.

      1. “He doesn’t need to be in LA to work on a loading dock. He’s better off finding a loading dock job in podunk flyover and living in a much nicer house, with no commute.”

        A tenet of faith among California Democrats is that every human being, no matter how lowly his rank or credentials, is worthy of owning or renting an affordably priced house on California soil. Another California Democrat tenet of faith is that most of the state has to be protected from further real estate development beyond its current extent. And a third pillar of their belief system is that becoming a California homeowner or renter confers squatters rights with protections against foreclosure or eviction in case you stop paying your monthly.

        You can easily see how these economically incoherent beliefs create fertile grounds for runaway housing prices for those who are not already long-term California homeowners or renters.

  20. The borrowing and spending binge by Canadian households, businesses, and governments (all levels) continues unabated.

    At the end of December, 2021 the total debt outstanding in Canada (bottom line of the Statistics Canada credit market summary data table) was $10.017 trillion. At the end of December, 2020 the total debt outstanding was $9.392 trillion. In the 1 year period from the end of December, 2020 to the end of December, 2021 it increased by $624.8 billion. This is an increase of 6.6%.

    Update on the total (household, business, and all levels of government) debt numbers in Canada

    https://owecanada.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-borrowing-and-spending-binge-by.html

  21. Stephen Colbert is a serial Yak killer who keeps at least 40,000 children as young as 4-years old working with their parents in the Democratic Republic of Congo for less than $2 a day and doesn’t care if American families can’t afford gas to get to work or groceries.

    Stephen Colbert roasted for saying he’d pay $15 for gas because he drives a Tesla

    Stephen Colbert was roasted on social media for saying he would be willing to pay more for gas because he can afford an all-electric Tesla.

    By Ariel Zilber
    March 8, 2022

    https://nypost.com/2022/03/08/stephen-colbert-blasted-for-saying-hes-willing-to-pay-more-for-gas/

    1. Yet another “let them eat cake” statement.

      Stephen Colbert needs to get targeted in a follow-home assault in Los Angeles and get robbed and pistol whipped in his own driveway.

      F* these people…

      1. Stephen Colbert needs to get targeted in a follow-home assault in Los Angeles

        I think he lives on the east coast.

          2. If you search his name and New Jersey, you’ll easily find pictures. It’s a very nice home.

          3. If you search his name and New Jersey, you’ll easily find pictures. It’s a very nice home.

            There are people following all the jets and yachts of the oligarchs in real time, and posting the information online. These people can’t hide, and they know it. Elon Musk offered an insulting amount to try to stop it, and the kid doing it laughed in his face.

            I will continue to ask my question: How long until somebody does something? I am genuinely curious. I don’t have the answer, but I know it’s coming. It’s not if, it’s when. You can only push people down so far before you get a massive comeuppance. Blowback.

          4. There are people following all the jets and yachts of the oligarchs in real time

            I don’t know about jets, but ships transmit their position, direction, speed, destination through and international communications system called AIS. It’s a “legal requirement” but the ship can turn it off, and many Russian superyachts have, presumably as they head for Suez.

            It’s a great safety information, as each ship can see on the screen what is where and headed where. Helps even little sailing and fishing vessels avoid the “heavy metal”.

            Interestingly, it seems 90% of Chinese commercial vessels have just turned their AIS off. WTF!

    1. Kiplinger
      Stock Market Today: Stocks Down, Cement Another Week of Losses
      Mixed signals out of Russia and the Fed’s much-anticipated March meeting next week kept investors on the defensive Friday.
      by: Kyle Woodley
      March 11, 2022
      A white, wooden arrow sign pointed downward

      Wall Street’s major indexes struggled to find direction during the week’s final session as investors tried to interpret various signals concerning Russia’s war with Ukraine, and perhaps, looked ahead to next week’s Federal Reserve decision.

      Early Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that his negotiators claimed there were “certain positive shifts” in peace talks, although no concrete progress had been made. However, hours later, President Joe Biden announced a pair of economic volleys on Russia.

      More significantly, the U.S. will join the European Union and the Group of Seven in revoking the country’s “most favored nation” status, allowing them to slap higher tariffs on the nation’s goods. America also will ban the export of luxury goods to Russia (bourbon is popular there).

      Investors might also have one eye looking ahead to next week, when the Fed is widely expected to announce its first benchmark rate hike in more than three years – an assumption that has weighed on sentiment over the past few months, …

      The Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered a modest 0.7% decline to 32,944, putting the cap on its fifth consecutive weekly loss. The S&P 500 (-1.3% to 4,204) and Nasdaq Composite (-2.2% to 12,843) also finished in the red on the week.

      https://www.kiplinger.com/investing/stocks/604393/stock-market-today-031122-stocks-down-another-week

    2. A classic bear market symptom is when markets routinely open higher in the morning on a surge in sentiment (the bottom is in!!!), followed by deterioration throughout the day and a close in the red as the hopium dissipates. That has been a common pattern the last several weeks.

  23. These fraudsters have never established that Climate Change is true and carbons need to be eliminated.
    So, we are suppose to listen to their bought off Scientists on climate , while they censor dispute and facts, or worse trust Al Gore, a Politician.

    Look , these people are creating fake emergencies for power grabs and looting.
    How do you get around Constitional protections, but to have so called emergencies usurp the Constitution. Emergency Declarations as a weapon

    And now the ridicules narrative that PUTIN is going to hijack bio weapons from Ukraine and unleash it on globe, and end up killing his own people and himself. I don’t think so.
    They milked the Covid Pandemic, for all it accomplished for them, but now the next false attack .. Fake Corporate owned news censoring dispute again for their next narrative.

    .

    1. Image file courtesy of 4chan, Barack and Michael (before she became Michelle):

      https://ibb.co/QF7JskX

      Get well soon, Mr. President!

      The HBB, along with all 400+ of the “sophisticated, vaccinated” guests at your Martha’s Vineyard 60th birthday party (served by masked servants, of course) wish you best health and a speedy recovery!!!

    2. King Obama joins the ranks of those who are fully vaccinated

      I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s never been jabbed.

    1. “Will Target Anyone Who Believes Election Was Stolen”

      Will the thought police use brain scans to detect the offence?

  27. Would it be legal for Putin to repay dollar-denominated bonds in Roubles?

    If not, who could stop him?

    1. The Financial Times
      Russian economy
      Russia threatens to make external debt payments in roubles
      Warning from finance minister Anton Siluanov increases risk of nation’s first default since 1998
      Moscow is scheduled to make a combined $117mn in interest payments this Wednesday on two dollar-denominated bonds, according to JPMorgan. © REUTERS
      Max Seddon in Riga and Adam Samson in London 5 hours ago

      Russia has threatened to pay international bondholders in roubles rather than dollars just days before a key interest payment on its external debt comes due.

      Anton Siluanov, Russia’s finance minister, said on Sunday that it was “absolutely fair” the country would make all of its sovereign debt payments in roubles until western sanctions that he claimed have frozen $300bn of the country’s reserves were lifted.

      Moscow is scheduled to make a combined $117mn in interest payments this Wednesday on two dollar-denominated bonds, according to JPMorgan. Neither bond’s contracts gives Russia the option of paying in roubles, according to the Wall Street bank.
      …

      1. He should just send them bank drafts on the seized funds and let them sort it out. If you follow the example of the Canadians, anyone who loaned this criminal enterprise money is now a criminal ex post facto. The US could seize their funds too.

  30. DHS Releases New Rules on Extremism, Will Target Anyone Who Questions 2020 Election or Challenges COVID Narrative

    by Jamie White
    March 13th 2022, 1:32 pm

    The Department of Homeland Security has released new guidelines on “extremist” behavior, which include questioning the 2020 presidential election or promoting “conspiracy theories” about the COVID pandemic and mandates.

    The memo, titled Report to the Secretary of Homeland Security Domestic Violent Extremism Internal Review: Observations, Findings, and Recommendations claims the “sociopolitical developments” of the 2020 election and the COVID pandemic could “spur domestic violent extremists” to “engage in violence.”

    The guidance also calls for more funding for the DHS’ “Insider Threat Program” to identify and purge any DHS employees who “may be displaying early indicators of extremist behavior or may be radicalizing to violence.”

    “Additional funding is necessary to resource these efforts, as this will greatly enhance the Department’s ability to identify and address violent extremist activity and protect from insider threats,” the memo states.

    Interestingly, the memo acknowledges the DHS struggles to define exactly what “extremist behavior” actually means.

    “Further, other gaps that limited our ability to collect and validate data included…guidance as to what constitutes violent extremist activity, or an established list of behaviors that may be indicators of violent extremism.”

    https://www.infowars.com/posts/dhs-releases-new-rules-on-extremism-will-target-anyone-who-questions-2020-election-or-challenges-covid-narrative/

  31. “Japan ‘became so arrogant in the late 1980s because it really believed it was immune from the natural laws of the marketplace. This really was one of the most astonishing acts of mass delusion ever, and future historians … will marvel at it.’”

    Wow, that is so totally, remarkably, historically amazing. It almost brings to mind the hordes of Californians who can often be heard chanting in unison, ‘California real estate always goes up.’

    It wasn’t always thus. In fact, we had neighbors when we first moved to the state a a quarter of a century ago who warned us that we has made a mistake buying the condo we had just purchased, as people were loosing lots of money in real estate back then. If you are thinking about buying in California, wait until when the neighbors are waiting in the wings to warn you about your folly for doing so.

  32. Are you concerned that the financial ructions to the world economy due to the Ukraine invasion could lead to a similar situation as the Lehman Brothers collapse did in 2008?

    1. The Financial Times
      Opinion Inside Business
      Fall of Lehman shows how unpredictable impact of Russian sanctions could be
      The world should take lessons from 2008 and brace for a financial and economic shock
      Patrick Jenkins
      Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Dick Fuld of Lehman Brothers
      Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine could deliver unexpected shocks to the world economy, just as when Dick Fuld’s Lehman Brothers was allowed to fail during the 2008 financial crisis
      © FT montage/Reuters
      Patrick Jenkins yesterday
      146

      It’s an idea that would appeal to Dick Fuld’s famously inflated ego — but it is valid nonetheless. To assess the potential impact on the global economy of international sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s Russia, it is instructive to look back to the 2008 financial crisis and the fall of Lehman Brothers.

      The treatment and behaviour of Lehman, which Fuld had led for 14 years, showed how hard it is to predict the consequences of financial interventions with systemic implications. Even if made for a moral imperative, the ramifications can be far more dire than foreseen.
      …
      A world that has been awash with free money under central bank policies to stem the full financial impact of 2008 and the Covid crisis looks more than a little vulnerable given how asset prices have been inflated and how debt levels have risen to new records. Be under no illusion: Russians will not be the only ones to suffer under Russian sanctions. The world should remember Lehman and brace for a global financial and economic shock.

      patrick.jenkins@ft.

  33. It seems like the world’s central bankers face a Hobson’s choice of higher interest rates or an uncontrolled inflation spiral.

    Which will they choose? And what will warring politicians do to worsen the situation?

    1. The Financial Times
      Markets Briefing Equities
      US government bond prices drop ahead of Federal Reserve meeting
      10-year Treasury yield back above 2%, reaching its highest level since July 2019
      People queue in Shanghai to be tested for Covid-19 as China confronts a widening outbreak
      © Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
      Naomi Rovnick and George Steer in London and Hudson Lockett in Hong Kong 45 minutes ago

      US government bond prices dropped on Monday ahead of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting later this week, as traders weighed the prospect of interest rate rises to curb surging inflation.

      The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note, which moves inversely to the price of the benchmark government debt security and sets the tone for borrowing costs worldwide, rose 0.08 percentage points to 2.08 per cent — its highest level since July 2019.

      The sell-off in US bonds was a “reaction to the hawkishness of the [European Central Bank],” said Sebastiano Chiodino, head of fixed income at Generali Insurance Asset Management — referring to the ECB’s decision last week to scale back its bond-buying stimulus package in response to spiralling inflation, despite the potential hit to economic growth from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

      “If the ECB is hawkish, you’d expect the same from the Fed,” given that the US economy is less exposed than Europe’s to the war in Ukraine, Chiodino said.

      The yield on Germany’s 10-year Bund, which serves as a barometer for eurozone borrowing costs, also rose 0.07 percentage points to 0.34 per cent, its highest point in more than three years.

      At its March 16-17 meeting, the Fed is widely expected to raise its main funds rate by a least a quarter point, having pinned it close to zero since the start of the coronavirus crisis two years ago, in a move that may influence other central banks to raise borrowing costs despite the economic risks of the war in Ukraine.

      Consumer price inflation in the US rose to an annual rate of 7.9 per cent in February, a fresh 40-year high, while price rises have also hit a record in the eurozone and are expected to exceed 7 per cent in the UK this spring.

      Markets are now pricing in almost seven interest rate rises by the US central bank in 2022.

      “Chairman Jay Powell has signalled that the US Federal Reserve will start hiking rates with a 25 [basis point] move,” analysts at research house Gavekal said in a note to clients.

      “However, a 50bp hike cannot be ruled out as inflation and inflation expectations continue to soar.”
      …

  34. How bad can it get in China? Not only are they coping with a real estate collapse, but now the pandemic is coming back to bite them in the arse.

    1. Covid-19 cases continue to rise in China’s worst outbreak since Wuhan
      CNN’s Beijing bureau
      Updated 5:13 AM ET, Mon March 14, 2022
      People queue for Covid tests in Yantai, Shandong Province, on March 14.

      (CNN) China reported thousands of new local Covid-19 cases Sunday amid the worst outbreak in the country since Wuhan in early 2020, according to the National Health Commission (NHC).

      Health officials said 2,125 cases were reported across 58 cities in 19 of 31 mainland provinces, marking the fourth consecutive day China reported more than 1,000 daily local cases. More than 10,000 cases have been reported since the latest outbreak began in early March, the NHC said.
      Saturday, the commission reported 3,122 local cases — the highest number of daily infections since the Wuhan outbreak and the first time new cases have exceeded 3,000 in a day, NHC data showed.

      https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/14/china/china-covid-outbreak-monday-intl-hnk/index.html

        1. Blueskye,
          I was wondering what the purpose of this spin was also. If the outbreaks are omicron, than that’s not the same as the so called original Covid.
          The Grand Jury peoples court concluded that the PCR tests were not capable of determining infection, and the false positives were the basic of a false Pandemic declared.

  35. So, the Elite 1% has decided that the earth and climate change needs to be saved from the other 99% humans.
    That’s the highest priority that the 1% must dictate to the humans by technology that has finally arrived that will finally put humans under total control and servitude to a small percentage of the population.
    And after centuries of being parasites and looters off the toils of the 99%, this Elite class of Stakeholders want to alter humans genetically, like they have done to plants and cattle.
    A depopulation scheme , and mad hatter science to screw with mother nature , while they claim they are saving the earth from the diseased populations that aren’t entitled to carbons.
    These are Nazis , in the process of genocide of the 99%, so the great 1% can inherit the earth.
    Sustainable earth for the 1% with a One World Order Dictorship against the rest, who will have nothing and be happy.
    So, they had to take over information by fake news, which was a major tactic by Hitler in his rise to power in Germany. Divide and conquer until you have a total Dictorship , with scapegoats to blame as the enemy to destroy. It was the Jews, in the case of Hitler, or anything holding the Arian Super race from their rightful place.
    Just saying that the current assault on humanity is Hitler on steroids, similar methods. But now its a assault on the 99%. Its power hijacking of systems to take over. You could insert Stalin, Lenin, Mao, any of them on the methods. And they always embrace homicide and genocide, war , scapegoating. mass psychosis, brainwashing and fear mongering.
    The Globalists are dangerous in their insanity of One World Order World domination, elimination of sovereign states, constitutions and freedoms.
    You no longer have free will being part of the 99% , because the 1% have decided to alter you genetically, against your will. And they have the right to just expierment , like humans are a bunch of lab rats. Nuremberg codes mean nothing to this power grab.
    Klaus Schwab has some mad hatter Dr talk some times, who basically says that free will is a thing of the past. That they have the technology to alter humans into their vision.
    I don’t really think they have the technology, because they wouldn’t be having so many failed expierments .
    And , we the people find out that US tax dollars were funding gain of function bio weapons research in other Countries, to be used for what?
    The narratives get crazier and crazier, so now its Putin might release bio weapons we created in UKraine.
    Bill Gates suggested that bio weapons could be released at airports by terrorists. Bill Gates likes to talk about the next pandemic that we need to produce vaccine response faster than Covid warp speed.
    So, strangely enough , Putin might be the terrorist Gates was referring to.
    People just need to disconnect from these fraudsters that are trying to take over. All their fraud news turns out to be wrong , but they accomplish a lot of damage by the fraud and disinformation. Than they think they can just move on to the next assault, and censor and cover up the damage from the Covid fraud assault. Move on to the next emergency.

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