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The Risk We Didn’t Want To Look In The Eye Before – Is Now Here

A weekend topic starting with Bloomberg. “For years, Fridays at Beef ‘O’ Brady’s, a sprawling restaurant chain in the Southeast, meant one thing: the steak-and-shrimp special. But in January, CEO Chris Elliott saw signs that consumers were feeling the squeeze of soaring inflation. So he took the $12.99 surf-and-turf dish off the specials list, replaced it with a fish-and-chips platter and slapped a $9.99 price tag on it. Even with the change, though, customer traffic has been flagging in recent weeks.”

“‘People are looking for deals; they’re getting hammered everywhere — at the gas station, at the grocery store,’ said Elliott, who acknowledges that restaurants, including his own, have also been raising prices.”

The Associated Press. “As the Federal Reserve intensifies its efforts to tame high inflation, its top officials are casting their aggressive drive in a new light: as a blow against economic inequality. Some of the most dovish Fed officials, who typically favor low rates to nurture the job market, are now going out of their way to point out ways in which inflation falls hardest on poorer Americans. Curbing high inflation, they argue, is a fairness issue.”

“The burden of high prices ‘is particularly great for households with more limited resources,’ said Lael Brainard, an influential member of the Fed’s Board of Governors and a longtime interest rate dove. ‘That is why getting inflation down is our most important task.'”

The Washington Post. “For the first time in more than a decade, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate hit 5 percent. ‘The Fed is in full-on sell mode of 10-year Treasury notes,’ Ken H. Johnson, real estate economist at Florida Atlantic University, said. ‘Last week over 20 percent of the volume in the 10-year market was Fed selling. With that amount of one-sided activity, long-term mortgage rates, which track the yields on 10-year Treasury notes, can only go up.'”

From CBC News. “There are already some short-term signs that Canada’s housing market is cooling as the Bank of Canada starts to raise its benchmark interest rate. ‘The past two years, we’ve had free money,’ said Nasma Ali, a Toronto mortgage broker. Ali says paying those higher costs is going to be ‘a tough pill to swallow’ for some prospective home buyers. ‘Now, people will think twice,’ she told CBC News.”

The Globe and Mail. “The Bank of Canada is expected to announce its first oversized interest-rate hike in more than two decades this week after hawkish comments from the country’s top central bankers and growing signs that the economy is overheating. Policy makers are growing concerned that the world is entering an era of stubbornly high inflation, not seen since the 1980s. Agustin Carstens, general manager of the Bank for International Settlements, an umbrella organization for the world’s central banks, focused on this theme in a speech last week.”

“‘New pressures are emerging, not least from labour markets, as workers look to make up for inflation-induced reductions in real income. And the structural factors that have kept inflation low in recent decades may wane as globalization retreats,’ he said. ‘If my thesis is correct, central banks will need to adjust, as some are already doing. For many years now, having conquered inflation, they have had unprecedented leeway to focus on growth and employment. … But this is now no longer possible, since low and stable inflation must remain the priority,’ he said.”

The South China Morning Post. “The past month has seen the publication of two vastly differing examinations of how China’s emergence is altering and challenging the balance of global economic and political power, China’s motivations and how we should respond. The books sit at the heart of arguments and disagreements about deglobalisation and decoupling, as well as over whether China should be regarded as an enemy.”

“As a brief 2010 case study by the Asian Development Bank on iPhone manufacturing in China showed, China found itself at the heart of a multibillion-dollar supply chain but capturing a bare 7 per cent of the nominal export value of that trade. The case showed in fine detail how immiserating it was for Chinese assembly workers to be locked in a supply chain that left all the high-value-adding parts of the supply chain firmly rooted in the US, Germany, Japan and South Korea.”

“From that point forward, Beijing began raising minimum wages, outsourcing low-value-adding assembly to other countries across Asia and edging up the value chain with the aim of capturing more value-added roles. This created the fifth ‘shock,’ which is the beginning of the end of China’s deflationary gift to the world economy – a 20-year period during which low-cost manufacturing in China kept consumer prices down and inflation at bay.”

The Asia Times. “Such a general increase in all prices – prices in China, prices in America, prices in Europe – is always and everywhere the result of an increase in buying power – that is, an increase in a quantitative measure of general money power – an increase in the quantity of money – which is in excess of the concurrent increase in the new production of goods and services.”

“Today almost everywhere in the trading world, the quantity of money has risen far beyond the needs of trade, and it may be said more or less with certainty that this current inflation will go on for some time. American Democrats and Republicans both added fuel to the blazing monetary excess that had been ongoing since the anti-monetarist policy of zero interest rates was promoted by New Keynesian Professor Ben S Bernanke.”

“Bernanke, along with other New Keynesians, greatly feared (of all things) falling prices. In addition, Bernanke seemed self-serving, as later shown by his claim in his 2015 book that only (his) Fed easy-money policies prevented in 2008 an ‘economic catastrophe greater than the Great Depression’).”

“Whatever may be the reasons for it, New Keynesianism helped central bankers everywhere to abandon monetarism, forget their obligation to stand guard against inflation and think paper money was a good idea. Like so many politicians who ignore the laws of history, Chairman Bernanke said we were in a ‘new era’ of ‘great moderation’ and somehow the old rule that central bankers should, above all things, prevent inflation, was old thinking.”

From Swiss Info. “The Swiss real estate market recorded a bumper year in 2021. The total return, comprising rental income and value changes on properties, was higher for real estate investors than it had been in seven years. Prices have been heading in just one direction – up – for years, and interest rates are low. ‘The situation in Ukraine has given us a new baseline,’ said Donato Scognamiglio, of real estate consultancy IAZIExternal. ‘Inflation – the risk we didn’t want to look in the eye before – is now here.'”

From David Stockman. “The March CPI came in at 8.5% on a Y/Y basis – the highest rate of gain since December 1981. But it was the composition of that figure which makes a mockery of Wall Street’s knee-jerk reaction to a BLS report that purportedly ‘was not as bad as expected.’ That is to say, the overall index was goosed heavily by food, energy, commodities and durables. All of these components are now soaring toward double-digit territory, yet these are the very items – as opposed to domestically produced services – that the Fed has the least influence over.”

“Food prices are nearly guaranteed to erupt well into the double digits by the end of this year and into 2023. In fact, the CPI food price index is likely to peak somewhere near the level last reached in December 1973 (20% Y/Y). Of course, that’s a whole new ball of wax for the Fed and other central banks. If food price-driven inflation is not forcefully and credibly addressed, their vaunted ‘independence’ owing to a virtually certain populist uprising is most definitely at serious political risk. The story is similar for durable goods.”

“Again, there is nothing on the horizon to suggest a radical abatement any time soon. Indeed, whatever the motivation of China’s Red Suzerains for the sweeping lockdown in Shanghai and elsewhere at the moment – a genuine fanatical pursuit of Zero-Covid or just an excuse to send a message to Washington’s warmongers – the fact is, global supply chains are being hit good and hard, yet again.”

“The Fed, of course, will say that it is not responsible for the Washington/Brussels War on global commodities central. But never mind. Soaring commodity prices will insure that overall inflation remains ‘extraordinarily’ elevated for many quarters to come. Accordingly, whether they like it or not, the money-printers will be out of business for the foreseeable future.”

“The heart of the commodities price eruption, of course, is energy. And in that case the price increases have been so huge and threaten to rise even higher that they will not work their way out of the overall inflation index for numerous quarters to come, even as their secondary effects filter through to industrial, transportation and services prices. This gets us to the insanity of Washington’s meddling in the Russia/Ukraine dispute and its unhinged Sanctions War against the former.”

“What this is doing is prolonging a destructive war that Ukraine cannot win; recklessly pursuing Washington’s purported right to determine what happens on Russia’s doorstep; and destroying the dollarized global trading and payments system upon which America’s tenuous prosperity actually rests. Yet Washington is now so invested in this wrong-headed adventure that it has essentially turned over the keys to the dangerous clowns who run the Kiev government.”

“They have been falsely turned into the very embodiment of Churchill heroes, while the endlessly corrupt, authoritarian, neo-Nazi influenced cesspool which passes for the Ukrainian government has purportedly become the front line in the battle for democracy and human rights. These clowns in Kiev essentially want the world to commit economic suicide. And that’s all because they previously insisted on joining NATO and waging a brutal war on the Russian-speaking population of the Donbas for the past eight years – a savage endeavor which resulted in 14,000 civilian deaths and which by comparison pales the current Russian-caused civilian harms.”

“As the Russians eventually take control of the Donbas and northern rim of the Black Sea, the Washington/Brussels chicken-shit sanctions war against Russia will be cranked up to absurd levels, including further disruption of the energy complex.”

“Did the Fed see all of this coming? Of course not. But in taking their balance sheet from $900 billion to $9 trillion in less than 14 years did they consider the possibility of a Black Swan in global commodity markets and supply chains?”

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This Post Has 159 Comments

  1. California’s Vanished Dream, by the Numbers (4/13/2022):

    “In a new report for Chapman University, my colleagues and I find California in a state of existential crisis, losing both its middle-aged and middle class, while its poor population faces dimming prospects. Despite the state’s myriad advantages, research shows it plagued by economic immobility and inequality, crushing housing and energy costs, and a failing education system. Worse than just a case of progressive policies creating regressive outcomes, it appears California is descending into something resembling modern-day feudalism, with the poor and weak trapped by policies subsidized by taxes paid by the rich and powerful.”

    https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2022/04/13/californias_vanished_dream_by_the_numbers_826300.html

    Modern day feudalism?

    That’s the progressive utopia you wanted, right? This is what you voted for, and now you’re getting it?

    “They’re not sending their best”

    1. California’s model curriculum, which focuses on how to “build new possibilities for post-imperial life that promotes collective narratives of transformative resistance,”

      wut ?

      1. Translation: math is racist, make whitey pay, et cetera.

        President Donald Trump was correct when he stated that “everything woke turns to shit.”

      2. “California’s model curriculum…”

        The kind of people who draft this sort of nonsense need to be enrolled in Pol Pot University’s tenement farmer program.

    2. California public schools are eliminating advanced placement classes that disproportionately benefit the white ruling class, such as my own children who all benefited from taking them.

      So now only really rich white kidz who can afford private schools will have access to advanced placement classes. Or people who can afford it can hire private tutors such as myself to help their kidz prepare for AP exams.

      1. Cue the “annoyed Picard meme” with the caption “Why the f*ck does anyone still live in California?”

        Also, doesn’t the “while ruling class” already send their kidz to private schools? I could see “cram schools” that only teach AP classes and which are more affordable than private schools popping up in places like strip malls.

        Wouldn’t removing AP classes from the public schools hurt the “BIPOCs”? Yeah, I know, using logic … silly me. This is Clownifornia.

        1. “Wouldn’t removing AP classes from the public schools hurt the “BIPOCs”?”

          It doesn’t hurt them if they don’t take them in the first place. It levels the playing field for getting into the UCs.

          2. “Won’t they likely flunk out of UC if they are unprepared?”

            If a university attempted to flunk a disproportionate percentage of minorities, its Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion would pick up their dedicated hotline to the chancellor and rectify said situation post haste.

      2. “…the white ruling class…”

        Aren’t they a minority cohort these days? Seems like the “yella fellas” have raised the bar for everyone else, IMHO.

      3. I attended public high school in California. Advanced placement courses beginning sophomore year helped me shave off an entire semester from my undergrad degree.

      4. Get rid of honors math (at least until 11th grade), get rid of SAT requirements, get rid of AP tests, and then guess who gets into UC Berkeley, UCLA, etc? The kids with the sob stories about being oppressed. Gee I wonder who they are?

        1. “Gee I wonder who they are?”

          I imagine all sorts of kids from various backgrounds these days. It takes a lot of parental guidance and patience to prepare children to visualize a future and then sit and study for it; so many today prefer instant gratification.

          1. Just like black people cannot be racist, straight white males cannot be oppressed.

            Each year the UCs gush and congratulate themselves over what percentage of their incoming class is minority and/or first generation college students (i.e. illegals). I guarantee their world view is incoming classes made up of 80+% BIPOC.

    3. “Tech titans, once focused on improving schools, now seem less engaged. This may make sense given the extent to which tech relies on global talent rather than recruiting locally. In 2018, three-quarters of the tech workforce in the Bay Area was foreign-born, a majority on short-term non-immigrant visas.”

      Got that right

      1. In 2018, three-quarters of the tech workforce in the Bay Area was foreign-born

        The UC system will become a joke, and a UC degree will have less prestige than a community college associate’s degree,

  2. ‘For many years now, having conquered inflation, they have had unprecedented leeway to focus on growth and employment. … But this is now no longer possible, since low and stable inflation must remain the priority’

    Central banking was always at the center of the CIA globalism plan. They chose Greenspan and Volcker to design it. All those US jobs they sent to Mexico then China, for decades, was them “conquering inflation!” Note the references to the end of globalism.

    This is big stuff. If globalism was the dominant economic concept for the past 50-60 years, it’s unwinding may be as impactful or more.

    1. “The Wealth of Nations” plan doesn’t work very well with hostile, ambitious trading partners.

    2. The US middle class was so strong and relatively rich in the 50s and 60s there was no way to implement a globalist system without removing its power. That’s the reason trade unions were dismantled and jobs exported overseas, along with no fault divorce and dual income households. Financialization replaced actual production. You know it’s bad when ambitious young people want to become lawyers or work for the government.

      1. An under-reported story is that law school attendance is at decades low levels. It’s too expensive and job prospects are poor.

  3. ‘Is it possible to transition to renewable energy, keep gasoline and natural gas affordable and remain energy independent all at the same time? The short answer is – NO! The inconvenient truth is that “going green” is outrageously expensive specifically because anti-fossil fuel laws and regulations cause supply to go down while demand remains the same.’

    ‘This effort to stop American production of fossil fuel also causes energy dependence on other nations. However, if consumer demand and free-market principles were allowed to determine the viability of green energy sources, the transition to renewable energy could be accomplished without causing price increases or compromising our energy independence.’

    ‘Skyrocketing fuel prices along with dependency on Russia and Iran for oil is not an easy message to sell you. That’s why anti-fossil fuel crusaders focus exclusively on the impending doom of the planet and your moral obligation to go green.’

    ‘Notwithstanding all of these concerns, in New Mexico, we must deal with the fact that nearly half of our state’s revenue comes from oil and gas production. Hundreds of thousands of New Mexicans make their living from direct and indirect jobs related to fossil fuels.’

    ‘In a recent op-ed published in the Santa Fe New Mexican, three Democrat legislators argued that we must transition to clean energy immediately in order to cut carbon emissions. They avoided the tough subjects of our out-of-control fuel prices, dependence on rogue nations for our oil supply, the intentional killing of New Mexico’s oil and gas industry, and the devastating effects on New Mexico’s economy.’

    ‘New Mexicans are being asked to save the planet while China is planning construction on 43 new coal-fired power plants, with over 100 more to be built across Asia.’

    ‘Progressives are trying to convince us that our small state of 2.1 million people, which is only 0.0026 percent of the world’s population, can dramatically impact climate change even though Asia and the rest of the developing world are going in the opposite direction.’

    ‘While families across our state are worried about their finances and wondering if they can afford basic necessities, tone-deaf Democrats are treating us like guinea pigs in a gigantic science experiment. Never mind the fact that New Mexico has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, gasoline is skyrocketing and inflation is at a 40-year high.’

    ‘The United States was energy independent just two short years ago. Good jobs, low energy rates, and general prosperity were ripped away by your elected officials. Our state and country are being run by single-focus climate fanatics intent on ending fossil fuel production well before the public is prepared to live without it.’

    ‘Just ask yourself – are you willing for outrageous fuel prices, energy dependence on foreign nations, and an even lower standard of living in New Mexico to be the “New Normal?”

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/mexicans-willing-broke-order-green-085708001.html

    1. ‘single-focus climate fanatics intent on ending fossil fuel production well before the public is prepared to live without it’

      OK so who is really behind this crap? Globalists. Remember a while back the NY bartender parroted a green new deal that would cost 40 trillion$?

      How does that look now with interest rates going through the roof? Oh but now these globalist scum are singing the “we gotta stop oil prices from going up – for the children!” I don’t now how they look at themselves in the mirror.

      1. At some point in the near future, we’re gonna need to get some ropes, and we’re going to identify these globalists (that part is near complete), we’re gonna locate these globalists (hat tip to 4chan), and we’re gonna drag them out of their mansions and yachts and bunkers and hang these f*ers from lampposts.

        Nobody ever elected these globalists to govern anything. That’s the most important point, is that they have no actual authority to govern.

  4. personally, i don’t see where all this “massive” inflation is. Almost everywhere there are 3-4 grocery stores with weekly sales, and most people pass by 2-3 of them each week. So you shop the sales digital coupons and bonus points. My mother shopped that way with clipped coupons from the sunday paper. and I guess i inherited that skill. Even if a dozen jumbo eggs are $4 that’s 3 for a $1, add in some tomatoes mushrooms shredded cheese or chopped onions.

    I did notice the 2lb yogurt has gone up 50+ cents but then i eat a lot of it. Is this inflation in, pringles, little debbies and count Chocula? The American diet?

      2. But then i have zero debt…… and i have some FAZ 3x inverse funds just in case…. living within your means is hard sometimes when i want a new video editing computer but i don’t have the gigs to pay it off in the future…

        1. It’s hard to say yer zero debt. Do you use roads? Airports? Are yer entitlements funded, or paid as they go with borrowed money? This free money was an illusion.

          1. “It’s hard to say yer zero debt.”

            Where I live a modest middle class “zero debt” paid off house costs $7,200 a year (taxes/insurance) and that’s before you buy 1 AC filter or any other upkeep on what comes with not living on the street.

            PS

            As I remember from the pre-rehab days 33 years ago if you don’t pay those utility bills every month FPL and the water company have no qualms about letting you take cold showers in the dark or (and this was why the power being turned off was better than the water being turned off) no showers at all.

          3. Money Illusion
            By Daniel Liberto
            Updated October 26, 2021
            Reviewed by Robert C. Kelly

            What Is Money Illusion?

            Money illusion is an economic theory positing that people have a tendency to view their wealth and income in nominal dollar terms, rather than in real terms. In other words, it is assumed that people do not take into account the level of inflation in an economy, wrongly believing that a dollar is worth the same as it was the prior year.

            Money illusion is sometimes also referred to as price illusion.

            https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/money_illusion.asp

          4. say yer zero debt

            Sort of like saying you don’t support the war (there always seems to be one) when you have a job and pay taxes.

          7. “Making up for lack of income tax.”

            $1,000 of that came this year in increased insurance premiums. It’s cheap here no mo.

        2. But then i have zero debt……

          If you’re a taxpayer, Pedo Joe is putting you on the hook for all those student loan “forgiveness” programs, as well as all other freebies lavished on Democrat entitlement voters.

          2. Unfortunately, our savings are being eaten away by inflation.’

            I cant think of any other way to pay off the massive debt except screw the debt holders, and probably the FED / government doesn’t either. Brazil hedge funds apparently know this .

    2. ‘personally, i don’t see where all this “massive” inflation is.’

      1. Gasoline
      2. Housing

      To name two…

      1. Home prices likely to continue upward spiral
        By Paul Maryniak, Tribune Executive Editor 7 hrs ago
        Market
        This 4,848-square foot home on East Jacaranda Circle in Mesa recently sold for $1.2 million, built in 2001, the four-bedroom, 3-1/2-bath house boasts a premium corner lot in a gated community with an open-floor plan and chef’s kitchen. (Special to the Tribune)

        The Valley’s housing market appears to be becoming even more frustrating for homebuyers, judging by some of the recent reports by the leading analyst of home price trends in the Phoenix Metro region.

        In recent weeks, the Cromford Report said:

        • Building permits issued for apartments are soaring well above those issued for single-family homes;

        • Single-family homes on average sold for more than the list price in 28 of 29 Valley submarkets;

        • Phoenix for the 32nd consecutive month led the nation in year-over-year average home price increases in January;

        • The annual average price per-square-foot last month continued to march toward a record $300 and already has hit a 20-year high of $289.76.

        • The portion of the Valley market in distress because of lagging mortgage payments is the smallest ever seen and “having absolutely no impact whatsoever on market pricing.”

        https://www.eastvalleytribune.com/local_businesses/home-prices-likely-to-continue-upward-spiral/article_de4b0834-b9d8-11ec-9c49-67d50d6109fa.html

      2. What’s really behind America’s pain at the pump
        Gas prices go up and down, sometimes violently, in front of our eyes, but other, easier-to-ignore costs just keep rising.
        Gas Prices Remain High Ahead Of Release Of March Inflation Numbers
        A customer fills up at a gas station in Washington, DC., on April 11, 2022. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
        April 15, 2022, 7:59 AM PDT
        By Anne Lutz Fernandez, co-author of “Carjacked: The Culture of the Automobile and its Effect on Our Lives”

        Every time gas prices spike, the same questions get asked: Why are gas prices so high? Who’s to blame? What will bring them down?

        These aren’t terrible questions, and they’re logical in a country where the majority of people are car owners. But the fact that we keep having these questions, decade after decade, suggests they’re also insufficient. They narrow the focus to weak, short-term fixes with which elected officials, eager to avoid blame for the proverbial pain at the pump, rush in. The president taps reserves. Governors suspend gas taxes. Never mind that these stopgap measures don’t do much to tide consumers over until prices subside.

        https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/gas-prices-record-highs-undermine-americas-car-obsession-rcna24492

        1. Hopefully they lead to a stool the following morning rather than a cow pie. That said, my fast food days are over.

          1. my fast food days are over

            Mine had been, until I moved to a place where chick-fil-a is prevalent. It’s just so easy to eat on the run!

      4. Autos, steel, services, etc. I don’t know who couldn’t see it, honestly. I mean, used cars and trucks spiked almost 50%. That is an unholy amount.

      5. Appraisal fraud is no more inflation than a plant disease that wipes out a particular crop for a season.

        I hope Ben allows this post so that maybe he’ll lead a topic on the definition of inflation and its cause and effect and parallel factors like market rigging and price rigging. One thing we call all agree on……………. Realtors are liars and every closing a crime scene.

      6. True but since everything i need is so close some months i use only 1 tank of gas so $4 gal. , is just an extra $20 or so my car insurance is $95 a month with safe drivers and full glass….. ….also it helps if the house.apt. you rent is paid off so the LL doesn’t need every dime from us.

    3. Sure, you just buy what’s on sale or clip coupons. But I have noticed that even the stuff that is “on sale” costs more than before,

      1. I don’t buy many packaged or processed foods, but what I do buy at King Soopers or Safeway is up at least 25% across the board since 15 months ago when this senile child groper was installed into office.

    4. Is this inflation in, pringles, little debbies and count Chocula? The American diet?

      From what I have observed, steaks are up 30-50%, depending on the cut and the grade.

      1. I paid $2.49 for a dozen eggs yesterday. The plain old kind, not free range, not organic, etc.

    5. Jet fuel in the NY area a year ago: $4/gal

      Today: $12.50/gal

      But whatever. It’s not like people or products travel by air.

    6. It’s $8 for a family size box of cheez-its at my local grocery store. The branded consumer items have inflated more than the cost of the underlying product itself.

        1. fresh chicken breast, on sale, $1.99/lb

          Here, only when it’s on sale. Otherwise it’s $2.99

  5. BTW thanks for the Ukraine post in this thread.

    I’m a United States citizen. I’m not a citizen of NATO and I’m not a citizen of the World Economic Forum, and I don’t care about Ukraine or Russia, because it’s not my problem, and it’s not America’s problem.

    Any member of Congress who votes for financial / military support for Ukraine is a traitor to the United States, and as we all know, the punishment for treason is DEATH.

    1. “I’m a United States citizen. I’m not a citizen of NATO and I’m not a citizen of the World Economic Forum,”

      I clicked on the video below this morning and the advertisement that played before it ran was a Ford Bronco commercial in Spanish.

      Chuck Berry – Back in the U.S.A. (Lyrics)

      https://youtu.be/2FOB0ZGRr-Q

      1. I can’t wait to see their reaction when the US drops Ukraine like a hot potato as November nears and voters care more about inflation than a minor skirmish 5000 miles away.

        Russia, winning.

    3. “…and I don’t care about Ukraine or Russia, because it’s not my problem, and it’s not America’s problem.”

      Hunter Biden’s $100k per month consulting sinecure was contingent upon your unswerving financial support. Now tighten yer belt!

  6. It’s almost like a lightbulb collectively went on in their minds that their rate suppression policy has drawn investors into U.S. housing and driven prices out of the reach of ordinary American families.

    And now they are breaking it off in investors’ arses.

    “For the first time in more than a decade, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate hit 5 percent. ‘The Fed is in full-on sell mode of 10-year Treasury notes,’ Ken H. Johnson, real estate economist at Florida Atlantic University, said. ‘Last week over 20 percent of the volume in the 10-year market was Fed selling. With that amount of one-sided activity, long-term mortgage rates, which track the yields on 10-year Treasury notes, can only go up.’”

    1. Make Savings Accounts Great Again. Or as the BFB used to say, “Let’s get interest rates back into the normal range of 12-15%.”

  7. Today is Saturday, April 16th and Joe Biden is not the legitimately elected president of the United States.

    The 2020 election was stolen.

  8. “Such a general increase in all prices – prices in China, prices in America, prices in Europe – is always and everywhere the result of an increase in buying power – that is, an increase in a quantitative measure of general money power – an increase in the quantity of money – which is in excess of the concurrent increase in the new production of goods and services.”

    Sounds familiar:

    ‘Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon, in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.’
    — Milton Friedman

    1. Empty stomachs and famine almost always result in revolution or civil war.

      “This sucker could go down” — George W. Bush

    2. Capitalism doesn’t work when interest rates are under 5%. Watch NFTs and cryptos shrivel up and die as rates increase.

  9. “‘People are looking for deals; they’re getting hammered everywhere — at the gas station, at the grocery store,’ said Elliott, who acknowledges that restaurants, including his own, have also been raising prices.”

    How’s that “Build Back Better” working out for ya, ‘Muricans?

  10. “As the Federal Reserve intensifies its efforts to tame high inflation, its top officials are casting their aggressive drive in a new light: as a blow against economic inequality. Some of the most dovish Fed officials, who typically favor low rates to nurture the job market, are now going out of their way to point out ways in which inflation falls hardest on poorer Americans. Curbing high inflation, they argue, is a fairness issue.”

    What a crock of sh*t. The Fed isn’t “intensifying its efforts to tame high inflation” – a piddly .25% rate hike when real inflation is at least twice as high as our fake, Soviet-style CPI numbers says it is meaningless when the Fed is still expanding its balance sheet & the money supply. The Fed has created the most grotesque wealth inequality in this country by design with its “No Billionaire Left Behind” monetary policies intended to concentrate all wealth and power in the hands of a corrupt and venal .1% in the financier oligarchy. Then they have to gall to cry crocodile tears over the burgeoning population of the pauperized former middle and working classes that are getting crushed by the soaring cost of living due to the Fed’s debasement of the currency. Prison is too good for these gold collar criminals.

    1. With the “official” CPI print of 8.6%, and a Fed funds rate of .5%, never before in history has the Fed funds rate been so divorced from CPI. These crooks have been exposed, hence the pretend empathy for the poor and the middle class who they are destroying.

    1. “Virologists are liars.”

      Big time! There is an awe-inspiring amount of brainpower posting on this blog. I hope some will be directed toward this topic with an open mind. Search “terrain theory” and dispassionately analyze what you find.

  12. Remember when authorities upheld property rights instead of undermining them?

    Holidaymaker leaves car on family’s driveway for FIVE DAYS after space was ‘sold through a parking app by fraudsters’ – and they are powerless to move it

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10724353/Holidaymaker-leaves-car-familys-driveway-FIVE-DAYS-space-sold-fraudsters.html

    An infuriated family who live near Birmingham Airport have claimed that they are completely powerless to move a mystery car left on their driveway by a holidaymaker who bought the space from fraudsters because it is a ‘civil matter, not a criminal one’.

    Mother-of-two Debbie Flynn and her partner Leon have been trying to move the silver Vauxhall Mokka away from her garage on Outmore Road in Garretts Green for the past five days, but officers from West Midlands Police said they can’t move it for her.

    But in a dystopian twist, they warned her that if she tries to move, she would be commiting a criminal offence.

    1. In the UK. Figures. She could just let the air out of the “tyres” and blame it on vibrants. That would be fun discovery after flying home from an Ibiza holiday.

      1. ** ” let the air out of the tyres ”

        if only it were that ez: too many . .
        govt. security cameras.
        private security system cameras.
        cellphone cameras.
        nosy kizz-azz kens & karens, eager to tattle-tale for a gold star.

        1. Disguise yourself as a vibrant. Wear blackface. Of course you can’t come out your front door and do it.

          But yeah, the UK is a sh!thole. I could tell when I was there in 2017 that it was already FUBAR.

  13. Heritage American and European couples can’t afford to have kids of their own, yet they’re expected to cover the full financial & social costs of the fecundity of the Third World imports innundating their countries. I see what you did there, globalists.

    EXCLUSIVE: Couples ‘can’t afford to start families’ as cost of raising a child from infancy to adulthood soars, costing the average Brit a staggering £320,000 (the same price as a three-bed home in the Cotswolds!)

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10721395/New-figures-reveal-cost-living-crisis-means-raising-child-expensive-buying-house.html

    Shocking new data reveals Brits could be spending more than £300,000 to raise their children in 2022, as prospective parents say they fear being priced out of starting a family.

    From childcare costs, to pocket money, to buying them the latest gadgets, raising children has always been an expensive long-term cost for new mothers and fathers.

  14. “Whatever may be the reasons for it, New Keynesianism helped central bankers everywhere to abandon monetarism, forget their obligation to stand guard against inflation and think paper money was a good idea.

    The crime of the century calls for appropriate consequences.

    1. I don’t use Twitter. I don’t know what goes on there. I don’t care. If more people were like me, the site wouldn’t even exist.

      1. I follow some accounts on Twitter but don’t have an account. More and more people are leaving it for alternatives like Gettr, Telergram, and Truth Social because of the censorship and liberal echo chamber. Twitter is going the way of MySpace.

      2. Tucker carlson’s show is basically the filter through which right wing anon twitter is filtered to the masses. And it’s the most popular show on all of cable tv. A topic you see on anonymous twitter becomes tuckers monologue 24-48 hours later.

  17. How far out into the future is the housing market’s tipping point?

    I recall it took a few months for the CR8R to begin to form after Alan Greenspan started tightening rates back in 2006.

    1. WAPO
      Business
      Analysis
      Housing Market Fever Starts to Break in Boise
      By Jonathan Levin | Bloomberg
      Today at 11:14 a.m. EDT
      An ‘Available’ sign outside a home in the CBH Homes Calvary Springs Community in Nampa, Idaho, U.S., on Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021. No city exemplifies the mania of the Covid-era U.S. housing market better than Boise, Idaho, where prices have surged by more than 30% in the past year. But in a sudden reversal, buyers are now the ones with power.
      (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)

      If you’re wondering where the U.S. real estate market might start to show its first cracks, keep an eye on Boise, Idaho. The pandemic work-from-anywhere revolution transformed it into one of the hottest markets in the U.S., but home prices are leveling off there. Typical home values in Boise rose just 0.4% last month, down from a 4.1% monthly pace in June, according to Zillow data. That makes it the first of the country’s top 100 housing markets to flirt with falling prices this year.

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/housing-market-fever-starts-to-break-in-boise/2022/04/16/f071a3d2-bd85-11ec-a92d-c763de818c21_story.html

      1. Remote work was such a fake realturd story, one would have to be a true window licker to believe that is what caused house prices in BFE Boise to surge. Nope, it’s yet another case of rampant speculation. Inasmuch as California can be blamed, it’s more a problem of them borrowing against their shack in Rancho Obnoxio and buying 2 or 3 Boise shacks. But there are plenty of Idahoans who have done the same exact thing.

        1. Leveraged speculative gamble funded by ever more leverage is what drove housing prices up to astronomical heights.

          When this all collapses as interest rates continue their rapid ascent into money heaven, I expect a harder-than-expected hard landing that none of the financial services industry public relations people could have seen coming.

      2. Just wait for sellers realize they’re positioning for the last chair left in this musical game.

        Then the prices CR8TR.

    2. Deseret News
      Utah U.S. & World Business
      Redfin: Some home listing prices drop amid ‘softening’ demand. But is it enough for a market correction?
      By Katie McKellar
      Apr 15, 2022, 1:43pm PDT
      Homes in Cottonwood Heights are pictured on Friday, April 15, 2022. Homebuying demand continues to falter this spring as new listings fell 7% from a year earlier. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate shot up to 5% and the median asking price climbed to $397,747.
      Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

      Early data is showing signs the national housing market may be beginning to soften as spiking mortgage interest rates impact buyer demand.

      But that doesn’t necessarily mean home prices are about to drop, especially for high-demand areas like Utah. Here, where a yearslong housing shortage has pushed inventory extremely low, experts have said rising mortgage rates will likely only slow — not stop — housing price increases while pricing out even more potential homebuyers.

      https://www.deseret.com/utah/2022/4/15/23026884/housing-market-redfin-sellers-drop-home-prices-softening-demand-rising-mortgage-rates-correction

    3. Finance
      Housing
      Redfin: More sellers are cutting home prices as housing market demand begins to soften
      By Lance Lambert
      April 15, 2022 5:53 AM PDT

      Is the housing market beginning to feel the effects of the end of “team transitory”?

      Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell abandoned his “transitory” inflation narrative months ago and has since steered the central bank toward its tried-and-true playbook for taming inflation: Raise interest rates until demand recedes and soaring price growth abates.

      The Fed’s plan might be working. Early data suggest the economic shock caused by spiking mortgage rates is beginning to soften homebuyer demand.

      “The sharp increase in mortgage rates is pushing more homebuyers out of the market,” wrote Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, in a report published on Thursday.

      According to Redfin, 12% of homes on its site saw sellers cut prices in the week ending April 9. That was the biggest one-month spike Redfin saw in price cuts since 2015. Over the past month, there was also a 3% drop in requests for home tours.

      Let’s be clear: The jump in sellers cutting prices doesn’t mean home prices are about to plummet.
      …
      https://fortune.com/2022/04/15/housing-market-slowing-down-redfin-softening-mortgage-rates/

      CLICK

    4. Economy
      Mortgage Rates At 5% Will Wreck The Housing Market
      Douglas A. McIntyre
      April 15, 2022 8:38 am

      Two things in the rising residential housing market cannot exist together. They are recently high mortgage rates and soaring home prices. The market will start to cool within the next few months, and then home prices increase will slow, at least in many markets.

      The home price increases began after the initial effects the economy suffered just after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The worst of it, in terms of unemployment and GDP occurred between April and late summer. As the economy stopped its nose dive, home prices began to rise.

      Home price increases began due to several factors. The first is that mortgage rates dropped below 3% for some loans which was near historic lows.
      …
      Mortgage rates at 5% will continue to rise. As the Fed ratchets up rates through the balance of the year, they could easily top 6%.

      Recent data shows that the median prices of a house continues to move up by 20% nationwide, and in markets like Tampa and Phoenix, the increase is over 25%. Smaller cities with a large influx of buyers have risen well over 30% year over year. Boise is a case in point. Officials in Boise have stated that homes are no longer affordable for many long term residents.

      The pace of construction of new homes has been hampered by supply chain problems. These, in turn, have caused a rise in many of the materials used in home construction.

      Mortgage rates at 6% combined with home prices moving 20% higher cannot last. Mortgage rates won’t drop. That leaves home price increases at risk.
      …
      https://247wallst.com/economy/2022/04/15/mortgage-rates-at-5-will-wreck-the-housing-market/

    5. Real Estate
      Hottest March In Housing History Ends With Signs Of A Cooldown
      Brenda Richardson
      Senior Contributor
      I cover residential real estate, including buying, selling and trends.
      Apr 15, 2022,11:12am EDT
      Realtors Take Extra Precation

      Last month was the hottest March ever for the housing market, with homes selling at their fastest pace and for more above list price than any other March on record, according to a new report from real estate brokerage Redfin. The median home-sale price rose 6.2% in March, the fastest month-over-month gain at this time of year since 2013, to an all-time high of $412,700.

      Seasonally adjusted home sales fell 4% as soaring mortgage rates and prices sidelined more buyers, whose options were severely limited due to a decline in homes being listed.

      “Although pricey coastal markets began showing early signs of a slowdown in late March, nationwide sales data for the full month reflects the hottest March market on record, since homes that sold last month mostly went under contract in February,” said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather.

      She added, “We expect the combination of surging mortgage rates and record-high home prices to cause more homebuyers to drop out of the market. Unfortunately, homeowners are turning their back on the market too. Instead of being motivated to list before prices weaken, potential home sellers may be choosing to wait-out the impending market cooldown.”
      …
      https://www.forbes.com/sites/brendarichardson/2022/04/15/hottest-march-in-housing-history–ends-with-signs-of-a-cooldown/?sh=51883e4d7f9a

    6. 2006 had a lot of outright fraud that doesn’t exist today. Fake Land baron owning half a dozen homes that went into default all at once. Don’t see that as much now. Lending standards are lax – borrrowers with poor credit and pending collections lawsuits are being given large loans but usually only one. We’ll never have the 2006 fraud again. Things will crash again soon but One property at a time instead of a dozen per investor.

      1. “2006 had a lot of outright fraud that doesn’t exist today.”

        You can’t really make that comparison at this point in time.

        ‘Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.’
        — Warren Buffett

        1. A fair amount of real estate comes across my desk the last 15-20 years and I’m not seeing the dozen property land barons half which were straw buyers. That was obvious to anyone in real estate in 2005/2006.

          However I do see a lot of lax lending these days with the FOMO buyers and cash out Refis. Had a guy the other day tell me he cashed out even though he had awful credit and multiple active collections. My guess is that the “lender” Probably shouldn’t have given that loan. We are most certainly in the biggest bubble we’ve ever seen. It’s just a little bit different this time than it was last time which is to be expected after all of the changes they made to lending

          1. Commercial real estate I think will be where it all starts. I live in Chicago and it’s a constant topic that downtown and Michigan ave is cratering. Price discovery still happening. Brookfield iirc just gave the keys to 900 N Michigan Ave (big Macy’s store and indoor mall) back to the lender some major ins company. When commerical implodes it’s going to be a mess as everything else collapses too.

          2. Commercial real estate was on the brink before COVID shuttered everything wiping out current cash flow. Then on-line shopping accelerated toppling many retailer’s hopes of a post COVID recovery. Work from home had a similar effect on office buildings. The real issue, IMHO, is the pension plans that are joined at the hip to commercial real estate.

        1. I should clarify the land baron type of fraud from 2006. By the end so many residential deals were fraud. Today I just see a lot of lax lending and fomo buyers in the residential arena in my area. Commercial is a different story and that appraisal fraud is well documented here.

    1. arriving in Ukraine.

      The lettering in the train station is not in Cyrillic. I think that’s in Poland, not Ukraine.

      1. Easy enough, it’s the Gniezno train station, in Poland. Big letters on the building in the background.

    2. “…M113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) and M109 155mm self-propelled howitzers…”

      I’d be afraid to ride in one of those armored vehicles these days as these anti-tank weapons are extremely lethal and appear to hit their mark every time. They won’t even launch unless the target has been acquired, first!

  19. How long before globalist Quisling bureaucrats start linking social credit scores to your ability to start or operate “your” vehicle?

    All new cars could be fitted with ‘Big Brother’ speed limiters that set off alarms or reduce engine power under plans to fall in line with controversial EU ruling

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10723237/All-new-cars-fitted-speed-limiters-set-alarms-reduce-engine-power.html

    A new crackdown on speeding could see all new cars fitted with ‘Big Brother’ speed limiters under plans to fall in line with a controversial EU ruling, it was revealed last night.

    The devices work by using GPS data and traffic cameras to determine the speed limits of each road.

    If a driver surpasses that limit, depending on the model, an alarm could sound, the engine power may be automatically reduced or the accelerator pedal could be pushed back.

    1. Isn’t technology great? All of this sh!t is a massive give to the police state. It’s not a world I want to live in, hence why I won’t ever be buying one of those pieces of sh!t cars. I have plenty of old vehicles and motorcycles which don’t report me.

      1. no worries. just offer a passing 14yr old some cash to rewire/bypass the auto security system. Yo!
        (do I have to solve EVERY problem?! yeesh)

        1. I don’t think it will be that simple. It will be part of the code in the Engine Control Module. Disconnect the external inputs and the ECM will brick itself.

    3. We’re ahead of them. Starting in 2026 all cars sold in the US will have a government controlled kill switch.

  20. The lettering in the train station is not in Cyrillic. I think that’s in Poland, not Ukraine.

    1. Ukrainistan flags are *everywhere* around here in South Denver. And as I posted on a previous thread, you know they were all purchased within the past two months, strictly for the virtue signal (and and indirect owning of Orange Man Bad, because reasons). It’s not like they already had one tucked away in the attic with the Christmas decorations.

      My personal theory, the greater one’s level of Ukrainistan virtue signalling, the further removed one is, via family or other relationships, from enlistment in the United States Armed Forces, or heaven forbid, serving in combat.

      Not your children or grandchildren, not your brother, not your cousin, not your father, not your uncle, highly unlikely any one you went to high school with, and a dead certainty no one you went to college with.

      Your Ukrainistan flag is about other people’s children and grandchildren, never yours.

      You’re flying the flag of a country that is not a United States ally, is not even a member of NATO, and which is of ZERO strategic national interest to the United States, other than money laundering for globalist pigmen.

      You don’t belong in my country with that flag, @sshole.

      2. I spent 16 years in the US Navy and my mother is Ukrainian but if anybody calls me from DOD to return and fight in Eastern Europe they’ll have to get a jail cell ready for me. I hate the Russians but I am not going to fight them for a country to which I have no connection.

        I encourage you parents and grandparents to keep your children out of the US military. That’s hard for me to say as I was a Navy recruiter for 3 years but the situation started to change in 2012 and I can’t in good conscience recommend military service to young people at this point.

        1. This ZH from Wednesday says it all: Pentagon Convenes ‘Classified’ Meeting Of Top 8 US Arms Makers As They Reap Ukraine Windfall.

  21. I just realized I can’t spell my own name, so posting to fix it. Reddit anecdotal from /r/Denver on a thread complaining about the Denver real estate market: someone posted that Denver is nothing more than a glorified version of Sacramento, which I think is hilarious.

    1. Denver is a great place to watch a real Mexican knife fight and get your hubcaps stolen. I think we can lay some of the blame on John Denver (R.I.P.) for glorifying Colorado in his music back in the 70s.

      1. I doubt former John Denver fans are the source of Denver’s societal problems.

        Aside: His nephew lives up the street from us. I keep thinking about stopping by and knocking on his door to chat about his famous uncle, but…covid!

    2. very ironic you mention Denver similar to Sacramento, as I have lived in Sacramento suburbs for decades & noticed the same trend from the posters on this blog.

      i did not think anyone else had the same thought so never mentioned it. but the similarities are striking.

  22. The Associated Press. “As the Federal Reserve intensifies its efforts to tame high inflation, its top officials are casting their aggressive drive in a new light: as a blow against economic inequality. Some of the most dovish Fed officials, who typically favor low rates to nurture the job market, are now going out of their way to point out ways in which inflation falls hardest on poorer Americans. Curbing high inflation, they argue, is a fairness issue.”

    — “Just the facts, ma’am.” – attributed to Sergeant Joe Friday from the 1950s TV show “Dragnet.”

    – The Fed is “taming” inflation? Really? Then why are they still expanding their “balance sheet” (think BS)?

    – Does anyone seriously think that a lousy 0.25% rate hike is going to have any affect at all on 8.5% inflation? History has shown that policy rates need to exceed the inflation rate in order to bring inflation down. The Fed knows this, but they want inflation to reduce debt (at the expense of savers), and to keep asset prices in the stratosphere, else stonk and housing market crash leading to severe recession/depression. Humpty Dumpty. Interesting times indeed.

    – The arsonists in charge of the fire brigade.

    – Congress will take a look at the situation as soon as they’re can break away from trading their Nancy Pelosi portfolios for a few minutes…

    https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WALCL
    Assets: Total Assets: Total Assets (Less Eliminations from Consolidation): Wednesday Level (WALCL)
    Observation:
    2022-04-13: 8,965,487 [$8.965T]
    Updated: Apr 14, 2022

    https://twitter.com/charliebilello/status/1514950494497689608?cxt=HHwWkMCyzdfcl4YqAAAA
    Charlie Bilello
    @charliebilello

    The Fed’s balance sheet hit another record high this week at $8.965 trillion.
    Also this week: US inflation moved up to 8.5%, its highest level since 1981.
    6:55 AM · Apr 15, 2022·Twitter Web App

    – “Coincidence? I think NOT!” – The Incredibles

    https://schiffgold.com/commentaries/peter-schiff-getting-the-definition-of-inflation-right/
    Peter Schiff: Getting the Definition of Inflation Right
    August 18, 2020 by SchiffGold

    “What is inflation?”

    “The original economic definition of inflation was the expansion of the money supply and credit. In fact, if you look up the word inflation in an older dictionary, you will find this definition.”

    “So, why does the government want to define inflation as rising prices?”

    “Then it can pretend that it doesn’t cause it. If the government accepts the definition of inflation as an expansion of the supply of money, well everybody knows who is expanding the supply of money. It’s the Fed. So, when you have an accurate definition of inflation, then you know exactly who’s to blame. But if the government can fool people into believing that an effect of inflation is inflation, well then they can blame it on whoever is raising the prices.”

    “And that’s exactly what politicians do. They blame inflation on “greedy capitalists” or labor unions, or OPEC, or speculators, or even some other country.”

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/it-isnt-vladimir-putins-inflation-white-house-joe-biden-consumer-price-index-energy-wages-11649792567?st=5gru2wj0qgc0rr6&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    OPINION | REVIEW&OUTLOOK
    This Isn’t Putin’s Inflation
    The price rises began long before Russia invaded Ukraine and will be hard to stop.
    ByTheEditorialBoard | Updated April 12, 2022 5:49 pm ET

    “The nearby chart shows that the inflation trend began in earnest a year ago at the onset of the Biden Presidency. It has accelerated for most of the last 12 months. That’s long before Mr. Putin decided to invade. The timing reflects too much money chasing too few goods, owing mainly to the combination of vast federal spending and easy monetary policy.”

    “President Trump signed onto an unnecessary $900 billion Covid relief bill in December 2020, and Democrats threw kerosene on the kindling with another $1.9 trillion in March 2021. The Federal Reserve continues to support negative real interest rates nearly two years after the pandemic recession ended. This inflation was made in Washington, D.C.“

    “History suggests that once inflation is this high, interest rates will have to exceed the inflation rate to break it.”

    “Inflation is a powerful political force because it can’t be explained away. Nearly every voter feels it every day. If the November elections are a referendum on the cost of living, voters won’t blame the Kremlin. They’ll blame the party in power in Washington.”

  23. Latest from #ClownWorld

    Florida bans 54 of its school math textbooks for ‘trying to indoctrinate students’: Half of the prohibited titles feature Critical Race Theory

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10724369/Florida-bans-28-math-textbooks-school-fight-Critical-Race-Theory.html

    The Florida Department of Education rejected 54 math textbooks from its curriculum on Friday, saying the books were an attempt to ‘indoctrinate’ students – with more than half of them banned for referencing Critical Race Theory (CRT).

    The agency tossed out 41 percent of the 132 math textbooks submitted for next year’s curriculum because they were not ‘aligned with Florida standards or included prohibited topics and unsolicited strategies,’ the DOE said in a statement on Friday.

  25. MSNBC Blast From The Past: It’s Our Job To Control How People Think — Not Elon Musk’s

    by Zero Hedge
    April 16th 2022, 10:06 am

    As hours of coverage and an avalanche of op-eds are unleashed to explain to the masses why they should grab their pitchforks as Elon Musk offers to buy a social media platform at a significant premium for shareholders, this brief MSNBC clip from 2017 perfectly summarizes where the real panic lies.

    None other than MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ Mika Brzezinski said the following words in her out-loud voice…

    “The dangerous edges here are that he is trying to undermine the media, trying to make up his own facts, and it could be that while unemployment and the economy worsen, he could have undermined the messaging so much that he can actually control exactly what people think…”

    And then the nail in the ‘oops, I just told the truth coffin’:

    “…and that is our job.“

    To which the effervescent Joe Scarborough replies:

    “Yeah”.

    Watch the full clip here:

    Dave Portnoy
    @stoolpresidente

    “Elon is trying to control how people think. That is our job”. 😂😂😂

    https://twitter.com/stoolpresidente/status/1515105781560971266?s=20&t=TJQoP-FTAmji5uAdm9ENqA

  26. “Landlord” is a non-viable investment strategy in Democrat-Bolshevik malgoverned cities where freeloading is the supreme virtue.

    NYC landlord says TV chef Madison Cowan hasn’t paid rent in 28 months

    https://nypost.com/2022/04/16/nyc-landlord-says-tv-chef-madison-cowan-hasnt-paid-rent-in-years/

    Celebrity chef Madison Cowan is in a real pickle with his Brooklyn landlord.

    The British-born former champ of the Food Network’s “Chopped” and “Iron Chef” contests owes 28 months in back rent to the tune of $73,700 on a one-bedroom Boerum Hill apartment he and his family have occupied since October 2019, his landlord Gus Sheha claims.

  27. Things that make you go Hmm

    by Mike Adams | Natural News
    April 16th 2022, 2:05 pm

    America’s food infrastructure is being deliberately shut down as part of the Biden administration’s plan to implement the Great Reset.

    As you may recall, ten days ago I warned that rail carriers were declaring “force majeure” and halting shipments of grain to dairy herds and other cow herds across America. In that announcement, I also warned that this was an engineered collapse of the food supply, where rail carriers were essentially being ordered to drop certain loads in order to maximize the coming wave of food scarcity and famine.

    Now, devastating news from CF Industries — one of the largest fertilizer producers in the world — confirms the engineered food collapse plan is being expanded to include fertilizer shipments.

    CF Industries: Union Pacific Curtails Fertilizer Shipments, Delaying Deliveries and Preventing New Rail Orders from Being Taken

    Thu, April 14, 2022, 1:05 PM·4 min read

    DEERFIELD, Ill., April 14, 2022–(BUSINESS WIRE)–CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CF), a leading global manufacturer of hydrogen and nitrogen products, today informed customers it serves by Union Pacific rail lines that railroad-mandated shipping reductions would result in nitrogen fertilizer shipment delays during the spring application season and that it would be unable to accept new rail sales involving Union Pacific for the foreseeable future. The Company understands that it is one of only 30 companies to face these restrictions.

    CF Industries ships to customers via Union Pacific rail lines primarily from its Donaldsonville Complex in Louisiana and its Port Neal Complex in Iowa. The rail lines serve key agricultural areas such as Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas and California. Products that will be affected include nitrogen fertilizers such as urea and urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) as well as diesel exhaust fluid (DEF), an emissions control product required for diesel trucks. CF Industries is the largest producer of urea, UAN and DEF in North America, and its Donaldsonville Complex is the largest single production facility for the products in North America.

    “The timing of this action by Union Pacific could not come at a worse time for farmers,” said Tony Will, president and chief executive officer, CF Industries Holdings, Inc. “Not only will fertilizer be delayed by these shipping restrictions, but additional fertilizer needed to complete spring applications may be unable to reach farmers at all. By placing this arbitrary restriction on just a handful of shippers, Union Pacific is jeopardizing farmers’ harvests and increasing the cost of food for consumers.”

    https://www.yahoo.com/now/cf-industries-union-pacific-curtails-170500942.html

    1. None of this surprises me.

      The Soviet Union / U.S.S.R. did this too, to Ukraine, in 1932. So it’s nothing new, they’re just dusting off an old playbook and giving it some tweaks.

      Globalists gonna globe.

    2. Well, this will put Russia into the driver’s seat: they will have ample food supplies and we won’t.

      “We’re all gonna be a lot thinner” – Han Solo

    3. JOE BIDEN Published March 24, 2022 6:04pm EDT

      Biden warns of ‘real’ food shortage following sanctions on Russia

      ‘The price of the sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia’

      Listen to this article
      0:00 / 3:49
      1X
      BeyondWords
      President Biden said Thursday that a food shortage is “gonna be real” following the sanctions that were placed on Russia by the U.S. government as a result of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion into Ukraine.

      “With regard to food shortage, yes we did talk about food shortages, and it’s gonna be real,” Biden said during a press conference at a NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium, following a meeting with other world leaders.

      https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-warns-americans-food-shortage-gonna-be-real-following-sanctions-russia

      1. “With regard to food shortage, yes we did talk about food shortages, and it’s gonna be real,” Biden said…

        Odds are nobody’s belly button will come close to rubbing against their spine at the Kremlin, IMHO.

        2. “Odds are nobody’s belly button will come close to rubbing against their spine at the Kremlin, IMHO.”

          Or White House.

  29. Re: As the Federal Reserve intensifies its efforts to tame high inflation

    In other words, the very same clowns (including our Jerome Transitory Powell) who goosed inflation into the stratosphere by their reckless fiat money printing are now supposedly fighting it like Al Capone fighting crime . . .

  30. I went to 3 open houses today in (Draper and Lehi, Utah) and one builder community’s model home. There were no other shoppers/buyers. I saw neighbors come through 2 of the open houses but no other buyers. The price points were between 900K to 1.2m. The builder’s community in Lehi starts around 700K and still not a single buyer came in during the hour I was there speaking to the sales agent. It’s becoming a ghost town – maybe it has to do with Easter weekend but probably more to do with much higher rates, rising inventory and the shrinking buyer pool. Interesting how much the market has changed in 6 weeks time. I’m seeing price drops, rising inventory, back-on-markets, less open house traffic, and inventory sitting longer on the market. Realtytrac foreclosure inventory climbed from 900 (last fall) foreclosures to 1360ish (today). Anybody else out there seeing similar trends in Utah or your individual city? We. Hopefully we can all see the shift together.

    1. Asking prices are going to have to go down with rising rates, or else homes aren’t going to sell. Anyone who needs financing to buy has a much lower purchase budget than they did a couple of months ago, and speculators not bound by a budget constraint don’t want to catch themselves a falling knife on a trip into the CR8R.

  31. How are things looking nowadays for folks who HODL negative yielding bonds? Or any bonds, for that matter?

    1. The Financial Times
      Global Economy
      Inflation surge slashes $11tn from world’s negative-yielding debt
      Central banks adopt hawkish move to end large-scale asset purchases and raise interest rates
      Negative yields are likely to multiply again in the euro area, unless the European Central Bank delivers the interest rate rises already priced in by markets © Alex Kraus/Bloomberg
      Tommy Stubbington
      April 16 2022

      This year’s hawkish change in tack from central banks is close to ending the era of negative-yielding debt, shrinking the global tally of bonds with sub-zero yields by $11tn.

      Bond prices have tumbled this year as central banks move to end large-scale asset purchases and raise interest rates in their battle with soaring inflation, pushing yields in many big economies to their highest levels in years.

      As a result, bonds worth $2.7tn currently trade at a yield of less than zero, the lowest figure since 2015, and a sharp plunge from more than $14tn in mid-December, according to the Bloomberg global aggregate bond index — a broad gauge of the fixed income market. Wiping out negative yields entirely would mark a return to normality for a broad range of big investors.

      “Central banks are belatedly trying to get ahead of this inflation shock, so the bond market has abruptly priced in a big shift in interest rates,” said Mike Riddell, a senior portfolio manager at Allianz Global Investors.

      Negative yields were once considered inconceivable, then as a novelty, and later as an established feature of global markets. They mean that prices for debt are so high, and interest payments so low, investors are certain to lose money if they hold their bonds to maturity. They reflect a belief that central banks would keep interest rates at rock bottom and have become entrenched in large quantities of debt in Japan and the eurozone in recent years.

      That assessment has shifted dramatically in recent months, particularly in the euro area, where the European Central Bank on Thursday reiterated plans to end its bond-buying programme this year, and traders are betting that interest rates will return to zero for the first time since 2014 by December.
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