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I Really Don’t Want This Property Anymore, I Don’t Want To Suffer

A report from Aaron Layman in Texas. “It’s pretty amazing to see the Powell Fed stand by while the housing market bubbles over. The median price of a Denton home soared 34.8% from the same time a year ago to $398,000. Spiraling housing costs have taken the median monthly housing payment for a Denton County homebuyer from roughly $1,800 per month at the start of 2021 to nearly $3,000 per month with the recent spike in prices and mortgage rates. This is assuming a generous 20% down payment. For buyers who have little to no down payment, monthly housing costs are even more expensive.”

“The Powell Fed spent the last two years enriching existing asset owners with trillions in trickle-down liquidity. They now seem surprised that inflation has turned into a major problem. Not the brightest bunch, apparently.This is probably a good time to remind you that the annual salary expense for the Federal Reserve system was nearly $2.5 billion in 2020. How many Ph.D. economists does it take to change a light bulb? The Fed probably has a paper on that somewhere. There are many Fed staffers who have never held a job outside of the Federal Reserve system. What you get as a result is inbred groupthink and monetary policy that is consistently wrong.”

From NBC San Diego in California. “‘So normally we would see house prices come down because, you know, higher interest rates mean that, you know, becomes more expensive to service a mortgage would normally dampen demand,’ UCSD Professor Allan Timmermann said ‘A typical household now costs about $500 more to service each month, and so that combined with the fact that gasoline prices and, you know, people’s grocery shopping trips, that everything is becoming more expensive, inflation is affecting everybody. I mean, almost $1 million for the average house in san Diego. That makes it extraordinarily hard. You can see those households are going to be hit on all sides — higher costs of entering into the market, higher cost of living because of inflation. So, it’s a really unfortunate, very stressful situation also with the future interest rate increases of the Federal Reserve.'”

The Tampa Bay Times. “‘Florida’s coast] is most exposed to dramatic swings. These communities are the canary in the coal mine,’ said Florida Atlantic University economist Ken H. Johnson. ‘They will show signs of whatever’s going to happen and it’s going to happen there first.’ ‘It’s the top of the market for sure, but no one knows when the music will stop,’ said Tampa native Patrick Carroll, CEO of Carroll, a real estate investing firm.”

“‘Florida’s economy is built on tourism and [population] growth,’ said Tampa Bay historian Rodney Kite-Powell. ‘When it’s not growing, it hurts everybody. Each market cycle offers up a new lesson, said Kite-Powell. Florida is going through a rapid upswing again. Only time will tell if history will repeat itself. ‘There are lessons that have been learned,’ he said. ‘But we’re still making a lot of the same mistakes.'”

From Tech Crunch. “Digital mortgage company Better.com has conducted its thrid mass layoff in less than five months, citing a declining mortgage market, according to an email to employees seen by TechCrunch.”

From Investor Place. “Home Depot stock has been taken to the woodshed. Shares of the leading building materials retailer have slumped 27% from their 52-week highs. This comes as investors react to rapidly rising interest rates. The bottom line on HD stock is that it is already priced for the upcoming housing bust.”

From CNBC. “An auction can act as a metaphorical real-estate guillotine, slicing inflated asking prices in half or worse, according to a CNBC review of recent sales. The three highest-priced homes ever to sell at auction each came up for sale in the past 14 months. And while each transaction carried an eye-popping final bid, the three mansions saw their original asking prices slashed by 70% on average — leaving a combined $600 million on the table.”

“Dr. Alex Khadavi, a celebrity skin doctor in Los Angeles, was hoping for a quick sale and big payday when he finally completed a 21,000-square-foot mansion that took seven years and tens of millions of dollars to develop. But a little over a year since he listed it for sale the doctor’s dreams of cashing out are being crushed by a mountain of debt, unpaid contractor bills, bankruptcy court proceedings and trouble with the law. Now he’s running low on luck, money and time. ‘I can’t carry the cost. I had to do what I had to do,’ he said.”

The Boston Globe in Massachusetts. “A boom in the region’s massive biotech cluster continues unabated. But the stock market paints a different picture of an industry that is a linchpin of the Massachusetts economy.For more than a year, US biotech stocks have been down overall, some by up to 80 or 90 percent. ‘It is arguably the worst slump in the space relative to the S&P that we have ever seen,’ said Andre Perold, cofounder of the Boston investment firm HighVista Strategies. Stock prices of many early-stage biotechs are trading for a fraction of their former worth. ‘Some of these biotech firms will not survive. They won’t be able to raise money, or if they do, it will be very diluted.'”

“Over the past two months, Boston companies announcingplans to shrink their workforces by 30 to 60 percent include Akebia Therapeutics, Bluebird Bio, and Yumanity Therapeutics. Earlier this month, the microbiome firm Kaleido Biosciences shut down altogether. ‘During the good times, companies were kind of valued as exciting ideas, and today, when things are bad, they are being valued as actual businesses,’ said Brad Loncar, chief executive of Loncar Investments. ‘There are a lot of companies that don’t deserve to be public and never did, and those companies will go away.'”

The Globe and Mail. “The Canadian real estate industry is gearing up to fight Ottawa’s plan to ban a common home selling practice known as blind bidding. During last year’s real estate frenzy, some economists and even some realtors called for an end to blind bidding, saying it contributed to skyrocketing home prices. Now that borrowing has become more expensive, buyer demand has started to wane. Realtors have described homes taking longer to sell and say some are getting no offers, which used to be rare.”

From Radio New Zealand. “Property developers are cutting their asking prices by tens of thousands of dollars as they try to entice buyers amid a slowing market. Lawyer Joanna Pidgeon, from Pidgeon Judd, said the market was getting tougher for developers. ‘We are seeing some smaller developers on-sell. They may have bought at a premium but they’re looking to because they can’t get their pre-sales. So they’re having to cut their losses and move on.'”

“Pidgeon said banks were also asking developers to limit opportunities for buyers to walk away. ‘So we’ve seen some developers’ banks are requiring them to get their sunset clauses date pushed out so purchasers cannot pull out for non-fulfillment.’ Only six months ago, RNZ reported on developers deliberately delaying projects in order to boot out their buyer via a sunset clause – then resell for a higher price.”

From Yicai Global. “E-House Enterprise Holdings has defaulted on a US dollar bond worth USD300 million, China’s largest real estate service provider said, adding that so far creditors are not chasing advance payment of its 2023 notes. E-House, which counts e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding as its second largest shareholder, has failed to repay a US dollar bond due this month with a balance of USD300 million, the firm said on April 18. The bond was issued in October 2019 at a coupon rate of 7.625 percent. Last year its losses outstripped revenue at CNY8.89 billion (USD14 billion) compared to CNY8.84 billion, according to its latest earnings report.”

“There has been a string of defaults in the real estate sector in the past year because of the impact of tighter regulation, financing difficulties and a cooling real estate market. Yango Group warned in February that it is in danger of defaulting on debt, Kaisa Group was unable to repay CNY300 million (USD46.9 million) of wealth management products in November last year, China Evergrande Group missed a bond payment last December, to name a few.”

From Reuters. “Home owners in small Chinese cities are battling a rare property market downdraft as buyers keep away, eroding the wealth of millions in a blow to already brittle consumer confidence in the world’s second-largest economy. Home owners with mortgages or those facing uncertain job prospects have already started to rein in spending. ‘I’d think twice before buying anything now,’ said a home owner surnamed Shi in Langfang, a tier-three city in Hebei province just south of Beijing. ‘We’re also not travelling, not even visiting our parents in my hometown.'”

“Shi, who owns a hair salon, bought her home a few years ago, and has been hit by falling valuations even as her monthly mortgage payments remained unchanged. ‘I worry about my mortgage because the city has been under lockdown for a long time, and (my income) is in the negative and business is bad,’ she said.”

“A delivery truck driver surnamed Sun, 36, said the value of a home he bought in Linyi, a tier-three city in Shandong province, had fallen since 2021 while his mortgage payment rate was still tied to the original valuation. ‘I really don’t want this property anymore, I don’t want to suffer,’ said Sun, who is married with two children. He has stopped buying new clothing and even cut back on cigarettes.”

“In recent days, social media posts with the hastag ‘postponing mortgage payments’ had been viewed by over 60 million people on China’s microblog Weibo. As of end-January, inventories of new homes in 66 tier-three and tier-four cities stood at 270.39 million square metres with a destocking cycle of 21.09 months, said China Real Estate Information Corp, an independent property consultancy service. That compared with 37 million square meters in four tier-one cities with a destocking period of 11.33 months. ‘Confidence in those (lower-tier) markets is gone,’ said Zhang Dawei, chief analyst at property agency Centaline. ‘No one dares to buy a home.'”

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This Post Has 102 Comments

  1. ‘median monthly housing payment for a Denton County homebuyer from roughly $1,800 per month at the start of 2021 to nearly $3,000 per month’

    Is that a lot?

      1. The property tax reappraisals are coming out in many counties. Mine is claiming that my house has doubled which will double the tax owed while covid has cut my income in half. Of course when sales prices were well below appraisal the last time they reassessed, they didn’t drop it down like they should have. It is just another example of rampant appraisal fraud. I imagine many folks are in for a tax shock soon.

    2. There are many Fed staffers who have never held a job outside of the Federal Reserve system. What you get as a result is inbred groupthink and monetary policy that is consistently wrong.”

      And these people are in control of the economy. This is terrifying.

  2. ‘An auction can act as a metaphorical real-estate guillotine, slicing inflated asking prices in half or worse’

    Wa happened to my red hotcakes California? BTW, there’s more a$$ poundings at the link.

  3. ‘Shi, who owns a hair salon, bought her home a few years ago, and has been hit by falling valuations even as her monthly mortgage payments remained unchanged’

    But Shi, this means yer locked in!

    ‘Sun, 36, said the value of a home he bought in Linyi, a tier-three city in Shandong province, had fallen since 2021 while his mortgage payment rate was still tied to the original valuation’

    You too Sun, yer locked in!

    ‘I really don’t want this property anymore, I don’t want to suffer’

    Well it was cheaper than renting Sun.

    2. You too Sun, yer locked in!

      And just wait until they are locked down. Will the party make their mortgage payments?

  4. The Financial Times
    Opinion Unhedged
    Real rates and recession
    Robert Armstrong and Ethan Wu yesterday

    Good morning. Netflix reported falling subscribers last night, a big surprise to the market, and to me. I’m one of those people who thinks of Netflix as basic utility/childcare tool, and didn’t imagine people would quit it en masse, even as other streaming options proliferate. I was wrong; the stock is getting crushed like a bug; tech investing is hard. Email us with your thoughts: robert.armstrong@ft.com and ethan.wu@ft.com.

    Real rates go berserk

    Over the last six weeks, real 10-year Treasury yields have risen 100 basis points. That is crazy fast. Here’s the chart:
    Line chart of Real yields have shot higher in the last six weeks, almost touching positive territory showing Real talk

    The move has taken real yields to within a few basis points of positive territory. For many observers, this is a long-awaited return to sanity. The idea that the inflation-adjusted cost of money is negative strikes a lot of people as madness, and evidence of massively distorting central bank policy. For them, real yields are rising simply because that wicked policy is finally being rolled back. On this view, there is not much to explain here, except perhaps why the move took so long. The answer to that question is no one was quite sure that the Fed was serious about tightening. Now they’re sure.

    Still, there is something slightly odd here. Start by decomposing the components of real yields, which are nominal Treasury yields and inflation expectations:
    Line chart of Nominal yields, not inflation expectations, have driven the rise in real yields showing Treasuries do the work

    As you can see, it is a huge move in nominal yields that is driving the increase in real yields. Inflation expectations are unchanged since the beginning of March. The mechanics are straightforward. The Fed pushes rates up, and those increases ripple down the curve (long rates are a series of short rates, plus a premium). The wind-down of central bank bond buying reduced buying pressure on long bonds, allowing their yields to rise as well. At the same time, the tightening of Fed policy gives inflation less room to run, keeping inflation expectations in line.

    This makes sense. At the same time, though, nominal yields’ wild rise has occurred at the very moment that fears of a 2023 recession, caused by an aggressive Fed, have proliferated. A recession would undoubtedly bring nominal yields down, fast. But the long-dated Treasury market seems to be ignoring the possibility.

    Treasuries are not alone. Risk assets are ignoring recession fears, too. Stocks prices and credit spreads, though they have wobbled a bit, are still very high and very tight, respectively. Financing conditions for corporations, in other words, remain very loose indeed — even as Fed rate increases have tightened financial conditions significantly elsewhere, as seen, for example, a strengthening dollar and higher mortgage rates.

    The Treasury and risk markets seem to be expressing the view that the Fed can increase rates quite a bit more before they break something in the economy or markets, and they are forced to back off. The markets may be right. As Edward Al-Hussainy of Columbia Threadneedle likes to remind us, whether they are right depends on the neutral rate of interest, which is unobservable and changes over time. We only know we’ve hit it when a market cracks.

    Another possibility: investors have been living in a dream and they are slow to awaken. Unhedged’s friend James Athey of Abrdn, speaking of risk assets, put the point like this:

    “The behaviour of risk markets partly reflects the years of learned behaviour (equities can never go down/stay down so always be long), the shift in market structure resulting from this prior “Fed put” paradigm (the rise of momentum/systematic strategies) and a belief that once inflation inevitably normalises the Fed can go back to propping up markets.”
    …

    1. I cancelled it last year after they claimed that kiddie porn was mainstream. But to be fair, most streaming channels are purveyors of sludge.

    2. from 52 week range ($700 to $219) – nope there was not irrationally in the market with every major broker, investment house, and pension fund, accurately analyzing the ‘fundamentals’

      If they get it wrong on this, what are the chances that they get commercial REIT, MBS’es and other things (that are not widely followed) wrong as well.

  5. ‘ US biotech stocks have been down overall, some by up to 80 or 90 percent. ‘It is arguably the worst slump in the space relative to the S&P that we have ever seen,’ said Andre Perold, cofounder of the Boston investment firm HighVista Strategies. Stock prices of many early-stage biotechs are trading for a fraction of their former worth. ‘Some of these biotech firms will not survive. They won’t be able to raise money, or if they do, it will be very diluted’

    ‘Over the past two months, Boston companies announcingplans to shrink their workforces by 30 to 60 percent…Earlier this month, the microbiome firm Kaleido Biosciences shut down altogether’

    Layoffs, in Boston?

    ‘During the good times, companies were kind of valued as exciting ideas, and today, when things are bad, they are being valued as actual businesses,’ said Brad Loncar, chief executive of Loncar Investments. ‘There are a lot of companies that don’t deserve to be public and never did, and those companies will go away’

    Classic bubble stupidity and mouths hanging open when it implodes.

    1. During the good times, companies were kind of valued as exciting ideas, and today, when things are bad, they are being valued as actual businesses

      Like vaccine-induced “immunity,” that didn’t last long.

    1. “…You will own nothing…”

      You will own nothing, You will eat bugs, You will all be issued cocoons for sleeping, and at precisely Noon time ever day You will orient yourself to the NorthStar and be thankful.

      1. so we’ll all be pretty much magnetic armadillo’s?
        ok by me. anything, ANYTHING to escxape the mother in law

  7. ‘Florida’s economy is built on tourism and [population] growth,’ said Tampa Bay historian Rodney Kite-Powell. ‘When it’s not growing, it hurts everybody’

    And wig sales, don’t forget those Rodney.

  8. ‘Property developers are cutting their asking prices by tens of thousands of dollars as they try to entice buyers amid a slowing market. Lawyer Joanna Pidgeon, from Pidgeon Judd, said the market was getting tougher for developers. ‘We are seeing some smaller developers on-sell. They may have bought at a premium but they’re looking to because they can’t get their pre-sales. So they’re having to cut their losses and move on’

    This does what to recent buyers?

    ‘Only six months ago, RNZ reported on developers deliberately delaying projects in order to boot out their buyer via a sunset clause – then resell for a higher price’

    Winnahs!

  9. ‘I mean, almost $1 million for the average house in san Diego. That makes it extraordinarily hard. You can see those households are going to be hit on all sides — higher costs of entering into the market, higher cost of living because of inflation. So, it’s a really unfortunate, very stressful situation also with the future interest rate increases of the Federal Reserve’

    These are winnahs! Allan, they can always sell. Have you tried eating bugs?

    2. “These are winnahs! Allan, they can always sell. Have you tried eating bugs?”

      Crow and CraterTaters are the main course for DebtDonkeys. Can we get some foot stamping from the herd this morning?

      San Diego, CA Housing Prices Crater 12% YOY As Inventory Soars Triple Digits

      https://www.movoto.com/ca/92110/market-trends/

  10. “You can see those households are going to be hit on all sides — higher costs of entering into the market, higher cost of living because of inflation. So, it’s a really unfortunate, very stressful situation also with the future interest rate increases of the Federal Reserve.’”

    Sounds to me like a market about to CR8R. But you may want to fade my stopped clock prediction…they don’t call me Professor Bear for nothing.

  11. The Atlantic — Trump Supporters Explain Why They Believe the Big Lie (4/18/2022):

    “Some 35 percent of Americans—including 68 percent of Republicans—believe the Big Lie, pushed relentlessly by former President Donald Trump and amplified by conservative media, that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. They think that Trump was the true victor and that he should still be in the White House today.

    I regularly host focus groups to better understand how voters are thinking about key political topics. Recently, I decided to find out why Trump 2020 voters hold so strongly to the Big Lie.

    For many of Trump’s voters, the belief that the election was stolen is not a fully formed thought. It’s more of an attitude, or a tribal pose. They know something nefarious occurred but can’t easily explain how or why. What’s more, they’re mystified and sometimes angry that other people don’t feel the same.”

    https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/04/trump-voters-big-lie-stolen-election/629572/

    The name of the writer who authored this piece is Sarah Longwell, who’s author bio states is “is the executive director of Republicans for the Rule of Law, publisher of The Bulwark, and host of the Focus Group podcast.”

    The Bulwark is what replaced neocon William Kristol’s publication the Weekly Standard when it collapsed due to lack of readership or subscriptions.

    The Bulwark, and the Lincoln Project, are the ideological home of N.A.M.B.L.A. Republicans, adult men who prey on underage boys.

    Their sexual deviancy is so depraved that even the New York Times was forced to report on it:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/31/us/politics/john-weaver-lincoln-project-harassment.html

    The 2020 election was, in fact, stolen.

    “They’re not sending their best”

    1. The real “Big Lie” is that a senile 47-year career crony capitalist and his intensely unpopular diversity-hire VP could ever get 81 million legitimate votes.

      2. I’m not saying there was no election fraud, especially in a few carefully selected cities, but you are seriously underestimating the stupidity of 50% of this country.

        1. The fraud was not stuffing ballots into boxes with no voters (or dead voters) attached. The fraud was bypassing state election laws about in person voting by mailing ballots out to everyone. Now you may agree or disagree that “everyone should vote” and that “enabling everyone to vote” is a good or bad thing. But what you basically can’t dispute is that according to various state constitutions, it was illegal to do so without acts by the legislatures, and in some cases, acts by the public to pass state constitutional amendments.

          Now you can say “it was an emergency” because of covid, but the state laws and constitutions make provision for which powers are reserved to the various executive branches and departments, and these powers to change voting processes are simply not allowed.

          Saying “there was no evidence of dead people voting” and therefore no fraud is your basic everyday strawman set up to knock down the fraud elephant in the room.

          I will even go far as to say *maybe* the election with mail in ballots was “more fair” and representative of the general will of the people. But what it still wasn’t was legal. And that is the fraud.

          1. And of course the numerous other frauds of ballot harvesting, fake ballots, forged ballots and election night counting frauds. It was a free-for-all.

        2. you are seriously underestimating the stupidity of 50% of this country.
          I am in total agreement. The American public is that stupid.

    2. ” the Big Lie, pushed relentlessly by former President Donald Trump and amplified by conservative media… the belief that the election was stolen is not a fully formed thought. It’s more of an attitude, or a tribal pose. They know something nefarious occurred but can’t easily explain how or why.”

      🙄 These folks would drink the Kool-aid even if they knew it was poisoned.

    2. WTOP radio interviewed Leana Wen (one of Klaus’s honeys) again last night, and she was saying things like “Just because you’re not required to mask, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t anyway. And we know that cloth masks are not effective. Look for a mask with KN 98, etc…”

      Pandemic’s over, dear.

      1. Pandemic’s over, dear.

        It was never really here for me. I never caught this death germ, ‘cept for that nasty cold a couple years ago. Maybe that was it, don’t know. But anyway, my life never changed aside from a face hanky forced upon me. Oh, and the FED’s retarded inflation.

    4. Perhaps these Libtards can take their own advice and start their own airline and run it as they see fit.

      You know? Muh freedom!

  13. Diversity is our strength.

    Serial shoplifter charged with arson for trying to cover up his Home Depot tool heist by setting a massive five-alarm fire that razed the California store and sent hundreds fleeing for cover

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10733743/Man-charged-setting-fire-California-Home-Depot.html

    A man was charged with Arson Tuesday for setting a fire that gutted a Northern California Home Depot, prompting hundreds to flee and filling the sky with smoke.

    Dyllin Jaycruz Gogue, 27, of San Jose, was trying to cover up a theft of tools, authorities said.

    1. Dyllin Jaycruz Gogue

      arrest the mother for that stupid word salad name that probably made him insane in the membrane.

      she obviously missed the memo to just add a ” Le ” or

    2. Dyllin Jaycruz Gogue, 27 (pictured), was arrested after starting a fire that leveled a San Jose Home Depot, causing $17,000 in damage

      $17K in damage? So then it only burned the cull lumber pile.

      1. Given the low spec/no spec nature of everything they sell, it was likely the entire building.

  14. Gosh, I hope soaring inflation doesn’t make it harder for Aussie FBs to cover their mortgages.

    Australian shoppers could soon be hit with grocery, produce price increases

    https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/australian-shoppers-could-soon-be-hit-with-grocery-produce-price-increases/news-story/96992a31e5b018df9308ee7a34df43c8

    Aussie shoppers could soon see a fresh hike in their grocery bills as some manufacturers face cost increases of up to 700 per cent.

    1. rise in grocery prices!? just be thankful that yer not here in the states where they been a’warning us for a long time that any attempt to slow the flood of illegals would mean $5 toe-mahtos! crikey

      (I love Love LOVE how the country videos always have some guitar picken sap crooning about the “good ol days” while driving some nostalgic beater truck.
      are.you.KIDDING.ME?! I’ve never seen any farmer driving anything older than a 2yr old shiny gigantic amurican gas guzzler. and I’ve been here in the Sacramento Valley for over 40 years. among the peach farmers. almond growers. mary jane farmers etc)

      1. My grandfather was a farmer and he drove a beater truck. When I was a tyke he even delivered a load of fresh horseh$t to our backyard garden. The peppers went nuts and the neighbors were jealous.

  15. Yellen the Felon is crying crocodile tears over the inflation she herself is mainly responsible for creating through the Fed’s deranged money printing and Brandon’s fiscal recklessness.

    Yellen warns 10 million more people face poverty due to higher food prices

    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/yellen-warns-10-million-more-people-face-poverty-due-to-higher-food-prices-2022-04-19

    U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday is warning that Russia’s war on Ukraine “further exacerbates pre-existing price and food supply pressures,” and she is calling for concrete actions by international financial institutions that would deliver an effective response to the problem. “Early estimates suggest that at least 10 million more people could be pushed into poverty due to higher food prices alone,” Yellen is slated to say, according to her prepared remarks at a Treasury Department event titled “Tackling Food Insecurity: The Challenge and Call to Action.”

    1. “Brandon’s fiscal recklessness.”

      How was Trump in this area? Be honest, if at all possible.

          1. ppsf is meaningless unless you’re estimating and bidding work. Houses aren’t bought and sold by the square foot. They depreciate too rapidly and are simply a commodity after they’re constructed.

            The good news is prices fell 27%…… and cratering fast!

      2. Check out the days on market!! WOW

        “Median Days on Market
        7,788 ”

        That movoto website is garbage.

  18. Fake news purveyor CNN is discovering that consumers are refusing to pay for globalist propaganda & DNC talking points packaged as “news.”

    ‘Doomed’ CNN+ is ‘under review’ after just 150,000 signed up: New bosses at Warner Bros Discovery ‘fire network’s CFO and halt all marketing spending for the struggling streaming service’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10733291/CNN-review-appears-doomed-just-150-000-signed-up.html

    The struggling news streaming service CNN+ appears doomed as bosses at its newly formed parent company slash its marketing budget and consider rolling the infant service into HBO Max, according to a new report.

    CNN parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, which formed through a merger earlier this month, has slashed all external marketing spending for the fledgling CNN+ service, Axios reported on Tuesday.

    1. Chris Wallace needs to change the name of his show from “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” to “Who’s Listening to Chris Wallace?”.

      I really, really, really, really hope Chris understands that this epic failure has nothing to do with him, “one of the most highly-respected journalists of our time”. LOL

    1. What are PETA peops gonna do… stage a protest in locked down Shanghai?

      It sounds like an epically bad time for sacrificial Chinese cats.

      2. It’s barbaric. But we’re supposed to work up a big boo hoo when Russia is doing us all a favor and taking out the natzi trash.

        Here’s a fun little known fact about CCP virus and animals. After the SHTF, the USAns decided to go over there and kill 80,000 wild animals in the Chinese caves to test them for said virus. Not one had the virus or anything with genetics to even be close. One would think if the CCP virus jumped from a cave wombat to a human there would be some trace of the genetic profile in the 80k dead cave dwellers. Nope. The caves of China are CCP virus free. So where did it come from?

        1. So where did it come from?

          There’s a meme that shows the cast of characters with their roles. If I come across it again, I’ll post.

    1. ** “As one Ventura seller lamented, “Whenever I think about how much money I lost on this house I just want to kill myself.”

      now be sure & ;eff it up 1000%, ya’ weak dumbazzz and NOT leave a will, so the legal industry can milk your estate to death.

    2. Santa Paula, CA
      lots of new homes along hwy 126 but where will they work to make that kind of money ? Government center ?

        1. commuters think all those freeways numbers are the combination to a locked safe containing your freedom

  21. I think a lot of this (most?) is refinance) – but still – 50% drop from last year. Is this were animal spirits (or realtor promises) that is slowly deflating in the residential RE market?


    Mortgage demand continued to crumble last week, as mortgage rates climbed to their highest level since 2010. Total application volume fell 5% last week compared with the previous week and was nearly half of what it was one year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index.

    The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($647,200 or less) increased to 5.20% last week from 5.13%, with points rising to 0.66 from 0.63 (including the origination fee) for loans with a 20% down payment. One year ago, the rate was exactly 200 basis points lower at 3.20%.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/20/mortgage-demand-falls-to-nearly-half-of-what-it-was-a-year-ago.html

    1. oops spoke too soon. NAR is claiming that the market is still frenzied … In the WSJ yet …


      U.S. home prices reached a record $375,300 in March as mortgage-interest rates shot up and a shortage of homes for sale continued to thwart buyers.

      The jump in prices came as sales of previously owned homes declined in March.

      Existing-home sales fell 2.7% in March from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.77 million, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday. March sales fell 4.5% from a year earlier.

      The median existing-home price rose 15% in March from a year earlier, NAR said. The $375,300 figure is a record high in data going back to 1999.
      ….
      But the market is still frenzied, she said, as buyers rush to lock in purchases in case mortgage rates rise even more. “It is like fighting tooth and nail right now. It is super competitive,” she said.

      There were 950,000 homes for sale at the end of March, up 11.8% from February and down 9.5% from March 2021, NAR said. At the current sales pace, there was a 2.0-month supply of homes on the market at the end of March.

      https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-home-prices-hit-a-record-of-375-300-in-march-11650463861

    2. Mortgage demand continued to crumble last week
      For 2023 vs 2021 forecasted originated volume drops are:
      MBA 38%
      Freddie 42%
      Fannie 46% (if I recall correctly)
      Average forecast of 42%.
      If I were still planning and forecasting at my TBTF bank we would be using 42% as our starting point for forecasting/planning 2023. This 42% reduction would be not only volume but FTEs and revenue as well.
      It will be very very ugly out there.

  22. As many here predicted: The Australian PM just said that if you had adverse jab reactions, that you made the choice to get jabbed, and it’s not the gooberment and its “no jab, no job” mandates who are to blame.

    2. If I had been forced to get the jab, had an adverse reaction, and then heard that from my dear leader, I’d be buying enough fertilizer to fill a Uhaul truck.

      1. speaking of fertilizer, the pool chlorine tab buckets have gotten so small, that every time I have to buy 2-3 buckets from Leslie’s, I anticipate a door knock from homeland security

        (THEN you’ll see a REAL Friday desk clearing)!

      2. There are millions of lone wolves out there with nothing to lose.

        Glowies gonna glow, but if a hypothetical person with hypothetically had nothing to lose, I would imagine they could hypothetically play out such a scenario all within the confines of a fictional game of Minecraft (hat tip to 4chan).

        See also: The Atlantic article posted above.

    3. When the long term jab effects kick in and people left and right start dying of cancer, we will be told that:
      1) No one could have seen it coming (plus you decided to get jabbed)
      2) Its good that it happened. The depopulation, while tragic, will save the Earth from climate change and other myths.

      1. “start dying of cancer”

        If you get diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, go rent the truck, fill it with fertilizer and other goodies, drive it into the highest concentration of Twitter Blue Checkmarks you can find, light the fuse, and go get your 72 virgins in the afterlife.

        “This sucker could go down”

  25. Former Intel Officials Beg Congress To Preserve Big Tech Monopoly Power To Combat Russia ‘Disinformation’

    by Jamie White
    April 20th 2022, 5:17 pm

    “In the face of tgrowing threats, U.S. policymakers must not inadvertently hamper the ability of U.S. technology platforms to counter increasing disinformation and cybersecurity risks, particularly as the West continues to rely on the scale and reach of these firms to push back on the Kremlin,” the officials wrote.

    “But recently proposed congressional legislation would unintentionally curtail the ability of these platforms to target disinformation efforts and safeguard the security of their users in the U.S. and globally.”

    These Deep State officials then call on numerous congressional committees with close ties to the national security state to review all legislation that seek to break up Big Tech or promote market competition in the social media space.

    Journalist Glenn Greenwald noted in his SubStack on Wednesday that these officials have a vested financial and political interest to protect Big Tech’s “stranglehold on political discourse”, and their letter is a blatant “act of desperation.”

    Needless to say, the U.S. security state wants to maintain a stranglehold on political discourse in the U.S. and the world more broadly. They want to be able to impose propagandistic narratives without challenge and advocate for militarism without dissent. To accomplish that, they need a small handful of corporations which are subservient to them to hold in their hands as much concentrated power over the internet as possible.

    It’s critical to note that several of these officials, including former National Security Agency chief James Clapper, former CIA/Pentagon director Leon Panetta, and former acting CIA chief Mike Morell were among the 50 intelligence officials who falsely claimed in October 2020 that the Hunter Biden laptop story was “Russian disinformation.”

    http://www.infowars.com/posts/former-intel-officials-beg-congress-to-preserve-big-tech-monopoly-power-to-combat-russia-disinformation/

  26. Wouldju ruther HODL Chinese debt about to default or US debt bearing positive real yields?

    1. The Financial Times
      Chinese business & finance
      Foreign investors ditch Chinese debt at record pace as US yields soar
      Outflow of onshore bonds hits $18bn on concerns about Beijing’s economic outlook
      People on motorcycles drive through Beijing at rush hour
      Overseas investors have turned to the Chinese bond market for years for fixed-income returns while western economies embraced quantitative easing and record-low borrowing costs. That dynamic is now reversing © Mark Schiefelbein/AP
      Hudson Lockett and Thomas Hale in Hong Kong 6 hours ago

      Foreign investors ditched a record $18bn worth of renminbi-denominated debt last month, with selling accelerating as soaring US bond yields dulled the allure of holding Chinese debt.

      Offshore investors sold a net Rmb113bn ($17.6bn) worth of Chinese onshore bonds in March, according to Financial Times calculations based on data from Hong Kong’s Bond Connect investment programme. That took outflows over the past two months to Rmb193bn as concerns mounted over China’s economic growth outlook and the debt’s diminishing yield advantage over bonds denominated in US dollars.

      “These are by far the greatest outflows since China began opening up its domestic bond market,” said Becky Liu, head of China macro strategy at Standard Chartered, adding that when combined with net selling of stocks, foreign investors had dumped a total of about Rmb234bn in Chinese securities over the past two months. She said the bank expected “persistent outflows” in the second quarter.

      Overseas investors have turned to the Chinese bond market for years as a source of juicy fixed-income returns while western economies embraced quantitative easing and record-low borrowing costs. That dynamic is now reversing, as western central banks raise rates and China seeks to mitigate the economic disruption of lockdowns to contain worsening Covid-19 outbreaks.

      Expectations of rate rises from the Federal Reserve as it combats surging inflation have pushed up the 10-year US Treasury yield to 2.9 per cent this week, while anticipated easing by the People’s Bank of China has kept the Chinese 10-year yield anchored at about 2.8 per cent in recent sessions. US yields have not exceeded those provided by holding riskier Chinese sovereign debt in 12 years.

      The divergence in policy is also hitting China’s currency, with the renminbi falling on Wednesday to its lowest point against the dollar since October 2021.
      …

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