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Surrounded By Unfinished Buildings Constructed By Distressed Builders

A report from the Los Angeles Times. “Christopher Thornberg, founding partner with Beacon Economics said Orange County and the rest of Southern California are relatively inexpensive compared with other major metropolises around the world. Given the area is home to major industries, entertainment and beautiful weather, home prices ‘are going to continue to go up.’ ‘It’s not a bubble,’ Thornberg said. ‘Everyone has got to get used to it.'”

“Assuming a buyer put down 20% to buy a $1-million house, the monthly mortgage payment — including property tax and insurance — would be $4,840 if the interest rate was 3.55%, the average at the beginning of February. At this week’s average mortgage rate of 5.11%, that monthly payment would be $5,574 — an increase of $734 a month, according to a Redfin mortgage calculator.”

From City News Service in California. “High prices, homelessness, rising crime and health concerns are taking their toll on the quality of life in Los Angeles County, with a UCLA survey released Friday revealing the lowest level of residents’ overall satisfaction in the survey’s seven-year history. ‘What the pandemic couldn’t do over the last two years, inflation and increases in violent and property crime succeeded in doing,’ said Zev Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles Initiative. ‘It appears that the dam has burst this year.”’

From Reuters. “Major central banks, already plotting interest rate hikes in a fight against inflation, are also preparing a common pullback from key financial markets in a first-ever round of global ‘quantitative tightening’ expected to restrict credit and add stress to an already-slowing world economy. ‘We don’t want to be feeding the inflation process…Naturally a lot of central banks are pulling back all at the same time. That is appropriate,’ St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said earlier this month.”

From Bloomberg. “After another wild week in global money markets, traders are betting big on the biggest regime shift in Europe in years: the end of the negative interest-rate era before 2022 is over. The interest-rate swaps market now projects the European Central Bank will deliver three quarter-point hikes by December — winding down the eight-year experiment with sub-zero borrowing costs that’s saddled savers with financial repression and helped funnel billions of euros into speculative assets.”

“That’s creating a sea change in the region’s bond markets, where the pool of negative-yielding debt has collapsed to the equivalent of less than $300 billion from a peak of nearly $10 trillion in 2020.”

From The Week. “Surging mortgage rates are starting to test the resilience of ‘the gravity-defying pandemic housing boom,’ said Conor Dougherty and Jeanna Smialek in the New York Times. ‘Open houses have thinned. Online searches for homes have dropped.’  And cancellations of new home constructions are inching up, concerning builders.”

“‘The red-hot market has remained resistant to rising mortgage rates,’ said the Economist, but resistant ‘does not mean impervious.’ Housing prices have remained high because of limited supply, a circumstance that is largely ‘an artifact of the pandemic.’ Now, 1.6 million homes are under construction, the most since the 1970s and more than twice the number of homes for sale at the end of last year. Soon, the combination of all this new construction and higher interest rates ‘could move America from a property shortage into a glut.'”

The South Haven Tribune. “Homes sales remain strong in the South Haven area, however, sale prices show signs of falling, according to the latest statistics from the Southwestern Michigan Association of Realtors. The average selling price for single-family houses in March 2022 dropped 17 percent to $529,264 from $637,070 in March 2021, while the median selling price for single-family houses fell 11 percent to $430,000 compared to $485,000 in March 2021.”

From WBRC in Alabama. “With the housing market now a sellers paradise, many buyers are foregoing a home inspection in hopes of securing the home of their dreams. If you’re not careful you could wake up in a nightmare, in a home riddled with issues. This isn’t a new phenomenon. Potential buyers have decided to forego inspections before the housing market got hot, but it is now happening exponentially more. Zachary Ervin owns Smartmove Inspection and says his business has seen a dip but his business has been fortunate compared to others.”

“Ervin actually just completed an inspection for a family who now wishes they would have hired an inspector prior to purchasing. ‘We had a buyer just here recently that went way above asking price. They then contacted us to do a home inspection and they had already moved in, but we found major problems with the house. We found foundational issues totaling thirty to fifty thousand dollars in damages that could have been avoided if they had a home inspection from the very get go,’ said Ervin.”

The New York Post. “Alicia Keys and her husband have finally sold their 5-acre New Jersey estate — at a massive loss. The music power couple bought the property in two separate transactions for a $12.1 million sum nearly a decade ago. They first put it on the market for $14.9 million in 2015, but slashed the price to $9.9 million last August. Now, Gimme can exclusively reveal the closing price: The spread went for just $6 million.”

From WECT. “A financial advisor in Wilmington is accused of running a ‘Ponzi scheme’ that resulted in the loss of millions for his investors, according to a complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The complaint states that Shawn E. Good defrauded clients, including retirees and a single mother of young children, of at least $4.8 million, resulting in more than $2 million in losses. According to the complaint, from December 2012 through at least February 2022, Good is accused of soliciting clients to transfer funds to his personal bank account ‘ostensibly to make low-risk investments in real-estate development projects and supposedly tax-free government bonds.'”

From Reuters on Canada. “Household debt is 186% of disposable income, a level that is the highest by far among G7 countries, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development shows. There’s a big risk that asset markets such as the housing sector ‘end up collapsing as rates rise,’ said David Rosenberg, chief economist & strategist, at Rosenberg Research. ‘The bottom line is (that) central banks … overestimated the amount of stimulus that was required last year,’ said Darcy Briggs, a portfolio manager at Franklin Templeton Canada. ‘They overstayed their welcome.'”

From Homes & Property in the UK. “After we helped a recent client to buy a new home they asked us to help sell a central London flat they also owned. It had no outside space, nor did it have anywhere to work from home so in the current market they would end up selling at a significant loss. We advised them to wait until demand for city centre flats increases back to pre-pandemic levels.”

The Free Press Journal on India. “The Supertech Twin Towers in Noida that are supposed to be decimated next month is representative of the fall of the real estate czars in the recent past, especially in Delhi-NCR. The real estate landscape in the region suffered multiple blows as leading names of the trade were mired in scandals in the recent past and some of them even landed in jail. In the absence of a proper regulatory regime (such as RERA, which came later), the financial ring-fencing of projects was not proper, which allowed developers to use booking money from one project to acquire more land, which was only based on the underlying premise that the robust absorption will sustain.”

From Smart Life. “Li Huixiang, a property dealer within the central Chinese metropolis of Zhengzhou, had been trying ahead to a bumper March. In an effort to spice up town’s flagging property sector and the native financial system together with it, municipal officers unveiled an array of incentives, together with decrease mortgage charges and money subsidies for brand new dwelling patrons.”

“However Li, usually a star agent at one of many largest residential developments in Zhengzhou, has bought solely 5 residences at Sunac Metropolis for the reason that measures had been introduced — a fraction of his regular gross sales quantity. ‘The stimulus measures aren’t sufficient to offset destructive components which can be displaying little signal of easing,’ Li mentioned, citing components together with journey restrictions associated to Covid-19 and falling family incomes.”

“One Beijing-based authorities coverage adviser, who requested to not be named, mentioned that even earlier than Covid lockdowns started proliferating in March, ‘the highest management had underestimated the affect of the true property meltdown on the broader financial system.’ ‘The state of affairs,’ he added, ‘might worsen earlier than it will get higher.'”

“Advertising employees at seven low and medium-priced improvement tasks in Zhengzhou informed the Monetary Instances that they weren’t assembly their month-to-month gross sales targets. The town is plagued by dozens of stalled tasks deserted by bankrupt builders. ‘Individuals are afraid of getting into the market when they’re surrounded by unfinished buildings constructed by distressed builders,’ mentioned an official on the Zhengzhou department of China Retailers Property, a Shenzhen-based group.”

“One would-be purchaser having second doubts is Zhang Jian, a Zhengzhou engineer who final week pulled out of a Rmb1.2mn buy of a property constructed by Nation Backyard, China’s largest actual property group by gross sales. ‘I’m going to attend for the market to weaken additional,’ he mentioned.”

From Stuff New Zealand. “Thirty-year terms were also more common for first home buyers, making up 74% of new mortgages to the group over the last three year – a figure that has jumped to 83% this year. CoreLogic senior property economist Kelvin Davidson agreed increased prevalence of longer-term mortgages cut off a traditional method used by struggling borrowers to cope. He said the most vulnerable groups were recent entrants to the market, who had bought at the peak in November and December, and had gone in with only a 10% deposit.”

“Davidson said the Reserve Bank was likely to continue to increase interest rates with inflation at a 30 year high. ‘The housing market is going to be a little bit collateral damage because they simply have to get general inflation under control,’ he said.”

Related Posts

As Prices Are Reduced, Are Values Dropping?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePQUyFE6qEk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pHfSjkrBl8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfGZrBe9oQE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u_DD1o9hcs

This Post Has 134 Comments

  1. ‘It’s not a bubble…Everyone has got to get used to it’

    Compelling.

    ‘traders are betting big on the biggest regime shift in Europe in years: the end of the negative interest-rate era before 2022 is over…That’s creating a sea change in the region’s bond markets, where the pool of negative-yielding debt has collapsed to the equivalent of less than $300 billion from a peak of nearly $10 trillion in 2020’

    is that a lot?

    1. Thornberg is in full denial and at risk of becoming a laughing stock by the time the great unraveling of the Fed’s protracted period of extraordinary accommodation measures is complete…and not just on this blog.

      1. Thornberg knows which way the political log is rolling and is rewarded for walking in the right direction.

      2. As loathe as I am to admit it, he could be right about prices continuing to go up, although at this point it seems unlikely. It took over a decade of observing this insanity for me to conclude that the only upper limit on the price of houses is the amount of money people can borrow to buy them. There is no point at which the average person says “I can’t afford this”. If sufficient accommodative lending practices are implemented, prices will keep going up. The insanity level of home prices equilibrates with the insanity level of lending practices.

        1. There is no point at which the average person says “I can’t afford this”.

          And the fed is very well aware of this salient fact.

    2. “…the pool of negative-yielding debt has collapsed…”

      I like it…I’m loving it…I want more of it…

    3. ‘regime shift in Europe in years: the end of the negative interest-rate era before 2022 is over…That’s creating a sea change’

      They think we can’t remember. What did they say as this appeared. We were told, negative rates are the future – get used to it. To cover up the blatant absurdity (one of many) created by monetary policy.

      Now it’s almost unraveled. We were right, it couldn’t last. Here’s another shocker out of the easy money gusher: some day, an 11 year old honda won’t cost more than a new one.

      1. I might actually disagree. If they go through with these kill switches in new cars the used cars will be in high demand.

        1. One thing my young Rice Rocket years taught me is that just about anything, including rev limiters and chips, can be disabled and/or reprogrammed.

          You have to love freedom mire than you fear death. Otherwise, I hope your chains set lightly upon you.

    1. A friend of mine just bought a house in Bluffton. She’s been trying to convince me to move there for years, sounds nice. She hasn’t moved yet, still in NYC. On the phone with her the other night, she asked me to wish her luck, taking the subway home.

    1. Wall street traders used to have the decency to step off the ledge after losing their client’s money.

    1. We left Germany in late 2020 and I couldn’t believe the property prices. Not sure how the Germans afforded the homes considering that most of them made less than 50,000 Euros a year.

  5. “Christopher Thornberg, founding partner with Beacon Economics said Orange County and the rest of Southern California are relatively inexpensive compared with other major metropolises around the world.'”

    And soon to become far more affordable, once the Fed’s interest rate and balance sheet normalization processes are completed…

    1. I’m reading the book “April 1945” by Craig Shirley and toward the end of the book it discusses the allies fomenting a plan for war crimes trials for the Germans.

      These MRNA “vaccines” that are not actually vaccines, all those who implemented them, supported them, and required them, will face a similar fate.

      Globalists, you can’t run from this, you can’t hide from this. You have been identified (this list keeps growing), you have been or you will be located, and you will be hunted down and killed.

      You created a medical genocide, and now we are going to kill you, all of you.

      1. The evidence shows that they just wanted to unleash lethal and injurious gene altering toxic vaccines , not safe for public consumption at all.
        Its obvious that the FDA Protection Agency was corrupted .
        The Fauci killer drug approved for use in hospitals to treat Covid , was mass genocide also, and is still being used.
        And the collusion of Media to obstruct any dispute to the narrative that these vaccines were safe and effective was effective in defrauding millions into taking the junk vaccines like lab rats that didn’t know the true risk .
        The vaccines should be immediately halted , before Joe Biden and Klaus Schwab and Bill Gates proceed with their goal of a 70% vaccination rate for the globe , mandated by treaty with Countries and the WHO/UN.
        They must be stopped now before Governments sign treaties that supersede all constitutional protections.
        I believe that this was the plan all along, to mandate genocide by Treaty with the UN/WHO.
        This was all pre planned ,as the evidence shows, as a means of take over using Medical emergency as the pretense for take over.
        In the meantime , just don’t comply with Government genocide by lethal injection.

    2. The Brandon Administration – the US government – is intentionally killing people and lying about it.

      1. There is no other conclusion that you can draw but that it is intentional killing of people.

  7. “At this week’s average mortgage rate of 5.11%, that monthly payment would be $5,574 — an increase of $734 a month, according to a Redfin mortgage calculator.”

    I’m feeling tired and somewhat uninspired this morning. Could someone kindly do the arithmetic for me to translate these unicorn monthly payment increases into implied housing price declines?

    1. Note these monsters will always parade around in a egg shell of moral superiority. They are criminals and would have been widely recognized as such just a year ago. Are we just gonna let them do this to small children? Do you still think hanging is too extreme?

      1. This will either be resolved through legislation or the court system, or angry parents will take it upon themselves to resolve it.

        And with each passing day, we’re getting closer to the latter option being the only option.

        Salon dot com publishes sympathetic articles about “minor attracted persons” but we’re not afraid to call them what they are: kid f*ers.

        We’re gonna get some ropes, and lynch them.

        1. This will either be resolved through legislation or the court system, or angry parents will take it upon themselves to resolve it.

          All parents who pull the D lever election after election are accessories and enablers of this sickness.

        2. Lassie: BARK BARK BARK BARK-BARK

          Farmer: What’s that you say, girl?

          Lassie: BARK BARK BARK BARK-BARK

          Farmer: Timmy’s teacher wants Timmy to think he’s a girl?!

        1. I don’t participate in violence. But if rhetoric that the pedophile left considers incitement to violence pushes some deranged lone wolf over the edge, I don’t have any problem with that.

          Globalist scum media, go publish some more articles defending these kid f*ers. We’re gonna hunt you down and kill you too.

      3. ” Are we just gonna let them do this to small children?”

        They are being appointed to the Supreme Court.

        Marsha Blackburn asked Ketanji Brown Jackson to define ‘woman.’ Science says there’s no simple answer.

        Alia E. Dastagir
        USA TODAY
        March 24, 2022

        In the 13th hour of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing Tuesday, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., asked the Supreme Court nominee: “Can you provide a definition for the word ‘woman’?”

        Jackson, appearing confused, responded, “I’m not a biologist.”

        Blackburn chided Jackson, claiming that “the fact that you can’t give me a straight answer about something as fundamental as what a woman is underscores the dangers of the kind of progressive education that we are hearing about.”

        https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2022/03/24/marsha-blackburn-asked-ketanji-jackson-define-woman-science/7152439001/

        1. An Affirmative Action SCOTUS “Justice.” Just what we need at a time when our institutions of governance have been corrupted & subverted from within by the globalists & their Quislings.

      4. Also note how shrill & strident these globalist Comrades of Proven Worth (D) get whenever anyone challenges their agenda.

        ‘This is the way in which wars start’: Controversial teachers union president slams Florida’s so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill as right-winged propaganda that leads to hatred

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10744345/Controversial-teachers-union-president-slams-Floridas-Parental-Rights-Education-bill.html

        The president of the American Federation of Teachers (ATF) bashed Florida’s so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, claiming it’s harmful propaganda fueled by right-winged politicians that could start wars.

        Randi Weingarten, whose union represents 1.7 million teachers and has garnered controversy over school closures during the pandemic and supporting lessons based on Critical Race Theory, spoke out against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill, which bans teaching kids in kindergarten through third grade about transgender issues.

        ‘This is propaganda. This is misinformation,’ Weingarten said during an interview on the Rick Smith podcast last week. ‘This is the way in which wars start. This is the way in which hatred starts.’

        1. It’s one of the core principles of Marxism:

          The destruction of the nuclear family, and its replacement by the state, in this instance, the public education system.

          These globalists want to confiscate your children from you, destroy them with hormones, and physically mutilate them.

          It’s a war that you’re going to lose.

          1. Randi doesn’t like being called out on implementing globalist agendas. Some parents might not appreciate teachers trying to persuade their boy or girls to be “gender fluid” or some such thing.

        2. I suspect Randi has no security detail. One dad, with an abused child, might go over the edge.

      5. Do you still think hanging is too extreme?

        No. The penalty for treason has always been death. It is not just to get rid of the traitors, it’s to send a message to others that if you do the same you will no longer be among the living. We have lost the rule of law in the US, which is why all of this is happening. We have an entire Congress filled with traitors working against the American people.

  9. “Household debt is 186% of disposable income, …”

    What a horrible time for interest rates to increase at the fastest rate on record! Many of these households, not to mention quite a few highly indebted firms and even governments, are going to get crushed by interest payments.

    Got ugly?

    1. dont forget OHbahma allowed credit card companies 18 months before new rules took effect so tens of millions of CC holders were switched to a variable rate card from a fixed-rate one when it came up time for renewal……

    2. “Household debt is 186% of disposable income, …”

      Tough to fall asleep with that monster looming 24/7.

    3. These are mostly Just working class folk trying to get by too, need to borrow like crazy just to live like a first worlder.

      I met a guy the other day, working class, made a few mistakes in life but married, has a kid, in his early 30’s, earns jack squat as does his wife, shacks up with relatives because rent and housing is just too damn high. Didn’t used to be this way. Sad to me.

  10. “Soon, the combination of all this new construction and higher interest rates ‘could move America from a property shortage into a glut.’”

    It’s great to see the Economist writers express hope for the prospect of achieving America’s long-sought goal of providing affordable housing to its citizens!

    1. Yeah, we’re building the most shacks and airboxes since 1973 but every day, it’s shortage!

      1. What I don’t get is the hordes of investors piling into residential property at the point when it seems set to plunge. What is it that some HODLers love so much about buying at the peak and riding the market down into the CR8R?

        1. I saw an article about a “build to rent neighborhood” coming to town:

          LOVELAND and BROOMFIELD — McWhinney Real Estate Services Inc. will join forces with AHV Communities to co-develop built-for-rent homes in McWhinney’s Kinston neighborhood in Loveland and also in the Baseline development in Broomfield.

          The companies expect to break ground on 240 homes in Kinston and 242 in Baseline, according to a press statement.

          “In Colorado’s extremely competitive home-buying market, built-for-rent homes are a great option for those who aren’t ready to buy or need something larger than an apartment home,” Ray Pittman, president and CEO of McWhinney, said in the statement. “We’re excited to partner and develop these new home offerings with AHV Communities. They have a strong track record of creating quality rental homes across numerous states, and together we will provide new options for future residents interested in our highly sought-after Baseline and Centerra master-planned communities.”

  11. “The music power couple bought the property in two separate transactions for a $12.1 million sum nearly a decade ago. They first put it on the market for $14.9 million in 2015, but slashed the price to $9.9 million last August. Now, Gimme can exclusively reveal the closing price: The spread went for just $6 million.”

    That 50% loss would look much worse if adjusted for inflation.

    1. As I have mentioned before, I was there before the pandemic. Everyone seemed to be looking over their shoulder. It felt unsafe and dangerous, especially after dark. Sure, in crowded places like along the Thames it seemed OK, but go off on a side street and that changes. You have to go through metal detectors and get wanded to enter St. Paul’s, even though in theory “no one has guns”. There plenty of cops carrying automatic weapons. And while I was there, there were two terrorist attacks (though one was in Birmingham).

    2. Someone needs to remind them that you chip cattle and household pets, because they are property. Allowing yourself to be chipped is admitting that you are either the WEF’s or Satan’s (why not both?) property.

      1. Not that I’m keeping score, but so far the “conspiracy theorists” are up about 16-0 over the globalist-approved Narrative purveyors.

      2. Don’t allow yourself to be chipped, hacked , gene altered, surveillance of any kind.
        These psychopath have made it clear that the purpose of this technology is for a small group of private party Entities to dominate the populations of the World into high tech slavery.
        They call people useless eaters, hackable animals and free will is gone because now they have the technology to enslave and alter humans.
        They don’t want to improve the lives of the human race by technology , but depriving of life for humans is the goal.
        You will own nothing and like it. You will be forced fed chemical injections. Bugs and fake meat will be your diet, and you will be deprived of energy because we say so. Seriously, this is what they say is their intent .
        Its almost to shocking to even believe and that’s probably why people can’t believe it, in spite of the overwhelming evidence that it is taking place.
        I can’t sleep at night knowing my fellow humans are being slaughtered by these enemies of all humans.

      1. “Centrist” = globalist Quisling. European markets are going to sh*t the bed if enough fed-up French voters decide to give the financier oligarchy the middle finger by electing Le Pen – who is probably incapable of actually governing France.

        Battle for French presidency billed as a choice ‘between plague and cholera’: Far-right Le Pen is first to cast vote in nail-biting election against Macron as voters head to polls in France today

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10748095/French-election-Far-right-Le-Pen-cast-vote-nail-biting-election-against-Macron.html

        French voters cast their ballots on Sunday for the presidential run-off between centrist incumbent Emmanuel Macron and his far-right challenger Marine Le Pen.

        The vote comes after a close first round on April 10 – which saw Macron and Le Pen clinch first and second place respectively to go through to today’s run-off – and after a fractious campaign that has seen the French far right come its closest yet to winning power, sending nervous shudders across Europe.

        1. Le Pen – who is probably incapable of actually governing France.

          The French Deep State will make sure of that.

        2. As I predicted, Macron won in a landslide. Lockdowns and mandates had virtually no effect on the outcome, which was almost identical to the previous election.

          Globo Homo marches on.

          1. Le Pen is just more controlled opposition to create the illusion of choice. The entire Western world is run by an autocracy of bankers and other oligarchs. If voting mattered, they wouldn’t let us do it.

  16. Report: Joe Biden Met with Hunter Biden’s Business Partner at White House

    WENDELL HUSEB
    23 Apr 2022

    Joe Biden met with Hunter Biden’s business partner, Eric Schwerin, at the White House 19 times as Vice President, according to a new report.

    Schwerin was welcomed at the White House a total of 19 times between 2009 and 2015, according to Barack Obama’s White House visitor logs the New York Post reported Saturday. The contact between Joe Biden and Schwerin directly contradicts Joe Biden’s repeated claims he was never involved in the family business. The Post’s reporting adds a twelfth instance Joe Biden has been involved in the family’s business scheme.

    The logs also reveal that Schwerin met with various close aides of both Joe and Jill Biden at key moments in Hunter’s life when he was striking multi-million dollar deals in foreign countries, including China. Yet President Biden has long insisted he had no involvement in his son’s foreign affairs. “I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings,” he said in 2019.

    Of all Hunter Biden’s business associates, Schwerin had the most intimate access to the vice president’s personal finances. His deep involvement in the personal and professional lives of both Bidens were first revealed in emails contained on a laptop abandoned by Hunter Biden at a Delaware computer repair store in April 2019.

    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/04/23/report-joe-biden-met-with-hunter-bidens-business-partner-at-white-house/

  17. Glued over the headline on my dead tree Sunday edition of the San Diego Onion Tribune:

    “SUPER LOW FIXED RATES
    Owning.com
    30 Year Fixed Refi
    TAKE THOUSANDS OUT IN CASH
    No Closing Costs Of Any Kind
    833-209-6464
    [Really tiny print] See additional terms & conditions on reverse side”

    I hope the debt slaves who take this offer enjoy repaying the money borrowed today for vacations and boob jobs over the next thirty years at 5%+ interest.

    1. More really fine print on back:

      “NMLS 2611. Licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act. Subject to credit approval. Call 833-303-2161 for qualifying terms and conditions.”

      This almost sounds like a government wealth redistribution scheme to launder welfare relief payments to wealthy California homeowners in the guise of subsidized mortgage lending.

      1. Licensing
        Guaranteed Rate, Inc. Disclosures and License Information

        Guaranteed Rate, Inc. is an Equal Housing Lender and Illinois Residential Mortgage Licensee. We fully comply with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and all other Federal regulations. All applicants applying for credit from Guaranteed Rate will never be discouraged on on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, military status, marital status, age, or because you get public assistance. All information we request is voluntary, and will be kept confidential.

        For more information on the ECOA, please visit: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/credit-discrimination#ecor

        visit here
        Additional Guaranteed Rate, Inc Disclosure Requirements

        Guaranteed Rate, Inc. is a licensed mortgage lender. Some states require specific licensing information, which is found below.

        – Guaranteed Rate, Inc – NMLS ID 2611

        – Arkansas: Lic#103947 – Guaranteed Rate, Inc. 3940 N Ravenswood, Chicago IL 60613 866-934-7283

        – Arizona: Guaranteed Rate, Inc. – 14811 N. Kierland Blvd., Ste. 100, Scottsdale, AZ, 85254 Mortgage Banker License #0907078

        – California: Licensed by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act
        …
        https://www.rate.com/licensing

  18. First they came for the property rights of the Russian oligarchs, and I did not speak up because I was not a Russian oligarch….

    http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/peace-and-prosperity/2022/april/21/trashing-the-constitution-to-seize-russians-property/

    In his March 1 State of the Union speech, President Joe Biden threatened, in a comment directed to people he termed “Russian oligarchs,” that “we are joining with our European allies to find and seize your yachts your luxury apartments your private jets. We are coming for your ill-begotten gains.” Since then, US government agents have been doing just that, seizing Russians’ property wherever it can be found.

    Wait a second here. Is that how things are supposed to work in America? What of due process, checks and balances, limited government, and respect for property rights? All of that is apparently out the window in the pursuit of the hate Russia agenda.

    1. Russia is winning.

      Russia is fighting for European civilization and Christianity. The West is fighting for drag queen story hour and a CIA installed globalist who dances in leather pants and heels.

      “They’re not sending their best”

        1. I don’t understand the infatuation by some on the right with Putin. He’s a “former” KGB thug and gangster oligarch who presides over a corrupt kleptocracy and has amassed huge personal wealth through taking a parasitic cut of most productive activity. There’s nothing “Christian” about what he’s done to his own people or to neighboring states like Ukraine & Georgia. The invasion of Ukraine was a colossal strategic blunder on par with G.W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. For Ukrainians fighting to defend their sovereign territory from a foreign invader, I wish them all the best in repelling the attack and driving the maladroit Russian Army out of their territory.

          1. I don’t understand the infatuation by some on the right with Putin.

            He stinks. But he is perhaps the last major holdout against globohomo.

          2. This is just your characterization. This is a neocon thing, it has been since 2014 at least. It’s even the same neocons involved that brought us the horrors of Iraq, Syria, Libya. They are almost always complicit in the crimes they accuse others of. Most importantly, they are always wrong. They didn’t liberate Iraq, oil didn’t pay for the war, and they lost. Over and over they lose. I will always oppose the neocons cuz I can remember who they are.

          3. For Ukrainians fighting to defend their sovereign territory from a foreign invader, I wish them all the best in repelling the attack and driving the maladroit Russian Army out of their territory.

            If it were only that simple.

          4. This is just your characterization. This is a neocon thing, it has been since 2014 at least.

            I despise the neocons and their machinations in Ukraine & elsewhere. That doesn’t make me a fan of Putin, who is an evil bastard, or the Kremlin. Also, I make a distinction between the Zelensky government and the nation of Ukraine, just like I make a distinction between the Biden regime and America the nation. The Ukrainian government has a lot to answer for for assuring the population Russia would not invade, and for being so unprepared for such a contingency. But I’m pretty sure Ukrainian soldiers in places like Mariupol aren’t fighting for the government, but for their kinsmen, homes, families, and communities.

          5. “But I’m pretty sure Ukrainian soldiers in places like Mariupol aren’t fighting for the government, but for their kinsmen, homes, families, and communities.”

            Amen.

          7. But I’m pretty sure Ukrainian soldiers in places like Mariupol aren’t fighting for the government, but for their kinsmen, homes, families, and communities.

            The Azov battalion in Mariupol is fighting because they know they’ll die at the hands of the Russians if they surrender.

      3. Russia is getting its ass kicked by any objective measure. Can’t quite work out how invading a neighboring country and trying to forcibly incorporate them as part of Russia is fighting for Christianity.

        1. Russia is winning.

          One hundred years from now, Russia, and possibly Hungary and a few other small Eastern European nations will be the last Christian nations on the planet.

          The moral rot of The West is beyond redemption at this point.

          1. The moral rot of The West is beyond redemption at this point.

            The only people who want to come here are those who want to join the Free Sh!t Army.

    2. Due process and all that constitutional stuff is for Americans and is only aspirational for foreigners.

  19. Re: the pool of negative-yielding debt

    Translation: The Keynesian Nirvana where the landlord pays rent to the tenant . . .

      1. Re: winding down the eight-year experiment with sub-zero borrowing costs

        It took these geniuses eight years to figure out the difference between holding one’s nose one inch above water and one inch below water . . .

  20. Markets
    7 Bear Market Stocks to Buy if You’re Feeling Fearful
    Contributor
    Ian Bezek InvestorPlace
    Published
    Apr 22, 2022 6:49AM EDT
    InvestorPlace – Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips
    – Lockheed Martin (LMT): New defense supercycle makes companies like Lockheed-Martin safe haven assets.
    – Pinnacle West Capital (PNW): Utility stocks perform well in bear markets; Pinnacle West is a value compared to its sector.
    – Starbucks (SBUX): During downturns, people value their small daily pleasures. And Starbucks stock is cheap given its recent sell-off.
    – Unilever (UL): Consumer products company is going through a rough patch now but will shine bright during next economic downturn.
    – Kimberly-Clark (KMB): There’s little more essential than toiletries regardless of the status of the economy.
    – Essential Utilities (WTRG): People pay their water bills in all economic climates.
    – Diageo (DEO): Alcohol consumption tends to remain steady even in hard times, and Diageo is the world leader in spirits.
    …
    https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/7-bear-market-stocks-to-buy-if-youre-feeling-fearful

    1. Hurry up and buy these stocks at a premium right now while every other greedy but fearful investor does the same. Makes perfect sense, if your investing strategy is “buy high, sell low.”

    2. The SBUX recommendation makes no sense to me. During a severe recession, tapped-out consumers won’t be shelling out $7 for a cup of coffee, plus tip. Labor costs are going to rise because SBUX staff is starting to unionize. Last but not least, SBUX is a “woke” company and people like me refuse to give our money to companies that hate us and want to tear down all we hold dear.

      1. I already grind and brew my own coffee at home. But I didn’t argue with my kids when they signed up to be on the receiving end of the deal with people who voluntarily pay someone else $5 to make them a coffee with a cutesy decoration on top.

    3. Yeah, hard pass on all of those stonks for me. I’ll play it safe with SARK, SOXS, SPXS, TECS, and TZA.

  22. Quote of the Day:

    “Over the last thirty years, the United States has been taken over by an amoral financial oligarchy, and the American dream of opportunity, education, and upward mobility is now largely confined to the top few percent of the population. Federal policy is increasingly dictated by the wealthy, by the financial sector, and by powerful industries such as telecommunications, health care, automobiles, and energy. These policies are implemented and praised by these groups’ willing servants, namely the increasingly bought-and-paid-for leadership of America’s political parties, academia, and lobbying industry.

    If allowed to continue, this process will turn the United States into a declining, unfair society with an impoverished, angry, uneducated population under the control of a small, ultrawealthy elite. Such a society would be not only immoral but also eventually unstable, dangerously ripe for religious and political extremism.”

    Charles Ferguson, Predator Nation, June 2012

  23. A new Irish American Blessing

    May the road rise up to meet you

    Always laugh and never cry

    May the Globalists allow you to stop voting when you die

    1. Ain’t wasting money on gas no more.

      I’d rather be rolling in a F-250 than a E-250, but that’s what they gave me. It feels like I’m driving a bus.

      Zero to 60, eventually…

      2. “I’d rather be rolling in a F-250 than a E-250, but that’s what they gave me. It feels like I’m driving a bus.”

        Maybe so, but IMHO a solid choice for an electrician to be driving to and from work.

        I call my F-2-Fiddy Aretha Franklin cause it get’s a lot of R-E-S-P-E-C-T on the road.

        The road chumps will damn near hit my 2020 Chevy RST everyday out there and it’s a nice truck so I have to drive defensively, but I snicker at them when I’m in that big red extended cab long bed 250 with the 2004 patina. I look at them when they try to cut me off so they can get in my lane in their Hondas, Toyotas, BMWs and Mercedes like I’m Clint Eastwood saying… “are you feeling lucky, Punk?”

        PS

        Congratulations on the promotion, company vehicle and company credit card for gas. That says a lot about your ability, work ethic and character.

  26. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttplug, whose sole credential for his cabinet post is being a homosexual, keeps coming up with creative new ways to extract wealth from motorists while limiting their mobility and surveilling their movements in line with the Democrat-Bolshevik hatred of private autos except for Comrades of Proven Worth (D). Forward, Soviet!

    Buttigieg floats ‘monthly transportation payment’ that ‘covers everything’ to replace car payments

    https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/transportation/buttigieg-floats-transitioning-monthly-mobility-dividend-monthly-car

    The secretary of transportation says a “monthly mobility dividend” could be in the nation’s longer-term future.

    1. Translation: you lose your cars and have to take a pricey Uber to go anywhere, unless you’re willing to walk 1-2 miles to the bus stop and wait 20-30 minutes for the bus.

    2. “Buttigieg was asked if he thinks the monthly transportation payment might be able to “get us to the stars” one day — a reference to space travel. “Eventually, I don’t see why not,” he replied.”

      LMAO!

      1. Maybe the Secretary of Transportation should have some actual credentials for that post, aside from being a homosexual.

          1. Nobody in Biden Administration is anything but a tool for the One World Order hijackers.
            They are all treasonous nuts that are carrying out the agenda of Entities that are literally trying to take over most the World.
            Unfortunately, people have to somehow take back the Government that has betrayed them and has become the enemy of the people .
            It probably requires a total purge because DC is just to corrupt to function on behalf of Citizens.
            Its almost like US Citizens are back in the position of when the Declaration of Independence was declared, in which a enormous battle is necessary.
            You get the impression that the current Powers are trying to start a Rebellion by people .
            Just outright no compliance without violence would probably be the first step.

      2. “Eventually, I don’t see why not,” he replied.”

        Said the man who couldn’t fill a pothole in South Bend.

        Why South Bend residents are warning America about Pete Buttigieg

        By Reuven Fenton and Bruce Golding
        February 18, 2020

        SOUTH BEND, Ind. — When residents of this city’s impoverished West Side reflect on Pete Buttigieg’s two terms as mayor, a few things come to mind:

        A spike in violent crime, development that largely ignored the African American community and how their only well-lit street is the one that leads to the University of Notre Dame.

        “If he’s the next president, I fear for our country. He couldn’t run our city. How can he run the United States?” said Michelle Burger, 42, a stay-at-home mom who lives in South Bend’s impoverished and predominantly black West Side.

        “Look at all the crime — he didn’t do anything about it. Look at our quality of life. If he becomes president, the United States will become one big South Bend — a giant sinkhole. We’ll be in a new depression.”

        https://nypost.com/2020/02/18/why-south-bend-residents-are-warning-america-about-pete-buttigieg/

  27. Recording of what was going through a confused Joe Biden’s mind when he left the podium last week after delivering a speech at North Carolina AT&T and evidently trying to shake hands with one of his voters who had died 15 years before the 2020 election before meandering around the stage in a state of dementia wondering where he was and how to exit.

    https://youtu.be/zw-2CTx4YgY?t=128

      1. Let he who has never wandered around a stage in slack-jawed confusion trying to shake hands with imaginary people cast the first stone.

  28. Its pretty crazy, but the end goal of the One World Order, Great Reset, is that no private party ownership will exist. That Corporate Governance will either own or control all resources, and basically dictate to Government what to do.
    The plan incorporated the worst aspects of Marxism and Fascism in one package.
    That’s why one day they sound like Commies, and the next day they sound like fascist.
    This has got to be the worse mixture of political or economic ideology that makes no sense other than the will to power by the corruption of Entities with money.
    Money is the root of all evil.

    1. The 2020 election was stolen.

      And we’re gonna do something about it.

      This isn’t over…

    2. To boil it down it’s just a bunch of rich focks aiming for total domination and control of the world’s resources and people. We need to knock all of these people back a few pegs, and it starts with a massive haircut on all their stocks and real estate holdings.

  29. American taxpayers, you need to buy this guy some more cocaine, because NPC programming:

    https://ibb.co/tD5L1q6

    Sounds like a Democrat Party thing, y’know an Ed Buck kind of party? Oh wait, not that kind of party?

    Andrew Gillum? Oh wait, what party was that? He is allegedly still married to his wife, never mind all the empty baggies of meth in the hotel room.

    They’re not sending their best?

    What are they even trying to send, if anything?

    “They’re not sending their best”

  30. Christopher Thornberg, founding partner with Beacon Economics said Orange County and the rest of Southern California are relatively inexpensive compared with other major metropolises around the world.

    Isn’t that like saying a top of the Benz is inexpensive compared to a Bugatti? Few can afford either one.

  33. These unelected globalist bureaucrats want you to starve to death while shivering in the dark:

    “Italy is officially becoming the first country to start rationing energy after cutting their supply of Russian gas and oil.

    From next month, until at least March 2023, public buildings across the nation will be banned from running air conditioning at lower than 25 degrees, or heating higher than 19 degrees.

    The plan, termed “Operation Thermostat” in the press, is being sold as a way for ordinary people to show “solidarity” with the people of Ukraine …

    There’s no talk yet of this kind of energy-rationing rule extending to private businesses or homes, but a marker has been set down. Expect other nations to follow suit.

    After that of course will come the opinion pieces asking questions like “we rationed gas to fight Putin, why not climate change?”, and headlines saying that “Europe-wide gas rationing was good for the planet” or something similar.

    https://off-guardian.org/2022/04/22/operation-thermostat-energy-rationing-the-pivot-from-ukraine-to-climate/

    1. Real Journalists.

      The link from the New York Times is titled “It’s Not Just High Oil Prices. It’s a Full-Blown Energy Crisis.” And when you open the article it is titled “Welcome to the Disorderly, Dangerous World of Expensive Oil and Gas” (4/23/2022):

      “What lies ahead promises to be more disorderly — and ultimately transformative — than the events of the 1970s. This is, indeed, a bigger disruption. During the geopolitical upheaval of the 1970s, the physical supply of oil from the world’s reserves was never the issue. Now, with Asian energy demand vastly higher than it was, it is. And demand for gas and coal may well also exceed worldwide output over the next few years. We appear to have entered a time when countries will have to compete for the world’s remaining accessible fossil fuels and governments openly choose geopolitical alliances to secure them.”

      https://archive.ph/BAuD5

      Transformative? Like when King Obama promised a “fundamental transformation” that will only make you poorer and make the globalist pigmen richer?

      This article is the same stale lies about global warmism, reheated with a dash of Ukrainistan.

      And if you need a charger for your Tesla, give us a call. We will be happy to install that for you, so you can convert burning coal into electricity to charge the batteries made from rare earth metals mined by slaves in the most environmentally destructive manner possible.

      No better virtue signal that a “I stand with Ukrainistan” sticker on your Tesla.

  34. “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon” — King Obama

    Another Night in Chicago – 300 Youth Converge on the Loop and Millennium Park – Brawls Break Out, Cars Targeted, More Than a Dozen Detained – Four Sent to Hospitals (4/24/2022):

    “Chicago has turned into a third-world country. Nearly every night there are reports of violence. The weekends are turning into nightmares. Last night was no exception. According to reports:

    Chicago police detained more than a dozen people, mostly juveniles, as a “large group” of young people converged on the Loop and Millennium Park yesterday evening, according to initial information. EMS transported least four juveniles to hospitals for various injuries during the hours-long incident.

    The group formed near Cloud Gate, the sculpture commonly called “The Bean,” around 7 p.m. Police began reporting fights throughout the area and people running into the streets a short time later.

    Officers arrested two juveniles and recovered a handgun after cops monitoring surveillance cameras saw a teenager passing a gun to others near The Bean at 7:55 p.m. A 16-year-old is charged with felony unlawful use of a weapon as a juvenile.

    Fights broke out sporadically throughout the evening. Some cops reported people threw bottles and fireworks at them. Groups of people jumped on cars in traffic, too. Bystanders captured some of those incidents on video.”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/04/another-night-chicago-300-youth-converge-loop-millennium-park-dozen-detained-four-sent-hospitals/

    What does the Associated Press Style Guide call this?

    Youths? Students? Spring Breakers?

    “They’re not sending their best”

  35. Jennifer Rubin is a neocon warpig.

    Washington Post — Critics are wrong. Biden is getting Ukraine right (4/24/2022):

    “When a courageous underdog country such as Ukraine suffers devastating losses to an aggressive, genocidal invader, it is easy to say that other nations should do more to help. But what does “more” mean?

    Biden warned that this will not be a quick fight, noting that “Putin is banking on us losing interest.” He continued, “We will not lessen our resolve. We’re going to continue to stand with the brave and proud people of Ukraine. We will never fail in our determination to defend freedom and oppose tyranny.” Such rhetoric may not rise to the level of Churchill, but it serves as an eloquent expression of steadfastness.

    In our age of perpetual cynicism, distrust and discontent, it would be unheard of for an opposing party to acknowledge that an administration is doing just about everything humanly possible to confront evil. But this administration is. For that, Biden deserves a great deal of credit.”

    https://archive.ph/WPpRA

    Russia is winning.

    Zelensky is not a Christian. And if you support him, neither are you.

  36. The 2020 election was stolen.

    Washington Examiner — Big Tech censors criticism of Biden more than 600 times (4/24/2022):

    “In a two-year time span, Big Tech censored President Joe Biden’s critics 646 times.

    The censored cases, including deleted social media accounts or posts and those given “warning labels” that stopped people from sharing or commenting, were counted between March 2020 and March 2022 by Free Speech America’s Media Research Center.

    Of the 646 cases, 140 involved the New York Post’s story about Hunter Biden’s laptop, with Twitter being the most aggressive censor.

    The largest category of censored cases, however, included 232 posts that attempted to blast Biden’s handling of women and children.

    One example came from Facebook, which reportedly deleted a user’s post for violating community standards on “nudity or sexual activity.”

    Other censorship included posts that involved negative coverage of Biden concerning energy policy or rising inflation.

    MRC’s CensorTrack team logged more than 3,600 overall cases of censorship against conservative outlets, individuals, or posts across multiple social media platforms. Overall, censored topics included discussion regarding elections, COVID-19, climate change, and race.”

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/big-tech-censors-criticism-of-biden-more-than-600-times-study

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