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It Is As If Increase Of Appetite Had Grown By What It Fed On

A weekend topic starting with Yahoo Finance. “I was talking to a high-profile Wall Street strategist the other day who told me she and her husband were house-hunting in the Hamptons. They saw a place they liked, but the asking price was too high. ‘It was as if the downturn in the stock market hadn’t happened,’ the strategist related. ‘I told the broker: ‘I’m paying what this house was worth back in February 2020, because that’s what it’s worth now.’”

“A provocative take, and one worth considering. The strategist is suggesting that a surge in the price of everything from stocks to crypto to real estate was a one-off that came and is now gone. ‘We believe what’s gone on in the market in the first six months of this year, and what will go on for maybe another year to year and a half, is bear market punishment for the ridiculous financial euphoria,’ says Bill Smead, chairman of Smead Capital Management.”

The New Herald in Michigan. “Doris LaBeau, broker at Re-Max Masters in Flat Rock and a 49-year real estate veteran, said the market for home sales is resetting, with economic conditions and social forces shaping the changes. ‘Those who are just starting will have more patience, maybe, because they haven’t been in the battle to date. I do believe there will be sellers having remorse because they didn’t jump on the market earlier, so there may be increased supply coming throughout the summer.'”

The Denver Channel in Colorado. “The number of homes and condos up for sale in the Denver metro rose by nearly two-thirds from May to June and the number of properties available on the market grew by nearly twice from a year ago, according to the Denver Metro Association of Realtors. ‘I think we’ll continue to see more inventory, prices slowing, higher days in the MLS and more adjustments with that,’ Abrams told Denver7, adding buyers have more negotiating power at the moment with the way things are going.”

“For those selling in this market? ‘As a seller, you need to reset those expectations because you’re no longer shooting for the moon on the top of the price you can get, you have to come back to reality a little bit,’ Abrams said.”

The Ahwatukee Foothills News in Arizona. “The Valley’s leading analyst of the Phoenix Metro housing market last week predicted that the entire region could see a balanced market – with supply meeting demand – by September. Buckeye is almost there, according to the Cromford Report, and likely will be the first to achieve this month what the Valley hasn’t seen in more than three years anywhere. ‘Queen Creek and Maricopa are about one week behind Buckeye. We then have Cave Creek, Chandler, Gilbert, Peoria, Phoenix, Surprise and Tempe all in a similar condition. Their markets are cooling rapidly and look likely to move into the balance zone within a matter of weeks rather than months. Unless the current trends change, we could be in a buyer’s market across much of Central Arizona by the beginning of September.'”

“While a sudden flood of new listings might be welcome by prospective buyers, the Cromford Report said they may be in for more heartache – and that sellers will be grabbing their crying towels along with them. ‘The last two months have been dismal for the Greater Phoenix housing market, with demand fading sharply and supply growing at one of the fastest paces we have ever witnessed,’ the Cromford Report said. ‘Either trend would have been negative but with both coming together, we have had a very chilly wind blowing through the market.'”

“‘For many weeks, we have been looking for some convincing sign of the relaxation of one or both of these trends,’ it continued. ‘We have not found any. Instead, over the last week, the situation has turned significantly worse, at least from a seller’s viewpoint. And it is worse from both a demand and a supply perspective.'”

“‘We do not pretend to know how much prices will fall in numeric or percentage terms, but the latest data suggests that it is already impossible for home prices to rise under the current market conditions,’ it said. ‘As people get more anxious to dispose of their housing assets, price cuts are growing in number and size. The very top and bottom of the market are least affected, but the mid-range, where the vast majority of transactions occur, is experiencing a big freeze. ‘When a buyer’s strike and a seller’s stampede occur at the same time, the market stalls in mid-flight. A price correction becomes inevitable. The Federal Reserve has stated that they want to see a ‘reset in the housing market,’ and it looks increasingly likely that their wish will come true.'”

From Mansion Global. “Many U.S. housing markets are witnessing a slowdown in response to rising mortgage rates and woes on Wall Street , and northern California has seen the biggest impact, according to Redfin. Out of the top 10 markets that have cooled the fastest over the three months from February to May, five were in northern California, including San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento and Stockton—and three of those five in the Bay Area, Redfin said.”

“‘The housing market has changed drastically in the last month because higher rates make homes even more expensive than they used to be,’ Joanna Rose, a San Francisco Redfin agent, said in the report. ‘At the same time, fewer people can afford pricey homes because of the volatile stock market.'”

“San Jose had the steepest decline in homebuyer demand, resulting in an inventory pileup by the end of May. The number of homes for sale was 10% higher compared to May 2021, while in February, supply was down 43%, according to Redfin. Additionally, pending sales across the metro were down 21.3%. The share of homes sold in two weeks was down 5% in May, compared to a 22% increase in February, the report said.”

“Outside of northern California, other markets that have cooled faster than anywhere else in the U.S. include Seattle; Boise, Idaho; Denver; San Diego, California; and Tacoma, Washington.”

The Dana Point Times in California. “Question: Dear Guru, is now a good time to sell my house? Answer: Probably not. Even the luxury market, which usually produces all-cash sales, has cooled dramatically because of stock market volatility. Because of the uncertainty in the market, I would wait to list your home in the first quarter unless there is a more urgent need. Residential real estate values peaked in March.”

From Pique News Magazine in Canada. “After a fevered couple years in Whistler’s always-hot real estate market, things appear to have cooled down somewhat over the past few month. According to the Whistler Listing Service, active listings have continued to climb this year, hitting 220 last month, up from 126 in January. (In a sign of the shifting market, Mitchell said Engel & Volkers has recently added a second whiteboard to their office where they track active listings.) Sales have cooled off, too, with 29 completed transactions last month, less than half of the sales in January and well below last year’s high of 113 sales, recorded in March 2021. Part of that is fuelled by the wider economic uncertainty that has already pushed property prices down in some of Canada’s bubbliest markets.”

“‘Anything that is a well-priced, attractive property where there is a limited amount of it is still getting good interest. Others can sit and wait. Where there’s multiple properties in a complex and buyers can re-evaluate and there’s no sense of urgency, that’s the difference,’ said Ron Mitchell, managing broker at Engel & Volkers Whistler.”

The Maple Ridge News in Canada. “The real estate market is rapidly changing in Maple Ridge. The latest stats from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver show house sales are about half of what they were this time last year. Through April, May, and June of 2021 there were 530 houses sold in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. This year, through the same three months there were 260 – a drop of 51 per cent. ‘It couldn’t last – it was not sustainable,’ said longtime Maple Ridge realtor Jan Hickman of last year’s record-setting pace.”

“She said buyers now have more time to make an offer, and can look at more options. She’s generally not seeing the multiple offers, and there is less chance of buyer’s making a commitment they regret, she said. ‘It’s a better market for everyone,’ she said. ‘Buyers are taking a little longer to make up their minds, and they have choices.'”

“Prices have also fallen in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows over the past three months, with the benchmark price of a house in Maple Ridge dropping 7.1 per cent to $1.38 million, and Pitt Meadows houses down 9.7 per cent to $1.39 million compared with the same time frame in 2021.”

The Telegraph. “When Dominic Ahern moved into his east London flat with his girlfriend in 2015, he thought he had made it. The then 33-year-old accountant had already been living – and renting – for 10 years in the city, patiently saving up the deposit for a £352,500 one-bed flat which they proudly called their own. At that time there were few better investments to be made anywhere in Britain – if not the world – than a London flat.”

“But not any longer. According to shock figures published this week by respected business news agency Bloomberg, the London flat is rapidly falling out of favour. The study, which is based on an analysis of UK Land Registry data, claims the value of London apartments has plummeted by 11 per cent since 2020 with the median sale now less than £400,000. Prices have fallen particularly in areas where newbuild developments are most prevalent, such as Tower Hamlets, Greenwich and Lambeth.”

“The Chinese developer behind the flagship Nine Elms project in Vauxhall, has recently been forced to sell its 50 per cent stake at a huge loss of around £187 million following disappointing demand for flats. Another Chinese-funded venture to develop homes and offices on the banks of the Thames and described, hopefully, as ‘East London’s answer to Venice’ has similarly faltered. Even the most luxurious developments are suffering. In May, the Telegraph reported that One Bishopsgate Plaza, a Singapore-funded venture where flats are priced between £1.3-£4.5 million, had secured buyers for only 55 of 160 apartments since marketing started in November 2019.”

“Already flats comprise more than half of London’s entire housing stock, more than double the proportion of any other city across the UK. So what is the future for these gleaming empty spires adorning the skyline, and the people left behind? The first inkling Dominic Ahern had that his London flat might not be the investment he envisaged was in early 2019 when he tried to sell. ‘We were there from the first time we started dating right through to getting married and having a baby so there is a sentimental attachment to the place,’ he says. ‘The hope would be that it doesn’t bankrupt us.'”

From News.com.au. “Australian governments’ multi-billion dollar efforts to help first homebuyers enter the property market have been hampered by a glaring flaw, which has only pushed up house prices and left those in greatest need of assistance at an even worse disadvantage. That was the key takeaway from fresh research published by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute this week. They found that Australia’s first homebuyer policies were ‘extremely one-sided,’ with the overwhelming majority of programs focusing on demand instead of supply.”

“And by pumping up demand without simultaneously addressing supply, those programs have caused higher prices. ‘When 21st century Australian governments assist first homebuyers, they do so with demand-side schemes that feed further house price increases – and in turn spur calls for more help,’ the study’s authors write. ‘Over the past 30 years, in tune with the dominant neoliberal mode of governance, the focus has shifted almost entirely to demand-side assistance.'”

“‘It is ‘as if increase of appetite had grown by what it fed on’, as Hamlet said of his parents’ affection for one another; a millennial Hamlet might say the same of his baby boomer parents’ proclivity for buying houses.'”

The Financial Post. “The run-up in inflation over the past year surprised central banks and consistently outstripped economists’ forecasts. I think it’s safe to say the reasons for central banks’ misjudgement of the recent surge in prices include: the ascension of academic over practical knowledge of the economy, the cult of celebrity central bankers and a growing trend to ‘groupthink’ in central banks, especially in de-emphasizing the money supply’s role in the economy.”

“Economists’ domination of central banks is suffocating. One former Fed governor told Fed historian Peter Conti-Brown that ‘Without a PhD in economics, the Fed’s staff will run technical rings around you.’ current Fed Chair Jerome Powell admits that being surrounded by hundreds of PhD economists is intimidating, complaining that ‘they talk to me like I’m a golden retriever.'”

The Associated Press. “Shinzo Abe often framed his economic vision as a policy bundle of ‘three arrows’: an integration of fiscal stimulus, loose money and structural reform that together would snap Japan out of its prolonged stagnation. In doing so, the former prime minister drew on the Japanese folk story of three brothers, each given an arrow. Separately, their arrows could be easily snapped; together, the arrows – and the brothers – were unbreakable.”

“”Mr. Abe, who was assassinated on Friday, meant the three-arrows reference as an illustration of the irrefutable logic of what came to be known as Abenomics. That parable did turn out to be strikingly relevant, but not in the way he would have hoped.”

“Two of his arrows, launched in 2013, struck home. Massive fiscal stimulus did boost Japan’s growth. Negative interest rates and quantitative easing finally vanquished the persistent deflation brought on by the real estate collapse of the 1990s. But the third arrow fell short, with the Abe government failing to fully counteract the productivity-sapping effects of an aging population. And, as the parable implies, two out of three arrows are not enough – a lesson other countries, including Canada, should heed.”

“According to David Edgington, a professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia and former director of the school’s Centre for Japanese Research, Mr. Abe’s policies did not succeed in pushing up real wages, as deflation gave way to rising prices. ‘While inflation ticked up a bit, most of the extra cash put into government bonds by the Bank of Japan went into the stock market,’ he said, adding that the country became a much more unequal society under Abenomics.”

“The official retirement age for government employees will start to gradually rise to 65 from 60 by 2031, starting next year. The retirement age for private-sector workers is effectively being moved up to 70, and there are plans to pare back benefits for those aged 60 to 64. All of those changes are happening relatively quickly. Workers in their 50s and 60s, not just those at the start of their working life, are seeing the terms of their retirement rewritten. That could be the most fundamental lesson from Abenomics: The longer the delay, the greater the pain.”

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This Post Has 132 Comments

  1. From the 13 minute video above:

    Real Estate Market in Vancouver Canada going to crash in 2022
    Jul 9, 2022 Canada’s housing market has unmistakably begun to correct itself, especially Vancouver’s housing market. I review the real estate statistics for some of Canada’s main cities, including Vancouver.

  2. ‘Over the past 30 years, in tune with the dominant neoliberal mode of governance, the focus has shifted almost entirely to demand-side assistance’

    Globalist scum did this cuz their “model” failed miserably. We wouldn’t be sitting around waiting fer our shacks to make us rich if it worked.

    1. ‘Over the past 30 years, in tune with the dominant neoliberal mode of governance, the focus has shifted almost entirely to demand-side assistance’

      140% LOAN TO VALUE on new cars and trucks. What a scam.

      1. “140% LOAN TO VALUE on new cars and trucks.”

        The bad boyz can’t be expected to spread their seed far-n-wide without dealer installed 22-inch rims wrapped in big meats and a 40-amp, 9-speaker sound system.

        2. Used car prices sure haven’t reflected the bubble popping yet. Will they? I sure think so, but a cursory glance at any for sale listings shows the highest asking prices ever.

          1. Used car prices sure haven’t reflected the bubble popping yet.

            I think it depends on what you want to buy. From what I have observed, gas guzzlers, new and used, are in inventory, fuel sippers are not.

          3. That’s a great video you posted and he really goes out and shows just how many cars are in the pipeline and not being bought. (It’s a TON). Well worth the 20 minutes.

  3. ‘A provocative take, and one worth considering. The strategist is suggesting that a surge in the price of everything from stocks to crypto to real estate was a one-off that came and is now gone. ‘We believe what’s gone on in the market in the first six months of this year, and what will go on for maybe another year to year and a half, is bear market punishment for the ridiculous financial euphoria’

    Wa? You mean a flu like CCP virus didn’t make a shack worth 50% more?

    Sacré bleu!

  4. ‘When a buyer’s strike and a seller’s stampede occur at the same time, the market stalls in mid-flight. A price correction becomes inevitable’

    How the mighty have fallen. This is 17 cities.

    ‘The Federal Reserve has stated that they want to see a ‘reset in the housing market,’ and it looks increasingly likely that their wish will come true’

    I said they’re gonna break it off in yer a$$.

  6. Interesting that a sh$thole like Stockton is creeping back into the news. They never learn.

        1. Exactly. Stockton, Modesto, Merced, Fresno – those places are dangerous as hell. Nobody in their right mind ever said “I want to live in Stockton.” They said “I want to get the hell out of Stockton.”

          1. Stockton actually should be a really great little city. It has loads of potential with a deep channel shipping port that connects it to the world as well as being just up the road from a massive Union Pacific intermodal terminal. It is also centrally located to a number of places of interest and is surrounded by some of the best farm land in the world. It just can’t shake it’s awful demographics. It’s not lack of jobs or bad location, it is a certain culture of failure that infests the place. Stockton should serve a cautionary tale, civilized people matter.

    1. Realtors are? Realtors are, together with the REIC, globalist scum media, and the Federal Reserve, responsible for the majority of the poverty and financial misery in this country.

      Or were you looking for the short answer? Realtors are liars.

  8. Colorado Springs, CO Housing Prices Crater 23% YOY As Desperate Sellers Send Inventory Soaring And Prices Plunging Across Denver Area

    https://www.movoto.com/co/80906/market-trends/

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

  9. Hunter Biden will be very disappointed.

    Feds Seize 5,000 Pounds of Meth Setting Record for California Border County:

    “During the afternoon of July 7, federal officials observed a box truck enter the U.S. through the Otay Mesa Commercial Port of Entry, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California. Law enforcement agencies surveilled the truck to its destination in National City, California. The agents watched as the alleged drug smugglers unloaded the truck into a Dodge van.

    At that point, law enforcement officers moved in and arrested Rafael Alzua, 37; Mario Contreras, 41; Ethgar Velazquez, 44; and Galdrino Contreras, 41, prosecutors stated. Officials listed all four suspects as residents of Tijuana, Mexico.

    An inspection of the boxes revealed more than 5,000 pounds of drugs that later tested positive for methamphetamine.

    “This is a significant accomplishment by our law enforcement partners,” U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman said in a written statement. “Due to stellar work by law enforcement agents, the government stopped more than 5,000 pounds of methamphetamine from being distributed on our streets.”

    https://www.breitbart.com/border/2022/07/09/feds-seize-5000-pounds-of-meth-setting-record-for-california-border-county/

    1. At that point, law enforcement officers moved in and arrested Rafael Alzua, 37; Mario Contreras, 41; Ethgar Velazquez, 44; and Galdrino Contreras, 41, prosecutors stated. Officials listed all four suspects as residents of Tijuana, Mexico.

      The real crime here is the lack of diversity in the drug-trafficking crews.

  10. ‘I’m paying what this house was worth back in February 2020, because that’s what it’s worth now.’”

    ^^^

    The new false narrative that anchors to a point in time rather than production cost to limit panic.(hint—–yer f#$ked)

    Beverly, MA Housing Prices Crater 12% YOY On Surging Panic And Plunging Demand Across New England

    https://www.movoto.com/beverly-ma/market-trends/

  11. A reader sent these in:
    KABOOM!!! 💣💣💣

    $1,190,000 loss (+ expenses)

    Bought 2016 $4,640,000

    Just reported sold today for $3,450,000 (sale date was April)

    2021 Assessment: $3,474,000
    Peak Assessment: $3,989,000

    https://twitter.com/mortimer_1/status/1545510444235771904

    Richard Christopher Whalen

    “A Carnage in Mortgage Employment: 5,000 Jobs Disappear in a Month” @IMFpubs and these are the ones we know about….

    https://twitter.com/rcwhalen/status/1545417789246259200

    A reminder that Texas largely escaped the industry implosion in 2007-2010 because it’s prices didn’t spike in the mid-2000s. Its prices spiked in 2020-2022 like we saw in Phoenix/Vegas/FL/CA in the mid-2000s. 27% cancellation = instant inventory.

    https://twitter.com/ALROnHousing/status/1545872409579835392

    Montreal has an insane amount of Airbnb listings 12,306 and 96.4% 11,639 don’t have a license 🤣

    https://twitter.com/MarketManiaCa/status/1545822575774744576

    Pending sales in San Diego was down 40% in June. Pretty crazy.

    https://twitter.com/shimonkey/status/1545642937534468096

    Prices of NZ housing assets are falling quite quickly

    https://twitter.com/DrCameronMurray/status/1545707487877566464

    Danielle DiMartino Booth

    “Companies in the business of repossessing autos are among the first to know when economic trouble is brewing. And now those companies are buying car lots to handle the flood of repossessed, used cars coming to the market…”

    https://twitter.com/DiMartinoBooth/status/1545889791505481729

    1. 27% cancellation = instant inventory

      These are not $200,000 shacks. They are almost all 400k and way up. And they are too far from jobs.

    2. Airbnb and it’s hundreds of thousands of greedy, scum sucking hosts are one government regulation from bankruptcy.

      Wait for the government to figure out how to profit the most and the trigger will be pulled.

  12. ‘Workers in their 50s and 60s, not just those at the start of their working life, are seeing the terms of their retirement rewritten. That could be the most fundamental lesson from Abenomics: The longer the delay, the greater the pain’

    Steve Forbes said in the 80’s that central banking is based on the idea that you can get something from nothing. Even a child knows that won’t work. How long are we going to watch these pointy headed fools who have never had a real job muck up the global economy?

    1. “‘Workers in their 50s and 60s, not just those at the start of their working life, are seeing the terms of their retirement rewritten.”

      You can say that again….It was ‘rewritten’ the day they signed a mortgage contract. And this is the same demographic that thought a $300k house and $500k in debt is a retirement plan. You know…. that demographic that treats a $50k line of credit as a savings account. These are my peers and all of them fit squarely into the box although a few of them have admitted to me.. and I quote, “If I sold everything today I might break even….maybe.”…….. No joke.

      The problem is the debt will cost them $1 mil+.

      1. “The problem is the debt will cost them $1 mil+.”

        This “problem” becomes a gift if one is positioned correctly.

        Proverbs 22:7.

      2. Government trillions in Debt does anyone living in America have any real wealth ? Not many I expect as Inflation is the friend of the debtor. “you will own nothing ” looking more likely for the future.

    2. How long are we going to watch these pointy headed fools who have never had a real job muck up the global economy?

      Hopefully not another day longer. Greenspan, Bernanke, Yellen and Powell for the guillotine!

  13. ‘Morton’s condemned the disruption through a spokesperson: “Honorable Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh and all of our other patrons at the restaurant were unduly harassed by unruly protestors while eating dinner at our Morton’s restaurant. Politics, regardless of your side or views, should not trample the freedom at play of the right to congregate and eat dinner. There is a time and place for everything. Disturbing the dinner of all of our customers was an act of selfishness and void of decency.”

    ‘Responding to Morton’s statement, Shut Down DC, which has been organizing protests at the home of conservative justices, threatened the steakhouse in a Friday tweet. “No rights for us, no peace for you. Get [expletive] @mortons.”

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/unruly-protesters-hound-justice-kavanaugh-from-dc-steakhouse_4586888.html

    1. “No rights for us, no peace for you. Get [expletive] @mortons.”

      “The Tenth Amendment says that the Federal Government only has those powers delegated in the Constitution. If it isn’t listed, it belongs to the states or to the people.”

      People need to start following these “protesters” home and harassing them and their families.

      1. “following these “protesters” home and harassing them and their families”

        Two problems with this statement.

        If you follow them “home” you will likely get carjacked, possibly beaten to death with a traffic cone (keep it classy, Philadelphia) and step in feces and needles.

        Second, they don’t have families. They have all been disowned by their parents for being lowlife dregs. If they are a XX chromosome birthing person, they have murdered or will murder any baby inside them. And if (allegedly) male, they are so repulsive that they have never actually had intercourse with a birthing person.

        “They’re not sending their best”

        1. “possibly beaten to death with a traffic cone (keep it classy, Philadelphia)”

          They will catch the misunderstood Yoots that beat the 72 year-old man to death with that cone, the public defender will have them plead guilty to second degree murder and they will all be out of Juvenile Detention in 3 – 6 years when they turn 21, just in time to pick up the reparations that will be waiting for them after the next 2 elections are stolen.

      1. Yup, I wonder what the Haitian sensation Jean-Pierre would say if a group of Pro Life protesters peacefully slung and shouted insults that interrupted a quiet dinner she was having with her wife or girlfriend?

        Washington Free Beacon
        @FreeBeacon
        ·
        Follow
        Doocy on Brett Kavanaugh being forced out of a DC restaurant by protesters: “So these Justices, because protesters do not agree with an opinion… have no right to privacy?”

        Jean-Pierre: “This is what a democracy is.

        1. interrupted a quiet dinner she was having

          We all know that, unlike the people harassing Kavanaugh, anyone protesting near any Brandon admin team member’s house would be quickly arrested and charged, unlike fentanyl smugglers, who are immediately released without bail.

        2. “I understood the infamous spiritual terror which this movement exerts, particularly on the bourgeoisie, which is neither morally nor mentally equal to such attacks; at a given sign it unleashes a veritable barrage of lies and slanders against whatever adversary seems most dangerous, until the nerves of the attacked persons break down . . . This is a tactic based on precise calculation of all human weaknesses, and its result will lead to success with almost mathematical certainty . . .
          I achieved an equal understanding of the importance of physical terror toward the individual and the masses . . . For while in the ranks of their supporters the victory achieved seems a triumph of the justice of their own cause, the defeated adversary in most cases despairs of the success of any further resistance.”

          — Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf, page 43-44
          quoted, William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, chapter 1, note 49

  14. ‘Third, what happens to them now that they have proven to have made such enormously costly errors that have devastated the lives of millions and billions of people? This pertains to so many areas of life today, most prominently public health and monetary policy. There are analogies between the two.’

    ‘Policy in both areas is directed by a monopoly of control informed by select experts. These people have all necessary credentials. They talk and behave as if they have it all together whereas the rest of us are mere commentators and observers. They believe that their power, which they imagine is total, is vital for saving the world from some terrible fate.’

    ‘They also have a remarkable capacity for living in denial of the disasters they create. Even when their credibility tanks to nearly nothing, even when none of their predictions come true, even when they have been revealed to be cranks in the pockets of powerful pressure groups whose interests they serve over those of the public, even when the politicians who defend them tank in the polls, they habitually minimize their failures, even while planning their escape from culpability.’

    ‘At some point, it all becomes too much. The reality on the ground is more powerful than their press conferences and op-eds. Their rhetorical spins, their attempts to silence the critics, and their invocation of their once-respected power and prestige all turns to dust. This seems to be where the Federal Reserve is today.’

    ‘Gerard Baker writing in the Wall Street Journal describes the Fed perfectly in its scramble to claim that it has the crisis fully under control. He says that all public actions in the face of calamities of their own making go through the following stages: “First denial, the refusal to accept the mounting evidence that we are on the wrong track. Next, complacency: Even when the inconvenient facts are reluctantly acknowledged, a misplaced confidence that a small adjustment is all that is needed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. When that fails, the policy maker turns to wishful thinking, a doughty insistence on expecting the best in the face of the worst—everything will be all right; we have a plan premised on all the best possible assumptions. This is the terminal stage: At some point the full extent of the catastrophe is evident.”

    ‘It might seem like we have already hit that final stage, but consider the following. On the same day that the above quote appeared, the New York Times ran an article by our old friend Ben Bernanke, the Fed chairman during the last financial crisis. The entire op-ed argues that the 1970s really are not and cannot return simply because everything has changed this time around.’

    ‘What has changed, according to Bernanke? The Fed is now independent of politics and cannot be muscled by the U.S. president. Second, the Fed feels a greater burden these days to solve the problem rather than let it run out of control for many years. Third, the Fed has decades of experience now in keeping inflation controlled and relatively low, and now the knowledge of how to do that is embedded in its operations.’

    ‘The entire piece perfectly embodies Baker’s final stages just before “the full extent of the catastrophe is evident.”

    ‘In retrospect, the Fed created an even bigger disaster internally. Its economists and managers came to believe in their own infallibility, even toying with some version of Modern Monetary Theory wherein there is no real macroeconomic downside to any amount of money pumping that the Fed does. So when the lockdowns came, and Congress started authorizing spending in beyond-belief amounts, the Fed stepped up to the plate and fed the machine the only food it has: more paper.’

    ‘Here we see another parallel between public health and monetary policy. In both cases, the bureaucracies have doggedly refused to believe that history has anything to teach them. In the case of public health, thousands of years of pandemics should have been instructive concerning seasonality, natural immunity, and the impossibility of eradication of widely prevalent respiratory viruses. In the case of monetary policy, there is also thousands of years of documented evidence concerning the effects of sudden and rampant money expansion to deal with a crisis.’

    ‘In both cases, the institutional confidence that powerful elites could fix any problem outstripped all realistic assessments of risk. More maddening still is the problem of accountability. In the private sector, mistakes come with a price. The Fed chairman was recently reappointed to his role, and the director of the CDC still acts as if she embodies all the science of infectious disease.’

    ‘Has the Fed done a good job? Look at the big picture. It was founded in 1913. Here is a picture of what its management has done to the value of the dollar in 109 years of monopoly control.’

    ‘And yet these people have the gall to sit in Congressional hearings and go on TV and assure us time and time again that they have it all under control.’

    ‘Such is the arrogance cultivated within the administrative state as we know it. It’s the leading problem in the world today. We need dramatic reform of the entire system in order to bust up these monopolies of power and opinion. They are proven failures. And yet the political class keeps protecting these institutions because they give elected leaders cover and someone to blame when things go wrong.’

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-age-of-arrogance_4532607.html

    1. WTF was the FED doing buying all those trillions in MBS in the face of a housing shortage, creating the most massive housing bubble in history? WTF was the FED doing when they stood up and announced they were going to let inflation run hot, when that is in direct violation of their mandate? Who decided to do this?

      1. And when I say “housing shortage,” I’m talking a lack of for sale inventory, because we have a GLUT of actual houses.

      2. On paper, the fed’s goal is 2% inflation a maximum employment. However, their primary role is to buy non-performing assets from the banks that over-extended themselves.

      3. If you think of everything that has happened as a giant bust out (asset stripping) scheme it all makes a lot more sense.

      4. The simple answer is that they were all trading for their own personal accounts and getting quite rich doing it. Some of them were dismissed with a wink and a nod to make it look like the Fed still has some shred of ethics but the reality is they dont. I’m sure the trade amounts are jaw dropping and that is why they made sure that no one had to report it. I have no doubt the ones who remain also trade but they do it through other people so there is no trail back to them.

    2. “It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong”. — Thomas Sowell

    3. Didn’t the Great Depression play out not long after the Fed’s creation? I’m sure they had that situation fully contained, at least in their own estimation.

      If you want to know what life was like back then, just take a tour of the downtown area of any California city, where you will find homeless encampments and soup kitchens similar to those of the 1930s.

    1. The Financial Times
      Emerging markets
      Never miss a story on Emerging markets. Get the latest headlines in a Daily Digest email.
      Investors pull $50bn from emerging market bond funds in 2022
      ‘Perfect storm’ for developing economies triggers most severe net outflows for 17 years
      A woman holds Turkish Lira banknotes
      A woman holds Turkish Lira banknotes. The Federal Reserve’s rate rises this year, and plans for more in the offing, are particularly toxic to emerging markets
      Nikou Asgari in London July 9 2022

      Investors have pulled $50bn from emerging market bond funds this year in the latest sign of how a sharp tightening of monetary policy in developed economies and the war in Ukraine has sparked a flight from the asset class.

      The net outflows from EM fixed income funds are the most severe in at least 17 years, far worse than were recorded during a bout of acute concern about China’s economy in 2015, data collated by JPMorgan show.

      “It has been pretty dramatic,” said Marco Ruijer, emerging markets portfolio manager at William Blair, adding that the combination of soaring global inflation, tightening central bank monetary policy and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has culminated in “a perfect storm” for emerging market debt.
      …

  16. Without censorship, the Democrat Party can not win an honest election.

    New York times — The Fight Over Truth Also Has a Red State-Blue State Divide:

    “To fight disinformation, California lawmakers are advancing a bill that would force social media companies to divulge their process for removing false, hateful or extremist material from their platforms. Texas lawmakers, by contrast, want to ban the largest of the companies — Facebook, Twitter and YouTube — from removing posts because of political points of view.

    In the absence of significant action on disinformation at the federal level, officials in state after state are taking aim at the sources of disinformation and the platforms that propagate them — only they are doing so from starkly divergent ideological positions. In this deeply polarized era, even the fight for truth breaks along partisan lines.

    The midterm elections in November are driving much of the activity on the state level. In red states, the focus has been on protecting conservative voices on social media, including those spreading baseless claims of widespread electoral fraud.”

    https://archive.ph/i78AT

    This isn’t Reddit, this isn’t Twitter, and this isn’t Facebook.

    We can say that the 2020 election was stolen, because the 2020 election was, in fact, stolen.

  17. Some good news for a change.

    Twitter, headquartered in San Francisco, announces mass layoffs:

    “As first reported by TechCrunch and confirmed by SFGATE, 30% of the company’s talent acquisitions division was laid off — though a spokesperson declined to provide details regarding the number of employees affected and their severance benefits.

    A company spokesperson told SFGATE that the layoffs are a way for the company to refocus its business needs during a lean period. As the broader tech industry undergoes intense headwinds, Twitter already announced a hiring pause in May, with a few key exceptions for “critical” positions.

    https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/twitter-announces-mass-layoffs-17291249.php

  20. Are the globalists getting ready to swap out Dementia Joe? Even globalist propaganda flagships like the NYT are acknowledging the obvious: he’s too old & senile to be president.

    NY Times again suggests Joe Biden, 79, is too old to run for re-election and says he now ‘shuffles’ with White House staffers fearing he’ll trip on a wire

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10999631/NY-Times-suggests-Joe-Biden-79-old-run-election.html

    The New York Times has once again suggested Joe Biden may be too old to run for re-election in a piece that revealed the president now ‘shuffles,’ and that staffers are fearful he may trip over wires.

    Biden, 79, has experienced a decline in energy levels, with some aides alleging he ‘often shuffles’ while walking, prompting fears ‘he will trip on a wire.’ He also often stumbles over his words during public speaking events.

    1. He will not finish this term. Kamala, replacing him, has never had an original thought. She will be 100% on a string.

      1. When Europeans are freezing this winter, I hope they stop and think “Why in the world did we listen to those idiots?”

        1. From an article about what the Swiss are facing:

          How dire is the situation?

          We have a huge problem. There are currently increasing signs that no more gas will flow from Russia to Europe via Nord Stream 1 after the maintenance in July. The gas shortage in Germany could be declared in the next few days. Coal-fired power plants are now being used in Germany to produce electricity. At the same time, 40 to 45 percent of the nuclear power plants in France are out of operation. And the world’s largest gas supplier, Uniper, has asked the state for stabilization measures because of liquidity problems. Under these conditions, it takes very little for energy to run out in winter.

          2. “Coal-fired power plants are now being used in Germany to produce electricity.”

            It’s great to be green!

  21. To the corrupt elites who think they can plunder the country with impunity: don’t think your mansions will be off-limits once the pauperized proles decide they’ve had enough.

    Party in the palace: Sri Lankans roam President’s compound, enjoying pillow fights, the cricket, trying his private gym and swimming pool – hours before protestors torched the Prime Minister’s house as President and PM say they will quit

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10999429/Party-palace-Sri-Lankans-roam-Presidents-compound-having-pillow-fight-watching-cricket.html

    More video has emerged overnight of Sri Lankan protestors having fun and enjoying themselves after they stormed the President’s House and presidential compound on Saturday – until they set alight to the prime minister’s residence.

    The raucous uprising was enough to force the resignation of Sri Lanka’s President and Prime Minister, as months of frustration brought on by an unprecedented economic crisis boiled over.

    1. “After storming the gates of the presidential palace, a throng of protesters walked through its rooms, with some among the boisterous crowd jumping into the compound’s pool. Others were seen laughing and lounging in the stately bedrooms of the residence, with one pulling out what he claimed was a pair of Rajapaksa’s underwear.”

      Don’t forget to BBQ and eat the family’s dog!

    1. Meh, it’s at $20k+, same place it’s been for 3 weeks. Wake me up when it’s at ZERO, its intrinsic value.

      1. Months ago maybe longer I read these stories and knew the “jig was up ”

        probably even posted about it

  24. BOCA RATON
    South Florida Housing Market Update [July 2022]
    Jul 10, 2022 South Florida Housing Market Update [July 2022]

    Is the South Florida housing market starting to shift? Tune into this month’s episode to see the dramatic changes starting to take place in our market.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33LcrxyiyTk

    6 minutes.

  25. East Bay Housing Market 07 09 2022
    Premiered 8 hours ago For the past month or so we have been seeing a shift in the market here in East Bay. We are seeing things we haven’t seen in a long, long time. For instance, we are seeing price reductions. We are seeing properties close for less than the asking price. Don’t get me wrong. Prices still are around their high point.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYGB5KCCU7I

    3:33.

  26. Another “Oh dear” moment in time.

    Chinese property developer Ronshine misses interest payments on two bonds

    https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/chinese-property-developer-ronshine-misses-interest-payments-two-bonds-2022-07-10/

    HONG KONG, July 10 (Reuters) – Chinese property developer Ronshine China Holdings Ltd (3301.HK) has not made interest payments on its June 2023 and December 2023 notes, totalling $27.9 million, in the latest blow to China’s embattled property market.

    Ronshine has not made payment of $12.798 million interest on the 8.1% senior notes due June 2023, which became due and payable on June 9 and has a 30-day grace period to pay such interest, it said in a HKEx filing late on Sunday.

  27. “For those selling in this market? ‘As a seller, you need to reset those expectations because you’re no longer shooting for the moon on the top of the price you can get, you have to come back to reality a little bit,’ Abrams said.”

    A little bit? No, you are the greediest of the greedy. You waited and waited thinking you could get more even when you knew it was unsustainable.

    I hope you all get a$$ reamed…Dry.

  28. Oh dear….

    “Stressed” agents panic as home buyer demand collapses

    https://www.macrobusiness.com.au

    “Australasia’s #1 real estate coach and trainer”, Tom Panos, is “stressed” after having “almost no buyers” at Saturday’s Sydney auctions.

  29. Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate Market CRASHING?? – June 2022
    Jul 9, 2022 This video talks about Kitchener Waterloo Cambridge Real Estate Market Update for June 2022. Home Prices continue to drop for 4th straight month.

    KWC Real Estate Drops approx. 21% in 120 Days since Feb 2022. Average price of a residential home in Kitchener Waterloo Cambridge is now below $800k.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vwP4lzhK2s

    5 minutes.

    1. I wonder if Amazon is going to renew that Australian real estate show “Luxe Listings”? They might have to run a trigger warning prior to broadcast.

  31. Scottsdale Arizona Luxury Homes Real Estate MarketWatch for July 2022
    Jul 9, 2022 Scottsdale / Phoenix Luxury Real Estate Market update. There are a lot of factors impacting the market the Scottsdale home market that both Home Sellers and Home Buyers should be aware of as they look to buy or sell real estate in this housing market. As our market transitions away from the frenzied market of the last couple years, this video talks to these considerations and how home sellers can leverage the current market to maximize their selling position.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk7rVnGFyyM

    4:26. Pending contracts down 50% in the last month.

    1. Who in their right mind would try to raise children in that cesspool? Conventions are being moved OUT of SF and the bay area, to safer locales, because attendees have complained about the unsafe and disgusting environment.

      1. “Conventions are being moved OUT of SF and the bay area…”

        I’ve never been disappointed with Las Vegas as a convention center destination particularly during the winter months, short distance from LAS to the strip, 24-hr food available, nice rooms at a great price, etc.

      1. If the central bankers try to force their cashless society on the people, the people will respond by inventing their own physical money. And hold will go through the roof.

  35. Are you bracing yourself for the consequences of a tsunami tide of central bank liquidity washing back out to sea?

    1. Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour.
      https://www.ft.com/content/435a5e35-bf30-4518-a4fc-a6d5c2d66076

      myFT
      Menu
      Financial Times
      myFT
      US quantitative easing
      The mystery of how quantitative tightening will affect markets
      Central banks are starting to shrink their balance sheets, but fund managers say they have no clue as to how QT will play out
      Katie Martin in London and Colby Smith in Washington July 9 2022

      June was not a great month to be a fund manager.

      Global stocks fell 8.8 per cent, the second-biggest drop in a decade. Bonds, meanwhile, are on track for the worst year since 1865.

      The bludgeoning came from several directions — first the rapid ascent of interest rates and then rising fears of a recession in the US. But some investors say another factor was also at play: the world’s most powerful central bank has yanked away its safety net.

      Since 2008, fund managers in stocks, bonds and everything in between have known that by their side, the US Federal Reserve has been buying debt as part of its programme of economic support that kicked in after the financial crisis.

      When Covid struck, the Fed souped up this so-called quantitative easing scheme to rescue markets from the brink of disaster, helping to fuel a huge rally in everything from government bonds to crypto tokens.

      Now, though, soaring inflation has cornered policymakers into aggressively raising interest rates. In turn, this has bumped them into cutting back their vast stashes of assets — a process that the Fed kicked off early last month.

      Along with the Bank of England and the European Central Bank, the Fed plans first to stop reinvesting maturing assets, and some economists think they may eventually outright sell some of what they have on their books. All told, the balance sheets of the heaviest-hitting central banks will shrink by roughly $4tn by the end of next year, according to estimates from Morgan Stanley.

      The reversal is now well under way: just last week, its balance sheet shrank by roughly $20bn. And investors say it is already starting to hurt.

      “Liquidity is driven by central banks,” says Guilhem Savry, who works in cross-asset solutions at Swiss asset manager Unigestion. “Over the past 10 years there has been large liquidity in the US and everywhere else, and now investors know it’s finished. It’s over.”
      …

  36. Woke Oberlin College is hit with FOUR MILLION DOLLARS in interest charges for dragging its heels in paying $36m defamation damages to family-run bakery over false racism claims

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10999721/Woke-Oberlin-College-hit-4m-dragging-heels-paying-36m-family-run-bakery.html

    A woke Ohio college now faces paying $4 million in interest on top of $36 million in damages to a family-run bakery it almost destroyed with false racism allegations.

    Oberlin College was last month told it must pay the additional fee – equivalent to around $4,000-a-day for each of the 1,000 days it has refused to pony up – to Gibson’s Bakery, The Chronicle reported.

    Oberlin College led by one of its disgraced ex-deans, Meredith Raimondo, lied that the bakery’s staff had racially-profiled three black students in 2016, despite the trio later admitting shoplifting.

    1. “Former Dean of Students and Vice President Meredith Raimondo…”

      These kind of obese women are spreading through the federal government like cancer destroying careers and moral.

    2. I’ve encountered a few virtue-signaling old whites who have tried to pull the whole “white man bad” routine. I look them squarely in the eyes and say “you’re talking to a white man, and I’m not ashamed of it.” They shut the hell up immediately.

    3. Its true my youngest tells me stories like this just yesterday ..

      Unbelievable 1984 crap think

  38. They don’t want you to fly or travel. Only the people who matter can fly, on private jets. Or travel on huge private yachts that burn diesel like there is no tomorrow. But peons are not supposed to go anywhere, because it’s not “sustainable”, and forget driving anywhere.

    As concerns over climate change rise, so too does greenwashing as a marketing tactic. And it’s often the most environmentally-destructive companies that trumpet the most outrageous claims—just take a look at some of the advertisements fossil fuel companies have put out in recent years.

    But luckily, it’s getting harder for companies to make unfounded claims of eco-friendliness without getting called out. This week, environmental groups filed the first greenwashing lawsuit against an airline company. KLM, the Dutch subsidiary of Air France KLM, is often touted as a sustainable choice compared to other airlines. But the company is now accused of overselling its sustainability in ads—to the point of potentially misleading consumers.

  40. This is the Democrat Party.

    Burning churches is the Democrat Party.

    Arson Fire Set at Catholic Church in DC Suburb of Bethesda, Maryland; Same Church and Nearby Methodist Church Attacked Night Before (7/10/2022):

    “The pro-abortion left’s attacks on churches, pro-life centers and Supreme Court Justices continued this weekend with attacks on churches in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Bethesda, Maryland. An arson fire was set at Saint Jane De Chantel Catholic Church early Sunday. There were no injuries in the overnight fire that damaged pews and caused a reported $50,000 in damages. St. Jane’s had been vandalized the previous night.

    Another church in that area was also attacked this weekend. Twenty-four hours before early Saturday the North Bethesda United Methodist Church was also vandalized, though details of that attack are conflicting with reports that there was an arson fire and others saying the church was vandalized.”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/07/arson-fire-set-catholic-church-dc-suburb-bethesda-maryland-church-nearby-methodist-church-attacked-night/

    This is the Democrat Party electoral platform for 2022 and 2024. If you support burning churches, vote Democrat Party.

    1. MoneyWatch
      How bad is the crypto market crash? Take a look at Coinbase
      By Khristopher J. Brooks
      July 8, 2022 / 5:00 AM / MoneyWatch

      Among those reeling from the billions of dollars lost in the cryptocurrency crash, no company has taken a greater beating than Coinbase. The nation’s largest and first publicly traded crypto exchange, Coinbase has seen its stock price plunge 81% this year, and has recently announced plans to shed one-fifth of its staff.

      With Coinbase reporting a $430 million first-quarter loss, some hedge funds are starting to short the stock, meaning Wall Street is betting on Coinbase’s value dropping even further.

      But all is not lost for the exchange, according to analysts, who see more bounce to the crypto bubble than the current crash suggests. Despite its recent struggles, they predict Coinbase will make it through this crypto market slump and ultimately thrive. That’s because the company has learned how to survive such downturns, analysts say.

      Coinbase, founded in 2012, established itself years before the cryptocurrency craze or the current “crypto winter” hit the U.S. It has now captured a $13.8 billion market cap with about 5,000 employees and $256 billion in assets on the platform.

      “Coinbase has been through a few crypto winters and, each time, they obviously have survived,” said John Todaro, a crypto asset researcher for Needham & Co. “The winter would have to get progressively worse for Coinbase to be in any real danger.”

      Coinbase’s $6 billion in reserves bolster his confidence. That money is “a pretty solid cushion” to help Coinbase get through turbulent times, Todaro said.
      …
      https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coinbase-crypto-market-crash-bitcoin-growth/

  43. Globalists gonna globe.

    Russia Today — Germany plans winter ‘warm-up spaces’ in case of gas shortage (7/10/2022):

    “Gas shortages and skyrocketing heating costs might see many Germans unable to afford their heating bills this winter, Germany’s Bild tabloid reported on Sunday, adding that the nation’s Cities and Municipalities Association has suggested providing the most vulnerable people with public “warm-up” places instead. Some German cities have already gone ahead with such plans, the paper added.”

    https://www.rt.com/news/558736-germany-warm-up-spaces-winter-gas/

    Zelensky needs $7 billion a month.

    You’re going to starve and freeze to death in the dark.

  46. Re: the ascension of academic over practical knowledge of the economy, the cult of celebrity central bankers and a growing trend to ‘groupthink’ in central banks, especially in de-emphasizing the money supply’s role in the economy.”

    This is exactly what C. Northcote Parkinson had described as the domination of theoretical experts over real producers. In his book, when an external consultant lectured the management of a company about how to run their business with such erudite terms as Finkelstein’s Theorum, the head of the company Old Tom Tuffenuff tossed his report into the wastebasket saying “All this sounds like froth and gas to me . I don’t understand it, don’t like it and won’t have it” and the rest of those present agreed vocally with him and the company was spared a disaster but few these days have his guts.

    Cambon, especially, ranked then and ranks now as among the most expert in any period. The disastrous results of all his courage and ability in the attempt to stand against the deluge of paper money show how powerless are the most skillful masters of finance to stem the tide of fiat money calamity when once it is fairly under headway; and how useless are all enactments which they can devise against the underlying laws of nature. – “Fiat Money Inflation in France” – 1912

    1. All this sounds like froth and gas to me

      This is a perfect description of the bullsheet that the FED and politicians are selling.

  47. Melania Trump who is always impeccably dressed, speaks five languages yet still gets roasted by the MSM for 4 years. Enter Jill or excuse me First Lady Dr. Jill Biden who dresses like an 80s barfly in leather mini skirts and black fishnet stockings, takes one shot at a presumably well rehearsed line in another language, sounds like a Spanish speaking Elmer Fudd and still receives nothing but slobbering praise from the propaganda wing of the Democrat party or I mean real journalists of the MSM.

    Jill Biden Fails to Speak Spanish Properly during Speech

    23,610 views
    Apr 1, 2021

    https://youtu.be/XmWZa6R9-TE

  50. Is it really a good investing move for African Americans to avoid traditional asset classes in favor of cryptocurrency investments?

    1. The Financial Times
      Cryptocurrencies
      Europe regulator warns of ‘cautionary lesson’ from crypto crash
      Verena Ross says investors cannot expect bailout because risks were so widely flagged
      Verena Ross, chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority
      Verena Ross, chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority: ‘I think there is a real question about whether many of these [crypto assets] will survive’
      Laura Noonan in Paris July 9 2022

      Crypto investors should take the market crash as a “cautionary lesson” about putting money into risky unregulated assets and cannot count on any kind of a bailout, Europe’s top securities regulator has said.

      “We already warned earlier this year … about the serious risks retail investors were taking investing in some of the crypto assets,” said Verena Ross, chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority.

      The global crypto market has fallen by more than 70 per cent in the past year and Ross said she was worried about the implications for small investors.

      “I think there is a real question about whether many of these [crypto assets] will survive . . . I hope that some of these investors will see this and will take a cautionary lesson at least to think about how much of their money they invest in these kinds of assets.”

      She added there was no prospect of a European bailout for out-of-pocket investors because warnings about the dangers had been so widespread.

      In March, ESMA and Europe’s other leading financial regulators warned consumers of the “very real possibility of losing all their invested money” if they bought cryptocurrency, using stronger language than a similar warning a year earlier.

      “We have all said that this is something that is not currently regulated, not something where this is any control over the providers, [where] we know there is a lot of fraud and aggressive marketing going on,” Ross said, adding that regulators used social media to try to get their warnings across to audiences most engaged in crypto.
      …

    2. Financecryptocurrency
      The crypto market has now lost $2 trillion in value. Here are 5 shocking facts from crypto’s Black Monday
      By Will Daniel
      June 13, 2022 3:06 PM PDT

      Investors had nowhere to hide on Monday as both the stock market and cryptocurrencies tumbled.

      The rout followed yet another report of high inflation on Friday that has investors concerned the Federal Reserve will continue its aggressive interest rate hikes, thereby increasing the odds of a U.S. recession.

      The cryptocurrency market saw its total market cap drop by roughly 12% on Monday to just $980 billion. The sector as a whole has now seen more than $2 trillion in losses since its November 2021 peak.

      The crypto market was hit hard after crypto lender Celsius revealed it was suspending transactions, withdrawals, and transfers on its platform on Sunday citing “extreme market conditions.” The world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, also briefly paused withdrawals, but has since resumed activity and called the interruption a result of “several minor hardware failures.”

      All that is just the beginning of the bad news. It was a dark day for cryptocurrencies on Monday. Here are five shocking facts that explain just how bearish the market has become.
      …
      https://fortune.com/2022/06/13/cryptocurrencies-black-monday-5-shocking-facts/

    4. The Financial Times
      Opinion Inside Business
      Financial engineering to be put on trial in bankruptcy courts
      Many innovations over the past decade have yet to be tested in a down market
      Sujeet Indap
      Revlon is among the companies forced to hastily file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
      Sujeet Indap 42 minutes ago

      US corporate bankruptcy lawyers may suddenly have to cancel their summer holidays. They may not object as they have been mostly unoccupied for at least two years.

      Even though stock markets have been retreating all year, financial conditions have only tightened markedly of late. The result is that several companies facing a cash or supply chain crunch have not so easily been able to raise fresh rescue capital, money that would have flowed easily at most any point in the last decade.

      Lacking liquidity, the likes of Revlon, Scandinavian Airlines and Voyager Digital have been recently forced to hastily file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Their court papers have described just how quickly distress overwhelmed them, providing evidence on how quickly an recession may be approaching.

      As for the bankruptcy cases themselves, expect many of them to be intrinsically compelling. Years of low interest rates after the financial crisis inspired all sorts of financial engineering and, in the case of cryptocurrency, a new financial paradigm all together. Much of that innovation was not fully understood at the time but will have to be untangled now with lawyers and judges.

      At the end of May, a distressed debt ratio calculated by S&P showed that under 3 per cent of the corporate credit securities it tracked were trading with yields greater than 10 percentage points above US Treasuries, indicating elevated default risk. By the first week of July, the ratio was at nearly 9 per cent. The effective yield for the lowest-rated category of junk bonds tracked by Intercontinental Exchange and Bank of America is now 15 per cent, more than double a year ago.

      The higher cost of debt is indicative of just how scarce capital has become.
      …
      New bankruptcies will also put the overall increased complexity of capital markets under the microscope.

      “There is a lot of hidden leverage in the system,” says Elizabeth Tabas Carson, an attorney at the law firm, Sidley Austin. She referred to esoteric structures with names such as back-leverage, NAV financing and subscription financings that are as yet untested in a “down market”.

      The most novel resolutions will almost certainly be in the crypto world. Last week the Canadian crypto broker and lender, Voyager Digital, filed for bankruptcy in New York after it had suspended account holders from withdrawing assets from their accounts. Voyager had lent $650mn worth of crypto to a hedge fund, Three Arrows, which itself had gone bust.

      Voyager had hired the prominent law firm Kirkland & Ellis to represent it in proceedings and, while the bankruptcy was filed under duress, Voyager said in court papers it already had a tentative plan of restructuring. Account holders would be repaid in the form of crypto “coins” and “tokens”, proceeds from the litigation with Three Arrows, and equity in reorganised Voyager. The bankruptcy process determines the priority of creditors and the valuation of assets, novel tasks in crypto-world. This is no time for the experts to go on holiday.
      …

      1. ‘Account holders would be repaid in the form of crypto “coins” and “tokens”,…’

        Why not repay in exotic tulip bulbs and Beanie Babies? Is crypto some kind of special collapsed bubble asset?

    5. The Cryptic Nature of Black Consumer Cryptocurrency Ownership
      Owning cryptocurrency has become especially popular among Black consumers for reasons related to historical context as well as the forward-looking views of young consumers. While cryptocurrencies have the potential to meet Black consumers’ expectations, they also pose risks to privacy and financial security.
      June 01, 2022
      Payments System Research Briefing Payments Banking and Finance
      by: Terri Bradford

      A growing number of U.S. consumers own cryptocurrency, a digital asset that secures transactions through cryptography and distributed ledger technology (usually blockchain). Although cryptocurrency was originally envisioned to function as an alternative currency or payment instrument, cryptocurrencies today (such as bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin, among many others) are used mainly for investment, and have become particularly popular among people of color. This Payments System Research Briefing examines the appeal of cryptocurrencies specifically for Black consumers and the risks cryptocurrency ownership may pose to their wealth building and financial security.

      Black consumers’ cryptocurrency ownership relative to white consumers

      Surveys show that Black consumers are more likely than white consumers to own cryptocurrencies. A 2021 Pew Research Center survey of U.S. consumers, for example, found that 18 percent of Black adults had invested in, traded, or used a cryptocurrency compared with 13 percent of white adults.[1] This difference between Black and white consumers’ cryptocurrency ownership contrasts sharply with other traditional assets. For example, according to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System’s 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), 61 percent of white households owned equity investments compared with 34 percent of Black households—a nearly two-to-one margin.

      Unlike white consumers, Black consumers are in fact more likely to own cryptocurrencies than assets such as stocks and mutual funds. Chart 1 suggests that Black consumers have a higher ownership rate for cryptocurrency than for stocks and mutual funds.[2] In contrast, white consumers have a higher ownership rate for stocks than for cryptocurrency.
      …
      https://www.kansascityfed.org/research/payments-system-research-briefings/the-cryptic-nature-of-black-consumer-cryptocurrency-ownership/

    6. Celebrities Erase Their Crypto Ties As Crypto Mania Turns Into Crisis
      Celebrity endorsements have a long history, but some famous people may be regretting their decisions to push crypto companies.
      Rob Lenihan
      July 2, 2022 9:45 AM EDT

      Some say it started with Lillie Langtree.

      The British actress and socialite, known as “The Jersey Lily,” is credited with being the first celebrity to endorse a product when she became the poster girl for Pears Soap in 1882.

      Others say it goes back to the 1760s, when Josiah Wedgewood, a British entrepreneur, created a tea set for Queen Charlotte, which people started calling “Queensware.”

      “The idea of celebrity endorsements, of course, goes back forever,” said Robert Thompson, a professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University. “We probably had a cro-magnon endorsing certain saber tooth tigers over other ones.”

      Athletes, actors and celebrities have taken their turn pushing some product or service and, by some estimates, 14% to 19% of advertisements aired in the U.S. featured celebrities that endorsed products and brands.

      A Harvard Business School study found that celebrity endorsement increases a company’s sales an average of 4% relative to its competition, and also increases a company’s stock value by 0.25%.

      In the early 1900’s sports stars like Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, and Cy Young were used to endorse tobacco companies. Mark Twain endorsed fountain pens, his own co-brand of cigars, clothing and Old Crow Whiskey, among other products.

      The celebrity endorsement train has continued rolling right up to the Crypto Era, with the likes of Jimmy Fallon, Jamie Fox, Paris Hilton, Larry David and Matt Damon, all singing the praises of digital currency–until the crypto price crash.
      …
      https://www.thestreet.com/investing/cryptocurrency/celebrities-erase-their-crypto-ties-as-crypto-mania-turns-into-crisis

  51. The Financial Times
    Markets Briefing
    US Treasury bonds
    US government debt under pressure after strong employment data
    Wall Street struggles for direction while European shares edge higher
    A now hiring sign
    US employers hired 372,000 new workers last month, compared with forecasts of 265,000 by economists polled by Bloomberg
    Naomi Rovnick in London and Nicholas Megaw and Kate Duguid in New York July 8 2022

    US government debt came under pressure after a stronger than expected jobs report fuelled expectations of more aggressive interest rate rises by the Federal Reserve.

    The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to the price of the debt security, rose 0.08 percentage points to 3.08 per cent, around its highest level this month. The two-year yield, which closely tracks interest rate expectations, added 0.09 percentage points to 3.1 per cent.

    The US non-farm payrolls report for June showed employers in the world’s largest economy hired 372,000 new workers last month, compared with average forecasts of 265,000. The unemployment rate stayed at 3.6 per cent while average hourly earnings rose 5.1 per cent on a year-over-year basis.

    “A strong number means the central bank needs to be more hawkish,” said State Street strategist Marija Veitmane. “You need to see a slowdown in the labour market in order to see inflation coming down.”
    …

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