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We Laugh At The Sellers On The Phone About It

A weekend topic starting with Business Insider. “‘This is a welcomed refresher to catch up on things and regroup, but there is a fearful tinge to the air as the market is shifting,’ realtor Abbey Pontius said to the Colorado Association of Realtors. The spike in inventory has caused home prices in Denver to come down from the record-highs that were recorded in April 2022. The median price of a single-family home in Denver has dropped by 10% to over $595,000 since April, the report indicates, while multifamily homes have seen their median prices drop by 9% to $550,000.”

From Vail Daily. “‘My advice to sellers is that they need to recognize that the market has shifted when pricing their homes. Homes that are priced based on today’s market value are more likely to attract more buyers, sell more quickly and maximize the sales price, even as demand changes and mortgage rates rise,’ added Kira Taylor, a broker associate with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Colorado Properties’ Edwards office.”

KEZI in Oregon. “Broker Katie Spurlock said sellers are in shock with the housing market right now because they can’t get the prices that Redfin and Zillow were telling them their house was worth, just a few months ago. Spurlock said she is seeing sales fall through more and more, but buyers from out of state are still moving here, and are taking their time with decisions. ‘So certainly, we have more inventory on the market and less demand for that inventory,’ said Spurlock. ‘There are just fewer buyers that are willing to move forward with all this uncertainty, or that can afford to move forward with this uncertainty.’ Spurlock anticipates housing prices to continue to drop or pause during the holidays.”

“Janet Loughrey also took to Facebook and said, ‘Houses on my street are selling for 9 times what I paid for my house back in the late 1980s. I could never afford to buy a house now.'”

The Orlando Business Journal in Florida. “Jerome Henin is close to declaring the rest of the year a vacation for his real estate company. That’s because business has slowed so much in the last six months for Winter Park-based Henin Group Inc., a residential developer where Henin is the president. Henin Group this year has witnessed slowing demand while development costs have climbed upwards of 25%, Henin told Orlando Business Journal.”

“Christian Swann, president of Winter Park-based Surrey Homes LLC, told OBJ the housing industry is in ‘a bit of a nosedive.’ At Surrey Homes, sales have been ‘nearly nonexistent’ for several months, Swann said. Swann said the slowing housing market means land deals are less competitive, though sellers haven’t adjusted their prices to the new market. ‘We’re seeing a lot more land opportunities as a result, but I don’t think any of those sellers have gotten the memo. It’s kind of comical. We laugh at the sellers on the phone about it.'”

The Real Deal. “Once harboring a near-mythic status in New York City, storied co-ops are being spurned by luxury buyers. Trophy co-ops are languishing on the market and selling for deep discounts, Curbed reported. Sales at 740 Park Avenue exemplify the trend. Julia Koch has been trying in vain to sell her apartment for $60 million. Steve Mnuchin, the former treasury secretary, sold his place for $22.5 million after 12 years of shopping it and a $15 million discount from its original listing.”

“Former Merill Lynch executive John Thain has spent four years trying to sell his duplex and now has it listed at the same price he bought it for 16 years ago. The building is not alone in its struggles, though. Other co-ops on Park, Fifth, Sutton and Beekman Places are seeing similar trends working against them. ‘In the past, big money needed co-ops to be accepted and established,’ Sotheby’s International Realty broker Nikki Field told the publication. ‘But no one needs 740 anymore.'”

The LA Daily News in California. “High inflation and a pending avalanche of job losses are going to squeeze the cash reserves from many homeowners who could soon be scrambling to make house payments. Can you say: Equity rich, financially distressed? For the purpose of this column, ERFD is our new acronym. Remember it. Set aside for a minute that mortgage delinquencies (at least one payment past due) are at 3.45%, their lowest level since the Mortgage Bankers Association started tracking them in 1979. That’s rearview mirror stuff if you listen to mortgage insiders. ‘The delinquency rate will likely increase in upcoming quarters from its record low (in part) because of the anticipated uptick in unemployment,’ said Marina Walsh, MBA’s vice president of industry analysis.”

“Business has all but stopped for mortgage lenders. And, yes, it’s much worse than the mortgage volume collapse I remember from the Great Recession. I’ve laid off two-thirds of my staff this year. Many mortgage professionals and many realty agents are scrambling to cut expenses and find ways to tap into their home equity.”

“Let’s go through a financial exam of sorts to see if you are on the edge of becoming an ERFD (equity-rich financially distressed) homeowner. 1) Are you worried about losing your job, getting work hours cut or anticipating a reduced revenue stream if you are self-employed? 2) Do you have less than six months of household cash reserves? For example, if your house payment, utilities, groceries, medical bills, food, and entertainment come to $8,000 monthly and you have $40,000 of accessible money, then you are short $8,000 needed to cover six months of expenses.”

“3) Do you have a burn rate? That is, more expenses going out monthly than are being replenished by income? 4) Do you have at least 25% tappable equity? (For example: Your home value is $800,000 and the loan balance is $600,000 which means you have 25% tappable equity). 5) Are you close to being late on an upcoming mortgage payment? A single, 30-day mortgage late payment can drop a FICO score 50 to 150 points, potentially ruining any chance of new mortgage credit, according to Mindy Leisure, director of rescoring services at Advantage Credit. (Full disclosure: Advantage Credit is my firm’s credit vendor.) If you answered yes to three or more of the questions, consider yourself an ERFD.”

From Bloomberg. “Sweden’s beleaguered real-estate companies may have to resort to fire sales and new share issues as the sector faces risks of rising vacancies and a projected 15% slump in property valuations. That’s the view of economists at lender Svenska Handelsbanken AB, including Christina Nyman, who says in a sector report that larger commercial landlords in the country could be forced to offload properties under ‘a more adverse scenario.’ The catalyst for such a scenario would be the industry’s looming ‘wall of maturities,’ according to the economists.”

“While most companies should be able to secure financing through bond markets or banks, as much as a third of maturing bond volumes come from firms that may have to resort to asset sales to refinance. The bank estimates as much as 120 billion kronor of bonds fall due in each of the next three years. The development in the sector has raised the spectre of a crisis similar to the one Sweden experienced in the 1990s, when a property market crash reverberated throughout the Nordic nation’s financial system.”

“In a separate report published Wednesday, the country’s central bank spelled out a worst-case scenario in which developments in the property sector could threaten stability. If falling property values make real-estate owners breach financial covenants, lenders may request additional collateral, which can ‘quickly create a negative spiral,’ the Riksbank says.”

“The jump in borrowing costs is also pressuring the residential housing market where Swedish home prices have declined steadily since March. Handelsbanken – among the biggest mortgage lenders in the country – now expects the drop to continue, reaching 19% from the peak, which is a deeper slump than the 15% it had previously forecast.”

The Sydney Morning Herald. “The luxury property market has slowed as well-heeled buyers start to worry about looming economic headwinds, new figures show. Prime property prices – the most expensive 5 per cent of homes in a market – have fallen or are barely rising across major Australian cities, Knight Frank research found. In Melbourne, buyer’s advocate David Morrell said the $5 million to $10 million bracket had an influx of new listings late in spring that would enable buyers to be more choosy.”

“Several properties in that price range in South Yarra and Toorak have recently hit the market, along with some more expensive offerings in the same neighbourhoods, and in Brighton and on the Mornington Peninsula. Some had been offered quietly off-market earlier, did not sell, and were now listed publicly to try to get a result before Christmas, he said. ‘There is so much choice for the limited buyers there,’ he said. ‘They are not all going to sell.’ ‘This time last year everything was going nuts, people were trying to buy things before auction,’ he said. ‘It is a complete 180 this year.'”

The Globe and Mail. “Call it the end of an era. The past couple of years have torn holes in three ideas that investors once considered indisputable. First is the notion that China is the long-term driver of global economic growth. Second is the belief that interest rates are destined to stay ‘lower for longer.’ Third is the conviction that big U.S. technology companies are a good investment at just about any price. This not-so-holy trinity of ideas dominated financial markets during the decade leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. And why not? They seemed to sum up the state of the world.”

“What went wrong? One big problem is China’s faltering property sector. Years of frantic building have helped drive the country’s total debt to towering levels and resulted in a glut of apartments. ‘Real estate constitutes such a large share of China’s economy that a sustained slowdown could cause years-long stagnation akin to Japan’s lost decades since 1990,’ writes Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff.”

“Small wonder that analysts at JP Morgan Chase earlier this year declared a broad swath of China’s tech sector to be ‘uninvestible.’ The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index, which tracks Chinese stocks listed on U.S. stock exchanges, is now back to 2007 levels. Rather than being an unstoppable giant, the Chinese economy now looks increasingly fragile. If China’s fall from grace has been a shock, so has an even more fundamental shift. For the first time in four decades, inflation has soared around the globe. So have interest rates. This is a brutal surprise for a world that for more than a generation saw inflation and interest rates both tick relentlessly lower.”

“But whatever the precise cause of ultralow interest rates, the trend was clear. After the global financial crisis of 2008-09, households and businesses operated on the assumption that money was more or less free. For the next decade, interest rates remained stuck at levels that were the lowest in 5,000 years, according to Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane. In the early stages of the pandemic, central banks reinforced this trend, slashing their key rates to zero in North America and to sub-zero levels in Europe.”

“The abrupt reversal of those ultralow rate policies over the past year is having a shattering effect. Soaring mortgage rates are eating away at home prices around the world. Higher borrowing costs are discouraging companies from investing in new factories and offices. Simultaneously, rising interest rates are punishing bond prices (which move in the opposite direction to interest rates) and stocks (because higher bond yields are making fixed income an attractive alternative for the first time in years).”

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This Post Has 159 Comments

  1. ‘Christian Swann, president of Winter Park-based Surrey Homes LLC, told OBJ the housing industry is in ‘a bit of a nosedive.’ At Surrey Homes, sales have been ‘nearly nonexistent’ for several months, Swann said. Swann said the slowing housing market means land deals are less competitive, though sellers haven’t adjusted their prices to the new market. ‘We’re seeing a lot more land opportunities as a result, but I don’t think any of those sellers have gotten the memo. It’s kind of comical. We laugh at the sellers on the phone about it’

    That’s the spirit!

    2. I don’t think any of those sellers have gotten the memo. It’s kind of comical.

      I see the same thing in the used car market – delusional greedheads clinging to the prices of days gone by.

  2. ‘Broker Katie Spurlock said sellers are in shock with the housing market right now because they can’t get the prices that Redfin and Zillow were telling them their house was worth, just a few months ago’

    I posted this video yesterday and this first bit was a direct quote. Yes, there are lots of people out there that believed these two steaming piles had numbers even close to reality. Sold to Mr Zestimate!

    2. Yes, there are lots of people out there that believed these two steaming piles had numbers even close to reality.
      A friend of mine recently quoted me his Zillo value and he actually believed it. Que Ron White: “You can’t fix stupid?”

    3. I saw a guy posting on another site that he gets weekly updates on his “home value” from one of these sites. He’s speculating.

  3. ‘Business has all but stopped for mortgage lenders. And, yes, it’s much worse than the mortgage volume collapse I remember from the Great Recession. I’ve laid off two-thirds of my staff this year. Many mortgage professionals and many realty agents are scrambling to cut expenses and find ways to tap into their home equity’

    Wa?

    ‘Let’s go through a financial exam of sorts to see if you are on the edge of becoming an ERFD (equity-rich financially distressed) homeowner’

    Let’s see just how fooked you are California, let us count the ways!

    1. “ERFD (equity-rich financially distressed) homeowner”

      At least it was cheaper than renting.

  4. ‘There is so much choice for the limited buyers there,’ he said. ‘They are not all going to sell.’ ‘This time last year everything was going nuts, people were trying to buy things before auction,’ he said. ‘It is a complete 180 this year’

    Is it like somebody flipped a switch Dave?

  5. ‘Call it the end of an era. The past couple of years have torn holes in three ideas that investors once considered indisputable. First is the notion that China is the long-term driver of global economic growth. Second is the belief that interest rates are destined to stay ‘lower for longer.’ Third is the conviction that big U.S. technology companies are a good investment at just about any price’

    I love a good end of an era in the mornin!

  6. Colorado Springs, CO Housing Prices Crater 19% YOY As Mortgage Defaults And Foreclosures Spread Like The Black Plague Across Denver Area

    https://www.movoto.com/co/80915/market-trends/

    As one Colorado Springs broker explained, “We’ve been saying housing is an investment for years. How are we going to explain double digit price declines?”

    1. Shack prices have moderated slightly in CoS, but it’s nowhere near 19%. Inventory is around 2700, which is elevated, but it needs to be above 3000 to really get the party started. The greedhead delusion remains strong here, even though only 22% of prospective buyers can afford a median-priced shack. The CA equity locusts are still pouring in with all-cash offers.

      2. This is the time of year when a lot of people take their houses off the market for the winter. There should be an explosion of inventory in the spring, the likes of which we’ve never before seen.

  7. “Set aside for a minute that mortgage delinquencies (at least one payment past due) are at 3.45%, their lowest level since the Mortgage Bankers Association started tracking them in 1979.”

    Just like the fake inflation numbers, I find this impossible to believe. They must’ve changed how they count delinquencies. Maybe the people in the forbearance programs are not counted or something.

    1. ‘The delinquency rate will likely increase in upcoming quarters from its record low (in part) because of the anticipated uptick in unemployment,’ said Marina Walsh, MBA’s vice president of industry analysis.”
      Marina (MBA) was around for the last crash, so i am sure she/they see it coming. In the last crash, the MBA run conferences they did not talk about sub-prime failures but they did mention layered risk. The other consultant run conferences I attended spoke about sub-prime failures and layered risks. This other group was really down on housing but, the MBA is a “trade” organization so I suspect they had to be more moderate.

  8. “Can you say: Equity rich, financially distressed? For the purpose of this column, ERFD is our new acronym. Remember it.”

    Soon to be replaced by EGFDJMLOS- Equity gone finances destroyed jingle mail living on street.

  9. Anyone watching the “Watcher” on Netflix?

    While an OK series with some occasional funny scenes…the underlying FB plot is awesome.

    1. The only part of that series that was believable was the relitter. Every other line out of her mouth was “You should sell your house and I’ll list it.” Quite accurate.

    2. The steal is not yet complete. CA is busy harvesting ballots for all of their House races which will complete the steal by clinching the House as well.

  11. “Janet Loughrey also took to Facebook and said, ‘Houses on my street are selling for 9 times what I paid for my house back in the late 1980s. I could never afford to buy a house now.’”

    Heckova job, “Zimbabwe Ben” Bernanke, Yellen the Felon, & BlackRock Jay.

  12. Gateway Pundit — Tens of Billions of US Dollars Were Transferred to Ukraine and then Using FTX Crypto Currency the Funds Were Laundered Back to Democrats in US (11/12/2022):

    “We have information that the tens of billions of dollars going to Ukraine were actually laundered back to the US to corrupt Democrats and elites using FTX cryptocurrency. Now the money is gone and FTX is bankrupt.

    As reported earlier, the FTX crypto company gave at least $40 million to Democrat candidates and causes in the midterms.

    Sam Bankman-Fried is Biden’s second biggest donor.

    The word is now out. The Democrats sent tens of billions to Ukraine and then laundered this money back to Democrat pockets and funds in the US. Now the company is bankrupt and the funds are nowhere to be found.

    This information was shared on Twitter and we can confirm from our sources that this is accurate.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/11/breaking-exclusive-tens-billions-transferred-ukraine-using-ftx-crypto-currency-laundered-back-democrats-us/

    1. “At least $1 billion of customer funds have vanished from collapsed crypto exchange FTX, according to two people familiar with the matter.

      The exchange’s founder Sam Bankman-Fried secretly transferred $10 billion of customer funds from FTX to Bankman-Fried’s trading company Alameda Research, the people told Reuters.

      A large portion of that total has since disappeared, they said. One source put the missing amount at about $1.7 billion. The other said the gap was between $1 billion and $2 billion.

      https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/exclusive-least-1-billion-client-funds-missing-failed-crypto-firm-ftx-sources-2022-11-12/

      1. ‘FTX Has Been Hacked’: Crypto Disaster Worsens as Exchange Sees Mysterious Outflows Exceeding $600M (11/12/2022):

        “The collapse of FTX, already one of the most spectacular disasters in financial history, worsened as hundreds of millions of dollars were drained from the cryptocurrency exchange hours after it filed for bankruptcy.

        More than $600 million was siphoned from FTX’s crypto wallets late Friday. Soon after, FTX stated in its official Telegram channel that it had been compromised, instructing users not to install any new upgrades and to delete all FTX apps.

        Many FTX wallet holders reported $0 balances in their FTX.com and FTX US wallets. FTX’s API appeared to be down, which could account for this. According to on-chain data, various Ethereum tokens as well as Solana and Binance Smart Chain tokens exited FTX’s official wallets and moved to decentralized exchanges like 1inch. Both FTX and FTX US appear to be affected.

        The transfers occurred on the same day that the firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. after apparently losing – or misappropriating – billions of dollars in user funds. Suspicions – which are conjecture at this point – circulated online about whether, rather than an outside attack, someone inside the company might’ve been responsible.

        https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/12/ftx-crypto-wallets-see-mysterious-late-night-outflows-totalling-more-than-380m/

          1. “That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.” — Ecclesiastes 1:15

    1. The Financial Times
      Sam Bankman-Fried’s fall cuts off big source of funds for US Democrats
      FTX entrepreneur has emerged as the second-biggest donor to liberal groups after George Soros
      Sam Bankman-Fried had vowed to give up to $1bn to political candidates linked to causes he supported but later backed away from the pledge
      Stefania Palma and Courtney Weaver in Washington, Caitlin Gilbert in New York 4 hours ago

      Sam Bankman-Fried stormed on to the US political scene with multimillion-dollar donations that led lawmakers, particularly Democrats, to believe he was ushering in the next generation of donors. But in a matter of days, his business empire collapsed into bankruptcy and the prospect of millions more in donations evaporated.

      Before the fall of Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX, the entrepreneur had emerged as the second-largest donor to Democrats after George Soros. He had vowed to give up to $1bn to political candidates linked to causes he supported, a pledge from which he later backed away.

      He also became one of the most prominent crypto representatives in Washington, supporting digital asset legislation and hiring former regulators as advisers.

      Bradley Beychok, co-founder of the Democratic super political action committee (Pac) American Bridge 21st Century, said Bankman-Fried “came on the scene out of nowhere [and] became a large supporter of different causes and candidates very quickly,” adding that he had built an “organised campaign”.

      But a liquidity crisis that has forced the 30-year-old’s $32bn business empire into bankruptcy has erased a potential pool of funds linked to a seemingly reliable player in an often volatile industry.

      “Sam didn’t live up to his commitments,” said one Democratic lobbyist working in the crypto space. Bankman-Fried’s grand spending promises had been “more bluster than action”, the lobbyist added.
      …

    2. The Financial Times
      FTX Trading Ltd
      FTX held less than $1bn in liquid assets against $9bn in liabilities
      Vast gap highlights the dire state of Sam Bankman-Fried’s exchange before it collapsed into bankruptcy
      FTX secured backing from blue-chip investors and became a major donor to the US Democratic party during its meteoric rise
      Antoine Gara in New York and Kadhim Shubber and Joshua Oliver in London November 12 2022

      Sam Bankman-Fried’s main international FTX exchange held just $900mn in easily sellable assets against $9bn of liabilities the day before it collapsed into bankruptcy, according to investment materials seen by the Financial Times.

      The largest portion of those liquid assets listed on a FTX international balance sheet dated Thursday was $470mn of Robinhood shares owned by a Bankman-Fried vehicle not listed in Friday’s bankruptcy filing, which included 134 corporate entities.

      The document, shared with prospective investors before the bankruptcy, provides a detailed picture of the financial hole in the FTX crypto empire and suggests customers of FTX international may face steep losses on cash and crypto assets they held on the exchange.

      FTX’s collapse has delivered a powerful blow to a crypto industry already reeling from a string of corporate failures this year.

      Bankman-Fried had been a leading figure in the sector and had presented himself as an entrepreneur keen to bring the wild west crypto market in line with mainstream regulation. The 30-year-old had secured backing from blue-chip investors, became a major donor to the US Democratic party and plastered his FTX exchange’s logo on the Miami Heat arena during his meteoric rise following the founding of his trading venue in 2019.

      Bankman-Fried on Friday put his $32bn international exchange, along with FTX US and his trading firm Alameda Research, into bankruptcy proceedings in federal court in Delaware.

      John J Ray, the veteran insolvency practitioner brought in to run the bankruptcy as FTX chief executive, said on Friday that the cryptocurrency group “has valuable assets” and that the bankruptcy proceedings would allow the company to “assess the situation and . . . maximise recoveries for stakeholders”.

      The process has already run into issues after barely 24 hours, incorrectly listing entities FTX did not own in its initial filing and suffering an apparent hack on Friday night.

      FTX declined to comment.
      …

    3. Could the right blend of regulatory oversight protect investors from a collapsing Ponzi scheme based on a fundamentally worthless asset class?

      Sounds to me like wishful thinking.

      1. Yahoo
        Reuters
        U.S. senator urges legislation after FTX collapse
        David Shepardson
        Thu, November 10, 2022 at 11:02 AM·2 min read
        FILE PHOTO: U.S. Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in Washington
        By David Shepardson

        WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee chair Debbie Stabenow said on Thursday the U.S. Congress needs to pass legislation in the wake of the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

        “It is time for Congress to act. The Committee, remains committed to advancing the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act to bring necessary safeguards to the digital commodities market,” Stabenow said.

        She added that she is working with the panel’s top Republican John Boozman, financial regulators and others “to finalize and prepare this legislation for a committee vote.”

        Earlier on Thursday Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown said it is critical that U.S. financial agencies investigate what led to the FTX collapse.

        “It is crucial that our financial watchdogs look into what led to FTX’s collapse so we can fully understand the misconduct and abuses that took place,” the Democratic senator said.

        “I’m committed to finding the best path forward to protect consumers and the stability of the U.S. markets and banking system.”

        Stabenow also called on financial watchdogs to act. “Until legislation is enacted, I encourage all financial regulators to use their current authorities to the fullest extent to regulate and prosecute misconduct in these markets,” Stabenow said.

        Also Thursday, the White House said cryptocurrencies risk harming everyday Americans without proper oversight and the latest crypto news underscores these concerns.

        “The administration has consistently maintained that, without proper oversight of cryptocurrencies, they risk harming everyday Americans,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
        …
        https://finance.yahoo.com/news/key-u-senator-urges-probe-190237132.html

        1. Blah blah blah. Our captured regulators, enforcers, and policymakers are all deeply corrupt. The Congress Critters will bloviate for the cameras, but ever since the MF Global theft of $1.6B in account holders’ money to cover former Obama campaign contribution bundler Jon Corzine, it’s been clear that graft and larceny that benefits Democrats will go unpunished.

          1. yep, unpunished and uninvestigated. We are deep into the “steal everything that isn’t nailed down” stage of empire collapse

      2. Humpty-dumpty sat on a wall.
        Humpty-dumpty had a great fall.
        All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
        Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

    4. BTC
      $16672.49
      -1.1%

      ETH
      $1240.77
      -2.1%

      Markets
      Grim Outlook for Bitcoin, Ether Prices as ‘More Bodies to Surface’

      Analysts believe crypto, led by bitcoin and ether, could be headed for further sell-offs as the market reels from the FTX debacle
      Source: DALL·E 2
      By Sebastian Sinclair / November 12, 2022, 10:18 am EST

      Crypto analysts are predicting further turbulence for bitcoin and ether prices over the next nine months, as the industry picks up the pieces following the shock collapse of FTX.

      Bitcoin and ether were trading at $16,800 and $1,260 as of 9 am ET, respectively, both down about 20% over the past week and 65% over the year to date.

      Cryptocurrency’s total market capitalization has lost a similar amount. Digital assets have together shed $215 billion in nominal value since this time last week — before FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s apparent mishandling of user funds came to light — sinking from $1.1 trillion to $885 million, now at nearly two-year lows.

      Even if FTX finds its footing and gets bailed out by an entity willing to take on its debt, crypto markets are spooked, Daniel Kim, director of investments at Beijing-based FBG Capital told Blockworks in an interview.

      Gun-to-head scenario: Kim believes markets are slated for further corrections, to as low as $13,000 for bitcoin and between $900 and $1,000 for ether. But it’s anybody’s guess, analysts argue. The FTX situation is ongoing, making it difficult to map exactly how much contagion risk exists in the ecosystem.

      “There is a strong spotlight from regulators to monitor everything that’s going on and unfortunately a lot of institutions — both crypto and traditional — have been impacted,” Kim said.
      …
      https://blockworks.co/news/outlook-grim-for-bitcoin-ether-prices-as-more-bodies-to-surface/

    5. Finance
      Published November 13, 2022 1:41pm EST
      FTX faces criminal probe in Bahamas after company collapses, loses $1 billion in crypto
      Fromer FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is a top donor to Democratic politicians
      By Anders Hagstrom FOXBusiness
      Did FTX meltdown turn the ‘crypto winter’ into a ‘crypto ice age’?

      The cryptocurrency exchange FTX is facing a criminal inquiry in the Bahamas after the company filed for bankruptcy and essentially collapsed last week.

      FTX, co-founded by former crypto billionaire and top Democratic donor Sam Bankman-Fried, reported that roughly $1 billion in crypto funds had vanished due to “unauthorized transactions.” The company is based in the Bahamas and filed for bankruptcy last week, leading to an investigation from the country’s securities commission, Bloomberg reported Sunday.

      “In light of the collapse of FTX globally and the provisional liquidation of FTX Digital Markets Ltd., a team of financial investigators from the Financial Crimes Investigation Branch are working closely with the Bahamas Securities Commission to investigate if any criminal misconduct occurred,” a police spokesman told the outlet.
      …
      https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/ftx-faces-criminal-probe-bahamas-company-collapses-loses-1-billion-crypto

  16. I would think that $50 million in donations to his fellow Democrat-Bolsheviks would buy SBF not only immunity from our corrupt DoJ, but also whatever Deep State assistance is required to escape justice.

    FTX founder and two senior execs are ‘under observation by authorities’ holed-up in luxurious Bahamas resort owned by Tiger Woods and Justin Timberlake – as they ‘plot escape to non-extradition safe haven Dubai’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11422261/FTX-founder-holed-founder-chief-technology-officer-luxurious-Bahamas-resort.html

    1. I would think that $50 million in donations to his fellow Democrat-Bolsheviks would buy SBF not only immunity from our corrupt DoJ, but also whatever Deep State assistance is required to escape justice. ”

      Monies gone they will turn on him , hes no more use to them

      1. Monies gone they will turn on him , hes no more use to them

        Plus in the big picture, $50M is chump change. Brandon’s weekly cut is likely far more than that.

        Once Epstein stopped being an asset and turned into a liability … we know how that ended.

        1. Epstein pimped out minors to…nobody. Our corrupt DoJ & FBI are sitting on his Pedo Island Mossad videos & client list.

    2. Here is my controversial take on Sam BF as a continuation of yesterdays comments. I’m still going with jaw dropping stupidity and not conspiracy. Sure he exhibits some sociopathic tendencies but there is clearly some other underlying issue.

      It’s fun to think up conspiracies and all but this guy is clearly off. He really comes across as an aspie which got me wondering how old his parents are. It turns out his mother was 41 and his father 37ish when they had him. As the ages of parents get older, the chances of developmental issues rise significantly. If we could teleport back to his childhood I would bet the parents were having conversations about how he wasn’t like the other children and not in a good way. They probably coddled him as a result but mostly as absentee parents since they were very career focused. This made for a toxic personality mix. His girlfriend also appears to be developmentally challenged which is probably why they are attracted to each other – and to crypto.

      The real surprise here is that so many people were so eager to shovel money at these two with no diligence. In interviews they all say it was the reputations of his parents that made them do it. There is a lesson here.

      The details really look to me like a hyperactive aspie with very poor self control who was able to leverage his parents reputations to ‘change the world’. This is the simpler explanation and is more likely than the tightly coordinated global conspiracy that some of you would like to indulge.

      Personally, I think we should give the deep state a little credit that they could pull things off a little better than this epic dumpster fire.

      1. The real surprise here is that so many people were so eager to shovel money at these two with no diligence.

        Pure greed. People were hoping to turn their paltry life savings into many millions.

      2. The first time I watched an interview with FTX-Sam on CNBC, I wondered if he has aspergers. Nothing he said made sense. Sent my BS meter off the charts…

  19. Many mortgage professionals and many realty agents are scrambling to cut expenses and find ways to tap into their home equity.”

    Tapping into your home equity as shack valuations are starting to tumble…genius move!

    1. They are trying to buy time, hoping that the market will soon turn around and it will be happy days again.

  20. “But whatever the precise cause of ultralow interest rates, the trend was clear. After the global financial crisis of 2008-09, households and businesses operated on the assumption that money was more or less free.

    The counterfeiters & racketeers at the Fed have set the stage for a financial crisis that’s going to make 2008 look like a walk in the park.

  21. Under Marxism children are property of the state.

    “A pro-transgender propaganda film for children called Mama has a Mustache was sponsored by Bayer, a pharmaceutical company that produces drugs that are used to feminize men who identify as transgender.

    Mama has a Mustache is all about normalizing transgenderism, particularly in the minds of one group of people: young children.

    The film’s website bears the phrase “Kids talk gender,” directly above the trailer, which starts with a child being asked “Can you be a girl and have a boy body, or be a boy and have a girl body?” A young child answers “yes, that’s transgender.”

    “I feel like I’m not really a boy or a girl,” one child says in the trailer.

    The synopsis of Mama has a Mustache leaves no room for doubt about the film’s intentions to mold the minds of young children. The film is “driven completely by audio interviews of kids ages 5-10” and explores “how children are able to experience a world outside of the traditional gender binary.”

    https://www.breitbart.com/social-justice/2022/11/12/pro-transgender-propaganda-film-for-children-sponsored-by-pharmaceutical-company-that-creates-feminizing-drug/

    Remember, when you buy a house, your property taxes are paying to promote this in the public schools. And if you object, you will get tossed in the January 6th gulag.

    1. Truth?

      LMFAO@ these alleged “truths” unless people are willing to publicly discuss why Isaiah Jackson got fired from CoinDesk.

      Globalists gonna globe.

  23. A reader sent these in:

    No bueno (hedge fund in FTX)

    https://twitter.com/AlessioUrban/status/1591364239285194752

    2 years ago: 30-yr mortgage rate was 2.80% & average new home price in the US was $395k. Today: 30-yr mortgage rate is 7.08% & average new home price is $518k. Result: $25k increase in down payment (assuming 20% down) & 114% increase in monthly payment (from $1,298 to $2,779).

    https://twitter.com/charliebilello/status/1591438166023716865

    SBF had this Alameda pitch deck from 2018 offering investors… 15% returns… up to $200m volume… “high returns, no risk”… “have NO DOWNSIDE”… This is practically screaming PONZI back in 2018. When the fake crypto is free, payments are easy.

    https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1591613689320603648

    This is so good. It’s going to be in 4 parts because it’s so long. Stanley Druckenmiller’s 2023 forecast

    https://twitter.com/StealthQE4/status/1591543181631430656

    The collapse of crypto and tech layoffs, slowing inflation and the impending recession feels like something has shifted. The long strange trip of 2020-22 is behind us. Magical thinking is dead. Things are returning to normal. Next shoe is WFH. New Boss = Old Boss

    https://twitter.com/Cribdilla/status/1591084913599873025

    Aaron Layman

    Houston housing market update: Sales down 22.7% in October. Pending sales down 23.4%. Median prices slipped to $330,500, up 8.4% YoY but down $24,500 from the high set in June. Inventory at 2.8 months supply, up from 1.8. Days on market grew from 32 to 43 days.

    https://twitter.com/dfwaaronlayman/status/1591167671152017409

    I had to read this more than twice. Home values in Sydney erased their COVID gains and are still dropping.

    https://twitter.com/ALROnHousing/status/1591571483192532993

    I keep hearing the refrain “This is healthy. The industry will come out stronger.” Bullsh*t. Did Madoff make Ponzi finance “healthier”?

    https://twitter.com/UrbanKaoboy/status/1591267674579177473

    A real HODLer..
    BREAKING: FTX had a “backdoor” built into its accounting software by SBF, which he used to move billions without triggering alerts to other staff, auditors etc – Reuters

    https://twitter.com/AlessioUrban/status/1591491760135585794

    “SBF was trying to sell his 7.6% share of Robinhood, worth $472M, on the app Signal. The shares were held by an Antigua and Barbuda entity called Emergent Fidelity, which is personally controlled by Bankman-Fried and NOT included in the FTX bankruptcy filing.” – Financial Times

    https://twitter.com/Loopifyyy/status/1591489987459297282

    Lance Lambert

    Goldman Sachs: “Although home prices peaked at different times across the G10, they are declining at a similar pace of around 15% annualized from their respective peaks in New Zealand, Sweden, Canada, Australia, and the U.S.”

    https://twitter.com/NewsLambert/status/1591539211005726720

    Patagonia vest recession:
    Meta – laid off 11,000 (13%)
    Twitter – laid off 3,700 (50%)
    Intel, Snap – layoffs 20%
    Robinhood – layoffs 30%
    Stripe, Salesforce, Lyft – layoffs ~13%
    Microsoft, Shopify, Netflix, Coinbase – layoffs
    Apple, Amazon, Disney – hiring freezes

    https://twitter.com/profgalloway/status/1591541091303669760

    speechless (FTX)

    https://twitter.com/concodanomics/status/1591232063906217984

    The Kobeissi Letter

    Events this Month:
    1. Most tech layoffs announced since 2001
    2. $30 billion collapse of crypto exchange FTX
    3. US credit card debt hits record $930 billion
    4. Wells Fargo mortgage business drops 90%
    5. 37% of small businesses in US unable to pay rent
    We are in a recession.

    https://twitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1591465898652614657

    CarDealershipGuy

    This is wild: Used car prices are dropping so fast that ‘book’ values are not keeping up. This is a 2020 Tesla Model 3 from yesterday’s auction.
    Book value: $50,375
    Market value: $41,600
    $8,775 difference 🤯

    https://twitter.com/GuyDealership/status/1591469955098488832

    Mark Cuban

    These blowups have not been crypto blowups, they have been banking blow-ups. Lending to the wrong entity, misvaluations of collateral, arrogant arbs, followed by depositor runs. See Long Term Capital, Savings & Loan and Sub-Prime blowups. All different versions of the same story

    https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/1591470047499018241

    1. ‘Although home prices peaked at different times across the G10, they are declining at a similar pace of around 15% annualized from their respective peaks in New Zealand, Sweden, Canada, Australia, and the U.S.’

      I don’t see how anyone could say this wasn’t a bubble.

      1. “It is hard to get a man to understand something when his paycheck requires that he not understand it.”

        — Upton Sinclair

    2. This is so good. It’s going to be in 4 parts because it’s so long. Stanley Druckenmiller’s 2023 forecast

      I don’t personally like Druckenmiller, but everybody should watch this.

      To me, what he’s talking about is basically the silver lining in this mid-term election steal. Brandon and Co. will be on the hook for the most massive economic crash in the history of the US. If that doesn’t finish him and his party, nothing will.

      1. on the hook

        We were hoping that they would suffer a narrow defeat and thereby be slowed down in their agenda, but we’re not really in charge of their destiny. Perhaps their destiny is to be dramatically destroyed by their own misdeeds. We’ll see, and it will be interesting.

    3. This is wild: Used car prices are dropping so fast that ‘book’ values are not keeping up.

      Craigslist private party dreamers are alive and well. Not even a hint of price cuts.

    2. After Kayne, it went downhill. Once he said Trump colluded with Russia, I stopped watching. He’s peddling MSM’s lies.

  25. Sunday morning link dump:

    https://communities.win/
    https://rumble.com/
    https://odysee.com/
    https://parler.com/
    https://gab.com/
    https://www.bitchute.com/
    https://westernrifleshooters.us/
    https://normalamerican.com/news/

    And a reminder, Jonathan Greenblatt was not elected to govern anything, he is not in a government appointed position, and any alleged “authority” he has granted himself is nothing more than delusion.

    Become un-cancelable, and speak freely, because this country doesn’t belong to these globalists.

    And a bonus link in case you skipped church today.

    Kanye West — Jesus Walks:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9wJBdFy6sQ

  27. “The Great Remorse takes over the Great Resignation as most workers who quit their job are having a hard time finding a new one”

    https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/great-remorse-takes-over-great-133000047.html

    (snip)

    The latest workers to join the Great Resignation aren’t having as easy a time finding a new job as they thought it would be, and it’s leading to the Great Remorse.

    A new Harris Poll, as first reported by Bloomberg, surveyed over 2,000 U.S. job seekers’ recent experiences with the labor market. Over 70% of them said it has been harder than they’d hoped to lock down a good role.

    (snip)

    The frustration and the slog of the job search has led over half (51%) of seekers to agree that, as it stands, they would take any job offer that comes along. That’s one more sign that the Great Resignation might finally, after nearly two years, be cooling off.

    But things haven’t been looking up for job seekers for some time now. A July report from Joblist found that a quarter of workers who quit during the pandemic have come to regret it.

    And a March 2022 Harris Poll found that over a third of respondents who regretted quitting said that in their new role, their work-life balance had declined, their new job was different than what they were led to expect, and that they actually miss the culture of their old job.

    These testimonies all suggest that the power is firmly back in the hands of the employers, whose best bet now might be to warm up to the idea of boomerang employees—so long as they agree not to say I told you so.

      1. This is a convenient coincidence, I hadn’t read all the comments before I posted my screed above. Also interesting is that the Daily Mail did a big article yesterday on SBF trying to get in on Elon’s Twitter deal. They discussed SBF throwing 3 billion at it and turning it into some sort of crypto powerhouse. Elon said his B.S. detectors went off and he wanted nothing to do with SBF and didn’t think he actually had the money.

        A lot of the numbers being thrown around are pure speculation and fake. He was never actually worth 32 bil or whatever. Most of what he was spending was coming in from the marks that were ‘investing’. I expect this story to blow over soon as bigger fish (maybe Elon?) get fried. SBF is mostly an aspie troll who was good at bs’ing. Some would say Elon is similar, however, Elon has credible real world achievements even if some of the details are dubious.

        2. however, Elon has credible real world achievements

          I wouldn’t shed a tear if Tesla, Boring or any of his other dubious companies go bust, but I would be sad to see SpaceX fold.

  30. ‘Homes that are priced based on today’s market value are more likely to attract more buyers, sell more quickly and maximize the sales price’

    And when THAT’S not enough?

    11/10/2022 $499,900
    10/27/2022 $509,900
    10/04/2022 $519,900
    08/18/2022 $534,900
    08/02/2022 $549,900
    07/01/2022 $599,900
    06/16/2022 $614,900; ($500 per sq ft. Umm yeah why not? A 5,700 sq ft lot mind you)
    05/05/2022 Sold $573,000

    https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/M1113827405

    2. If they bought the place on May 5, 2022, why are they trying to sell it already? Seems like a recipe for guaranteed financial losses.

  32. Control of House Could Be Decided by Close California Races

    JOEL B. POLLAK
    13 Nov 2022

    Control of the U.S. House of Representatives could be decided by a handful of close races in California — which could take weeks to determine, thanks to the state’s heavy reliance on vote-by-mail and its liberal voting rules.

    1,436 Comments

    Vietnam Vet 1966/1967 • 4 hours ago

    I am 76, I am on the down hill of my life. Unhappily I am seeing the destruction of my country. I hope the people doing this rot in Hell. You know who you are.

    Eric Fitzsimmons FamousJamous • an hour ago

    Anybody that thinks California is going to hand over the house is delusional.

    Freebird Eric Fitzsimmons • an hour ago

    Ballot harvesting was legalized in CA in 2018 and flipped every red seat blue. Since then it’s been the dem model for the nation, COVID allowed them to implement it on a massive scale. We screwed.

    Liberty_Road Jim Dandy • an hour ago

    Trump never lost. They stole the election through mail in ballots because of the covid excuse. I saw it happen in real time. He was leading in all the swing states until they stopped counting.

    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/11/13/control-of-house-could-be-decided-by-close-california-races/

  33. Climate Crusader Harrison Ford Pilots Private Jet from NY to TN to L.A. for Wife’s Birthday Celebration

    DAVID NG
    13 Nov 2022

    The Raiders of the Lost Ark star piloted his $18.8 million Cessna Citation Sovereign jet from New York to Tennessee to pick up his mother-in-law and then onto L.A. to celebrate his wife’s 58th birthday, according to a Daily Mail report.

    The three were reportedly seen disembarking from the plane in L.A. and boarding an SUV. The cross-country plane trip gave off an estimated 10.8 metric tonnes of carbon emissions — more than double the carbon footprint if the three had taken a commercial flight.

    The actor spoke at the U.N. Climate Action Summit in 2019 where he praised young climate activists, including Thunberg, as a “moral army” who will make a difference.

    “They are a moral army, and the most important thing we can do for them is to get the hell out of their way,” Ford said.

    In a 2020 interview with Time magazine, Ford called out politicians who have made climate change a “divisive issue” and “do it to protect the entrenched economic interests who profit from behavior that destroys our planet.”

    https://twitter.com/TIME/status/1318500169516781568?s=20&t=mS1zaTCNeLc5_seSgHx1_Q

    He also urged voters to cast their ballots for leaders who commit to prioritizing climate change, saying, “This shit is going to kill us.”

    As Breitbart News has reported, Ford has frequently flown his private jets for family-related trips as well as leisure.

    https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2022/11/13/climate-crusader-harrison-ford-pilots-private-jet-from-ny-to-tn-to-l-a-for-wifes-birthday-celebration/

  34. https://twitter.com/chancery_daily/status/1591552786709319684:

    I decided to check out the first of the bankruptcy filings for FTX in the District of Delaware and, well, at least it’s not going to be complicated at all. just have to sort out all 134 of these subsidiary corps and their dockets. 🥲

    https://twitter.com/gurgavin/status/1590890218928115712 w/ embedded image:

    THIS IS THE ORG STRUCTURE OF FTX

    LIKE WTF

    https://twitter.com/RobertH14867995/status/1591850561200349184:

    This is exactly what Enron did. They obfuscated fraud with sprawling bureaucracy

  35. Do you have a sinking feeling that it’s too late to get your money out of your cryptocurrency HODLings?

    FOGS = Fear of Getting Stucco

    1. So long as you didn’t have your cryptocurrency HODLings invested with FTZ, there’s no need to worry.

      Your investments are safe as houses.

      1. The Financial Times
        FTX Trading Ltd
        Crypto exchanges race to soothe clients’ nerves after FTX collapse
        Binance and other trading venues vow to publish proof of reserves as crisis at Bankman-Fried’s empire reverberates
        FTX logo and mobile app ads
        FTX had less than $1bn in easily sellable assets against $9bn in liabilities before it went bankrupt on Friday
        Nikou Asgari and Scott Chipolina in London 2 hours ago

        Digital asset exchanges are rushing to reassure clients that their funds are safe as the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX crypto exchange ricochets through the industry.

        Binance, the world’s biggest crypto trading venue, as well as smaller rivals including Crypto.com, OKX and Derebit have vowed to publish proof that they hold sufficient reserves to match their liabilities to customers. Coinbase, the US-listed exchange, has also sought to distance itself from the crisis that has engulfed FTX, the digital asset venue founded by Sam Bankman-Fried.

        The sudden collapse last week of FTX and Bankman-Fried’s trading shop Alameda Research, once viewed as pillars of the industry, has severely eroded confidence in the digital asset market. FTX had less than $1bn in easily sellable assets against $9bn in liabilities before it went bankrupt on Friday, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.

        Tether’s eponymous US dollar stablecoin — the largest in the industry — has faced approximately $3bn in redemptions in the past four days, according to data provider CoinMarketCap, underscoring how traders are yanking funds out of the digital asset market.

        Meanwhile, balances of ether, the second-biggest cryptocurrency, have dropped 7 per cent in the past fortnight to 22.9mn across major crypto exchanges, including FTX, according to data from blockchain analytics platform Nansen. At current exchange rates, that points to a fall of about $2bn, which suggests some investors are pulling their coins from centralised venues in favour of storing them using their own systems.

        Binance’s chief executive warned last week of the potential for a “cascading” crisis in the crypto sector in the wake of FTX’s failure, which he said could resemble the 2008 global financial crisis. FTX had garnered a valuation of $32bn after striking deals with big-name investors and was building a public profile through a string of sports sponsorships, such as securing naming rights for the Miami Heat arena.

        Coinbase on Friday sent an email to customers, seen by the FT, describing “how Coinbase’s business is different and ultimately better protects” customer accounts and assets. The email referenced the company’s financial position and said the exchange, led by chief executive Brian Armstrong, holds customer assets on a one-to-one basis. Coinbase declined to provide comment beyond a blog post it made last week.
        …

    3. Forbes Digital Assets
      JPMorgan Reveals Shock ‘Cascade’ Bitcoin Price Prediction After Stunning FTX Meltdown
      Billy Bambrough
      Senior Contributor
      I write about how bitcoin, crypto and blockchain can change the world.
      Nov 13, 2022, 8:00am EST

      Bitcoin BTC (-2%) has been left reeling from the shock collapse of major cryptocurrency exchange FTX and the linked trading company Alemada Research this week, resulting in a serious regulator warning.

      The bitcoin price has crashed under $17,000 per bitcoin, down more than 70% from its all-time high of almost $71,000 set a year ago, with some fearing the crypto price crash could be about to go from bad to worse.

      Now, analysts at Wall Street giant JPMorgan have issued a devastating bitcoin price prediction, warning the cryptocurrency could fall by another 25% following the FTX meltdown—even after the bank made a big bet on crypto.

      “What makes this new phase of crypto deleveraging induced by the apparent collapse of Alameda Research and FTX more problematic is that the number of entities with stronger balance sheets able to rescue those with low capital and high leverage is shrinking within the crypto ecosystem,” JPMorgan analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote in a note to clients see by Marketwatch.

      The researchers said they expect the latest crypto crisis—coming after a series of failures this year—could push the bitcoin price to lows of $13,000 due to a “cascade of margin calls” in the aftermath of the FTX collapse, pointing to bitcoin production costs that are currently around $15,000 per bitcoin.

      “Given the size and interlinkages of both FTX and Alameda Research with other entities of the crypto ecosystem, including DeFi (decentralized finance) platforms, it looks likely that a new cascade of margin calls, deleveraging and crypto company/platform failures is starting similar to what we saw last May/June following the collapse of terra”—an algorithmic stablecoin that was designed to be pegged to the U.S. dollar via its support coin luna. The terra luna meltdown caused a number of companies to declare bankruptcy.

      This week, reports have revealed FTX is staring into a yawning black hole in its balance sheet that could be as big as $10 billion after comingling user deposits with Alameda’s trading funds. FTX this week filed for bankruptcy, estimating it has between $10 billion and $50 billion in assets and liabilities and more than 100,000 creditors.

      According to JPMorgan’s analysis, the FTX crisis could “create a similar wave of deleveraging to that seen following the $20 billion terraUSD collapse last May” and “unless a rescue for Alameda Research and FTX is agreed quickly.”
      …
      https://www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2022/11/13/jpmorgan-reveals-shock-cascade-bitcoin-price-prediction-after-stunning-ftx-meltdown/?sh=4eefb0753f66

      1. “…pointing to bitcoin production costs that are currently around $15,000 per bitcoin.”

        That’s incredible. Imagine how freaked out everyone would be if it cost $15,000 to produce a dollar.

      2. “unless a rescue for Alameda Research and FTX is agreed quickly.”

        Is JP Morgan planning a bailout?

        1. Commentary ·cryptocurrency
          The crypto crash resembles the Panic of 1907, with Sam Bankman-Fried in the role of J.P. Morgan
          BY Alex Tapscott
          June 28, 2022 at 12:00 PM PDT
          Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX. “That markets are investing so much into the whims of a single individual reveals how nascent crypto still is,” writes Alex Tapscott.

          During the 19th and early 20th centuries, in an era before government bailouts became de rigueur, private banks and even some individual citizens had enough financial resources and influence to step into financial panics to calm markets. They were often the only lender of last resort. Cornelius Vanderbilt stepped in to quell the Panic of 1873, rescuing a few troubled railroads (and becoming the undisputed titan of the industry as a result). Vanderbilt became so powerful that his mere presence strolling down Wall Street could provide brokers the confidence they needed to buy stocks.

          Even more famously, during the Panic of 1907, J. Pierpont Morgan played an almost godlike role, deciding which firms would die, such as Knickerbocker Trust, and which would live, such as Trust Company of America and National City Bank of New York. With the support of the U.S. Treasury, but also the country’s wealthiest men, including John D. Rockefeller, Morgan was able to calm the public and prevent a wider crisis.

          History doesn’t repeat, but it often rhymes.

          The crypto industry is now going through a credit crisis and crisis of confidence not unlike those that afflicted Wall Street in 1907. Today, 29-year-old crypto-entrepreneur and billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, has begun to step into the carnage to scoop up distressed assets or lend money to troubled businesses. Channeling his inner Morgan with a hint of Warren Buffett, Bankman-Fried is being greedy when others are being fearful—with the added benefit of boosting confidence amongst shaky investors. Last Tuesday, his firm FTX signed a term sheet for $200 million with crypto lender BlockFi, a day after announcing the acquisition of Canadian crypto exchange Bitvo. A few days earlier, he bailed out another crypto lender, Voyager, via the hedge fund he also owns, Alameda Research, doubling down a few days later with a $250 million facility from FTX.
          …
          https://fortune.com/2022/06/28/crypto-crash-sam-bankman-fried-ftx-panic-of-1907/

    4. Yahoo
      CoinDesk
      Binance, Huobi Block FTT Deposits After $400M Worth of Tokens Unexpectedly Released
      Shaurya Malwa
      Sat, November 12, 2022 at 11:37 PM·1 min read

      Crypto exchanges Binance and Huobi blocked deposits of FTT, FTX’s native tokens, Sunday after about $400 million worth of the tokens were released out of schedule, with no official explanation.

      FTT tokens follow an unlocking schedule wherein large batches of the tokens are periodically released. On Sunday, however, the tokens were released out of schedule without warning or communication from FTX or related parties.

      Over 192 million FTT tokens were released, blockchain data shows. These were released from the main deployer address.

      Binance founder Changpeng Zhao noted on Twitter: “Binance has stopped FTT deposit, to prevent potential of questionable additional supplies affecting the market. Also encourage other exchanges to do the same.”

      Justin Sun-backed Huobi Global followed the move shortly afterwards. “(We) will closely monitor the situation,” Sun tweeted.

      The FTT release follows the week-long drama involving FTX, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Friday. Contagion risks are now permeating throughout the broader crypto market.

      The FTT token fell 18% on Sunday to $1.78. The spectacular collapse of the FTX exchange has led to price declines on eight of the past nine days, leaving it down 93% just in November alone.

      A year ago, FTT’s market capitalization stood at around $8 billion, and now it’s down to about $350 million, according to CoinGecko, though the new questions about the token’s circulating supply might complicate the calculation.
      …
      https://www.yahoo.com/video/binance-huobi-block-ftt-deposits-073730334.html

    5. Dumb question of the day:

      Since the CryptoBois claim the dollar is a worthless currency, how come cryptocurrency prices are always quoted in dollars?

    6. Search Query
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      WWNO 89.9

      Cryptocurrency exchange FTX files for bankruptcy in another blow to the industry
      NPR
      By Ayesha Rascoe,
      David Gura
      Published November 13, 2022 at 7:00 AM CST

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      AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:

      The crypto market was hot just a year ago. Not anymore – bitcoin’s value has plummeted, and now there’s been a possible hack of one of the largest crypto companies, FTX, which just filed for bankruptcy. NPR’s David Gura joins us now to talk about this crypto winter. Good morning, David.

      DAVID GURA, BYLINE: Morning, Ayesha.

      RASCOE: OK, so this is a lot going on. Like, what does this all mean for investors?

      GURA: Well, nothing good, and it’s getting worse. The company’s new CEO is saying there was unauthorized access to assets on the site. The collapse of FTX plunged us even deeper into what’s being characterized as a crypto winter, this deep downturn. And it all happened very quickly. It was a fast and startling fall for a company that was really a central part of the crypto ecosystem. FTX built this huge platform for trading cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, recently valued at more than $30 billion. Sam Bankman-Fried started it, built it into this behemoth. I’ll note he also amassed a huge personal fortune. Well, about a week ago, one of Bankman-Fried’s rivals raised questions about FTX’s finances, then publicly withdrew his assets from the site. That caused alarm, caused panic. Others tried to pull their money out, but FTX couldn’t pay its customers what they were owed. So now Bankman-Fried is out of a job, and FTX has filed for bankruptcy protection and brought in this new CEO.

      RASCOE: What does this mean for crypto more broadly?

      GURA: Well, in that short period of time, the value of bitcoin fell by about 20%. FTX is the latest domino to fall, but the biggest one. There’s been a series of crypto companies that have gone bankrupt this year. Some well-known cryptocurrencies have lost almost all their value. This compounds that. Joseph Grundfest used to be an SEC commissioner and now he’s a professor of law and business at Stanford.

      JOSEPH GRUNDFEST: I think you’re headed towards a crypto ice age. It’s going to be difficult for the sector to regain confidence. You’re going to need much more transparency.

      GURA: FTX was a private company. So we didn’t have a whole lot of insight into its books. And by design, crypto exists outside the traditional banking system, so there’s no lender of last resort if something goes haywire. Now, Grundfest says we’ve seen some transparency from the heads of crypto companies when it comes to code. They’re willing to pull back the curtain a little bit and explain how their products work. But what we can’t see or we don’t have a good sense of, Ayesha, is whether they’re legit. Are they run like other financial firms that deal with billions of investors’ dollars?

      RASCOE: That seems like a big deal. How did we get here? Weren’t we all just seeing all these crypto commercials during the last Super Bowl for bitcoin and dogecoin?

      GURA: Yeah, and that was all by design. Companies like FTX were spending millions of dollars on marketing – buying ads, but also signing endorsement deals. FTX bought the naming rights for the basketball arena in Miami. Another crypto company bought the naming rights for the basketball arena in Los Angeles. There was a lot of euphoria around crypto, but you have to remember, at the beginning of the year, most of us were feeling pretty good about the economy. And it wasn’t just cryptocurrency that was trading at or near record highs – so were stocks. Of course, all that changed with the persistence of high inflation, and as the Fed Reserve started hiking interest rates to get that under control. For so long, bitcoin backers said that cryptocurrency would be an inflation hedge, an asset that would go up in value during a period of high inflation. In fact, that hasn’t been the case. The value of cryptocurrencies, which are pretty tightly correlated with each other, have fallen alongside other speculative assets like tech stocks. Right now, amid concern about a potential recession, investors just don’t have much of an appetite for taking risk.

      RASCOE: So when is this crypto winter likely to end?

      GURA: None of the experts I talked to know or would even hazard a guess. What they’re watching for, they said, is how the crypto market changes in light of FTX’s collapse.
      …

      1. “Well, in that short period of time, the value of bitcoin fell by about 20%.”

        20% here, 20% there, and pretty soon you are talking about real money.

    1. Market Snapshot
      Stock-market rally amid FTX blowup, Facebook-parent’s layoffs, says investors may be whistling past recession’s graveyard
      Last Updated: Nov. 12, 2022 at 1:11 p.m. ET
      First Published: Nov. 12, 2022 at 8:00 a.m. ET
      By Joy Wiltermuth and Frances Yue
      ‘We are not convinced this is the beginning of a new bull market,’ says Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CRFA
      Investors pile into stocks on signs of slowing U.S. inflation, despite the dreary backdrop of big-tech layoffs, carnage in crypto and the threat of recession.

      Investors feeling giddy about last week’s sharp rally for stocks might want to give a listen to Tom Waits’ song, “Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard” from 1978, to sober up for the dangers that still lurk ahead.

      The surge in stocks catapulted the S&P 500 index almost back to the 4,000 mark on Friday, also lifting it to the biggest weekly gain in roughly five months, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

      Investors showed courage on signs of a slight slowing of inflation, but the fortitude also comes as a drearier backdrop for investors has been unfolding in plain sight. Massive layoffs at big technology companies, the dramatic implosion of crypto-exchange FTX, and the day-to-day pain of high inflation and skyrocketing borrowing on businesses and households are all taking a toll.

      “We are not convinced this is the beginning of a new bull market,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CRFA Research. “We believe that we are headed for recession. That has not been factored into earnings estimates and, therefore, share prices.”

      Stovall also said the stock market has yet to see the “traditional shakeout of confidence capitulation that we typically see that marks the end of the bear markets.”
      …
      https://www.marketwatch.com/story/investors-may-be-whistling-past-the-graveyard-of-a-recession-with-latest-rally-in-stocks-11668227261

    3. Do you have the feeling that there’s no safe place for you to save money?

      May as well spend it like a drunken sailor, knowing that it is destined for destruction by inflation…

      1. Why Is Crypto Crashing Right Now? And Are Your Investments Safe?
        By Katie Brockman – Nov 12, 2022 at 8:00AM

        Key Points

        – Major crypto exchange FTX recently filed for bankruptcy after a major meltdown.

        – The downfall is having widespread effects across the crypto industry.

        – There are a couple of steps you can take to keep your money safer.

        Crypto prices have been on a downhill slide all year, but this week has been particularly brutal. After the implosion of crypto exchange FTX, prices have plummeted in mere days.

        If you’re feeling nervous about the outlook for crypto right now, you’re not alone. But what’s going on behind this sudden crash? And how safe are your investments? Here’s everything you need to know.

        How FTX shook the crypto world overnight

        While there are plenty of factors affecting crypto’s overall volatility, the main source of this sudden crash is the downfall of FTX, one of the most prominent crypto exchanges.

        According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, FTX lent billions of dollars in customer assets to crypto trading firm Alameda Research, in which FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is the majority owner. Alameda then reportedly used that money to fund high-risk trades.

        Last week, CoinDesk also reported that Alameda’s balance sheet consisted largely of FTX Token (FTT -27.65%), the crypto exchange’s native token. Considering Bankman-Fried is a majority owner of both Alameda and FTX, that raised major red flags that Alameda is built on a cryptocurrency that its sister company created. After this report was released, investors promptly started withdrawing their money from FTX.
        …
        https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/11/12/why-crypto-crashing-are-your-investments-safe/

      2. News & Insights
        Markets
        The Motley Fool-Logo
        If You Think a Recession Is Coming, Put Your Money Here
        November 13, 2022 — 09:32 am EST
        Written by David Chang for The Motley Fool ->
        Man with glasses using laptop looks away appearing to be in thought.
        Image source: Getty Images

        No one likes to think about a recession. But the fact is, recessions are a natural part of the economic cycle, and they’re going to happen whether we like it or not. The good news is that there are steps you can take to protect your portfolio — and even grow your wealth — during a recession. Here are some of the best places to invest your money if you think a recession is on the horizon.

        U.S. Treasury and savings bonds

        One of the safest places you can put your money during a recession is in Treasury bonds. Treasury and savings bonds are issued by the U.S. government and are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. That means they’re about as safe as investments come. And because they’re so safe, they tend to do well during periods of economic uncertainty.

        I bonds are a type of savings bond offered by the United States government. I bonds are intended to provide a safe, low-risk investment option for individuals. I bonds earn interest for up to 30 years, that interest is exempt from state and local taxes, and it’s even tax-deferred until you take a withdrawal. Currently, they are paying out close to 10%! Not bad for an investment with little risk.
        …
        https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/if-you-think-a-recession-is-coming-put-your-money-here

        1. Reuters home
          My View
          2 minute read October 17, 20221 1:57 AM PDT
          Last Updated a month ago
          Government bonds no safe haven in central bank-driven recession -BlackRock
          By Davide Barbuscia

          NEW YORK, Oct 17 (Reuters) – Government bonds may not offer much protection in a recession if surging inflation pressures central banks to continue tightening monetary policy, the BlackRock Investment Institute said.
          …
          https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/government-bonds-no-safe-haven-central-bank-driven-recession-blackrock-2022-10-17/

          1. The Financial Times
            Corporate bonds
            Fund managers position to woo investors back to bonds
            Fixed income outflows have slowed as inflation eases and hopes rise of an end to jumbo Fed interest rate rises
            On Thursday two-year Treasury notes, which are particularly sensitive to interest rates, rose the most since October 2008
            Brooke Masters in New York
            11 hours ago

            Bond fund managers struggling through one of their worst years in decades say the tide is turning as they position to woo investors attracted by higher yields.

            Nearly $480bn has flowed out of US fixed income mutual funds since the start of the year, according to the Investment Company Institute. While some money moved into exchange traded funds, the majority reflected retail investor flight during a period when bond prices fell sharply.

            However, outflows have slowed significantly in the past few weeks and even started to reverse in some areas, as investors began to hope that inflation will ease and the US Federal Reserve will stop increasing interest rates. Thursday saw the sharpest rise in prices for two-year Treasury notes, which are particularly sensitive to interest rates, since October 2008.

            That has raised fund managers’ hopes that investors will feel the lure of bond prices that are significantly lower than a year earlier.

            “We are seeing a lot of renewed interest in our income strategies,” said Dan Ivascyn, chief investment officer at Pimco, the world’s largest bond-focused manager. “We’ve seen inflows in certain categories and a stabilisation in outflows . . . We’re seeing growth in our active funds.”

            The calculation is simple. Existing bond investors lost big this year as rising interest rates drove down the value of their holdings and cast doubt on fixed income as a hedge against volatile stocks. But for new investors, these products can now offer the highest yields in years.

            “The environment for fixed income investors today is dramatically different to any that we have seen for quite some time,” said Marilyn Watson, who heads a global fixed income strategy team at BlackRock. “Investors can now achieve attractive levels of income in a risk-controlled manner, particularly in front-end, high quality credit.”
            …

      3. Crypto crash and gold sell-off show there’s no place for investors to hide
        By Paul R. La Monica, CNN Business
        Updated 4:01 PM EST, Thu November 10, 2022

        New York CNN Business —

        The spectacular implosion of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, a so-called unicorn startup that was recently valued at $32 billion, is just the latest bit of bad news for investors in bitcoin, ethereum and other digital assets. But 2022 was already an awful year for crypto before the FTX-Binance soap opera.

        Bitcoin prices are currently hovering around $16,500, down from a level of $20,000 just a week ago. Still, even at $20,000, that was a far cry from the price of just north of $46,000 that bitcoin was trading at on the last day of 2021.

        It turns out that investors who were hoping that rising interest rates and higher levels of inflation would be good for so-called alternative assets like cryptos and gold have been in for a rude awakening this year.

        They’ve gotten hit just like stocks and bonds, proving there really is no place to hide in a market where worries about rate hikes and recession reign supreme.

        Gold prices have fallen about 6% this year, and the price of the yellow metal is not far from the lows it hit at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020. Gold, like bitcoin, then surged in the latter part of 2020 as a sort of safe haven trade.
        …
        https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/10/investing/bitcoin-crypto-ftx-gold/index.html

  37. “realtor Abbey Pontius”

    What a great name. Does she say “what is truth?” when confronted by a collapsing real estate market?

  38. Godless communist baby killers.

    The Hill — Young women broke hard for Democrats in the midterms (11/13/2022):

    “Democrats hoped to win big in the midterms with young voters and women. Instead, they captured small majorities of each group — and won big with young women.

    Exit polls show 72 percent of women ages 18-29 voted for Democrats in House races nationwide. In a pivotal Pennsylvania Senate race, 77 percent of young women voted for embattled Democrat John Fetterman, helping to secure his victory.

    The liberalization of young American women is a powerful generational trend, distancing them from young men. Forty-four percent of young women called themselves liberal in 2021, compared to 25 percent of young men, according to Gallup data analyzed by the Survey Center on American Life. The gender gap was the largest recorded in 24 years of polling.

    https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3731564-young-women-broke-hard-for-democrats-in-the-midterms/

    Murder your baby, cupcake. Embrace your future of cats, boxed wine, and SSRI anti-depressant drugs.

    1. Murder your baby, cupcake. Embrace your future of cats, boxed wine, and SSRI anti-depressant drugs.

      I would be more concerned with burning in Hell for all eternity.

    2. “Exit polls show 72 percent of women ages 18-29 voted for Democrats in House races nationwide.”

      Other than in the state of Florida how many women ages 18-29 actually voted in person election day? 200? What percentage of the mass mail in vote was women ages 18-29? I would have thought it would be a huge percentage.

      Given the results in Florida where 7 1/2 million votes were counted in 5 hours, I don’t see how 72 percent of women ages 18-29 could have possibly voted for Democrats in House races even in the Bluest of Blue Counties like Miami Dade.

      The 2022 election was stolen.

    1. I thought that the whole point of crypto was that you didn’t have to use a “bank” to save it or perform transactions.

    2. “What the Media Won’t Tell You About Sam Bankman-Fried/FTX”

      American tax payer sends $ to government, government gives tax payer $ to Ukraine, Ukraine runs American tax payer $ through FTX, FTX founder takes American tax payer $ and gives it to Democrats.

      Got it!

  40. ‘Business has all but stopped for mortgage lenders. And, yes, it’s much worse than the mortgage volume collapse I remember from the Great Recession’

    See, it is different this time.

  41. Realtors just need an excuse to drop their NAR narrative. Once they’re provided with some falling price data, they climb on the cratering housing price train.

    Dracut, MA Housing Prices Crater 26% YOY As Boston Housing Market Tanks

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

    As one Boston area broker belabored, “Who wants to buy a house when you can rent one for half the monthly cost?

  43. “It’s Trump vs. the Establishment GOP”
    ^
    (it always has been.)

    https://truenewsamerica.com/2022/11/13/its-trump-vs-the-establishment-gop/

    “The lack of a “Red Wave” was not evidence of the People rejecting Trump. In fact, it is continued evidence of the People rejecting do-nothing RINO incumbents and their empty suit candidates. Again, the oft-repeated claim from the media that Donald Trump somehow lost last week when he wasn’t holding or running for any office at any level of government is patently absurd.”

    Thank you Potsy for the link.

  45. The steal continues, unabated. They have not awarded a single House seat to the Rs in like 3 days, and they continue to “flip” every single new seat to Dems. The last 11 seats have all gone blue, when almost all were initially red. Huge vote swings. There will be no investigations.

  46. Sunday Live: FTX Collapse Exposes Democrat Party Money Laundering Operation Using Ukraine Aid To Fund Midterm Races

    The Alex Jones Show
    November 13th 2022, 3:50 pm

  47. Report: At Least $1 Billion in Investor Assets Are ‘Missing’ After FTX Collapse

    LUCAS NOLAN
    13 Nov 2022

    Reuters reports that according to two anonymous sources who formerly worked at FTX and claim to have been privy to the company’s finances, FTX is missing at least $1 billion in client funds. The sources claimed that the funds were part of $10 billion in client funds that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried purportedly siphoned off to Alameda Research, the hedge fund he owns.

    n a rambling Twitter thread that attempts to explain the current state of FTX, CEO and Democrat megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried wrote, “I’m sorry. That’s the biggest thing. I fucked up, and should have done better.”

    This week, Anthony Scaramucci, the founder of SkyBridge Capital and notorious Trump critic, reportedly traveled to the Bahamas to assist Bankman-Fried as both a friend and an investor. Scaramucci said that when he arrived, the company appeared to be in serious trouble far beyond a simple liquidity issue. He did not notice any mishandling when he and other investors evaluated FTX as a potential business partner.

    https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2022/11/13/report-at-least-1-billion-in-investor-assets-are-missing-after-ftx-collapse/

    1. At Least $1 Billion in Investor Assets Are ‘Missing’ After FTX Collapse

      Since those funds were likely diverted to the Dems, and there can be no trail documenting that, it is highly likely that SBF and his Giggly Girlfriend CEO will either vanish, never to be seen again, or they will “commit suicide” in a hotel room or something like that.

      Given that police don’t seem to know where they are, I am leaning towards vanished, as in taken out in a fishing boat from Nassau and thrown overboard, with weights to pull them down to the bottom, because while they donated money in the past to the Dems, they have now become a liability. Or, as the saying goes: “Dead men tell no tales”

    1. Cryptocurrency Solana Collapses in FTX Scandal
      The token is the first big victim of the abrupt implosion of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX cryptocurrency exchange.
      Luc Olinga
      10 hours ago

      Solana, considered, until recently, to be one of the cryptocurrencies with a promising future, is in the process of completely collapsing.

      The token lost 61.6% of its value in the last seven days, according to data firm CoinGecko. Solana (SOL) prices are now down 95% from their all-time high of Nov. 6, 2021. Solana is currently trading around $14.12 from $259.96 in November 2021.

      Solana’s collapse is due to the Nov. 8 implosion of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy three days later due to a cash crunch.
      …
      https://www.thestreet.com/investing/cryptocurrency/cryptocurrency-solana-collapses-in-ftx-scandal

    2. ‘Dr Doom’ economist Nouriel Roubini suggests FTX’s rescue deal shows how crypto is a Ponzi scheme: ‘Who will bail out Binance?’
      Zahra Tayeb
      Nov 9, 2022, 9:21 AM

      – Nouriel Roubini flagged FTX’s rescue deal for Binance as a sign crypto investing is a Ponzi scheme.
      – The “Dr Doom” economist noted FTX had itself been bailing out struggling crypto firms.
      – The crypto critic wondered who will bail out Binance when that “house of cards collapses”.

      Nouriel Roubini has flagged Binance’s emergency deal with troubled exchange FTX as a sign that crypto is a kind of Ponzi scheme.

      Crypto exchange Binance stepped in Tuesday with a potential takeover deal to rescue its rival FTX, which it said is facing a liquidity crunch.

      The move stunned the crypto world, which had viewed Sam Bankman-Fried-led FTX itself as a “lender of last resort” after it bailed out struggling crypto firms this summer.

      “First FTX bails out collapsing crypto Ponzi scams. Now FTX is collapsing & being bailed out by Binance,” Roubini said in a Tuesday tweet.

      “But who will bail out Binance when that crappy house of cards collapses? Crypto is Mother Of All Ponzi Schemes!” he added.

      The economics professor at NYU Stern, whose nickname is “Dr. Doom,” suggested via the tweets that there are parallels between the cascading bailouts and a Ponzi scheme, where existing investors are paid returns using funds collected from new investors.
      …
      https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-ftx-binance-roubini-doom-bailout-ponzi-scheme-2022-11

      1. News
        Nov 14, 2022
        BTC $15960.32 -5.19%
        ETH $1185.04 -6.34%

        Markets and Prices
        by Kevin Helms
        1 day ago
        Robert Kiyosaki: I’m a Bitcoin Investor — When BTC Hits New Bottom, I Get Excited

        The famous author of the best-selling book Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, says he is not worried about the price of bitcoin dropping. “I am a bitcoin investor,” he said, adding that when the price of the cryptocurrency hits a new bottom, he gets excited.

        The author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, says he is not worried about the price of bitcoin as BTC fell below $17K amid the implosion of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

        Rich Dad Poor Dad is a 1997 book co-authored by Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter. It has been on the New York Times Best Seller List for over six years. More than 32 million copies of the book have been sold in over 51 languages across more than 109 countries.

        Kiyosaki tweeted Friday:

        Bitcoin? Worried? No. I am a bitcoin investor as I am an investor in physical gold, silver, & real estate. I am not a trader or flipper. When bitcoin hits new bottom, $10 to $12 k? I will get excited, not worried.
        …
        https://news.bitcoin.com/robert-kiyosaki-im-a-bitcoin-investor-when-btc-hits-new-bottom-i-get-excited/

    1. Cryptocurrencies
      At least $1bn in investor assets missing after FTX collapse – reports
      Sources tell Reuters funds were part of $10bn founder Sam Bankman-Fried transferred to his hedge fund
      Lauren Aratani
      Sat 12 Nov 2022 15.00 EST
      Last modified on Sat 12 Nov 2022 16.54 EST

      Amid the fallout of the implosion of FTX, once the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, at least $1bn in investor assets appears to be missing, according to multiple reports.

      On Saturday morning, Reuters reported that FTX was missing at least $1bn in client funds, according to two anonymous sources who held senior positions at FTX and said they had been briefed on the company’s finances. The sources claimed the funds were part of $10bn in client funds that the FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, secretly transferred to Alameda Research, the hedge fund he owns.

      A later report from the Wall Street Journal added that it appeared hackers had actually taken $370m.

      The moving of FTX funds to Alameda was one of a series of crises that led to FTX filing for bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried’s resignation on Friday.

      Bankman-Fried told Reuters that he “disagreed with the characterization” of the transfer, saying: “We had confusing internal labeling and misread it.”

      When asked about the missing customer funds over text message by Reuters, Bankman-Fried replied with: “???”

      Separately, in a tweet on Saturday, FTX’s US general counsel, Ryne Miller, said that the company had detected “unauthorized transactions” and that it had moved all digital assets to cold storage, or offline, as a precaution. Elliptic, a cryptocurrency analytics and compliance firm, estimates that $473m in crypto assets were stolen from FTX last Friday night, though the specific amount has not been confirmed.
      …
      https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/12/ftx-collapse-missing-funds

      1. “Once you are like one of the few people in a small startup, you realise that there are a bunch of decisions that have to be made, and someone has to make all of them,” she said in the 2020 interview. “And a lot of them are like really uncertain, which is kind of terrifying.”

        I imagine that investors are like upset with you, Caroline.

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