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Modern Monetary Theory Is True, As Long As Nobody Believes It’s True

A report from the Union Tribune in California. “San Diego County’s home price has dropped for the sixth month and is close to erasing all yearly price gains. Jeff Grant, owner and agent with Sand & Sea Investments, has a listing in Solana Beach that recently went on sale for $1.9 million and isn’t getting much attention. His seller purchased the home in April, when home prices were peaking, for $2.45 million. For personal reasons, the buyer has to sell now and has put it on the market for a considerable discount. ‘I cannot get an offer,’ Grant said. ‘It is worth all day, $2.3 to $2.4 million, and we lowered the price, but not a single offer has come in.'”

The Dallas Morning News. “‘2023 is going to be a below-trend year for the U.S., and Texas can’t escape that,’ said William Adams, Comerica’s chief economist. Rising interest rates have slowed migration from other states, he said. ‘If a family in California can’t sell their house because it’s too expensive to afford, that makes it harder for them to move here,’ Adams said.”

The Orlando Sentinel. “In November, Central Florida home sales hit their lowest point in nearly four years, according to the association. Prices are falling, too. Orlando’s median home price, $360,000, has dropped by $27,000 since its height this summer. Tansey Soderstrom, president of the Orlando Regional Realtor Association says the people most under pressure are real estate agents. ‘You really have to work now,’ she said, contrasting the slowdown with the frenzied buying earlier this year. ‘No more selling houses with dirt on the floor for thousands over asking. Things have to be priced right, and they have to be show ready.'”

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle in Montana. “Fewer homes sold last month, homes spent a longer time on the market compared to this time in 2021, according to the Gallatin Association of Realtors. The end-of-month inventory of homes also increased substantially compared to last year. There were 323 homes for sale, compared to just 139 last year. In Bozeman, median sales prices for single family homes jumped 13% to last November, going from a median of $675,000 to $764,500. Prices fell about 9% compared to this October. ‘While we are still technically in a seller’s market, we are on the verge of moving into a neutral market,’ said Joanna Harper, GAR Board President.”

The Lehi Free Press in Utah. “The number of homes sold in Lehi during the first three quarters of 2022 was 750. A drop of 18.2% year over year. Lehi has recently seen a slight reduction in median sales price, with November’s median closing at $501,000, compared to $520,000 a year ago. A decrease of 3.7%. Most production builders now have readily available homes and are offering prospective home buyers an array of incentives, including price reductions, closing cost contributions, complimentary upgrades or lower interest rates.”

The Real Deal on Illinois. “A buyer has decided to seize an opportunity presented by the owners of a Gold Coast mansion running out of patience. The mansion in the 1400 block of historic Astor Street is finally under contract after four years of dancing between on and off the market and six price cuts from its initial listing, amounting to a 55 percent reduction. After slicing the asking price to $4 million earlier this month, the 9,300-square-foot home appears to have found a buyer. The home, which was originally listed in 2018 for nearly $9 million, is now listed as under contract on public listing sites. The final sales price isn’t yet known, yet luxury sales in the city as of late have come in well below listing prices on many of the most expensive properties.”

“The price cuts follow a similar pattern of another nearby home, which eventually sold in July for $7 million despite seeking $13.5 million when it was originally listed two years ago. That 10,000-square-foot Beaux-Arts style mansion at 15 West Burton Place was the first to sell in the Gold Coast for over $7 million since 2017.”

From Mansion Global. “Luxury home sales in the U.S. sank 38.1% annually during the three months ending Nov. 30—the biggest drop in at least 10 years, according to Redfin. The decline eclipses the 31.4% drop in sales in the mainstream market for the same time period. Though that’s also a record, according to the data, which goes back to 2012. Meanwhile, inventory for high-end homes rose 5.2% year over year during the dame time period, the largest increase since 2016, that figures showed.”

US News & World Report. “‘Pending home sales recorded the second-lowest monthly reading in 20 years as interest rates, which climbed at one of the fastest paces on record this year, drastically cut into the number of contract signings to buy a home,’ said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun.”

From The Street. “The mortgage-backed securities market is facing new challenges. ‘There is a lot of uncertainty about the Fed,’ said Ethan Heisler, the strategic advisor at bond rating agency KBRA. ‘I started my career in 1981 when Chairman Volcker was in office, and rates were 20%. There was a lot of volatility surrounding Fed policy. We are back to those days. No one really knows what will happen with inflation, how high rates will have to go up before the economy starts showing signs of strain.'”

From Fortune. “For 124 consecutive months, spanning the bottom of the previous bust in February 2012 to the top of the Pandemic Housing Boom in June 2022, the seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller National Home Price Index reported positive home price growth. Now we’re in a new streak: Four consecutive months of U.S. home price declines. It’s already big enough to count as the the second-biggest home price correction of the post–World War II era. Recent research published by the Fed suggests that the Pandemic Housing Boom didn’t just help to drive up pandemic inflation—it was one of the biggest culprits.”

“‘Our results provide suggestive evidence that house price growth has been an important contributor to inflation during the pandemic … A back-of-the-envelope calculation based on our regression estimates suggests that house price growth could explain about 1/3 of the increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) excluding housing services between February 2020 and February 2022,’ write Federal Reserve economists in a paper published in November.”

“Simply put: Some deflation in home prices could help the Fed to rein in runaway inflation. Among the 20 major U.S. housing markets tracked by Case-Shiller, the home price decline ranges from just -0.95% in Chicago to -11.2% in San Francisco. What’s going on? The western half of the country, where affordability is a greater issue, has seen the sharpest correction. That includes major markets like Seattle (down 10.1%), San Diego (down 7.2%), Phoenix (down 5.4%), and Las Vegas (down 4.8%).”

From CTV News. “After a series of interest rate hikes throughout 2022, the average price of a home in Canada has dropped by more than $180,000 since hitting its peak in February. ‘Housing prices have been disconnected from reality for some time now,’ said Moshe Lander, an economics professor at Concordia University in Montreal told CTVNews. Sales in the Greater Toronto Area have slowed down significantly in recent months, said Nero Naveendran, a real estate agent based in Toronto. Residential sales activity over MLS systems dropped 49.6 per cent between November 2021 and November 2022 in Greater Toronto, according to data from the CREA that is not seasonally adjusted.”

“‘The homes that are not presented [or] cleaned well are sitting on the market for months, it’s not like last year where everything was selling,’ said Naveendran. ‘Now, people are looking for a home to live in, not an investment.'”

“While larger real estate markets are expected to see prices continue to drop in 2023, the more significant corrections in average home prices will be among properties in smaller markets, said Robert Hogue, assistant chief economist for RBC. This is particularly the case for markets located just outside of major urban centres, such as London and Kitchener in Ontario, or Fraser Valley in British Columbia. ‘Now that the frenzy is over, valuations are coming down to reflect the local realities,’ Hogue told CTVNews.”

From Globes. “Israel’s construction industry is in its worst situation in decades. For more than a year, sales of new homes have been falling steeply, at a rate not seen in at least 25 years, according to Central Bureau of Statistics figures. Building starts are also in sharp decline. What’s more, the decline in sales, which seemed slight and temporary, has turned into a severe crisis, making it had for developers to respond, and they are liable to get into financial difficulties.”

“It’s hard to find anything equivalent to what is now happening in the residential real estate market in the past twenty years. During the Second Lebanon War in 2006, the market fell by more than 40% within three months; at the time of the social protest of 2011, when interest rates were on the rise, purchases fell by 50% within eight months; when the Buyer Price subsidized housing program was underway, in two and a half years between 2016 and 2018 developers’ sales fell by nearly 50%. Still, none of these events comes close in its severity to what the market is currently going through.”

“It’s hard to explain why the decline in new home purchases began as early as August last year, eight months before interest rates started to rise. It may be that, while in certain cities the supply of new homes fell substantially, in other places, where there was extensive construction, demand ran out of steam.”

“The chief economist at the Ministry of Finance, Shira Greenberg, found that 70% of the homes sold on the open market were sold off the plan or at an early stage of construction. The problem is that presales oblige the developer to start work on a project, even though a large proportion of the apartments are actually unsold. Until the present crisis, this procedure paid off handsomely, and developers were able to finish selling off the remainder of the project quickly. The decline in demand, however, is slowing sales and could mean that developers will be left with large stocks of unsold apartments.”

“When receivers are appointed to these companies, things go from bad to worse, and there have been situations in which the receiver has informed homebuyers that they will have to pay over and above the price they were quoted, while the apartment they bought will not meet the specification to which the company committed. The Ministry of Finance says that it is aware of the situation, but that it does not share the pessimistic outlook. ‘The government’s aim is to bring down home prices, but to keep building starts at their currently high level,’ a Ministry of Finance source said.”

The Vietnam Express. “Khang lost his job as a real estate broker four months ago when his company laid off most of its employees. The medium-sized company, which offers brokerage services in HCMC and southern provinces, was operating perfunctorily since late last year, and the situation deteriorated further in April this year when banks announced credit tightening, he said. It had to start sacking staff by September, starting with a few dozens before laying them off by the hundreds amid reports that the market could be even worse in 2023. ‘Now I work as a collaborator with the company without a salary, but I have failed to do any transaction for the past four months,’ Khang said.”

“Khang’s plight is a common one now in the HCMC real estate market though the fourth quarter is usually the peak sales season. Pham Lam, vice chairman of the Vietnam Association of Realtors, said HCMC has more than 100,000 realtors, including 20,000-30,000 working for professional organizations. Some 50% had lost their jobs as of December, he said.”

“Hanh, who lost her job at another city-based brokerage that had a staff of over 1,000 two months ago, said it owes employees more than six months’ salaries. Expecting the difficult situation to prolong, many of her colleagues quit. Hanh and her colleagues were optimistic in the fourth quarter of last year when the Covid pandemic was brought under control and there were transactions from time to time albeit revenues were not very high. But a year later the realty market had become quiescent. Hanh said: ‘My family has four people. I had to quit my job to find a way to make ends meet.'”

From Business Today. “Douglas W. Diamond, often called the founder of modern banking theory, won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2022 for path-breaking research aimed at enhancing the understanding of the role of banks in the economy, especially during financial crises. The 69-year-old shared the prize with economists Ben Bernanke of the Brookings Institution and Philip Dybvig of Washington University in St. Louis. Diamond shares his views on the developing economic situation around the world and its implications for India.”

“I have always thought about long periods of low interest rates in the US and other countries—as well as quantitative easing—as potentially excessive injections of liquidity, leading to expectations among financial institutions and firms that interest rates might stay close to zero forever. I thought there were some financial stability issues with that, as there was too much reliance on short-term debt. That’s the backdrop. I think that maybe they went too far in both Europe and the US by keeping interest rates where they were, and not thinking ahead enough about building up a big balance sheet and how difficult it would be to unwind that. That sets up vulnerabilities in the financial sector, including stability issues.”

“They developed this thing called the modern monetary theory that basically says that you can borrow as much as you want, and it doesn’t—as long as interest rates are zero—cause inflation. So that theory is true, as long as nobody believes it’s true. But once you start to use that [theory in practice], then it ceases to be true, because monetary and fiscal are all tied together. And they are also tied to financial stability. So, it’s a very hard time to be a central banker in the world, partly because you are into the region where financial stability is coming into question—we are not there yet—and I think central bankers understand financial stability quite well. But because the central bankers don’t control the fiscal part [that is]… too loose worldwide, it is a tough time.”

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This Post Has 143 Comments

  1. ‘has a listing in Solana Beach that recently went on sale for $1.9 million and isn’t getting much attention. His seller purchased the home in April, when home prices were peaking, for $2.45 million. For personal reasons, the buyer has to sell now and has put it on the market for a considerable discount. ‘I cannot get an offer…It is worth all day, $2.3 to $2.4 million, and we lowered the price, but not a single offer has come in’

    Now dammit Jeff, yer giving it away.

    1. Jeff, as a smart Relitter®, since we all know it’s worth 2.3 or 2.4 all day every day and twice on Sunday, the answer is quite simple. Buy the house yourself and flip it for a 500K profit. You can even get two or three commissions out of the deal.

        2. Date Event Price
          12/14/2022 Price change $1,995,000 (-11.3%) $1,444/sqft

          10/21/2022 Price change $2,250,000 (-8.1%) $1,628/sqft

          8/18/2022 Listed for sale $2,449,000 (+1%) $1,772/sqft

          4/26/2022 Sold $2,425,000 (+21.6%) $1,755/sqft

          4/20/2022 Pending sale $1,995,000 $1,444/sqft

          4/11/2022 Listed for sale $1,995,000 (-20%) $1,444/sqft

          12/1/2021 Listing removed $2,495,000 $1,805/sqft

          11/12/2021 Price change $2,495,000 (-3.9%) $1,805/sqft

          11/4/2021 Listed for sale $2,595,000 (+82.1%) $1,878/sqft

          12/30/2020 Listing removed $4,900 $4/sqft
          Source: Zillow Rental Manager
          12/25/2020 Price change $4,900 (-23.7%) $4/sqft
          Source: Zillow Rental Manager
          12/23/2020 Price change $6,425 (-1.2%) $5/sqft
          Source: Zillow Rental Manager
          12/22/2020 Listed for rent $6,500 $5/sqft
          Source: Zillow Rental Manager
          11/18/2020 Sold $1,425,000 (-4.7%) $1,031/sqft

          10/9/2020 Pending sale $1,495,000 (+128.6%) $1,082/sqft

          11/26/2002 Sold $654,000 (-3%) $473/sqft

          5/18/2001 Sold $674,000 $488/sqft

          It appears the big winnah! paid way over asking last spring. Sux to be the winnah!

          5. “If it’s a loan, how did it appraise?”

            Frrrrrrraaaaud. Appraisal frrrrrrraaaaaud.

            Realtors and mortgage pimps gotta problem…..a big problem.

          1. Someone will pay $1-1.2M for the land. I’m very familiar with the area West of I-5 between Torrey Pines State Reserve and Leucadia.

  2. ‘They developed this thing called the modern monetary theory that basically says that you can borrow as much as you want, and it doesn’t—as long as interest rates are zero—cause inflation. So that theory is true, as long as nobody believes it’s true. But once you start to use that [theory in practice], then it ceases to be true’

    You know Doug, they probably shouldn’t let you eat with a sharp fork, much less be in charge of anything.

    1. ‘So, it’s a very hard time to be a central banker in the world, partly because you are into the region where financial stability is coming into question—we are not there yet—and I think central bankers understand financial stability quite well. But because the central bankers don’t control the fiscal part [that is]… too loose worldwide, it is a tough time’

      Let’s walk through this Doug. Central bankers are not at fault cuz guberments are borrowing and spending too much. But didn’t yer negative interest rates encourage that? Woe is you, now time to hop into a limo and meet yer buddies fer some toddies!

    2. When the master of obfuscation Karine Jean-Pierre moves on to her seven figure job at BLM or wherever, this guy should be her replacement.

      1. Globalist media keeps telling us how badly we want Big Mike to run for president. Karine could be “her” VP.

        1. Gay, female, black, trans/hermaphrodite, immigrant, mentally handicapped- that duo would check every box the progressives can dream up.

    3. “But once you start to use that [theory in practice], then it ceases to be true”

      Sounds like a great working definition of a false theory.

  3. ‘Greenberg, found that 70% of the homes sold on the open market were sold off the plan or at an early stage of construction. The problem is that presales oblige the developer to start work on a project, even though a large proportion of the apartments are actually unsold. Until the present crisis, this procedure paid off handsomely, and developers were able to finish selling off the remainder of the project quickly. The decline in demand, however, is slowing sales and could mean that developers will be left with large stocks of unsold apartments’

    That’s the China ‘model’ Shira. Well, good luck!

  4. ‘Simply put: Some deflation in home prices could help the Fed to rein in runaway inflation’

    AKA breaking it off in shack gamblers a$$e$ ™.

    1. Let’s face it: The shack gamblers really went wild with leverage in this bubble. It doesn’t take a Nobel Prize to realize that if the central bank backstops housing prices, investors large and small are going to sniff out an opportunity to leverage up and enrich themselves by snapping up every house on the market from Manhattan to Oil City and HODLing until prices go up. Pretty soon you have a fooked market where Mom and Pop from Main Street are out on the streets because they can afford nothing, and only fairly wealthy households can buy houses without significant financial strain, while the investors enjoy milking their cash cows.

      It might take some strong medicine to chase away the financial types who only bought shacks for the leveraged, Fed-backstopped capital gains.

  5. ‘the people most under pressure are real estate agents. ‘You really have to work now,’ she said, contrasting the slowdown with the frenzied buying earlier this year. ‘No more selling houses with dirt on the floor for thousands over asking’

    Do they have to flush that floater before the photos are taken Tansey? (If that’s yer real name.)

    1. If Relitters® are in trouble, well something must be done! Society cannot function without our Relitters®.

  6. ‘Hanh, who lost her job at another city-based brokerage that had a staff of over 1,000 two months ago, said it owes employees more than six months’ salaries…‘My family has four people. I had to quit my job to find a way to make ends meet’

    Most people would ‘quit’ when the checks bounce Hanh, they didn’t even give you a check fer 6 months.

    2. I remember when I was young and working for a family member’s contractor father in law doing remodel work. After a particular week of work on a job I didn’t get paid. He told me he was waiting to get paid by the homeowner to pay me. I told him I didn’t work for the homeowner, I worked for him. He got defensive. I had to explain that we weren’t partners and I wasn’t sharing the risks and rewards of his company. I found a new job quickly and then quit. He did finally pay me, but I don’t work for IOUs. Luckily I didn’t have any bills due that week, or it would have put me in a bind.

    1. OMG, the living room in #8 of 9. You can just imagine ’em watching Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous while knocking back a generic beer!

    1. That’s why I’m here. As the HBB’s resident Online Safety Expert, my mission is to help steer you away from potential misinformation.

      P.S. Get boosted!

      1. Citizen! Your mockery of The Science has been duly noted! When the Fed rolls out its CBDC, which will then be linked to a CCP-style social credit score, your subversive shenanigans will cost you as a Comrade of Proven Worth (D) will have the arbitrary authority to freeze or empty your bank accounts and lock you out of the financial system based on any evidence of BadThink or pushing back against globalist-approved Narratives. I see railcars and gulags in your future, miscreant!

        1. How fake can you get . So, all of a sudden in the course of a couple of weeks 248 million Chinese have Covid after they relaxed their stupid lock downs.
          Oh, and it might be a scary new strain of Covid. Oh and China might be hiding their death toll.
          Doesn’t this remind you of the original scam coming out of China three years ago.
          And oh boy 50% of the Chinese coming into Italy tested positive using a PCR test known to have a 97% % false positive rate..
          So, if it worked the first time in shutting down the globe, and getting fake vaccines in billions, go for a second round.
          I predict the WHO will call another global panademic of International concern .
          Ok, so with the Covid narrative breaking down , and investigations starting , and
          overwhelming data showing the death and injury from the fake vaccine, it’s time for round two .
          But this time if Biden signs the United
          Nations WHO Treaty in January, than the corrupt WHO gets to dictate what the global response to the next pandemic will be.
          This has always been the plan of the New World Order to take over by fake Climate Change and Panademic. .

          The unelected WHO is in the pocket of the WEF, the CCP and guys like Bill Gates.
          Joe Biden is the Puppet traitor that got put in by a rigged election , to transfer this power by treaty to WHO. And none of Washington DC is even taking about this.
          This is how you usurp sovereign States and Constitutions by Treaty.
          The WHO would have the power to lock down, mandate injections etc. etc, declare police state , etc etc.
          And since Bill Gates and Joe Biden are predicting another pandemic, don’t be surprised. A new strain of Covid from China, or a brand new one. This is the point also that the damage from the injections have to be diverted or covered up.
          And the WHO also would have power to declare Climate Change lock downs as a health emergency.
          And no doubt fake news will move into the next round of this epic fraud and censorship will start up again.
          Just saying .

  10. “San Diego County’s home price has dropped for the sixth month and is close to erasing all yearly price gains.

    I fear relentless shack price drops month after month will complicate realtor efforts to Always Be Closing.

  11. . ‘I cannot get an offer,’ Grant said. ‘It is worth all day, $2.3 to $2.4 million, and we lowered the price, but not a single offer has come in.’”

    You can’t get an offer because you haven’t priced the shack to sell, Grant. Get to sawin’ and slashin’ like you mean it, or end up chasing the market all the way down.

  12. ‘If a family in California can’t sell their house because it’s too expensive to afford, that makes it harder for them to move here,’ Adams said.”

    Such a tragedy…California libtards denied the opportunity to infest the red states.

  13. 𝗟𝗮𝗴𝘂𝗻𝗮 𝗛𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀, 𝗖𝗔 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗖𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟯% 𝗬𝗢𝗬 𝗔𝘀 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗮

    https://www.movoto.com/laguna-hills-ca/market-trends/

    𝘈𝘴 𝘢 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥, “𝘈 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘥𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶.”

  14. “In November, Central Florida home sales hit their lowest point in nearly four years, according to the association. Prices are falling, too. Orlando’s median home price, $360,000, has dropped by $27,000 since its height this summer.

    It’s just a gully.

  15. After slicing the asking price to $4 million earlier this month, the 9,300-square-foot home appears to have found a buyer.

    Said buyer is going to be pauperized by the cost of heating and cooling said monstrosity. The end of cheap abundant energy is going to force a fundamental reassessment of the long-term viability of such wasteful mansions.

    1. That’s the area of town right north of downtown which has become a total craphole. The nicest parts of Chicago are going into a downward spiral.

  16. ‘There is a lot of uncertainty about the Fed,’ said Ethan Heisler, the strategic advisor at bond rating agency KBRA.

    Looks to me like the Wall Street-Federal Reserve Looting Syndicate has actuated the next Great Muppet Reaping, a la 2008. We should see a Fed-engineered bust of the Everything Bubble, followed by the Fed’s private equity accomplices swooping down to Hoover up the millions of foreclosures that are going to be vacated by FBs. Wash, rinse, repeat.

  17. Recent research published by the Fed suggests that the Pandemic Housing Boom didn’t just help to drive up pandemic inflation—it was one of the biggest culprits.”

    The scamdemic gave the Fed the pretext it needed to go full Zimbabwe with the M2 money supply, with 40% of all dollars in existence created out of thin air over the next 30 months. There was no “housing boom”: there was an insane housing bubble as millions of reckless, greedy degens got caught up in the mania. Now the long-deferred financial reckoning day is slouching closer, and most of those FBs have no inkling of how screwed they are.

  18. “After a series of interest rate hikes throughout 2022, the average price of a home in Canada has dropped by more than $180,000 since hitting its peak in February.

    That would’ve paid for a lot of rent. I suspect some of the mantlepiece portraits of Lil’ Fidel might be coming down as the brain-dead sheeple start to reap what they voted.

  19. ‘Now, people are looking for a home to live in, not an investment.’”

    We won’t end speculative malinvestment until we end the Fed.

    1. Sounds like they’re referring to fixer-uppers, not tiny flips or rental properties. End consumers do not want a fixer-upper, and prices are still too high to be worth the time and money of a reno-flipper. The sexi-truk dude who bought the grandma-finally-died house on my block found this out the Joshua Tree way. So the houses are going to sit until they rot away even more.

  20. A reader sent these in:

    The Kobeissi Letter

    Developments in 2022:
    1. Formed the most unaffordable housing market in decades
    2. Credit card debt near a record $1 trillion
    3. Interest rates now higher than 2008
    4. More tech layoffs in 2022 than 2001
    5. Consumer confidence hit a record low
    2023 should be interesting.

    https://twitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1608276776509214722

    The dirt pile that’s gonna get uncovered along with this unwind will be one for the history books
    Quote Tweet
    Dec 27
    Breaking: SEC counsel Berkowitz (CFTC) resigns after being found to have accepted bribes from @SBF_FTX

    https://twitter.com/INArteCarloDoss/status/1608124586972905472

    I was also harassed and called a fool for this Tweet
    Quote Tweet
    Nov 7
    Tesla chart $TSLA (long scale) is constructing a possible massive HnS top pattern with a target of $104. Patterns often fail or morph, but it this one works a short would be a heck of a trade.

    https://twitter.com/PeterLBrandt/status/1608107703653785604

    A few of these stocks could very well fall to $0 eventually 👀👀

    https://twitter.com/JesseCohenInv/status/1608171944507019268

    I suspect if we audited PPP funds we would find out over 50% were overpaid or supplied false documentation. Can you imagine prosecuting or even attempting to get those funds back? By all means we should at least try.

    https://twitter.com/ColleenEgleston/status/1608192422009356290

    Prices of used Teslas are falling faster (-17% since July) than those of the overall used car-market (-5%) in the same period. Nearly 1/3 of used Teslas for sale in Aug were 2022 models up for resale, vs. 5% of other brands on the used market. Waning demand and falling prices

    https://twitter.com/RadicalAdem/status/1607951210472181761

    Real estate is not affordable for young Chinese 👇 Main reason for collapse in births in recent years, it’s difficult to have own family while living with parents.

    https://twitter.com/MichaelAArouet/status/1608055990426951684

    Worker strikes are picking up in the US with pressure on real wages. This could potentially lead to higher wages and the beginning of a wage spiral.

    https://twitter.com/AyeshaTariq/status/1608061823386796032

    March 2022. There were warning signs folks, glaring ones.

    https://twitter.com/MPelletierCIO/status/1608178373523804160

    Just spoke to a successful Builder who handed his Lender the keys for his main project today. The first of what will likely be many Builders washing out of the business. Faced with either paying a huge carry or folding, more are likely to throw in the cards.

    https://twitter.com/atxREpodcast/status/1608205288158494724

    If @AOC and @ewarren are REALLY concerned about the poor and inequality, why don’t they insist on auditing PPP funds? Why are ALL the politicians so quiet?

    https://twitter.com/GRomePow/status/1608191480233066496

    NOW we’re talking. 10% cuts incoming in Phoenix. Now only 40% overpriced.

    https://twitter.com/GRomePow/status/1608216717578375169

    Big tech has lost a staggering $3.8 trillion in market cap this year. Doesn’t even include $TSLA. Everyone’s darlings have been REKT☠️

    https://twitter.com/StealthQE4/status/1608223016483278848

    they were giving out $52K to people who merely had twitter accounts and started fake companies surrounding their online scams

    https://twitter.com/censor_sensor/status/1608228610162282499

    There’s a real estate brokerage in the US that will give low income homeowners ~$600 of up front cash, in exchange for putting a lien on their property that forces the homeowner to pay the brokerage a listing commission if they sell any time in the next FORTY years. Predatory.

    https://twitter.com/jesse_kleine/status/1608181465103364098

    Another house OpenDoor is taking a total bath on

    https://twitter.com/GRomePow/status/1608233685077348352

    Ryan Lundquist
    @SacAppraiser
    Opendoor bought Zillow’s last home in Sacramento at a discount, and it’s finally listed 90 days later. History of property:
    – Zillow bought $700K (11/2021)
    – On market 119 days (cancelled $624,900)
    – Opendoor bought $354,500
    – Modest improvements made
    – Now listed at $632,000

    https://twitter.com/SacAppraiser/status/1608218127309103104

    King bagholder Opendoor losing on another one

    https://twitter.com/GRomePow/status/1608234562139860992

    They never had to actually prove anything. My cousin has a farm, one employee, himself. He never lost a day of work growing and harvesting crops, nor a dollar, he received over $110,000 in PPP funds.

    https://twitter.com/ColleenEgleston/status/1608235637898985472

    The PPP monies were the reason giant trucks and SUVs are still on back order. Businesses and farmers won the lottery, every guy with a small construction company in my area went out and bought his dream truck.

    https://twitter.com/ColleenEgleston/status/1608236878561427456

    Interest rate forecast: What went up, won’t come down | The Star

    https://twitter.com/REWoman/status/1608078249229275139

    The housing market is in decline, as we all know, but many people are under the impression that the worst is over and the “bottom is in”. This couldn’t be further from the truth. 🧵

    https://twitter.com/MFHoz/status/1608242273996644352

    BREAKING: The SEC charges Sam Bankman-Fried with fraud (again). Sam and FTX diverted $200 million in customer funds to its venture fund, investing $100 million into a fintech company called “Dave”

    https://twitter.com/GRDecter/status/1608233645415751680

    I know everyone will start to say “oversold”. Remember $TSLA is still a $388B market cap and trading near 100x FCF. There’s still a rational case for it to fall 80-90% from here if the market treats it as a CAR COMPANY.

    https://twitter.com/PolitiReality/status/1607842084916023296

    well then

    https://twitter.com/eriz35/status/1608254721734901760

    how it started // how it’s going lmao

    https://twitter.com/eriz35/status/1608248537111998467

    From a Southwest Pilot;

    https://twitter.com/JessMagdefrau/status/1608068074632278016

    The @federalreserve has made a series of compounding mistakes over the past two years. It must openly acknowledge them if it is going to restore its credibility and policy effectiveness, says @elerianm
    .
    https://twitter.com/ProSyn/status/1608313112289214465

    US home prices vs US incomes… Will we close the gap… ?🔥

    https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1608310366404055045

    For the record, Facebook (“Meta”) went into FTX mode before Tesla. I think Nvidia is the next stock to go into FTX mode. Third on price x volume today. Followed by Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft. By that time, the underwear will be fully stained.

    https://twitter.com/SuburbanDrone/status/1607918605965967360

    Danielle DiMartino Booth

    “High-end market has been hit particularly hard because luxury properties are often used as investments & outlook for home values in 2023 lackluster @Redfin. said. Affluent buyers also often have significant funds in stock market, which is set for worst year since 2008”

    https://twitter.com/DiMartinoBooth/status/1608154416481173505

    In this stagflationary scenario for 2023, EM bonds will devalue again, pushing higher the US dollar. Also the swiss franc will benefit. Would eventually entail a debt crisis.

    https://twitter.com/AlessioUrban/status/1608150489551470592

    US 30-year yield

    https://twitter.com/AlessioUrban/status/1608129380043063298

    US 3M T-BILL YIELD new high

    https://twitter.com/AlessioUrban/status/1608049410432241665

    A few weeks ago Gavekal wrote a piece during the China Zero covid protests about how the CCP cares most about stability. They were right. What were the two flash points this year? The obvious one was the recent protests. But there was another one… 1/5

    https://twitter.com/PauloMacro/status/1606148216461877249

    Caixin Global

    China state-affiliated media Dongguan in South China’s Guangdong province has abolished restrictions on who can buy properties and how many they can buy, as large cities step up demand-side support to restore sluggish market confidence.

    https://twitter.com/caixin/status/1607740709775237122

    Replying to @elonmusk
    Agreed

    https://twitter.com/avenaim/status/1607852042084823041

    Bubbleinfo.com

    Has there ever been a time when the YoY meant as little as it does today? Are we supposed to feel better if the YoY is positive? It means nothing.

    https://twitter.com/Bubbleinfo/status/1607906236141559810

    HOME 🏡 SALES

    https://twitter.com/WinfieldSmart/status/1607710998181322757

    1. “Can you imagine prosecuting or even attempting to get those funds back? By all means we should at least try.”

      Sorry, the Feds will be too busy going after people who sell used crap on eBay to go after PPP fraud.

      1. Sorry, the Feds will be too busy going after people who sell used crap on eBay to go after PPP fraud.

        They put their plan to soak the working poor off a year due to extreme blowback. It was the most transparent shakedown of the lower classes in history. Pedo Joe strutted around like a proud peacock with a Cheshire Cat grin as he announced “no new taxes on those earning $400k or less” before unveiling this sickening overreach.

    2. Breaking: SEC counsel Berkowitz (CFTC) resigns after being found to have accepted bribes from @SBF_FTX

      Next tweet:

      Follow Berkowitz money trail. He passed cash to @GaryGensler
      from @SBF_FTX – there are emails with the full extent of the bribe.

      1. I don’t see what that has to do with anything. UHS around the world are getting hammered.

        ‘Has there ever been a time when the YoY meant as little as it does today?’

        IMO he’s right. What happened leading up to the spring cray cray and the months that have followed made prices since peak key. It will determine foreclosures, scare off buyers and lenders. Has already created bag-holders. In the 2000’s it took many years to create what happened during CCP virus. And this episode dwarfs the 2000’s. Yet most of the REIC wants the buying public to focus on YOY, which means little at this point.

        1. “most of the REIC wants the buying public to focus on YOY”

          when YOY is down 20% the REIC won’t be focusing anyone’s attention on it.

          1. In a few months they will be reporting the YOY from the past spring. Should be some interesting blogging.

        2. I don’t see what that has to do with anything.

          The slimy guy is getting what he deserves. I followed him for some time leading up to the sale of the Encinitas house.

    5. Main reason for collapse in births in recent years, it’s difficult to have own family while living with parents.

      Especially if daddy’s little girl is a screamer. Breakfast would be very awkward.

    6. The PPP monies were the reason giant trucks and SUVs are still on back order. Businesses and farmers won the lottery, every guy with a small construction company in my area went out and bought his dream truck.

      ^^This. The PPP “loans” were the most generous financial gifts that the US government has ever bestowed upon a chosen group. The more connected and wealthy you were, the more generous the gift. It was easily the most disturbingly sickening fiscal policy in US history – just handing the already wealthy almost a trillion dollars to blow on toys and real estate.

  21. ‘Now I work as a collaborator with the company without a salary, but I have failed to do any transaction for the past four months,’ Khang said.”

    “Collaborating” with a company that doesn’t pay you…Khang, a review of your employment options may be in order.

    1. Sounds like she’s a contractor for a commissions-only sales job. At that point you may as well work fast food.

  22. “…has a listing in Solana Beach that recently went on sale for $1.9 million and isn’t getting much attention. His seller purchased the home in April, when home prices were peaking, for $2.45 million.”

    1-1.9/2.45 = 22.4% down since April, even at a price no buyer would touch with a ten foot pole…

    Lots of San Diego investors who recently used dumb, borrowed money to snap up investment properties at peak bubble prices must be soiling themselves about now.

    1. You should apply your formula to this one:

      “In Bozeman, median sales prices… fell about 9% compared to this October.”

      1. Happy to oblige. Assuming that’s a one month comparison, the decline occurred at an annualized rate of

        1-(1-0.09)^12 = 67.8%.

        This is not a prediction, but rather a way to state the recent rate of decline to make it more. For example, if the average rate of decline going forward is greater than 9% monthly, the annual decline will exceed 67.8%; if the average is below 9%, the annual decline will be less than 67.8%.

        I oversimplified my explanation a bit, but don’t feel like explaining averages in logs before coffee.

    1. His prayers & supplications to St. Greta went unanswered? He must’ve posted something untoward on social media.

    2. Hubby just showed me a picture of a Tesla in Ukraine with a generator strapped on the back. 😂

    1. Looks more like the glass manufacturer didn’t dip the product in potassium nitrate before shipping, it shouldn’t break that easily.

      So “this is substandard, and this, and this, and this….”

  27. 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀, 𝗢𝗥 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗖𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟲% 𝗬𝗢𝗬 𝗔𝘀 𝗥𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗢𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗼𝗻 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗹𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗲𝘁𝘀

    https://www.movoto.com/grants-pass-or/market-trends/

    𝘈𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥, “𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘦, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘧𝘧.”

  29. Clown World gonna clown:

    “This week, the New York Times published an online quiz of “offensive” words, with an accompanying poll of 4,000 adults asking them which terms they would or would not use. We wonder if the results are what the Times expected.

    The most rejected word was “chestfeeding,” which we apparently must use because a minuscule number of people may exist who identify as men but still have the biology to wean a child: 90% of respondents say they wouldn’t use that word, while 85% say they would use “breastfeeding.”

    “Birthing parent”: 66% say no, while 86% say yes to “pregnant woman.”

    Only 22% use “Latinx,” an invented gender-neutral word that even liberal politicians say is nonsense (“When Latino politicos use the term, it is largely to appease white rich progressives who think that is the term we use,” said Ruben Gallego, a Democratic congressman from Arizona). “Latino” and “Latina” are used by 70%.

    The cherry on top of this exercise? One of the headlines used in the piece says, “Despite the panic on the right, few have stopped using ‘woman.’”

    https://nypost.com/2022/12/28/times-poll-shows-americans-reject-terms-like-chestfeeding-latinx/

    The people pushing this are Marxists. There is nothing “progressive” about this, it’s not the next phase of some phony civil rights movement, it’s Marxism.

    And the only good communist is a dead communist ☠️

    1. It’s actually a fake Marxism. The New World Order is just using the ideology of Marxism or social equity as a means to take over.
      Basically the intent of the One World Order
      Is to kill billions, enslave the rest, that will own nothing, eat bugs, with forced hacking and injections.
      The One World Order is going about the process of destroying everything and taking away all that sustains a civilized world .
      Nobody would want what they really want to do, so they have to act like they are behind equity and social justice, they are saving you from climate and germs etc.
      To be frank, they want to kill you or enslave you .

    1. Last Update December 29, 2022 12:11pm ET
      STOCK MARKET NEWS: Southwest woes continue, stocks seek direction, jobs data flashes warning

      Southwest Airlines cancels more flights, jobs data show more people on unemployment, oil sinks on China demand concerns. FOX Business is providing real-time updates on the markets, commodities and all the most active stocks on the move.

      Covered by: FOX Business Team, Associated Press and Reuters
      …
      https://www.foxbusiness.com/live-news/stock-market-news-today-december-29-2022

      1. Southwest Airlines’ troubles continuing: Thousands more flights canceled
        moneywatch
        Updated on: December 29, 2022 / 5:51 AM / CBS/AP

        Southwest Airlines scrubbed thousands of flights again Wednesday as the company faced frustration from passengers and scrutiny from federal officials over its handling of its schedule in the aftermath of the massive storm that wrecked holiday travel plans across the U.S.

        By Wednesday evening, about 86% of all canceled flights in the U.S. were from Southwest, which scrubbed more than 2,500 flights Wednesday, according to tracking service Flight Aware. On Tuesday, a day after most U.S. airlines had recovered from the storm, Southwest had called off about 2,600 more flights. Those flights accounted for more than 80% of the 3,000 trips that got canceled nationwide Tuesday, according to FlightAware.

        And the chaos seems certain to continue. The airline has scrubbed more than 2,300 flights set for Thursday as it tries to restore order to its mangled schedule. That’s another huge percentage of all scrapped U.S. flights for the day as noted by FlightAware, and 58% of Southwest’s Thursday schedule.

        Southest canceled more than 15,000 flights over the past week, according to data posted by FlightAware.

        The company issued another apology Wednesday, but it could still take days before the situation is back to normal.

        Several major airlines — including American, Delta, and United — tell CBS News they’re capping fares in select cities to help stranded customers get home.

        Southwest has blamed the massive winter storm last week for putting its crews out of position and is now running a reduced flight schedule in hopes of getting back on track by the new year.

        Still, customers at airports with major Southwest operations faced long lines hoping to find a seat on another flight. They described waiting hours on hold for help, only to be cut off. Some tried to rent cars to get to their destinations sooner. Others found spots to sleep on the floor. Luggage piled up in huge heaps.

        Conrad Stoll, a 66-year-old retired construction worker in Missouri, planned to fly from Kansas City to Los Angeles for his father’s 90th birthday party until his Southwest flight was canceled early Tuesday. He said he won’t get to see his 88-year-old mother either.

        “I went there in 2019, and she looked at me and said, ‘I’m not going to see you again.'” Stoll said. “My sister has been taking care of them, and she’s just like, ‘They’re really losing it really quick.'”

        Stoll hopes to get another chance to see his parents in the spring, when the weather is warmer.
        Holiday travel chaos continues with flight delays and cancellations

        Adontis Barber, a 34-year-old jazz pianist from Kansas City, Missouri, had camped out in the city’s airport since his Southwest flight was canceled Saturday and wondered if he would ever get to a New Year’s gig in Washington, D.C.

        “I give up,” he said. “I’m starting to feel homeless.”

        The carrier also continued to be deluged with questions and complaints online. Said one person on Twitter, “[S]o let’s get this straight. My bags get lost, and then DAMAGED, and when I try to contact you guys over the phone, for the past WEEK, all I get is two rings and the busy tone? What kind of customer service is that?”

        CEO apologizes

        In a video that Southwest posted late Tuesday, CEO Robert Jordan said Southwest would operate a reduced schedule for several days but hoped to be “back on track before next week.”

        Jordan blamed the winter storm for snarling the airline’s “highly complex” network. He said Southwest’s tools for recovering from disruptions work “99% of the time, but clearly we need to double down” on upgrading systems to avoid a repeat of this week.

        Jordan, a 34-year Southwest veteran who became CEO in February, said he is “truly sorry” for the travel chaos, adding that “We have some real work to do in making this right.”

        Another Southwest executive issued a video apology Wednesday, highlighting new features on the company’s website where affected travelers can go to rebook flights, request refunds and submit information on missing bags.

        Ryan Green, Southwest’s chief commercial officer, pledged “to do everything we can and to work day and night to repair our relationship” with passengers.

        The problems began over the weekend and snowballed Monday, when Southwest called off more than 70% of its flights.

        That was after the worst of the storm had passed. The airline said many pilots and flight attendants were out of position to work their flights. Leaders of unions representing Southwest pilots and flight attendants blamed antiquated crew-scheduling software and criticized company management.
        …
        https://www.cbsnews.com/news/southwest-airlines-flights-cancellations-government-investigate/

        1. “Southwest has blamed the massive winter storm last week for putting its crews out of position and is now running a reduced flight schedule in hopes of getting back on track by the new year.”

          Would that be the same snowstorm that had little effect on flight scheduling for any of Southwest Airlines’ rivsls?

          I smell bullshit all the way from Texas to California.

    2. Look at how greasy Zelensky’s complexion is. He looks like Ray Liotta in the all day cocaine binge scenes at the end of the film Goodfellas.

    1. Inside the relationship between Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX and Solana, the blockchain he championed whose token is down 96% from its highs
      Morgan Chittum
      Dec 29, 2022, 9:28 AM

      – Sam Bankman-Fried was a big supporter of Solana, the layer-1 blockchain that bills itself as a faster alternative to Ethereum’s network.
      – He backed projects on its ecosystem, and his firms amassed huge sums of the blockchain’s native token, also called Solana (SOL).
      – The altcoin has crashed 96% from its record high in November 2021, wiping out tens of billions in market cap. 

      Sam Bankman-Fried was a big supporter of Solana, the layer-1 blockchain that bills itself as a faster alternative to Ethereum’s network.

      The disgraced former crypto mogul backed projects in its ecosystem, and his firms amassed huge sums of the blockchain’s native token, also called Solana (SOL).

      But the altcoin has crashed 46% since Bankman-Fried’s FTX filed for bankruptcy on November 11 and is down 96% from its record high in November 2021, according to Messari on Thursday. Once boasting a market value of nearly $80 billion, it’s now just $3.4 billion. 

      Here are some of the ties that the FTX founder and Solana built.
      …
      https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-bankruptcy-alameda-solana-price-crash-sol-2022-12

    2. Ruble hits 8-month low against dollar, as falling oil prices and sanctions bite
      By Clare Sebastian, CNN
      Published 7:36 AM EST, Thu December 29, 2022

      London CNN — 

      Russia’s currency hit an eight-month low Thursday, adding to sharp declines in December as global oil prices fell, and Western sanctions targeted Russia’s energy sector.

      The ruble hovered below 72 to the dollar, down 18% from the start of the month, and its weakest level since late April.

      After almost halving in value in the first weeks of the war, the ruble has held up remarkably well for most of the year, trading within a narrow range. The ruble has been helped by measures from Russia’s central bank, which more than doubled interest rates at the start of the war, introduced capital controls, and forced exporters to convert 80% of their earnings into rubles, artificially creating demand for the currency. It later rolled back some of those policies as the exchange rate stabilized.

      But with the price of oil, Russia’s biggest export, down by about a third from its June peak, and an EU embargo on seaborne oil, and Western price cap mechanisms now in place, Russia’s oil export revenues are likely to fall. This means less foreign currency to prop up the ruble.

      The International Energy Agency said this month that Russian oil export revenues fell by $700 million in November because of falling prices.
      …
      https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/29/investing/ruble-dollar-russia-oil/index.html

    3. Pound to Dollar Rate Pares Gains after Data Shows U.S. Home Sales Tumbling
      Modified: Wednesday, 28 December 2022 18:03 GMT
      Written by: James Skinner

      The Pound to Dollar exchange rate had risen to one-week highs in mid-week trade but handed back these gains after the National Association of Realtors said a slump in pending sales of U.S. homes deepened during November, making for the sixth successive month of declines.

      U.S. exchange rates had fallen broadly to the benefit of Sterling on Wednesday, lifting the Pound-Dollar rate briefly above 1.21, but November’s pending home sales data appeared to turn the market on its head.  

      Pending transactions were down by four percent in November when the economist consensus had looked for a -0.9% fall while October’s -4.6% reading was revised down to -4.7% in an outcome that potentially presages deeper declines in the existing home sales data up ahead. 

      “Pending home sales in November 2022 recorded the second-lowest monthly reading in 20 years as interest rates climbed, drastically cutting into the number of contract signings to buy a home,” the National Association of Realtors said. 

      While the association says home transactions could rebound in the months ahead due to recent declines in mortgage rates, it also says “the Pending Home Sales Index generally leads Existing-Home Sales by a month or two.”
      …
      https://www.poundsterlinglive.com/usd/17971-pound-to-dollar-rate-pares-gains-after-data-shows-u-s-home-sales-tumbling

      1. “…home transactions could rebound in the months ahead due to recent declines in mortgage rates…”

        Not likely.

        Mortgage rates won’t get anywhere close to their early 2021 levels again in 2023, if ever in the future history of finance.

        If you bought earlier this year when rates were near pandemic lows, you got stucco…you really got stucco.

  33. The Jan. 6 House select committee withdraw its subpoena of former President Donald Trump, which prompted a victory lap from his attorney and the former commander-in-chief himself.

    The panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), said in a letter to Trump’s attorneys that the committee is no longer pursuing the subpoena that was issued in October for the former president’s testimony and documents regarding the Jan. 6, 2021 incident at the Capitol.

    Harmeet Dhillon, an attorney Trump hired after being subpoenaed, celebrated the panel’s decision to put the subpoena away.

    “After my firm filed suit on separation of powers grounds to block January 6 House Select Committee’s illegitimate subpoena to President Trump over his activities while president—the committee waved the white flag & withdrew subpoena,” Dhillon said in a message on social media early Thursday.

    “We were confident of victory,” she added, “in court, given precedent & refusal of prior presidents to testify in Congress. J6 committee wasted millions for a purely political witch-hunt, total abuse of process & power serving no legitimate legislative purpose.”

    Trump, too, addressed the matter of the cancellation in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform.

    “Was just advised that the Unselect Committee of political Thugs has withdrawn the Subpoena of me concerning the January 6th Protest of the CROOKED 2020 Presidential Election,” Trump wrote.

    “They probably did so because they knew I did nothing wrong, or they were about to lose in Court. Perhaps the FBI’s involvement in RIGGING the Election played into their decision. In any event, the Subpoena is DEAD!” he added.

    Trump’s mentioning of the FBI is a likely reference to explosive Twitter Files disclosures that show there was an effort by the agency to discredit leaked information about Hunter Biden’s laptop ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

    The former president has been deeply critical of the Jan. 6 panel, whose probe he has called a partisan “witch-hunt” and a “fake trial.”

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/the-subpoena-is-dead-trump-takes-victory-lap-as-jan-6-committee-cancels-subpoena_4951202.html

      1. And the 2022 midterms were rigged also.
        I was always suspicious of the 2018 midterms being rigged also.
        Now I’m wondering just how long they have been rigging elections.

        3. “And the 2022 midterms were rigged also.”

          The Christian Nationalists were champing at the bit to exert more control over women’s reproductive decisions by reining-in Roe v Wade before the midterms, so we’re stuck for now with far-left politics hell bent on LGBTQ, mob looting, open borders, wokeness w/reparations, etc., likely the worst dysfunction the country has experienced short of the Civil War.

          1. ar-left politics hell bent on LGBTQ, mob looting, open borders, wokeness w/reparations, etc.

            If the right to murder one’s unborn child means so much to so many, then perhaps we deserve the above.

          2. champing at the bit to exert more control

            Nobody I know was even thinking about this. I believe it is more a construct of the news media than anything real. Divide, divide, divide.

          3. Not sure I like this relatively recent line of reasoning that babies pop up by themselves and that abortion is the only way to prevent it. Hello, it’s not 1973 anymore.

            And if these modern women hate toxic men so much, then why are they having such trouble keeping their legs shut?

          4. hell bent on LGBTQ, mob looting, open borders, wokeness w/reparations

            The far-left doesn’t need an excuse but an excuse (the far-right, essentially anything right of them) certainly helps. BlueSkye’s right. It’s all about division. Abortion is not a constitutional right. Health matters were left to the states. If you don’t like a state’s laws, move.

          5. Extremists on the left and on the right are tearing the country apart. It’s sad to witness, and pointless.

    1. Same account’s tweet 2 days prior:
      The breaking news that will hit on Thursday or Friday is Elon has been margin called by Morgan Stanley and 9 other banks as Tesla crosses $100, effectively liquidating his entire holding.

  37. https://amgreatness.com/2022/12/11/our-parasitic-generation/

    Our California always is a preamble to America’s future. Our present is likely your tomorrow. 

    Each summer here we impotently expect forest conflagrations. Millions of acres of flames pour more millions of tons of smoke and carbon and soot in the skies. Tens of millions of hated combustion engines cannot begin to match the natural blankets of aerial dirt. 

    1. The truly sad thing is that millions of Clownifornians accept levels of dysfunction, that are unthinkable, as normal. To an outsider it is so revolting that I refuse to set foot in what at one time was considered a wonder of the world.

  38. Anything you read in the New York Times, Washington Post, or Guardian is all propaganda and lies. In 2022 (i.e. the Current Year) you will read more truth on 4chan and random blogs and podcasts than you ever will from that globalist scum media.

    1. The Financial Times
      Mergers & Acquisitions
      Sharp fall in global dealmaking brings pandemic-era frenzy to a halt
      M&A suffers record decline in second half of 2022 as interest rate rises hit financing
      A montage of the Wall Street sign, a globe and bar and line graphs
      Mergers and acquisitions worth $1.4tn were announced during the six months to December — down from the $2.2tn agreed in the first half of 2022
      Ivan Levingston, Ortenca Aliaj and Kaye Wiggins yesterday

      Global dealmaking suffered a record fall during the second half of this year, as rising interest rates and economic uncertainty brought a period of frenzied activity to an abrupt close.

      Mergers and acquisitions worth $1.4tn were announced during the six months to December, according to data provider Refinitiv, down from the $2.2tn agreed in the first half of 2022. It was the biggest swing, from one six-month period to the next, since records began in 1980.

      The overall volume of deals struck globally in 2022 was down 38 per cent from 2021, the largest year-on-year drop since 2001. Still, it was at high levels by historical standards, above the global totals seen in 2016 and 2017.

      The slowdown was the result of sharp interest rate rises, in the wake of rising inflation and the war in Ukraine, hitting confidence in global markets and increasing the cost of financing. Junk bond markets all but froze up, complicating private equity firms’ ability to fund deals.

      Mark Sorrell, co-head of global M&A at Goldman Sachs, called 2022 “a tale of two halves” as a lack of cheap financing stalled the M&A market after the summer.

      The number of megadeals worth more than $10bn fell sharply during the year, with 25 signed in the first half but just 11 in the second.

      “Financing for M&A is there, but it’s a much [higher] cost and it’s not available for all issuers,” said Sorrell.

      The M&A slowdown ends a frenzied period in 2021 when dealmaking soared to record highs, fuelled by coronavirus pandemic-era stimulus measures and emergency rate cuts. Still, the total volume of deals this year was higher than in 2020.

      “I didn’t go into 2022 thinking it was going to be 2021,” said Steve Arcano, global head of the law firm Skadden’s transactions practices. “2021 really was an exceptional year, you can’t have record years every year”.
      …

    2. The Financial Times
      Opinion Lex
      Financial trends: more whacks for Spacs in 2023
      There have been far too many special purpose acquisition companies chasing too few deals
      Prominent investors — including Chamath Palihapitiya — are among those who have thrown in the towel on Spacs
      December 28 2022

      The two-year boom in special purpose acquisition companies turned to bust in 2022. Rising interest rates, a sharp stock market sell-off and heightened regulatory scrutiny doused cold water on Wall Street’s torrid love affair with Spacs. These blank-cheque listing vehicles raised just $16bn for the year to December 19. That compares with $250bn investors poured into them during 2020 and 2021.

      The relationship is unlikely to regain its spark next year. Spacs are time-limited. They usually have two years to use their funds to make an acquisition before they have to return the money to investors — with interest. At the moment there are far too many Spacs chasing too few deals. Over 650 Spacs with a combined pool of $159bn of IPO capital are looking for a merger target, according to an estimate from the London Stock Exchange Group.
      …

    3. The Financial Times
      Goldman Sachs Group
      Goldman Sachs’s David Solomon says job cuts to come in January
      Investment bankers who survive cull could face bonus reductions of 40% or more
      Office workers walk near the Goldman Sachs headquarters in New York
      Goldman Sachs has considered firing up to 8% of its staff
      Mark Vandevelde in New York December 28 2022

      Goldman Sachs is preparing for a cull of its workforce in the coming weeks, chief executive David Solomon said in a message to staff, as the bank looks to reverse a recent expansion drive and scale back its ambitions in consumer finance.

      “While discussions are still ongoing, we anticipate our headcount reduction will take place in the first half of January,” Solomon said in a year-end voicemail message sent to many of the group’s 49,000 employees.

      “There are a variety of factors impacting the business landscape, including tightening monetary conditions that are slowing down economic activity,” he added. “For our leadership team, the focus is on preparing the firm to weather these headwinds.”
      …

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