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Not Quite A Record Level Of Decline, But It’s Probably A Matter Of Time

A report from Wicked Local. “The Massachusetts residential real estate market is correcting for past excesses. ‘The Massachusetts single family market finally hit the wall we’ve all been anticipating,’ said Tim Warren, CEO of The Warren Group. ‘For the last few years, housing market activity has been so hot that inventory was unable to keep up and our numbers reflect that.’ New data from GBAR shows sales of single family homes and condominiums in Greater Boston each fell by roughly one-third in December from year ago levels while median selling prices in this part of the state declined on both an annual and month-to-month basis, which is an indication the market likely has plateaued.”

“‘The real estate market is slowing down. Competition is reduced. Bidding wars and offers over asking price are a thing of the past,’ said Warren. ‘Some improvement has been made in reducing inflation and interest rates, but a real fix to those issues will take years, not months.’ Sellers who have had their home on the market for several months may decide to accept a price below their asking price, said Warren. ‘A year or two ago this was unheard of. Now, it is happening more frequently. I would urge anyone making an offer to purchase a home to think things through carefully,’ said Warren.”

In Maricopa in Arizona. “In the past, describing the Maricopa real estate market in a few words was easy. This past year was different, though, because the market made a huge shift in the middle of the year from ‘many buyers, minimal homes’ to ‘minimal buyers, many homes.’ The average selling price for a home in Maricopa in January 2022 was $375,000. Eleven months later, by mid-December, the average selling price was $372,352, marking the first year-over-year decline in many years. Although the starting numbers and finishing numbers don’t show it, Maricopa sales prices rocketed from January to July ($431,078) and then skidded, creating the rare drop.”

“In mid-December, there were approximately 700 homes for sale, roughly double the average Maricopa market normal of 300 to 350 homes. For sellers, buyers are out there but they have a huge number of homes from which to choose. 2022 had months with the highest inventory of homes for sale since in 2006. A slowdown of brand-new homes being built did not prevent a huge number to choose from. Many are completed or nearly completed, and may have been started for a different buyer, who never finished the transaction. Of the mid-December homes for sale in Maricopa, 265 were brand-new, in process or recently completed.”

Bisnow Washington DC. “While several office-to-residential conversions are moving forward in D.C., experts say only a small fraction of the region’s hundreds of old office buildings have layouts that make it possible to transform the existing structure. But if office valuations keep falling the way they have been, that may not matter. ‘We’re in a situation now where spot values for some of this office are so low that it’s just a teardown and start over,’ TMG partner Gary Block said. As the Federal Reserve has continued rapidly hiking interest rates, property values have kept dropping. ‘That sledgehammer has just destroyed asset values,’ Block said.”

“D.C. has also suffered from people leaving the city over the last two years, a trend that leaders say is hurting its economic prospects. Between April 2020 and July 2022, D.C. experienced a net loss of 17,743 people, a 2.6% drop, according to the Census Bureau‘s American Community Survey. This put D.C. in a tie with New York for the highest percentage population loss of any state or territory.”

The Cardinal News. “The Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia has just released its annual population estimates, and they contain more bombshells than supermarket tabloids. The biggest population losses are from Northern Virginia.Yes, you read that right. The second biggest population losses are from Hampton Roads. Yes, you read that right, too. ‘Domestic out-migration is about as high as we have seen it since 2012,’ says Hamilton Lombard, a demographer with the Weldon Cooper Center.”

Pleasanton Weekly in California. “Barring a sudden return to pre-pandemic ridership levels, BART’s long-term future will likely hinge on a future ballot measure that would partially subsidize the transit agency, officials said Thursday. The San Francisco and San Jose metropolitan areas have the lowest office occupancy rates among the top-10 biggest metros in the country, with San Francisco sitting at just 20.8% according to badge swipe data from Kastle Security. By comparison, an average of 32.8% of office space is occupied among the 10 largest metro areas, which includes the two Bay Area cities as well as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Austin.”

“‘We built our budget around peak worker riders, and when they went away, it sort of broke our back, it broke the budget,’ BART Board member Mark Foley said. Without additional revenue from fares, new taxes or some other source, BART is on track to run out of pandemic-era emergency relief funding by mid-2025. At that point, BART officials estimate that the agency would have to eliminate service on the Richmond-Millbrae and San Jose-Daly City lines, close roughly nine stations, reduce service to weekdays only and limit trains to arriving once every hour just to break even.”

CBS Los Angeles. “Southern California’s super red-hot housing market has started to cool in the past year. Across the Southland, home prices have been falling as interest rates have been climbing. From May 2022 to December 2022, prices have dropped 11% in Orange County, 10% in Los Angeles County, 8% in Riverside County, and 6% in San Bernardino County. ‘The inventory is super low right now,’ said Dana Point realtor Gaetano Lo Grande. ‘There were multiple offers on every home last year,’ said Lo Grande. ‘That is still the case now but very rare.'”

“‘From the perspective of buyers, yes, prices are falling but interest rates are a lot higher, which makes it harder to buy a home,’ said Jack Liebersohn, an assistant professor of economics at the University of California, Irvine. He added it is an unusual situation for prices to be falling as home sales are down.”

The Globe and Mail. “National Bank of Canada has reversed its decision to cancel mortgage portability on existing customers. The bank pulled its portability option last summer but news of it just hit the market last week. The backlash was swift and intense, given that the bank made no formal public communication of the change. Portability is a mortgage feature that allows customers to transfer their existing mortgage to a newly purchased property, allowing them keep the low interest rates they secured before the recent surge in borrowing costs.”

“‘We wanted to clarify the confusion’ following last week’s news, Tarek Naguib, National Bank’s vice-president of retail financing solutions, said in a phone interview. He said the bank eliminated its portability option amid surging interest rates, essentially because it was too costly. At the time, the bank had allowed up to 180 days to port instead of the industry average of 60 to 90 days.”

“It’s been a tense year for homeowners in floating-rate mortgages. They’ve watched their interest rates catapult 400 basis points in just nine months. (There are 100 basis points in a percentage point.) To put that in perspective, imagine you got a $400,000 mortgage in February. At a typical variable rate of 1.45 per cent back then, your notional five-year interest cost would have been $26,495 – assuming rates didn’t change. At today’s rates (5.45 per cent), again assuming static rates, that very same mortgage over five years would cost you a stunning $102,280 in interest, almost four times as much.”

ABC News in Australia. “Brisbane and Hobart house prices have fallen sharper and faster than ever before after a ‘spectacular upswing’ through COVID-19, according to CoreLogic. Values rose 43 per cent in Greater Brisbane after a pandemic population surge, but have gone down 10.9 per cent from its peak in June 2022 to January 28. In Hobart, prices dropped 9.3 per cent in the past eight months after a five-year upswing.”

“In Sydney, prices dropped nearly 14 per cent, but it was not yet record-breaking in the capital, said Tim Lawless, from CoreLogic. ‘Through the previous downturn, for example, which ran between the middle of 2017 and the middle of 2019, Sydney housing prices were down nearly 15 per cent through that trough,’ said Lawless. ‘So Sydney is not quite at a record level of decline, but it’s probably a matter of time considering we’re still seeing values falling at around 1 per cent month-on-month in that market.'”

“Recent homeowners may find their property is worth less now than what they paid, but Mr Lawless said it’s unlikely many would go into negative equity. ‘At the moment buyers do have time on their hands, there’s no real urgency to buy into the market like what there was a back in 2020 and 21. They can negotiate and if they don’t get the price they think is fair market value they can move on to the next property . For sellers, they really need to be realistic about their pricing expectations.'”  

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This Post Has 170 Comments

  1. ‘median selling prices in this part of the state declined on both an annual and month-to-month basis’

    The spring cray cray has been erased in Boston.

    1. Suzanne assures me the Spring Miracle Revival will give me a final opportunity to buy now or be priced out forever.

  2. ‘Of the mid-December homes for sale in Maricopa, 265 were brand-new, in process or recently completed’

    They’ve got over 40,000 approved lots in this sh$thole. Hundreds of new shacks sitting there unsold must be a sight.

    1. They’ve got over 40,000 approved lots in this sh$thole.

      An area I watch to get a pulse on speculative activity used to have hundreds of building lots for sale between $7k and $10k. These range from 6k to 9k square feet. Fast forward to last year and you could not find a single lot available for less than $50k.

      Now, they are starting to show up again with reduced pricing. I actually saw one cut the price to $29k. But most are in the $49k range or higher. I started pulling sales history on a lot of them, and lo and behold they were by and large purchased within the last 2-3 years. These people want a quick 150%+ return for doing absolutely nothing.

      I believe lot prices will crash worse than they did last housing bust due to the sheer level of speculation this time around. Of course, maybe I’m missing something and central bankers will be printing an even larger amount of dollars.

      1. Burned out lots from the Marshall fire, with rubble still on them, were fetching 100’s of thousands last year. I wonder if that has changed. From what I read all of the infrastructure was destroyed by the fires: streets, utilities. Maybe the sewer lines survived. The basements will need to be dug out and removed, plus who knows what else will need to be done. From my perspective, those lots were worthless, it would be easier to start from scratch elsewhere. The only thing they had going for them was their location along the Boulder corridor.

  3. ‘The inventory is super low right now,’ said Dana Point realtor Gaetano Lo Grande. ‘There were multiple offers on every home last year,’ said Lo Grande. ‘That is still the case now but very rare’

    Behold, a lion.

    ‘He added it is an unusual situation for prices to be falling as home sales are down’

    That’s one of my favorite points Jack. Not how supply and demand are supposed to work, right? Just like prices rising as sales rose was sorta illogical, but it went on for many years. Probably nothing.

    1. ‘He added it is an unusual situation for prices to be falling as home sales are down’

      I guess it depends on WHY home sales are down. Are they down because there is no inventory? Or are they down because the number of people who 1) want to buy a home, and 2) can come even remotely close to qualifying to buy a home, has fallen off a cliff?

      2. The rise in interest rates tossed out the investor-flipper-lessors too. Prices have to revert back to what end-consumers can afford.

      3. Relitters act as if supply and demand are all that matters. Interest rates and a willingness to lend matter much more. The fun will really get started when the lending stops.

        1. Don’t judge me, but I’ve got quite a few realtor acquaintances, one I’d even call a close friend. But if I had a dollar for every time I got the “low inventory” retort?…..I’m thinking that storage unit scene in “Breaking Bad”. Man, they’re clinging to that like a waterlogged boat cushion in the middle of a stormy sea.

          2. Don’t judge me

            I’m married to one but he learned decades ago and long before me that he hated sales and manages properties instead.

  4. 𝗦𝗮𝗻 𝗗𝗶𝗲𝗴𝗼, 𝗖𝗔 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗖𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟲% 𝗬𝗢𝗬 𝗢𝗻 𝗦𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗽𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱

    https://www.movoto.com/san-diego-ca/market-trends/

    𝘈𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘚𝘢𝘯 𝘋𝘪𝘦𝘨𝘰 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥, “𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 2009 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘬.”

  5. Property taxes?

    Salon — Why the moral panic over “grooming” is so effective at manipulating the right-wing mind (1/30/2023):

    “Experts explain the history of the right creating false narratives that connect LGBTQ issues to pedophilia”

    Who are these alleged experts?

    “Marilyn Mayo, a Senior Research Fellow at the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, draws a direct line between these 20th century manifestations of the pedophile smear and modern right-wing conspiracy theories…

    “In general, people who are supportive of the LGBTQ community and the progress it has made are also now also being demonized and called groomers and pedophiles,” Mayo wrote to Salon. “We have seen this in numerous protests against ‘drag story hours’ and other similar events. Politicians and librarians who support such events are being harassed and threatened.”

    “Right-wing extremists have also adopted the groomer narrative to further demonize LGBTQ+ people, justify harassment and violence towards the LGBTQ+ community and advance their own infiltration of the mainstream right,” Mayo told Salon. “The Proud Boys have disrupted at least 10 LGBTQ+ events since March 2022, accounting for more than half of anti-LGBTQ+ extremist event activity tracked by the ADL Center on Extremism this year.”

    R. G. Craven, a Senior Research Analyst and Lead at the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, observed how right-wingers have also found that accusing opponents of pedophilia chips away at their support.”

    https://archive.ph/wFhG0

    Who are these alleged experts?

    Anti Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center actively promote pedophilia and mutilation of children in the public schools and libraries that your property taxes are paying for.

    Note that the article also reluctantly references the North American Man Boy Love Association.

    Yoel Roth could not be reached for comment…

    1. ‘We have seen this in numerous protests against ‘drag story hours’ and other similar events’

      Why have these perverts singled out young children for these ‘stories’? Marxists target the family for destruction.

      2. “Why have these perverts singled out young children for these ‘stories’? Marxists target the family for destruction.”

        – Fact check: True! These people are just evil.

        “A man who struggles not to acknowledge that evil is evil, finds it increasingly dangerous to acknowledge that the good is the good.” – Ayn Rand

        “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” – Edmund Burke

        “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

        “Destroy the Family, Destroy the nation.” – Vladimir Lenin

        “The education of all children, from the moment that they can get along without a mother’s care, shall be in state institutions.”- Karl Marx

        “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.” – Karl Marx

        “The first requisite for the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion.” – Karl Marx

        “The aim of socialism is not only to abolish the present division of mankind into small states and all-national isolation, not only to bring the nations closer to each other, but also to merge them.” – Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

        “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” – Winston Churchill

        http://laissez-fairerepublic.com/TenPlanks.html

        The Ten Planks of the 
        Communist Manifesto
        1848 by Karl Heinrich Marx

        1. Abolition of private property in land and application of all rents of land to public purpose.
        2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
         5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
        6. Centralization of the means of communication and transportation in the hands of the state.
        7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
        10. Free education for all children in government schools. Abolition of children’s factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc. etc.

        – Communism and the dangers thereof aren’t taught in public schools because they’re now Communist indoctrination centers. Get your kids out of there! Home school or Christian school. Almost anything but public schools.

      3. “Why have these perverts singled out young children for these ‘stories’?”

        This is why we name their names:

        Anti Defamation League

        Southern Poverty Law Center

        Both of these organizations, which at some time in the past presented themselves as “civil rights organizations” are today, now, on the record as supporting and promoting this depravity.

        We are told that this is being on “the right side of history” and that if you oppose it you deserve to be canceled and targeted with violence.

        Weimar America ends when we end it.

    3. Groomers gonna groom. Democrats that aren’t actually pedos themselves have no problem with normalizing and rationalizing pedophile behavior.

      1. They are mostly single moms doing it for social media likes. Any alleged dad there is a cuck.

      2. More proof of the total decline of a normal society.

        I imagine a call to CWS would result in the caller being arrested.

    5. It’s a pretty big leap from from “Leave us alone and we’ll leave you alone” and “Come be gay with us and don’t forget to bring your little boy; if you don’t we’ll slap you with a hate crime.”

      By the way, a couple weeks ago, I checked the NHL.com store. The Ivan Provorov men’s jersey was sold out and the women’s jersey was the best seller. The market is speaking, if indirectly.

  6. ‘The biggest population losses are from Northern Virginia.Yes, you read that right. The second biggest population losses are from Hampton Roads. Yes, you read that right, too’

    Eat yer crowz taxpayer.

    1. From the article:

      “So the real question is why are so many people in Fairfax moving out of state? We’ve looked at this before: The short answer is a combination of retirees moving to Southeastern states and working adults who, when they relocate, are moving to other metros, not to other places in Virginia. And then there are high housing prices that make it difficult for newcomers to move in. I’ve also heard some blame the region’s perpetually gridlocked traffic. “

  7. ‘The San Francisco and San Jose metropolitan areas have the lowest office occupancy rates among the top-10 biggest metros in the country, with San Francisco sitting at just 20.8% according to badge swipe data from Kastle Security. By comparison, an average of 32.8% of office space is occupied among the 10 largest metro areas, which includes the two Bay Area cities as well as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Austin’

    You see numbers all over the place. Mostly the REIC will say 80% occupied or something. 80% vacant means serious crater. All of these airboxes are in deep trouble if this is correct. How do those 5% cap rates look now?

    1. That missing 60% is people who are milking the pandemic to continue to work at home. Managers are continuing to pay rent for empty offices while they dither over whether to bring employees back to the office or give up the office space for good. Then next 6-12 months, I think, will decide how the w@h movement will shake out.

      1. Managers are continuing to pay rent for empty offices while they dither over whether to bring employees back to the office or FIRE THEM and give up the office space for good.

        I fixed it for you.

  9. ‘We built our budget around peak worker riders, and when they went away, it sort of broke our back, it broke the budget’

    But yer so expensive and muy rico?

    ‘Without additional revenue from fares, new taxes or some other source, BART is on track to run out of pandemic-era emergency relief funding by mid-2025’

    More CCP virus money. If you didn’t have that dwindling gravy it would be over already. I was reading about the tax code changes for the coming year. A whole bunch of gravy is being taken away.

  10. ‘At a typical variable rate of 1.45 per cent back then, your notional five-year interest cost would have been $26,495 – assuming rates didn’t change. At today’s rates (5.45 per cent), again assuming static rates, that very same mortgage over five years would cost you a stunning $102,280 in interest, almost four times as much’

    Well it was cheaper than renting.

  11. Recently declassified radio intercepts from the forerunner of the NSA have confirmed that Amelia Earhart’s last known radio transmission before her plane disappeared was “Realtors are liars.”

  12. What’s going to happen to Big Tech’s laid off workers?
    CNBC International
    Jan 30, 2023
    Technology is part of our everyday lives and necessary for most societies to function. This increasing dependency has led to massive growth in the tech sector and, with it, a proliferation of high paying jobs.

    Following the industry’s recent struggles, those exorbitant salaries are now being scrutinized like never before.

    “What has happened in the last three to four years is the pay for the other non-Big Tech companies have gone up, and many of the startups are really upset because they can’t burn cash at those rates,” Ben Leong, a professor of computer science at the National University of Singapore, told CNBC.

    “The Big Tech companies will continue to pay what they used to pay – they always pay a lot,” he added.

    “I suspect the growth in the median pay will either stagnate or may even drop a little bit.”

    So, is the bubble bursting for tech workers?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVsGAoFlw20

    8:24.

    1. “tech workers”

      If you have a degree in computer science from a reputable school, you’ll probably be fine. If you were a “tech worker” at twitter in their equity, diversity, and inclusion department or in the misinformation department, not so much.

    2. “Safe and effective, you won’t get Covid”,,”” will go down in history as the biggest medical fraud , Nuremburg violating crime against humanity.
      They obstructed informed consent and even mandated a expiermental fake vaccine

      1. People ask me how did I know that the jab was to be avoided.

        “Did you miss the part where it was and still is experimental?”

        That alone is reason enough. Of course there also was:
        – You can’t sur if injured,
        – The adverse effects were not reported, as in the sheet was blank.
        – The coof was not the black death
        – They tried to force almost everyone to get the jab.

        And now, ww have perfectly young and healthy people mysteriously collapsing from heart attacks, and excess deaths are high enough to worry life insurance companies, while the PTB do everything they can to censor that information. Meanwhile Big Pharma is busy creating new variants, for academic reasons, of course

      2. They have totally destroyed the trust in the Pharmacy based Medical system , that will not be easy to restore.
        They are already attempting damage control by Doctors saying that all the other vaccine are good, even if the Covid vaccines were not the greatest.
        Sorry but people will be in fear of all vaccines and meds created by a industry
        that profits by poisons as the model..
        Pharmaceuticals were listed as third cause of death in US, even before Covid. .
        Government giving Big Pharmacy liabilty immunity on vaccines only served to make Big Pharmacy focus on producing a vaccine for everything, while for decades they covered up vaccine damage.
        Than the outrageous release of Covid bio-weapon with Big Pharmacy producing fake poison and killing and injuring millions ,and they think they can gaslight people into not noticing the harm.

        They thought they could censor and black out free speech and control the narrative and get compliance on fake vaccines, which they were sucessful at.
        The net result of the fraud is that the public won’t trust Government or Big Pharmacy .
        Their ridicules narratives are finally breaking down .
        We have a rigged Government and a fake medical system, fake news ,and its corrupted and captured by a enemy force.
        Only a enemy would commit such crimes against world populations.
        And this crazy enemy is screwing around with war and possible necular being unleashed.

        1. Fortunately I have a good doctor. One no was sufficient. He still asks about a flu shot which I used to get. Him I trust. What may be in the vial is a different story. I’ll weigh any injection forever with that in mind.

          2. Just say NO to the flu shot. I somehow survived to age 50 sans flu shots, like most people I know. When I worked in a hospital in the 80’s-90’s they were certainly not mandated, no one asked me about it. Ten years ago age 51, went to annual PCP visit, she noticed my age (I’m suddenly high risk). Offers me a flu shot. I said, “I think I’ve had the flu once or twice in my life and do I really need it? Is it safe?” PCP: “We recommend the flu shot to age 50 and up. It’s very safe, you *might* have mild flu symptoms for a day.” OK. Next year, 2nd flu shot of my life the following year left me with PERMANENT nerve damage in my right brachial plexus affecting my right dominant shoulder, arm, hand/fingers/thumb with debilitating symptoms affecting me 24/7. Got a modest settlement from the VICP which I had never heard of, took 3 years. Neurologist told me “don’t get any more flu shots”.

            No surprise, in 2021 at age 60 I also said HELL NO to the experimental mRNA shots. Got the ‘rona May 2022 from my doubly Fie! Zir injected BF , yeah, we were both sick for several days and felt shitty for a couple of weeks but recovered JUST FINE. He had declined the blue-stir due to a nasty case of herpes zoster, AKA shingles after shot #2. After infection, we had the exact same course of illness. The shots are shiiite.

          3. don’t get any more flu shots

            My dad got the famously disasterous Flu shot in the ’70s. It made him very sick. I noticed. I’ve always said no to that garbage.

        2. @SuzeB
          The shots are shiiite.
          Exactly 👍🏻 Now we have to worry that they’re going to use mRNA in all shots (if they aren’t already.)

          1. Now we have to worry

            The end of the “Emergency” will remove many flows of money. The news cycle may turn on these bashtards.

    3. Seen this one?

      “44-year-old female vegetarian MSNBC host is hospitalized for almost 10 days for heart inflammation, blames everything but the obvious cause
      It was because of a cold, people. A COLD! From the Can’t Make It Up Department”

      https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/44-year-old-female-vegetarian-msnbc

      “She doesn’t eat meat, doesn’t smoke, practices yoga, and until her health scare runs seven miles a day three to four times a week. Aside from working too much (But how can she not? What would her viewers do without her?), she is in perfect shape. Gonna live forever, in the words of Liam Gallagher. Her body is a wonderland.

      Well, it was a wonderland until late December, when Vossoughian had mysterious aches in her chest for 10 days, culminating in chest and shoulder pain so severe that she wound up in the emergency room.

      Where she was diagnosed with pericarditis, which was severe enough that she needed a procedure to drain the fluid from the sac around her heart. She was held for four nights before being discharged.

      But three days after that, she felt a “a butterfly” in her heart – or, less poetically, an arrhythmia – and was hospitalized again, with myocarditis, for five more nights……………

      Anyway, whatever is behind this weird epidemic of myocarditis that put a healthy 44-year-old woman in the hospital for more than week, we can all be relieved to know it is NOT the thing that rhymes with “shmaxseen.”

      Whew!

      I was worried there for a minute.”

      1. She is one of Upton Sinclair’s proverbial men: She won’t understand that it’s the jab because her paycheck depends on her not understanding it was the jab.

      2. As a former hospital nurse still working in the medical field for almost 40 years, that was one of the weirdest pieces of medical propaganda I’ve seen thus far. Ok, the last 3 years has been endless propaganda. But thank you lawd, it all ends on May 11th cuz some guy said so!

  18. 𝗗𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗮𝘀, 𝗧𝗫 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗖𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟭% 𝗬𝗢𝗬 𝗔𝘀 𝗕𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗕𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗢𝗳 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀

    https://www.movoto.com/dallas-tx/market-trends/

    𝘈𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥, “𝘈 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘥𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶.”

  19. “The San Francisco and San Jose metropolitan areas have the lowest office occupancy rates among the top-10 biggest metros in the country, with San Francisco sitting at just 20.8% according to badge swipe data from Kastle Security. By comparison, an average of 32.8% of office space is occupied among the 10 largest metro areas, which includes the two Bay Area cities as well as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Austin.”

    It’s a commrrcial real estate wipeout. Who is holding the bag?

  20. – The (very predictable) RRE crater continues apace…

    —

    A report from Wicked Local. “The Massachusetts residential real estate market is correcting for past excesses.”

    “‘The real estate market is slowing down. Competition is reduced. Bidding wars and offers over asking price are a thing of the past,’ said Warren.”

    In Maricopa in Arizona. “In the past, describing the Maricopa real estate market in a few words was easy. This past year was different, though, because the market made a huge shift in the middle of the year from ‘many buyers, minimal homes’ to ‘minimal buyers, many homes.’”

    CBS Los Angeles. “Southern California’s super red-hot housing market has started to cool in the past year. Across the Southland, home prices have been falling as interest rates have been climbing.”

    —

    h/t: Aaron Layman:

    “…It is equally beyond doubt, that every speculative mania which has run its course of folly and disaster in this country has derived its original impulse from cheap money.”

    The Economist 1858

    —

    https://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2023/01/heres-how-prosperity-ends-global.html

    Sunday, January 29, 2023
    Here’s How “Prosperity” Ends: Global Bubbles Are Popping

    So here we are: the global credit-asset bubbles are popping, and the illusory “prosperity” generated by the bubbles is about to tumble off a cliff.

    There are two kinds of prosperity, one fake, one real. Bogus “prosperity” depends on credit-asset bubbles inflating, magically creating “wealth” not from labor, production or improving productivity, but from the value of assets soaring as bubbles inflate.

    This bubble-generated “wealth” then fuels a vast expansion of credit and consumption as assets soaring in value increases the collateral available to borrow against, and the occasional sale of soaring assets generate capital gains, stock options, etc. which then fund sharply higher consumption.

    When the value of a modest home skyrockets from $200,000 to $1,000,000 in a few years, that $800,000 in gain was not the result of any improvement in utility. The house provides the same shelter it did when it was worth 20% of its current value. The $800,000 is gain is the result of the abundance of low-cost credit and the global search for a yield above zero.

    Eventually, this vast expansion of “money” chasing yields and seeking places to park all the excess cash trickles into the real economy and the result is inflationary. Consider how soaring home prices affect rents.

    When an investor bought the modest home for $200,000, the costs of ownership were low due to the costs being linked to the value: the property tax, insurance and mortgage were all based on the valuation. (The costs of maintenance were unrelated to valuation, of course, being based on the age and quality of construction.) Let’s say the modest house rents for $1,500 per month.

    The investor who buys the modest home for $1 million has much higher costs, even if they bought the property with cash and din’t need to borrow money (i.e. obtain a mortgage). The property taxes and insurance are much higher, and the comparable market rent of similar houses reflects the expected yield on investing $1 million: if investors expect a 3% yield after all expenses, then the rents have to rise so the investor/owner nets $30,000 annually.

    Due to the valuation increasing in a bubble, the rent is now $4,500 per month, even though the house hasn’t materially gained any utility at all. The rent has to be high to justify the purchase price of $1 million.

    This is why all credit-asset bubbles are self-liquidating: once the cost of credit drops to near-zero, there’s no discipline left: any loan for any investment can be justified by the “guaranteed” increase in value / collateral. Since everything will rise in value, then it makes sense to leverage up as much debt as possible to gain control of as many assets as possible, as the means to maximize gain.

    This leads to marginal borrowers over-extending, borrowing more than is prudent.

    All this nearly free money sloshing around seeps into the real economy, jacking up prices (such as rents) without increasing the production of goods and services or improving productivity. Costs rise solely as a result of the bubble, pressuring wage earners and enterprises.

    Central banks are eventually forced to raise interest rates and reduce credit expansion to put the brakes on the bubble’s inevitable offspring, an inflationary spiral. Once credit is no longer expanding rapidly, the air starts leaking out of the asset bubbles. Marginal borrowers can no longer roll over their debt based on ever-higher collateral (as valuations rise, so does the collateral to support new loans) and default become inevitable once markets tighten.

    For example, those willing and able to pay outrageous rents thin out, and commercial / residential properties are vacant, generating zero income.

    But inflation generated by bubbles is “sticky.” Landlords are reluctant to drop rents, as they’ve been trained by central bank bailouts and decades of easy money/credit to expect a prompt resumption of the bubble’s expansion. This mentality permeates the entire economy.

    Once valuations stop rising like clockwork, the bubble “prosperity’ is revealed as illusory. All the “wealth” was illusory; it wasn’t generated by improvements in productivity or the production of more goods and services; it was all based on soaring valuations driven by cheap, abundant credit and the bubble-mentality faith that bubbles never pop and so the “wealth” created by soaring stocks, bonds, collectibles and real estate would only continue expanding forever.

    The inflation generated by bubbles remains as collateral crashes and credit expansion reverses into contraction. Suddenly, there’s fewer greater fools willing to pay bubble prices for assets. The smart money sold long ago, but the not-so-dumb money finally awakens to the potential downside of bubbles popping: rather than reaping huge gains, assets might become illiquid (i.e. there are no buyers at any price) or valuations might fall faster than anyone believed possible in the heady bubblicious decades.

    Bubbles liquidate the illusory “wealth” they generated when they pop, and then the bogus “prosperity” dissipates into the air from whence it came. The only source of real prosperity in improvements in productivity which generate more goods and services with fewer inputs of capital, labor, materials and energy.

    So here we are: the global credit-asset bubbles are popping, and the illusory “prosperity” generated by the bubbles is about to tumble off a cliff. The $20,000 week at the posh resort was fun, as was the $80 lunch for two (two avocado toast and two beverages), but it was all fake, phony, a fraud: jacking the valuation of a bungalow five-fold doesn’t actually improve productivity or create any new goods and services. It jacked up prices and property taxes, but it didn’t actually create any real wealth.

    It’s a long way to the bottom, but it won’t take as long as many seem to think.

    – How’s that “wealth effect workin’ out for ya?

    1. There are two kinds of prosperity, one fake, one real. Bogus “prosperity” depends on credit-asset bubbles inflating, magically creating “wealth” not from labor, production or improving productivity,

      Working is for losers. Winnahs are rent seekers and speculators, until they stop being winnahs.

    2. But inflation generated by bubbles is “sticky.” Landlords are reluctant to drop rents, as they’ve been trained by central bank bailouts and decades of easy money/credit to expect a prompt resumption of the bubble’s expansion. This mentality permeates the entire economy.

      We see this happening right now. Take used cars, for instance. Even though prices are down 15% from the peak, a quick glance on Craigslist or any used car site shows asking prices haven’t budged. In fact, some people are asking more than ever. It takes a LONG time for reality to set in.

  21. Is it a bad sign for stocks to be falling the first day of a Fed meeting? A few years ago, it seems like the market always went up on Fed meeting days.

    1. Updated Mon, Jan 30 2023 10:47 AM EST
      S&P 500 slides as traders brace for a busy week of earnings, Fed rate decision
      Sarah Min
      Jesse Pound
      I’d be shocked if Fed did anything other than 25 bps hike, says Mohamed El-Erian

      The S&P 500 traded lower Monday amid a January rally as investors braced for the busiest week of earnings season and a possible interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve.

      The broader market index fell about 0.9%, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped by nearly 1.7%. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 75 points, or about 0.2%.
      …
      https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/29/stock-market-news-live-updates-futures-open-to-close.html

      1. “I’d be shocked if Fed did anything other than 25 bps hike, says ”

        It seems like Wall Street has pinned the Fed to the mat.

    3. The Financial Times
      Federal Reserve
      Federal Reserve set to signal plans to keep raising rates even as inflation eases
      US central bank officials expected to shift down to quarter-point rise at first gathering of the year
      Exterior of the Federal Reserve building
      The slowing of the pace of rate rises comes as the Fed has repeatedly raised the federal funds rate by unusually large increments in a bid to tame spiralling prices
      Colby Smith in Washington
      10 hours ago

      The Federal Reserve is this week set to signal it will press ahead with its campaign of interest rate rises, even as it slows the pace of increases amid signs inflation has peaked.

      Policymakers at the US central bank are expected to implement a quarter-point increase at their first gathering of the year, lifting the fed funds rate to a new target range of 4.50 per cent to 4.75 per cent.

      The Fed previously raised the federal funds rate by unusually large increments — including four consecutive 0.75 percentage point rises last year — in an attempt to tame spiralling prices. At its previous meeting in December, it opted for a half-point increase.

      However, lingering scepticism about how quickly inflation will keep falling has put pressure on the central bank to maintain a hawkish stance to ward off speculation that it plans to pause its monetary tightening campaign imminently.

      “I expect the step down to a 25-basis-point rate hike to come with ‘we have more work to do’ language,” said Jonathan Pingle, a former Fed economist now at UBS. “This is going to be a meeting where they’re going to try not to be too dovish.”
      …

  22. Any thoughts on why Californians have stopped having children? Between low birth rates, low immigration, and massive outmigration of wealthy people, it seems like the state is in a demographic doom loop.

    1. January 26, 2023
      California’s Plunging Birth Rates
      Mother Kissing Forehead of Baby in Her Arms
      Hans Johnson

      California’s birth rate has reached near-record lows, contributing to a slowdown in the state’s population growth and portending decades of slow growth to come. What is—and is not—driving the state’s lower birth rates?

      California’s birth rate (births per 1,000 residents) is at its lowest level in more than 100 years. The number of births has fallen from a peak in 1992 of 613,000 to 420,000 in 2021 (2022 is on track to be similar to 2021).

      Moreover, California’s total fertility rate (the number of births a woman will have in her lifetime) is now the lowest since records have been kept. A rate of 2.1 children per woman is necessary to maintain a population at its current level (immigration and migration aside). California and the nation had fertility rates near population replacement levels in 2008, but every state falls below those levels today. California has fallen faster than most, dropping from 2.15 to 1.52—that’s from 17th highest to 43rd highest. California’s decline is just behind Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Idaho. The lightly populated upper plains states (the Dakotas and Nebraska) now have the highest fertility rates in the country.
      …
      https://www.ppic.org/blog/californias-plunging-birth-rates/

      1. “California’s decline is just behind Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Idaho. The lightly populated upper plains states (the Dakotas and Nebraska) now have the highest fertility rates in the country.”

        Maybe it’s just coincidental that fertility rates plummeted in states where an influx of investors loaded with Wall Street money drove housing prices through the roof?

          1. Dumb luck idiots selling to fools who then sell to knife catching morons who will be engaged in jingle mail when all of the above parties are broke and destitute and 30% underwater.

        2. I left Utah last year. We plan to get pregnant in the next 18 months back east of the Mississippi. It’s nice to live somewhere that isn’t just empty investments. I didn’t have neighbors my last year in Utah. The houses kept changing hands though!

          1. No offense, my pet peeve, but I hate that “we” chit. Way back, I had to have an amniocentesis (involves an extremely long needle pushed through the abdomen, all the way into the uterus.) Beforehand, my husband’s giddiness and excitement really got on my nerves. While lying there, about to be impaled like a bug on a board, I directed a few choice words at him. No “we” involved. As the saying goes, if men could have children, everyone would be an only child 😂

          3. FWIW, there’s another side to that. Back in the day and even today, some young hornball would seduce a girl, knock her up (oops) and then blame it on her because it was ALL HER fault that “she” got pregnant, and run off, leaving her with the baby. The result is either mass abortion or fatherless homes, neither being ideal.

            At least with “we,” the father is acknowledging that he got the woman pregnant as is agreeing to stick around to raise the baby. Still not great. Perhaps the better phrase is that “we plan to raise a child” or “we want to be parents” or something similar.

          4. 😔 My point, which I thought was plain, is that the physical toll of pregnancy is solely on the woman. There’s no “we” in that. Also, no disrespect here – I was only commenting on my husband’s momentary cluelessness. He was being annoying as hell, oblivious to my being scared.

          6. some young hornball would seduce a girl

            Course, nothing about the slip-n-slide going on between her legs causing her to open them as wide as the Grand Canyon. I thought we were all about equity these days?

          7. Great anecdote that backs my conjecture. Thanks!

            The Chinese and US birth dearths aren’t that different. The Housing Bubble was a major factor in both situations.

          9. ‘I hate that “we” chit.’

            If you don’t adopt or use artificial insemination, there is definitely a “we” aspect…God’s plan.

          12. You guys are touchy 😆

            Gonna be honest – there’s a war on white men going on that I’m really fookin’ tired of.

          14. Not from me. My family’s full of ’em.

            For what it’s worth there plenty of white people, male and female, who are happy to wage the war on white men.

          15. Ah, self-loathing wypipo. Nope, none here.

            To recap, I was saying I had a pet peeve about what I feel is the incorrect usage of “we” in regard to pregnancy.

            In this instance, I was about to be in pain, my husband was not. He was happy. I objected to his good mood (okay, not nice.) The pain/discomfort felt by solely by women during those nine months is why I don’t think “we” are pregnant. Note, no medal wanted or needed. That’s all, no biggie. You can, nobody’s stopping you. I will, however, roll my eyes behind your back, sneaky bitch that I am.

            In addition, I never mentioned men in general, white men, devoted fathers, or easy wimmen – you all brought that in.

            Sheesh.

          17. My point, which I thought was plain

            Yeah, Mila Kunis said the same thing. But which would you rather have:
            1. “I only got that beeyotch once and now she’s gone got herself preggo”
            2. “We are pregnant and very happy to be parents together, we’re so excited!”

          19. In addition, I never mentioned men in general, white men, devoted fathers, or easy wimmen – you all brought that in.

            Sheesh.

            Hi Tarara. My replies had nothing to do with you. The horndog comment kind or rubbed me the wrong way. It’s the equivalent of a guy coming on here and complaining about all the “sluts” who are getting pregnant. Just bad form, in my opinion.

            As I mentioned, there is not only a war on white men going on, but a war on men in general. Terms like “toxic masculinity” and other stuff irritate me. They’re trying to emasculate men, and I won’t go quietly. I don’t subscribe to any of it. But again, nothing to do with your comments. Cheers.

          21. “I was engaged in something much more unpleasant than espionage. I was engaged in ideological subversion, which is seldom explained to people by your media, because the media is part of that process.”

            I met the man. Had lunch with him.

          22. Wow, that must have been amazing 🤯

            After I first saw the interview where he laid it all out, I looked around and no one seems to know where he went.

      2. There is an attitude, which has been steadily growing over the past few decades, that having children is an impediment to your happiness. Add to that a horrific cost of living, the fact that most marriages will fail and crippling child support payments are a fixture for years, and that the PTB are trying to harm all children and it’s not surprising that only two demographics are still having children: the upper middle class, whose children are born in wedlock, and the Free Sh!t Army, whose children are born out of wedlock.

        1. Having children has made my life so much more joyful that I could have ever thought possible. Now the worry is a different story. I probably pray more rosaries for them now at 30+ than I ever did before,

    2. “Any thoughts on why Californians have stopped having children?”

      You’ve got 20 million “Californians” having tons of kids. ?Comprendes mendez?

      1. Per the stats even they have been cutting back. Also, IIRC, Mexico itself has dropped below the replacement rate.

        1. According to the stats people there are only 10 million illegals in the entire country. I bet there are that many in southern California- and the “experts” are deliberately lying about it, which would obviously include their birth rates as well. Go drive by any public school in LAUSD- those schools are chock full, without a white kid in sight.

          1. There is no doubt that the bulk of births in Clown Land are Hispanics. But LAUSD is closing schools. The upper middle class does not send their kids to LAUSD.

          2. According to the stats people there are only 10 million illegals in the entire country

            That’s per the gooberment. Live births are harder to fudge. If Hispanics were reproducing like bunnies as some think, the total births would be rising, not falling.

          3. That number has been 10 to 11 million since the 1986 amnesty. Look it up. It’s probably closer to 100 million at this point.

            Last I saw something like 50% of Kali is “hispanic”. I kinda doubt most of them are from Spain or Portugal.

          4. Last I saw something like 50% of Kali is “hispanic”. I kinda doubt most of them are from Spain or Portugal.

            It suppose it sounds better than mestizo.

        2. Mexicans stopped coming to the US illegally a decade ago, at least on my side of the Mississippi. For us it’s ALL Central American, and now South American.

          1. “It’s probably closer to 100 million at this point.”

            I agree. Processing green card to this many people, that’s the business I want to be in.

          2. For us it’s ALL Central American, and now South American.

            The great Hispanic divide. Spanish language TV in the US (Univision, Telemundo, etc.) is accused of only catering to Mexicans. If there is a soccer match, it will likely be either the Mexican national team or Mexican league teams playing. No Central or South American futbol is broadcast. All the soaps are Mexican. The one major standout was Sabado Gigante, which was brought from Chile to the US, and which made a point of trying to cater to non Mexicans. It ended in 2015

  23. “‘There were multiple offers on every home last year,’ said Lo Grande. ‘That is still the case now but very rare.’”

    So which is it, you relitter you—“every” and “rare” are pretty much exact opposites, not “still the case”

  24. “‘The inventory is super low right now,’ said Dana Point realtor Gaetano Lo Grande. ‘There were multiple offers on every home last year,’ said Lo Grande. ‘That is still the case now but very rare.’”

    With prices falling at double digit annual rates and buyers on the sidelines, it doesn’t seem like those low inventories will last. Panic and capitulation normally follow in the wake of a crash.

    ‘If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.’

    — Herbert Stein

  25. Does it seem strange that imaginary online sports trading cards became entangled with imaginary online money?

    1. The Financial Times
      Premier League
      Premier League backs Sorare’s NFT fantasy football game despite crypto crash
      League agrees multimillion-pound licensing deal with start-up that offers trading in digital player cards
      Manchester City and Arsenal in action on Friday. Sorare’s users will be able to collect and trade digital cards representing players from all 20 English top-tier teams
      Tim Bradshaw and Samuel Agini in London 4 hours ago

      The English Premier League has struck a multimillion-pound deal with Sorare, the blockchain-based fantasy sports game, as the world’s most popular football league bets that trading in digital collectibles will survive beyond the current crypto slump.

      Paris-based Sorare — which is backed by star players including Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi — announced a four-year licensing contract with the Premier League on Monday. Users will be able to collect and trade digital cards representing players from all 20 English top-tier teams and use them in its fantasy football game.

      Sorare will pay the Premier League tens of millions of pounds a year to secure the rights, according to people familiar with the agreement, with each year’s final payment dependent on performance.
      …

      1. “…blockchain-based fantasy sports…”

        I suppose it is the miracle of the blockchain which explains the link between fantasy sports and imaginary money?

        Both seem to provide excellent opportunities to pour your real money down a rathole.

        1. I recall when fantasy sports was a thing dudes did for fun. Now it too has been monetized. And what’s with all the betting apps being advertised both on TeeVee and the internet?

          1. I guarantee that the online sport betting ads have been worse in Maryland. Voters just legalized sports betting in the 2022 mid-term election and the apps went live last November. So all the sportsbook companies are ramping up their new customer base. Colorado went live in May 2020.

        2. Mattel now proudly offers NFT Hot Wheels. You can get a ‘pack’ of them for a premium and if you are extra lucky you will get one that can be redeemed for a real car that normally retails for a dollar. Mattel has become very skilled in extracting the most money possible from their fans while remaining highly competitive at volume sales. It never ceases to amaze me what people will splurge on.

    1. Short Sellers Feel the Pain in Stock Market’s 2023 Rally
      Highly shorted shares are beating the S&P 500 this year, and short sellers are down by $81 billion
      Some of the stocks that got crushed in 2022 have surged this year. Photo: ANDREW KELLY/REUTERS
      By Jack Pitcher
      and Akane Otani
      Jan. 29, 2023 5:30 am ET

      The market’s comeback in 2023 has been very bad news for one group: short sellers.

      Short sellers profit from stock declines by borrowing shares of companies that they believe are overvalued, selling them, and then buying them back at a lower price later. They made huge gains in 2022, when markets around the world tumbled.
      …
      https://www.wsj.com/articles/short-sellers-feel-the-pain-in-stock-markets-2023-rally-11674943473

      3. It appears that Mr. Market is worried the next Fed hike won’t be small.

        A 1/2 percent decline on the DOW is statistical noise. 5%+ down would be “worry.”

  27. $14 trillion is that a lot?

    https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/28/reparations-owed-to-black-americans-william-darity-kirsten-mullen.html

    The “cracker” stereotype is pushed for a reason, always some Scotch-Irish brandishing a whip.

    Who were the “merchants” that owned and ran all the slave auction houses, the ones who took all the profits?

    Oh wait, let’s not talk about that.

    Note that Lehman Brothers (remember them?) started in business as cotton merchants, profiting directly from the misery and exploitation of slavery and the sharecropper system.

    #Noticing

    1. Reparations. Freedom and equality aren’t gifts enough. Some want nothing less than Mastery. Human nature.

    2. Experts suggest taxing the rich — or offering tax breaks for donations — to pay direct reparations to Black descendants of slaves in the Golden State, or offering tax credits to all residents with below-median wealth”

      Tax Nancy Pelosi and her nephew Gavin Newsom

      1. “Wherever any possible compensation comes from, Brown, the tax professor and author, had two key suggestions for the task force. First, she said reparations should not be treated as taxable income, citing precedent such as tax-free treatment of Holocaust payments, and Japanese-Americans who received compensation because of their mass incarceration during World War II. And her second suggestion was that Black Americans should not have to pay for their own reparations, which she said “would be entirely inconsistent with the intent and spirit of the
        task force’s goals.”

        1. And her second suggestion was that Black Americans should not have to pay for their own reparations

          A lot of people are going to do a Donna Dolezal.

      3. Experts suggest taxing the rich — or offering tax breaks for donations — to pay direct reparations to Black descendants of slaves in the Golden State

        Now I know why Larry Ellison high tailed out of Clown Land.

  28. – Apparently there’s a narrative floating around in real estate la la land that “the bottom is in” and now’s the time to snap up some good RRE deals, or so they say…

    “Who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?” – Groucho Marx (?)

    —

    EconomicWoes 🦁 @ManyBeenRinsed

    Holy mother of Heavenly lawwwwd di mercy …

    They told us the market is back?!!

    Folks … you’ve been lied to.

    Image
    10:04 AM · Jan 30, 2023 · 2,809 Views

    —

    Amy Nixon
    @texasrunnerDFW
    “Home buyers and sellers have adjusted expectations. What once seemed high now seems like sort of a deal”

    NO. IT DOES NOT SEEM LIKE A DEAL

    *Also, the footnote under the illustration ☠️

    Image
    7:00 AM · Jan 30, 2023 · 8,607 Views

    —

    – Caveat emptor. With RRE valuations only starting to fall and still remaining in the stratosphere, it hardly seems like “a good time to buy.” Let’s check back in the spring. Right now seller’s are loathe to sell at lower prices than their “wish” price, which was last year.
    – Rates up by 2x on top of already astronomical prices. 3% rates aren’t coming back. Wages aren’t going to 2x from here. Therefore, house prices will have to continue to fall. I can afford to wait, not wanting to catch a falling knife, but to each his/her own…

    —

    Mac10
    @SuburbanDrone
    Housing affordability =
    Median wage – (cost of house * interest rate), as %

    The cost of everything sky-rocketed, the Fed raised rates, and they lived happily ever after.

    Image
    8:26 AM · Jan 30, 2023 · 6,954 Views

    —

    “This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.” – Morpheus, The Matrix, 1999

    “During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” – George Orwell

    “The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable…” – H.L. Mencken, Prejudices: Third Series

    1. Apparently there’s a narrative floating around in real estate la la land that “the bottom is in” and now’s the time to snap up some good RRE deals, or so they say…

      The FED is going to do their best to drag the duration of the bust out for as long as possible, rather than allow everything to crash back to earth quickly.

        1. I disagree, butters. They know exactly what they’re doing, which is inflicting maximum pain on those most hurt by inflation.

          2. “inflicting maximum pain on those most hurt by inflation.”

            That’s the Pedocrat Party way. They pander about “the poor!” yet it’s the poor that suffer the most with their minimum wage/prevailing rate BS. It’s always about wages… never about prices.

            Shameful.

    1. a strong majority of those people on food stamps will never plan ahead of anything. 3 weeks and 1 day to mass outrage “wuh happened to my free gibs???????????”

      1. According to USDA data, the average monthly per-person benefit was $129.83 in 2019. It increased by 78 percent to $230.88 in 2022.

        So what was the rational behind bumping SNAP benefits 78% during Covid, along with all the other free cheese? I mean other than growing the dependency class?

  32. Russia Today — Moscow provides more evidence of US biolabs in Ukraine (1/30/2023):

    “Russia’s Defense Ministry on Monday laid out more evidence that US-funded laboratories were working in Ukraine. Documents and materials recovered by Russian troops showed that Western pharmaceutical companies operating in territory under Kiev’s control conducted HIV/AIDS research on Ukrainian military personnel.

    The commander of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense Forces, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, presented Ukrainian-language documents referring to HIV infection studies that began in 2019. The list of targeted groups shows service members alongside prisoners, drug addicts and other “patients at high risk of infection.”

    According to Kirillov, the Russian military has recovered more than 20,000 documents and other materials related to the biological programs in Ukraine, while interviewing eyewitnesses and participants. The evidence “confirms the focus of the Pentagon on creating biological weapons components and testing them on the population of Ukraine and other states along [Russia’s] borders,” the general told reporters.

    Based on documents originating with the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), the Russian military identified eight more individuals involved in the US-funded research in Ukraine. Among the names Kirillov singled out was Karen Saylors of Labyrinth Global Health, previously of Metabiota, a company linked to US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter.”

    https://www.rt.com/russia/570714-russia-ukraine-pentagon-biolabs/

    Keep paying those federal income taxes, slaves.

  33. ‘Many are completed or nearly completed, and may have been started for a different buyer, who never finished the transaction’

    That’s the spirit!

          1. Song for Yoel Roth. BTW, Yoel Roth where are you?

            They sure scrubbed your existence from the internet rather quickly, didn’t they now, Mr. Former Head Of Trust And Safety at Twitter. It’s all so peculiar how you have disappeared.

            Rep. Jim Jordan will be calling you before Congress soon, Yoel Roth. You’ll be dragged out of whatever hole (pun intended) you’ve been hiding in, Yoel Roth.

            Rolling Stones — Fingerprint File:

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_M6lccMzek

  35. Lots of stars dying today
    Lisa Loring, Wednesday Addams in ‘The Addams Family,’ Dies at 64
    ‘Laverne & Shirley’ actor Cindy Williams dies at 75

  36. Remember #ThanksPfizer last week?

    SLANDERED AND BULLIED
    VACCINE INJURED MOM FIGHTS BACK

    Desselle’s tweet quickly triggered 67 million interactions and even sparked the creation of a meme, “Thanks Pfizer”, which mocked her and accused her of faking her injuries. One outrageous commenter went as far as claiming that she was about to be “arrested for wire fraud due to a go-fund-me.”

    But perhaps the most troublesome response that day was from Alex Berenson, a former New York Times reporter turned substacker, who many consider to be a leader in the medical freedom movement.

    Rolling Stone, Forbes, along with the Daily Mail, one of the most read online publications in the world, wrote articles about Angelia and her “fake injury.”

    Rolling Stone, Forbes and the Daily Mail have committed libel and need to retract their stories. This 47-year-old woman suffers from ongoing severe health problems confirmed by her doctor, directly correlated to the Covid-19 injection. What has happened to the state of journalism when it leads the way in ridiculing those simply sharing their story? Where is the humanity?

    1. Sell the Rally, Says Morgan Stanley. Markets Are Fighting the Fed.
      By Jacob Sonenshine
      Updated Jan. 30, 2023 3:50 pm ET / Original Jan. 30, 2023 1:39 pm ET

      The stock market has rallied on hopes the Federal Reserve will soon pause its interest rate increases. That is a good reason to sell, said Morgan Stanley’s (MS –0.13%) chief U.S. equity strategist Mike Wilson.

      The S&P 500 (SPX –1.30%) has started off the year in the green, contributing to a roughly 13% gain from the low point of its bear market hit in early October. Since then, the rate of inflation has declined, fueling hopes the Fed can pause lifting interest rates after its expected quarter-point increase in the federal-funds rate this week.
      …
      https://www.barrons.com/articles/market-rally-sell-federal-reserve-51675103902

    2. Markets
      Published January 30, 2023 4:21pm EST
      Don’t buy the stock market rally, Morgan Stanley warns: ‘Another bear-market trap’
      Morgan Stanley reminds investors of key rule: ‘Don’t fight the Fed’
      By Megan Henney FOXBusiness
      Opimas, LLC founder and CEO Octavio Marenzi reacts to the Biden administration downplaying the risk of a U.S. recession on ‘Varney & Co.’
      Markets could plunge another 10-15% in 2023: Octavio Marenzi

      The surprising rally in the U.S. stock market at the start of 2023 is likely to fizzle as the Federal Reserve prepares to defy investor hopes and lift interest rates for the eighth consecutive time, according to Morgan Stanley.
      …
      https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/dont-buy-stock-market-rally-morgan-stanley-warns-bear-market-trap

  39. Does it seem like the cryptobois assume there is always another future rally in store that will take imaginary currencies to orders of magnitude above today’s price?

    I have a Beanie Baby who stares at me all day from a corner of my office that suggests they may be wrong: Sometimes, fundamentally worthless assets drop all the way to $0, never to recover.

    1. The Financial Times
      ETF Hub Exchange traded funds
      Crypto ETFs roar into life with eye-popping 2023 returns
      Rebound has extended to tech funds such as ARKK, which has risen 25% this year
      Steve Johnson January 29 2023
      A swarm of cryptocurrency-focused equity exchange traded funds have enjoyed astonishing starts to 2023, chalking up sharp gains rarely seen by diversified stock funds.

      The $3.9mn Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI) has led the way with a 101 per cent return since the turn of the year, but a flock of rival funds have also chalked up gains of between 40 and 80 per cent.

      Most of these ETFs are still well below water for longer term investors, having been pummelled by last year’s “crypto winter” and the broader sell-off in technology stocks, but the nascent rally does point to the niche sector’s ability to bounce back owing to its inherent volatility.

      The partial recovery has also been echoed, albeit in a more modest fashion, by some technology funds, such as the Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK). It has risen 25 per cent so far this year, putting it on track to potentially record its strongest monthly return ever, having plummeted 75 per cent during the course of 2021 and 2022.

      “If you were convinced two years ago by the Ark story, technology is now on sale,” said Kenneth Lamont, senior fund analyst for passive strategies at Morningstar.

      The recovery in crypto ETFs has been propelled by putative signs of life in the cryptocurrency market, with bitcoin having rallied 38 per cent by January 27 to $22,900, after an unusually lengthy period of rangebound trading, having cratered from an all-time high of nearly $70,000 in November 2021. Solana, a smaller digital token, has jumped by 145 per cent.
      Line chart of Year-to-date performance, rebased showing Crypto equity ETFs rebound in January

      This rebound has largely been attributed to signs that inflation might have peaked, particularly in the US, potentially allowing global interest rates to peak at lower levels and paving the way for more “risk-on” investment strategies.

      “These were some of, if not the, worst performing ETFs in 2022, so they can bounce back sharply, in part, because bitcoin and other cryptos themselves have bounced back,” said Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi.

      “This is why people invest in crypto,” said Lamont. “For many of the investors who invest in crypto, it’s effectively high stakes gambling. It’s high risk and potentially high reward.”
      …

      1. “For many of the investors who invest in crypto, it’s effectively high stakes gambling. It’s high risk and potentially high reward.”

        If investors in crypto admit it amounts to no more than high stakes gambling in a Ponzi scheme that may collapse any day, it’s their prerogative to gamble. Just spare the rest of us the blah-blah-blah about the blockchain and effectve altruism, and don’t pander for bailouts if you lose all of your investment.

    2. Opinion: Cryptocurrency might be the greatest Ponzi scheme of all time
      Robert Park
      Opinion contributor
      FILE – An advertisement for Bitcoin cryptocurrency is displayed on a street in Hong Kong, on Feb. 17, 2022. The Bank of England warns that recent crypto-asset meltdowns that wiped out more then $2 trillion in value highlight the need for tougher financial regulations. Britain’s central bank said Tuesday, July 5 that the crashes exposed vulnerabilities in the crypto markets reminiscent of previous bouts of financial turmoil. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

      The seemingly limitless innovations that are springing out of information technology have created enormous opportunities for all kinds of predatory behavior uninhibited by social regulation. Cryptocurrencies are one of the leading contestants in this competition. Crypto is a Ponzi scheme. It’s the IT version of what Bernie Madoff did in a mutual fund fraud in New York City in the 1980s and ‘90s, which was the greatest Ponzi scheme of all time − until now.

      Crypto coin platforms take in money when people buy the virtual “coins,” and if enough people keep buying them, the value of the coin goes up. In the simple crypto cases, the money just sits there, it’s not invested in any activities that generate income or profit, and people can sell their coins at a profit only if more and more people are still buying the coins.

      If lots of people are buying, the coin value goes up dramatically, and the people that cash-out while that’s happening make a bundle. But if new buying starts to fall off − partly because the bit-coin gamers know the game is approaching its tipping point − then eventually the cash reserves and coin values fall to the point where people cashing out get less than they have put in. At that point, everyone else panics and cashes out at as fast as possible (it’s not that easy to sell crypto coins fast) and a lot of coin holders get hit hard; eventually coins crash into bankruptcy.
      …
      https://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/contributors/2023/01/29/opinion-cryptocurrency-might-be-the-greatest-ponzi-scheme-of-all-time/69836392007/

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