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There’s Just Not Enough Cake For Everyone

It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Realtor Josh Altman joins Yahoo Finance Live to explain the Los Angeles ‘Mansion Tax.’ If people think they were not going to be affected because they don’t have homes that are worth more than 5 million, I promise you, they are going to be affected because their houses, too, are going to go down in price. The issue is, these people that have bought houses two years ago and for some reason, they want to sell their house now, not only are they going to be down because the market’s down, but now they have to cut that 4% and 5 and 1/2% check out of their pocket, off of their loss. How crazy is that?”

“In LA, minus a couple of parts like Beverly Hills and Malibu, there is a lot of fear. It’s already been done in Santa Monica. Even in our office down south in Newport Beach, they’re getting worried that this is going to go down there as well. So it’s going to affect across the board.”

“How would you describe the Houston market right now? LaTisha Grant is the executive managing broker at TAS Realty Group in Houston: We are at a very interesting point where prices are starting to decline and buyers are now getting back into the market in many of our areas. I have a buyer that’s been approved for $195,000. Now, had this been six months ago, we would not have even been able to find her a home. But I’ve had the opportunity here recently to show her 10 homes, several of which have been on the market for about 60 days. It has drastically changed. For the buyer, it’s drastically changed for the better. For the sellers, it is not so much changed for the better. Now they’re having to deal with, ‘Oh my goodness, we have to actually entertain doing repairs, we have to entertain, maybe, paying buyers’ closing costs.'”

“Angela Romero received an email last week from Airbnb alerting her to a subpoena the company had received from the City of Philadelphia about her short-term rental properties. ‘We’re all freaking out. No one knows what’s happening,’ said Romero, after checking in on Facebook pages and group chats where hosts gather. ‘We have no context. We don’t know anything about it. Everyone’s in the dark.’ She’s no longer making money off of her short-term rental business and is looking for a job. ‘It’s been a nightmare trying to get the zoning permit,’ Romero said. ‘They shut down my business, and that’s what I’ve lived off of. I mean, it’s rough. It’s really rough.'”

“The swift collapse of Silicon Valley Bank earlier in March put a spotlight on potentially painful losses lurking at banks from trillions of dollars in commercial-real-estate loans on their books. The sale of $72 billion in assets from the failed Silicon Valley Bank by regulators at a $16.5 billion discount, which pencils out to about 77 cents on the dollar, offers a glimpse into a new clearing price for commercial-real-estate loans. ‘What everybody has been operating under is this hold-to-maturity veneer,’ David Blatt, chief executive at CapStack Partners said of banks that have continued to value loans at 100 cents on the dollar, or par. ‘There’s just no way these things get resolved at par,’ Blatt said. With the discounted sale of Silicon Valley assets, ‘the write-down is kind of implied.'”

“Domenic Gatto Jr., the embattled developer of the Banyan Cay Resort in West Palm Beach, is waving the white flag. On Wednesday, Gatto’s development entity for the hotel-anchored mixed-use project filed for Chapter 11 reorganization, with a plan to sell the 200-acre property to pay off debtors. The development entity also owns adjacent development sites that are approved for 179 condo units, 28 single-family homes and 22 villas.”

“The life sciences industry is now facing a sharp slowdown in demand as biotech firms grapple with economic pain. Developers in the industry’s largest hub, Boston and Cambridge, say they are having a hard time leasing their buildings as growth has begun to drop off in recent months, executives said. Boston life sciences companies laid off more than 3,000 people last year, putting downward pressure on lab demand at the same time that the market also saw its largest increase in inventory, with 6.2M SF coming online. ‘The days of shooting fish in a barrel are over,’ said Related Beal’s Stephen Faber.”

“Private real estate firm Laurus Corporation and Torchlight Investors have sold a roughly 250,000-square-foot mall named HHLA for about $30 million less than what they paid for it in 2015, The Real Deal has learned. The firms sold the West L.A. property, formerly known as The Promenade at Howard Hughes Center, for about $80 million, or about $320 a square foot, according to a source familiar with the deal. Laurus and Torchlight bought HHLA for $111 million in 2015, records show, or about $444 a square foot. The duo spent a further $35 million to renovate the building and add outdoor areas.”

“The number of mortgage defaults aren’t high, but the size of them challenge the GDP of small countries. Adam Slater, lead economist at Oxford Economics, makes mention of the PIMCO-controlled US$1.7 billion Columbia Property Trust default as one massive example. Lloyds Bank in the UK selling a defaulted property at 40% below its 2014-purchase price also makes the list of panic inducing defaults. Then there’s Blackstone’s US$563 million default in Europe. We recently discussed Blackstone’s reverse-Midas touch in commercial property markets.”

“Ontario’s cottage prices are expected to soften after two years of unprecedented growth in recreational property, according to a new Royal LePage report. Is the cottage market bubble bursting? Rick Laferriere, a broker based in Simcoe said drastic price drops have occurred in cottage country, it just depends on the location. For example, in the southend of Lake Simcoe, a property that sold for $1.7 million in the pandemic recently sold for $1.3 million, which is a $400,000 decrease or more than a 20 per cent drop. ‘The value of your property hasn’t dropped if you’re in a great area,’ he said. ‘But if you’re in an area where prices shouldn’t have been so elevated then you’ll be hit.'”

“At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Toronto’s Sewit Tamene decided she would finish getting her real estate licence. But by the time she completed the program in September 2022, the booming pandemic housing market had started to turn cold. ‘If you’re a newer agent, I definitely think that it’s a little bit more difficult to get going,’ Tamene said. ‘Some realtors are definitely taking a pause or leaving the industry because there’s just not enough cake for everyone.'”

“Prices, too, have come under pressure. The composite benchmark price for a home in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) peaked at $1,370,000 in March of 2022, according to figures from TRREB, but as of February were down 18 per cent from there. Vancouver’s price decline has been steeper, according to the region’s real estate board, off 20 per cent from a high of $1,374,500 last April.”

“The realtor sector in Israel is in deep crisis as the number of real estate deals being completed has plunged by 40%. The crisis is reflected in the low rate of those taking the real estate brokerage exams in 2022. The Israel Association of Realtors reports that a large number of real estate agents are abandoning the profession due to the small number of deals, which makes it tough to earn a living in the current situation. Moreover, Ministry of Justice data show that many agents who have passed the exam are not paying their license fee because they see no point in working in this field at the moment.”

“Shahaf real estate network CEO Eran Nissim, who mainly works in the Sharon region, echoes this sentiment: ‘We have an 80% decline in the number of deals since the peak, and I say candidly that an agent needing to raise and support a family from this profession will not be able to do this today, unless they are experienced.  Apartment sellers should understand that if they do not compromise on their price, there will be no deal. Even if the deal goes ahead it could collapse at almost any stage in negotiations with the lawyers, with the mortgage bank, and in between.'”

“The price of old apartments continued to fall in February, according to Statistics Finland. In Finland’s six largest cities, prices fell by 5.5 percent in February, compared to the same month last year. In other areas of the country prices dropped by around 4.4 percent. The capital region saw old apartment housing prices decline by 6.1 percent in February, year-on-year. Overall, apartment building prices fell by 5.8 percent across the country, while prices of terraced houses dropped by 3.7 percent compared to last year.”

“Owners of brand new flats built by Croydon council’s failed developer Brick by Brick say they’ve faced a catalogue of problems since moving in, from gas leaks to water pipes not being fitted. To make matters worse some of the owners fear they will struggle to sell their home when the time comes that they look to move due to all the issues. Melissa Chapman, 47, is worried about being able to sell her flat in the future if service charges keep going up. She claims there were drainage issues in her flat and the pipes in her bathroom were not fitted correctly. ‘People aren’t going to want to come and move here because of all the bills,’ she said.”

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This Post Has 71 Comments

  1. ‘Melissa Chapman, 47, is worried about being able to sell her flat in the future if service charges keep going up. She claims there were drainage issues in her flat and the pipes in her bathroom were not fitted correctly. ‘People aren’t going to want to come and move here because of all the bills’

    But Melissa, you can paint those sewage stained walls any color you like!

  2. ‘the PIMCO-controlled US$1.7 billion Columbia Property Trust default as one massive example. Lloyds Bank in the UK selling a defaulted property at 40% below its 2014-purchase price also makes the list of panic inducing defaults. Then there’s Blackstone’s US$563 million default in Europe. We recently discussed Blackstone’s reverse-Midas touch in commercial property markets’

    How the mighty have fallen.

    1. Gosh, these cascading defaults could make the underlying collateral value difficult or impossible to determine, setting in motion a new Great Financial Crisis. Thankfully, Old Yellen has assured us we will not see another financial crisis “in our time.”

  3. ‘in the southend of Lake Simcoe, a property that sold for $1.7 million in the pandemic recently sold for $1.3 million, which is a $400,000 decrease or more than a 20 per cent drop’

    Dammit winnahs! yer giving these igloos away.

  4. Now, it’s important to note that this is an additional tax on top of a base rate. And all LA residents right now who are selling homes, they pay a base tax rate of nearly half of a percent. So some quick math done by our producers here, if you sell a $10 million home in LA after April 1st, you are going to have to cough up nearly $600,000 in taxes.

    Pay up buttercup

    1. ‘people that have bought houses two years ago and for some reason, they want to sell their house now, not only are they going to be down because the market’s down, but now they have to cut that 4% and 5 and 1/2% check out of their pocket, off of their loss. How crazy is that?’

      That’s the spirit Josh, kick em while they’re down!

      1. This cannot be true because I was told you can’t lose money in real estate. I watch Flip or Flop. I know the truth.

      2. ‘…, but now they have to cut that 4% and 5 and 1/2% check out of their pocket, off of their loss. How crazy is that?’

        – Realtors have your best interests in mind. Bless their little hearts.
        – Sounds like a cartel to me.
        – Independent of that issue, resi real estate is an illiquid asset with high carrying costs. Add to that: it’s become a financialized, commoditized asset class instead of shelter. Buyers looking for that sweet equity appreciation need to know that aspirational pricing doesn’t work on the way down. Bubbles always burst, and real estate doesn’t always go up. It’s fictitious wealth dependent on ultra-low rates and easy $ from the Fed. That’s over now.
        – Food and housing insecurity leads to social unrest. Gooberments should have learned this lesson a long time ago, but history keeps repeating.

        “Trees don’t grow to the sky.” – German proverb

        https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-real-estate-brokerages-must-face-home-sellers-class-action-over-commissions-2023-03-29/

        2 minute read March 29, 2023 4:19 PM MDT Last Updated 2 days ago

        U.S. real estate brokerages must face home sellers’ class action over commissions

        By Mike Scarcella

        March 29 (Reuters) – A federal judge in Chicago on Wednesday ruled that home sellers accusing the National Association of Realtors and a group of real estate brokerages of conspiring to inflate commission rates can move forward as a class action.

        U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood’s decision grants class-action status to past home sellers seeking more than $13 billion in damages and creates a separate class of current and future sellers who want a court injunction that bars subsequent violations of U.S. antitrust law.

        The plaintiffs are seven home sellers. The judge’s order said membership in each class “can be expected to number in the thousands, at minimum.”

        1. – So, the article is talking about LA’s new 4% Mansion Tax on houses $5M and up. I’m talking about just plain vanilla RE commissions for sellers, which is standard 6% for all properties, ex FISBO. This also applies to sellers, whether or not they are selling at a profit or a loss. If you own a “mansion,” in LA, then add 4% more, for a total effective tax of 10% when you sell.

          – Illiquid asset with high carrying costs. Don’t forget insurance, taxes, HOA fees, maintenance, etc. These aren’t trivial, and apply in a falling market (now) as well as a rising market (then). Housing needs to be shelter (only) again.

          LA’s Mansion Tax will see home sellers paying a percentage ‘out of pocket off their loss’: Realtor

      3. people that have bought houses two years ago and for some reason, they want to sell their house now
        ——————–
        I never understood why so many buy a house and 2 years later must sell. must be the no tax on capital gains after 2 years that is now backfiring.

        1. You are probably right on a lot of it (the 2 out of every 5 years primary residence, esp for flippers) but
          job loss
          job gain
          hate where you moved to. (I moved to a small town, there’s a LOT of people who moved in and have already left, didn’t like small town life (guess they like the riots/homeless/violence etc of the hives).
          death in family (seems to be a lot of suddenly and unexpected lately)

      4. So, methinks some homes at $4,999,999.99 will be hiting the market. Owner won’t be hoping it catches a higher bid huh?
        Kind of arbitrary, that tax. Whose a$$ was pulled out of?

  5. ‘The composite benchmark price for a home in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) peaked at $1,370,000 in March of 2022, according to figures from TRREB, but as of February were down 18 per cent from there. Vancouver’s price decline has been steeper, according to the region’s real estate board, off 20 per cent from a high of $1,374,500 last April’

    Catching up to Vancouver has taken on a new meaning!

    1. “accidentally or mistakenly, negligently demolishing your house,”

      I know a roofing contractor who had a crew tear off shingles on a house in preperation for a new roof he was contracted to put on.

      Problem was the house he had the contract on was next door.

      Since I don’t know if i will make it back here I’ll answer the question. Yes the people who had their roof mistakenly torn off got a roof for free.

      1. You’d think that they would knock on the door first, announcing their arrival, before commencing.

        1. “You’d think that they would knock on the door first,”

          I’m pretty sure that’s standard practice for his company now. 🙂

  8. DJT got indicted?

    Remember, kids, it’s okay to kill communists. It really is.

    Any terminal cancer patients with some remaining energy and mobility out there? Take a few down with you. Take a hundred down with you.

    1. DJT got indicted?

      I expect a minimum of 10% rise in stonks/crypto/housing on this news.

      When money is not real, nothing is. Banana Republic, full stop.

    1. Jabbed At 29. Dead At 30

      Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.

  10. “In LA, minus a couple of parts like Beverly Hills and Malibu, there is a lot of fear. It’s already been done in Santa Monica.

    It’s glorious seeing high-net-worth CA libtards realizing their commie creatures have slipped the leash & are now applying Marxist-Leninist redistribution of the wealth to THEM. Forward, Soviet!

  11. ‘We’re all freaking out. No one knows what’s happening,’ said Romero, after checking in on Facebook pages and group chats where hosts gather. ‘We have no context. We don’t know anything about it. Everyone’s in the dark.’ She’s no longer making money off of her short-term rental business and is looking for a job. ‘

    Die, speculator scum.

  12. “Private real estate firm Laurus Corporation and Torchlight Investors have sold a roughly 250,000-square-foot mall named HHLA for about $30 million less than what they paid for it in 2015, The Real Deal has learned.

    Let’s please observe a moment of silence for those dear departed Yellen Bux.

  13. Moreover, Ministry of Justice data show that many agents who have passed the exam are not paying their license fee because they see no point in working in this field at the moment.”

    Welp, there’s always dog grooming.

  14. Remember the Charlie Hebdo newsroom attack that happened in Paris a few years ago?

    Sure would be a shame if that happened to the New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian newsrooms.

    Sure would be a shame 🙁

  15. A reader sent these in:

    The Great Financial Tightening has thrown the global monetary system into disarray, prompting large interventions by financial leaders. Markets perceived their response as a pivot, but it was just a stopgap. The real hard landing now awaits us… 1/

    https://twitter.com/concodanomics/status/1641233231629656064

    I get asked about de-dollarisation a lot given clickbait farmers out in force. Here is a common sense gauge that will help you frame this on your own with no technical complication and high calibre analysis needed:
    1- these are super long trends that are subjects to much shorter sine waves
    2- this current peak agitation around $ demise comes after a long period of monetary heresy and US Foreign policy mistakes
    3- It comes also at a moment close to a historic peak in global liquidity
    4- monetary policies shifted and once the full effect of this shift will be felt globally, the discourse will change
    5- Last, if € has only managed to occupy a tiny fraction of land grab from $, good luck to the Yuan and RBL

    https://twitter.com/INArteCarloDoss/status/1641373381089017856

    Going back to the 1920s, there has been no BTFD generation like you. Congratulations.

    https://twitter.com/michaeljburry/status/1641437220753031169

    “Depositors are noticing” the gap between what banks & what MMFs are offering in terms of interest rates. “We expect flows into money funds to grow by several hundred billion dollars, heating up bank deposit competition.” @Barclays

    https://twitter.com/DiMartinoBooth/status/1641488094779043840

    De-dollarization is going to be another one of the recent China narratives that fizzles out, just like the post-Covid China economic rebound. Its economy simply isn’t strong enough yet for either.

    https://twitter.com/lyrichues/status/1641198160881020935

    Next time you have an idea you think is too silly just remember Facebook thought this was worth investing 36 billion dollars in

    https://twitter.com/AdamSinger/status/1641478479316123650

    Philadelphia home prices have been declining for months. People are delusional if they think ANYTHING holds its value in a drug and crime infested location.

    https://twitter.com/DeanWil71382315/status/1641476700104957954

    The Fed has a huge problem on their hands with housing
    Last time market activity crashed with low inventory was Spring 2020
    The way out was to stimulate demand
    Now market activity has crashed again, but their hands are tied
    We’ve come full circle in 3 years

    https://twitter.com/texasrunnerDFW/status/1641493024277508127

    Portland maine is the new Calabasas

    https://twitter.com/NipseyHoussle/status/1641453996388016129

    Paying the monthly mortgage outpaces rent more than it has since before the financial crisis, per Bloomberg.

    https://twitter.com/unusual_whales/status/1641425291301011459

    Just a reminder, if you suspect someone of PPP loan fraud, it looks like you can get a reward equal to 15-25% of the amount recovered

    https://twitter.com/GRomePow/status/1640186219752726530

    Over the last 20 years, Canadian Home Prices have quadrupled while the overall inflation rate in Canada has increased 49%. This is a bubble of epic proportions.

    https://twitter.com/charliebilello/status/1641544638484959233

    Manhattan Office Vacancy Hits Record High as Landlords Add Space
    More than 16% of space was empty as of the first quarter, according to brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., which tracks about 470 million square feet (44 million square meters) of Manhattan offices

    https://twitter.com/danjmcnamara/status/1641501963350073345

    The generation of entitlement will purge. Those that expect free money and easy life without working hard will be slaughtered. Times have changed and they are clueless.

    https://twitter.com/WifeyAlpha/status/1641507082363887636

    Unprecedented Surge: German Supermarket Prices Skyrocket as Food Inflation Hits Record 22.3% in March!

    https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1641592148444213248

    They printed the money, handed it (through various financial engineering schemes) to VCs and HFs, those got loans against it, pissed the loans, now are crying to get the original money guaranteed loss free…it’s a f*cking circus….am I the only one seeing the irony of this?

    https://twitter.com/INArteCarloDoss/status/1641554986629726213

    11 months and 12 days later, gone.

    https://twitter.com/jasemurphy/status/1641584128629043200

    Tomorrow marks the beginning of the bulk of Australian fixed rate mortgages ending and borrowers rolling off onto higher rates. Over the course of the next quarter 222k fixed loans will expire at the Big 4 banks alone, followed by 207k in Q3.

    https://twitter.com/AvidCommentator/status/1641568917469663232

    I’ll give you one guess which app she used to manage the payments

    https://twitter.com/buccocapital/status/1641488378939027462

    Core inflation in Europe doesn’t slow 👀 no surprise here, wages are growing..services remain elevated

    https://twitter.com/AlessioUrban/status/1641349845142188034

    The ramifications will be mind bending for the industry. Home builder Porter Davis in liquidation, stops all work

    https://twitter.com/great_martis/status/1641610755475931136

    1. Paying the monthly mortgage outpaces rent more than it has since before the financial crisis, per Bloomberg.

      I live in a nice apartment that isn’t cheap, but to get a mortgage in a nearby neighborhood it would increase my monthly costs by approximately 50%. That’s a lot of cheese! I’d appreciate the yard, but the financial stress ain’t worth it.

  16. Within a few decades, the DJT indictment and arrest will be viewed as a pivot point toward secession and the establishment of a Christian Nationalist Homeland in America.

    No atheists will be allowed (they are near unanimous ideological bedfellows with Marxist globalists), and no other alleged “religions” that have hatred of Christianity at their core will be allowed.

    Weimar will be dismantled and destroyed. There will be no money for Israel, no money for Ukraine, and no money for NATO.

    Henry Ford was right about all of this a century ago, he tried to warn America, but not that many listened to him, and the social and moral and economic conditions of today are the result.

    There can be no “coexistence” with Marxist globalism, the only option is its extermination.

  18. Found a new Leftist talking point…

    “You’re actually super transphobic and I never want to share a space with you”

    Sandy from Westchester draws it like a gun from a holster on the 1:50 video below.

    Libs of TikTok
    @libsoftiktok

    BREAKING: I served @AOC with an ethics complaint after she lied about me in a committee hearing. AOC wasn’t in her office but then I bumped into her as I was leaving the Capitol!

    Watch what happens:

    https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1641446605135179782?s=20

    1. On March 31st (end of quarter), that can mean only one thing- this first quarter will have negative GDP growth.

      1. negative GDP growth

        Every quarter that the US goes deeper into debt is a negative GDP growth quarter, if truth be told.

  20. Joe Biden will never be the legitimately elected president of the United States, because the 2020 election was stolen.

    Attorney General Merrick Brian Garland (phony Anglicized name) is the enemy of the American people.

    The Anti Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center are domestic terrorist organizations.

    Weimar America is ending soon…

    1. Biden proclaimed Friday the Transgender Day of Visibility and condemned discrimination against “all transgender, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary people.”

      Says transgender people ‘shape our nation’s soul’ in official proclamation.

      That’s actually rather significant and insightful. There is a battle on for your soul; you are of course not an idle spectator, but each side wants to shape your soul. [F*ck you, Brandon & Co., I’ll shape my own soul]

      washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/biden…

      1. “Says transgender people ‘shape our nation’s soul’ in official proclamation.”

        Well this country is going insane, so he does have a point.

        1. What, about a million transgenders in USA, and that small percentage shapes the “soul of America”?
          It’s all insanity and a big distraction to piss off the basic instinct for parents to protect their children .
          When you can’t even send your kid to school without worrying about some kind of sexual assault or a forced vaccine, than government has turned criminal .
          What better way to break down society than going after children ,who need their parents to defend them .How do you like the New World Order now?

        2. I don’t see it in my world, but there’s a push for that perception. Watch teevee, you’d think one thing. Turn it off and most things seem normal. Also, now you have big city mayors hopping mad about – lack of border security! That’s an about face. Legalized shoplifting, out of control bums (not happening around here BTW): this will pass, and probably soon. It’s unsustainable.

          IMO there has been a concerted global effort to demoralize, destabilize ordinary good people for at least 3 years now. The way you fight that is to keep your head and don’t buy into the fear. It’s exaggerated and in some ways doesn’t exist for most of us.

          4. Every major city, and I mean every major city, is going down. Which also happens to be where about 3/4 of the population lives. So it is affecting the majority of the country. And every one of those cities is solidly Democrat, so it isn’t changing.

      2. Vox Day had this to say about that:

        Joe Biden is correct. Transgender Americans are absolutely shaping what passes for the “nation’s” diseased and adulterated soul today. And there is worse to come.

        There is a battle on for your soul; you are of course not an idle spectator, but each side wants to shape your soul.

        There is no neutral ground in this war. It is foretold who will win, and those destined to lose want to take you down with them. Choose wisely.

    1. The Financial Times
      Sovereign bonds
      Quarter of emerging countries lose effective access to debt markets
      Banking turmoil has driven up spreads on sovereign bond yields over US Treasuries to levels that impair ability to raise funds
      Man carries crate of bottled water on his head
      Martha Muir in London yesterday

      More than a quarter of emerging market countries have found themselves effectively locked out of international bond markets as recent chaos in the banking sector has prompted investors to shun riskier assets.

      Even as the effects of the banking sector turmoil recede in developed economies, investors have adopted a “risk off” approach to high-yield debt. This has tipped emerging market countries whose credit status was already shaky into territory where their ability to raise funds is seriously impaired.

      According to research by Goldman Sachs, around 27 per cent of emerging market sovereigns currently have spreads on yields compared to equivalent US Treasuries of above 9 percentage points, the level at which market access typically becomes restricted.
      …

    2. Yahoo Finance
      Depositors yank another $126 billion from US banks
      David Hollerith
      March 31, 2023, 4:08 pm

      Depositors drained another $126 billion from U.S. banks during the week ending March 22, according to new Federal Reserve data. This time the outflow came from the nation’s largest institutions.

      The biggest 25 banks lost $90 billion on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the Fed. The smaller banks, which suffered massive withdrawals the previous week as regulators seized regional lenders Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, were able to stabilize their outflows. They actually gained back $6 billion on a seasonally adjusted basis.

      Total industry deposits fell to $17.3 trillion, down 4.4% from the same week a year ago. That is the lowest level since July 2021.
      …
      https://finance.yahoo.com/news/depositors-yank-another-126-billion-from-us-banks-210851940.html

    3. Finance · economy
      Top economist Mohamed El-Erian warns that ‘erosion in trust’ caused by banking crisis will lead to ‘economic contagion’
      BY Chloe Taylor
      March 29, 2023 at 4:56 AM CDT
      Mohamed El-Erian speaks during an interview at the 2016 Barclays Asia Forum in Singapore.
      Mohamed El-Erian, pictured in 2016, has warned of “economic contagion” from the banking sector.
      Nicky Loh—Bloomberg via Getty Images

      The fractures in the banking system could still have a major impact on Americans thanks to the lingering threat of “economic contagion,” prominent economist Mohamed El-Erian has warned—and there is little policymakers can do to stop it.
      …
      https://fortune.com/2023/03/29/mohamed-el-erian-banking-crisis-lending-money-svb-credit-suisse/

  23. Former FBI Director James Comey reacts to Trump indictment: ‘It’s been a good day’

    Published March 31, 2023

    Former FBI Director James Comey praised the unprecedented indictment of former President Trump by a Manhattan grand jury on Thursday, by tweeting, “It’s been a good day.”

    Trump was indicted after Manhattan District Attorney Alivn Bragg had been investigating Trump for hush money payments made leading up to the 2016 presidential election.

    Comey, who was fired by Trump in 2017 and one of the central figures involved in the Russia collusion case against Trump and the Steele dossier, echoed comments made by other Trump opponents on Twitter.

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/former-fbi-director-james-comey-reacts-trump-indictment-good-day

    James Comey
    @Comey

    It’s been a good day.
    10:51 PM · Mar 30, 2023

    https://twitter.com/Comey/status/1641634399048413184?s=20

  24. From The Colorado Sun:

    Colorado is expected to return $2.7 billion to taxpayers. The legislature hasn’t determined how to refund the money.
    If the legislature doesn’t act, the TABOR surplus will be returned through checks tied to taxpayers’ income levels, with higher earners getting bigger refunds. Democrats say that system is inequitable.

    Historically, the TABOR refunds are given as Tax Credits when you file your Colorado state income tax return and the credit amount is tiered based on your adjusted gross income.

    What I find amusing is that the credit already favors those with lower incomes, as it grows slower than income. The claim that it is inequitable is absurd.

    For instance, this year for joint filers, the credit was $306 for $48,000 while for $260,000 it’s $972. Also, part of the refund was issued early last year, $750 to each adult in the state, regardless of income. And since it was re-defined as a stimulus check, it doesn’t affect your federal income, unlike the state credits which do.

    Anyway, the state legislature has until May 8 to change how this year’s TABOR refund is distributed. I expect that they will repeat what they did last year. Given how the national and state economies are not looking good I don’t expect there will be much of a TABOR refund next year, if any.

    The Dems in Dumver would no doubt prefer to keep the TABOR surplus and spend it on their pet projects, but since the state constitution stipulates that it has to be refunded to taxpayers they will have to content themselves with giving everyone the same refund, regardless of how much tax they contributed.

  25. It’s Thug Oclock.

    Here former Patriot great Willie McGinest and his fellow Thug friends assault some unsuspecting man, it finishes up with good old Wille smacking the guy in the face with a beer bottle.

    michael j. babcock
    @mikejbabcock

    Here’s #Patriots legend Willie McGinest in a crazy brawl at Delilah’s in West Hollywood on December 9. Was arrested Monday morning for assault w/ a deadly weapon. Released on $30K bond at 9:46 AM.

    https://twitter.com/mikejbabcock/status/1604958842726797312?s=20

    1. Former NFL Player Willie McGinest Out at NFL Network After Assault Charges

      WARNER TODD HUSTON
      31 Mar 2023

      The ex-NFL player turned himself in to the police on Dec. 19 and was booked into jail on one count of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of assault by means of force, according to Fox News.

      McGinest apologized for the incident in what amounted to an admission of guilt.

      “First and foremost, I want to offer my deepest apology for my lapse in judgment and behavior on December 9 at a restaurant in West Hollywood,” McGinest wrote on Instagram. “To my family, community, friends, and youth I mentor, please know I feel horrible for my actions and take full responsibility.

      “Most of all, I am disappointed in myself, as I know this is an isolated incident and is not reflective of my faith, role as a father, life’s body of work, or the role model I’ve worked hard to become. It is personally devastating that decades of community service, youth engagement, mentoring, and professional development would become an afterthought in a single moment that should never have happened,” he said.

      The ex-linebacker has been charged with assault before. He was one of a trio of USC students charged with sexual assault and false imprisonment from an alleged event occurring in 1990. A woman claimed she was molested in a room by three players, but the players said the woman went into the room voluntarily and participated in the sexual “horseplay.” All three players were eventually acquitted of the charges.

      https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2023/03/31/former-nfl-player-willie-mcginest-out-at-nfl-network-after-assault-charges/

  26. Bombshell: Video Shows Undercover Police Officers Posing as ANTIFA RIOTER on J6

    by Adan Salazar
    March 31st 2023, 5:42 pm

    Shocking footage shot by police on Jan. 6 appears to show an undercover officer admitting he’s going to infiltrate the MAGA crowd dressed as an Antifa militant.

    “We go undercover as Antifa in the crowd,” one officer is heard telling another officer as police mobilized outside the Capitol before the crowd had pushed past barricades.

    https://www.infowars.com/

  27. Andrew Torba on Gab:

    “The time for hippie Christianity is over.

    The time for warrior Christianity is here.

    You are commanded to hate evil, Christians.”

    1. Torba? Hilarious. The faithful already have a leader.

      It is a time for Christians to walk in Christ, to preach the gospel and encourage repentance. Only a nation as fallen away as we are is in any danger of evil ideology.

      Justified men are not afraid of battle, but to encourage slaughter out of hate is contrary.

      You don’t speak of these things, only of violence.

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