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You Can Say Prices Are Plummeting, But What’s Really Happening Is They’re Finally Making Their Way Back To The Norm

A weekend topic starting with Politico. “The Federal Home Loan Banks, a group of government-sponsored lenders whose mission is to finance housing and community development, loaned tens of billions of dollars to three crypto-friendly banks before they failed last month. Critics of the FHLBs say the loans to crypto-exposed banks are just the latest example of a government-backed lender playing fast and loose with financial risk while counting on taxpayers to pay the bill. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — the giant companies behind half of the country’s residential mortgages — lowered their standards for loan guarantees to subprime borrowers in the years leading up to the financial crisis, prompting the government to seize them at taxpayers’ expense in September 2008 to stave off catastrophic losses.”

“‘If you tell a lender there will be no consequences for a bad loan, then they’ll lend very liberally,’ said Con Hurley, an adjunct professor at Boston University and the former director of the Boston FHLB. ‘The losses are borne by the FDIC, and that’s where the moral hazard comes in. There’s absolutely no incentive for the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco to do diligent underwriting – they win either way, whether the loan pays off or is taken over by the FDIC.'”

From KAKE. “The Federal Housing Administration, a department of HUD, initially increased loan terms from 30 years to 40 during the pandemic. Since that time the government found a need to make this a permanent solution. This comes as a result of the pandemic, the financial crisis in 2008, as well as the recent increase in interest rates. ‘We’ve seen that there are just a lot of folks facing hard times and to be quite frank, having more people face homelessness and be on the streets is not a great outcome for anyone or society as a whole,’ said the U.S. Department of Housing and Development’s Public Affairs Officer Brian Handshy. The increase in terms is specifically for FHA-type loans. Handshy is hoping this will make a difference by curtailing a hike in foreclosures.”

From Bloomberg. “Central banks risk losing their autonomy if they’re not publicly accountable over past mistakes, including playing down the risks of inflation that has punished consumers and hurt economies, Mohamed El-Erian warned. El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz SE and Bloomberg Opinion columnist, said the market doesn’t trust the Fed’s forward guidance on interest rates. ‘The marketplace itself is doubting the Fed,’ he said. Policymakers also face another challenge from financial-stability risks as interest rates rise, El-Erian said. The financial system has been ‘conditioned to live with ultra-low interest rates and abundant liquidity,’ he said. It’s unclear yet how it will operate in ‘a world of higher rates for longer.'”

“The IMF earlier this week warned it was too soon to sound the all-clear from the turmoil in the banking sector. The recent bank breakdowns were symptomatic of a ‘perilous combination of vulnerabilities’ that have been ‘lurking under the surface of the global financial system for years,’ the IMF said in the report. Those have now been exposed by an aggressive tightening of credit by central banks to fight decades-high inflation, it said.”

From Market Place. “Given that this economy is more likely to fall into a recession, it’s a wonder where it is right now. A good way to look at it is through the lens of cartoons from the ’60s — Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner, running off a cliff, spinning his legs and then plummeting with a crash. So, are U.S. consumers now that coyote, falling to the bottom of the economic cliff? ‘No, we’re not seeing a falloff of the cliff at all,’ said Joanne Hsu from the University of Michigan. She said it’s more like the coyote is windmilling, trying to stay aloft by spending it up.”

From Market Watch. “Tom Capasse, a veteran of distressed property investing, won’t say the sky is falling when it comes to a credit crunch bearing down on the estimated $21 trillion U.S. commercial real-estate market. But Capasse does see a wave of distress unfolding in the coming months as more borrowers buckle under the weight of higher interest rates, tighter credit and other pandemic aftershocks. ‘You are going to see strategic defaults,’ said Capasse, CEO of Ready Capital Corp, of landlords walking away from properties or handing the keys back to lenders. ‘You are going to see a lot more of that in the office sector.'”

“After an era of easy credit and low interest rates, property values are expected to fall, eroding the equity that borrowers have in properties and likely leading to climbing defaults. ‘The Fed is getting its way. It is going to have a traditional cyclical decline in real estate,’ he said.”

From Mansion Global. “Ending a crushing surge in U.S. rental prices, the median asking rent fell annually for the first time in three years, declining 0.4% year over year in March to $1,937, according to Redfin. This is also the lowest the median asking rent has been in 13 months. Austin, Texas, and Chicago were the two major metro areas that saw the largest annual decreases in rent, with Austin rents falling 11% in March and Chicago dropping 9.2%. ‘Rents are falling, but it feels more like they’re just returning to normal, which is healthy to some degree,’ said Dan Close, a Redfin real estate agent in Chicago. ‘It’s similar to the cost of eggs. You can say egg prices are plummeting, but what’s really happening is they’re finally making their way back to the $3 norm instead of $5 or $6. Rents ballooned during the pandemic, and are now returning to earth.'”

Bisnow Houston in Texas. “An Irving, Texas-based investment group’s mission to entice investors to generate passive income from high yielding multifamily investment opportunities is not going according to plan in Houston. Applesway Investment Group, led by founder and CEO Jay Gajavelli, saw its inability to pay loans on a four-property portfolio lead to foreclosure and resale at auction last week. Meanwhile, it is facing a $1.6M lawsuit for unpaid work at some of those properties and fending off accusations one property was uninhabitable and filled with vermin.”

“Applesway, a company focused on acquiring ‘cash-flowing multifamily properties with value-add potential’ for investors, according to its website, bought up the four properties from August 2021 to April 2022, as Ningi Research noted on Twitter.”

“‘I’m sick and tired of working for money. If I don’t go to work, no money is coming,’ Gajavelli says in a prominently featured promotional video on Applesway’s site, going on to paint a picture of how he emerged out of financial insecurity and could do the same for others. ‘So I was asking this question: Is there any way my money works for me? Is there a way I can have a steady stream of income month after month?'”

The Orange County Register. “A significant winner in California’s real estate chill is the renter. The post-pandemic return to normalcy that’s decelerated California housing markets is forcing landlords statewide to compete for tenants. Meanwhile, renters are seeing the most available units in nearly two years. Plus, developers saw 2021’s landlord-friendly conditions of rising rents and few vacancies and rushed to build. Statewide permits for multifamily housing totaled 106,000 in 2021-22 – a huge jump from the 71,000 average for two-year periods in the previous 30 years. So, landlords will have to fill up those new units, too.”

“Just ponder rents in California’s 12 most populous counties, as tracked by ApartmentList. Rents are off their peaks in all 12 markets – and are even down over three years in San Francisco and Alameda counties. So when counties are ranked by their rent dip from pandemic peaks, you see prices falling faster in Northern California.”

The Guardian on California. “Predictions of San Francisco’s decline are almost cyclical, the national spotlight turning to challenges like inequality and homelessness. But a fresh era is undeniably underway for the tech world. The industry has changed massively in the past years, hitting a wall after a long run of impressive growth that was bolstered by the shift to online life that was forced by the Covid-19 pandemic. The financial district was once a bustling center of high-earning workers enjoying $17 salads for lunch and synergizing over coffee meetings – with headquarters for companies like Uber, Twitter and Salesforce centralized in the hub. Today, the streets were nearly silent.”

“I stopped for coffee at the market below the headquarters of Twitter and previously Uber, once a popular morning coffee spot for many tech workers. But there was none to be had – the shop closed three months ago due to lack of demand, a worker told me. ‘The workers left during Covid, and they never came back,’ she said.”

CBS Bay Area in California. “In early 2022, San Francisco mobilized to tackle the problems that had been building over decades in the Tenderloin District: Homelessness, an exploding drug crisis, the growing presence of drug cartels and a sense that things were spinning out of control. Sixteen months later, what has changed?  ‘It’s almost every day,’ Jorge said referring to a mound of trash on the street. ‘Every single day they have a mess over here.'”

“In the day-after-day, camp-by-camp effort to connect people on the streets with some kind of shelter, there is the one element that looms over just about everything. ‘There’s complicated pieces and there’s some that are pretty obvious,’ said Mark Mazza with the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management. ‘And people out here will be clear with us. They are addicted to drugs that they need to be using constantly.'”

The Los Angeles Times. “Last week, I wrote to you about California’s population ebbs and flows, which grew even stronger through the COVID-19 pandemic. So we asked: What’s driving those of you who have moved — or plan to move — to, from or around the state? A few common reasons emerged from the responses we got: the soaring cost of living; skyrocketing rents and home prices; growing concerns over local crime; a desire to be closer to family; dissatisfaction in the state’s government.”

“Catherine F. moved from Santa Cruz County to Indiana. ‘We are progressive Democrats who feel that California has undermined its liberal promise and has failed to address the growing gap between rich and poor, housed and unhoused residents. [We left due to the] absurd cost of living, terrible traffic, skyrocketing property crime, poor public amenities (parks, bike paths, etc.), unresponsive and obstructionist city and county government.'”

“Sophie H. moved from Alameda County to Humboldt County. ‘We moved a year before the pandemic started. My husband has a job at a large software company in San Francisco. The commute got harder and longer. Our house was crammed between two others. You always had to watch your back. We lived in a desirable neighborhood, but in nine years there were several muggings, a guy roaming the street with a knife and lots of car break-ins.'”

“‘We craved space, nature, working from home and no crime, and we found it. But the biggest difference is a sense of community in a small college town. People are super friendly. You can make friends easily. It’s quiet, the air is clean. All the hassles of city life are gone.'”

Palo Alto Weekly in California. “After a significant decline in home prices and sales activity during the latter half of 2022, homebuyers made a comeback early this spring. Whether the market will remain on track for a healthy recovery, however, remains unclear following the epic collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on March 10 and Signature Bank on March 12. Homes that did not sell last year and were relisted this year are finally finding buyers, albeit at lower prices. When compared to the peak in early spring 2022, the home sales have declined across all Midpeninsula cities as both buyers and sellers remain anxious about low visibility down the road.”

“In Palo Alto, total home sales have decreased by 28%, while Los Altos saw a decline of 25%, and Menlo Park experienced a bigger drop of 37%. Home prices also saw a decline. From the start of this year to March 15, the median price of single-family homes sold in Palo Alto was $3.33 million, 19% lower than that for the same period last year. The home price in Los Altos held relatively well, only dropping by 8% to $4.15 million. Even with multiple offers, buyers remained disciplined and avoided overbidding. At the same time, sellers were afraid of losing offers, even those below asking.”

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This Post Has 79 Comments

    1. Bubbles are fun when they inflate, but painful when they burst.

      The drinking binge-hangover model is spot on, along with the hair-of-the dog hangover cure, courtesy of the Fed.

      However, hair-of-the-dog cures are more challenging to administer with inflation raging.

  2. ‘And people out here will be clear with us. They are addicted to drugs that they need to be using constantly’

    Doesn’t sound like criminalizing poverty to me.

    1. I saw some people smoking fentanyl off of tin foil in broad daylight yesterday near 1st and Broadway in Denver. There’s no effort to even conceal it, because there are ZERO consequences.

      1. Related article.

        Westword — Fentanyl Use Prompts Downtown Target to Lock Up Aluminum Foil (4/7/2023):

        “Blues,” as drug experts call them, have led to a new shoplifting phenomenon at the downtown Target, where fentanyl users will swipe aluminum foil straight from the shelves and freebase the illegal blue pills right there in the middle of the store, according to security guards.

        The guard, who agreed to share only his first name, Donovan, says the problem has gotten so bad that store management decided to lock up its store supply of Reynolds Wrap, and will continue doing so for the foreseeable future.

        “They steal everything,” says Donovan, noting that shoplifters take plenty of items besides the foil. “We’re just more concerned about the safety of them smoking it.”

        Donovan describes “a whole process,” with people coming into Target to steal “just a little bit” of foil, then using a lighter to heat the blue pills on the foil before smoking the fentanyl.

        When it’s windy outside, Donovan says the aluminum foil activity picks up inside, with users often smoking blues in the downstairs lobby of the Target or in its elevator.

        “Usually they don’t give a sh*t if kids are walking through, dogs, old people — they just smoke it,” he adds.

        https://www.westword.com/news/fentanyl-use-denver-downtown-target-lock-up-aluminum-foil-16548957

        1. Homeless drug addicts smoking fentanyl in grocery stores means “we have arrived” from a Democrat-Bolshevik perspective. Once a society is has reached that level of rot, a majority D-vote is assured. Forward!

          1. I disagree. Read the SF article, most people are fed up. They know they have a huge problem and I’d say they’ve turned a corner on that perception.

          2. I disagree. Read the SF article, most people are fed up. They know they have a huge problem and I’d say they’ve turned a corner on that perception.

            The thing that gets me is that these idiots couldn’t see it coming from a mile away. Who could actually have believed that decriminalizing drugs, shoplifting and other offenses wouldn’t lead to such horrific social consequences? Did they really need to see it first to believe it?

          3. It was sprung on some. They didn’t know what Soros was doing. And we shouldn’t overstate it: shoplifting isn’t legal in most of even large cities. Think back: it went really nuts when rioting was permitted and/or encouraged. Remember the getting on yer knees stuff? You don’t see congress people doing that now. I’ve said before, they used CCP virus to launch all sorts of control/marxist measures. It was part of mass formation psychosis. That’s lifted for almost everyone. There’s probably more awareness of real problems than there has been in a while. Even big city mayors, for instance, are demanding border control.

          4. @Ben, Not sure if you have direct connections of the wokies in SF. I do. You are mostly wrong. Some people have realized it a little bit, but most still haven’t, and none of them are willing to change anything. You will still be called racist/transphobic/nazi if you say anything about it.

            Yuri Bezmenov wasn’t kidding when he said he could show people Russian concentration camps and people wouldn’t believe him. Fentanyl addled homeless encampments in SF are the USA version of Russian gulags, and most people still refuse to believe the truth.

            You have to understand the people are waging a war on reality itself, and until they are being directly physically harmed in large numbers, they will never come to reality.

          5. “…the people are waging a war on reality itself…”

            The battle lines are market capitalism, e.g., investors expecting a return for their risk, skilled people producing goods and services and receiving economic power in return, etc., but many see that system as unfair. Unfortunately we have allowed crony capitalism to thrive where the government rescues the wealthy and their Wall street banks when their strip-mining of the middle-class goes badly, so I completely understand the indebted hordes who cannot afford a basic house, a mid tier automobile, a college degree or affordable health care, and they are universally tired of it all.

  3. Property taxes?

    “On Friday, Twitter owner Elon Musk stated that the parents or doctors who facilitate the sterilization of a child before they are an adult “should go to prison for life.”

    “Any parent or doctor who sterilizes a child before they are a consenting adult should go to prison for life,” Musk wrote.

    https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-elon-musk-says-any-parent-or-doctor-who-sterilizes-a-child-should-get-life-in-prison

    Chomos don’t get treated very well in prison 🙁

    1. Property taxes?

      Property taxes AND state income taxes:

      “Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Friday signed a set of health care bills enshrining access to abortion and gender-affirming procedures and medications, as the Democrat-led state tries to make itself a safe haven for its neighbors, whose Republican leaders are restricting care.

      The goal of the legislation is to ensure people in surrounding states and beyond can go to Colorado to have an abortion, begin puberty blockers or receive gender-affirming surgery without fear of prosecution.

      https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/colorado-governor-signs-abortion-transgender-care-bills

      Legalized kidnapping and mutilation of minors, brought to you by Democrat Party.

    2. This is why we need a National Divorce.

      Washington State Passes Bill Allowing Government to Take Away Minor From Parents If They Refuse To Agree to Gender Transition Surgery (4/14/2023):

      “According to Seattle, WA journalist Katie Daviscourt, the Washington State Legislature passed SB 5599 last night, which allows the state to legally take children away from their parents if they don’t consent to their child’s gender transition surgeries.

      All Democrats voted YES.

      All Republicans voted NO.

      “Under current law, if a child who has run away from home goes to a licensed shelter, that shelter is required to notify the parents unless a compelling reason applies. The bill allows certified shelters to contact the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) in lieu of parents in certain additional instances, such as when a youth is seeking reproductive health services or gender-affirming care.”
      The progressive lawmaker explains why the government should strip parents of their rights to make critical, life-altering decisions for their minor children and give them a place to live with people who agree with the mutilation of minor children.

      “This bill is an important step in ensuring young people across the state have a roof over their heads during an already challenging period in their life,” said Liias. “While we hope that every child has a supportive family that will provide them with acceptance and the care they need, it’s crucial that we provide housing options to those in crisis.”

      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/washington-state-passes-bill-allowing-government-to-take-away-minor-from-parents-if-they-refuse-to-agree-to-gender-transition-surgery/

      See also: the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti Defamation League.

      2. National Divorce

        Repeating myself: What does a National Divorce look like? We’re not Ukraine.

          3. The latter, I believe. In such a case just about any area outside of the metros would be red. This is why the left would never consent, as they would be at the complete mercy of red areas for things like food or energy.

            I have heard blues propose withholding technology from the reds. The problem with that is that most of it is imported. It would be like the useless sanctions against Russia.

          4. I have heard blues propose withholding technology from the reds. The problem with that is that most of it is imported. It would be like the useless sanctions against Russia.

            And much of the techology is actually a negative value prop vs positive

          6. a negative value prop

            LOL! Everything they touch turns to crap. Let the ultra Libs withhold their secret sauce. I hope they learn something living off grid themselves.

    3. National Divorce?

      It’s time for secession and civil war.

      HuffPaint — Trump Targets Transgender Health Care In NRA Speech (4/14/2023):

      “Former President Donald Trump said he would use the government to investigate and potentially curtail transgender health care if he’s reelected.

      “Upon my inauguration, I will direct the FDA to convene an independent outside panel to investigate whether transgender hormone treatments and ideology increase the risk of extreme depression, aggression and even violence,” Trump said during a speech at the National Rifle Association’s conference in Indianapolis on Friday.
      “I think most of us already know the answer,” Trump added.

      Trump and his Republican allies have baselessly claimed that gender identity was a factor that led a shooter to kill three kids and three adults at a school in Nashville, Tennessee.

      https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-targets-transgender-health-care-in-nra-speech_n_6439b3eee4b0a7592626126b

      Yoel Roth could not be reached for comment…

      1. It’s time for secession and civil war.

        No, it’s not. Most brainwashed Muricans still haven’t made the linkage between Democrat-Bolshevik malgovernance and the collapse trajectory we’re on – things have to get much, much worse before millions of sheeple start making the connection between cause & effect.

  4. “The Federal Home Loan Banks, a group of government-sponsored lenders whose mission is to finance housing and community development, loaned tens of billions of dollars to three crypto-friendly banks before they failed last month. Critics of the FHLBs say the loans to crypto-exposed banks are just the latest example of a government-backed lender playing fast and loose with financial risk while counting on taxpayers to pay the bill.”

    Does this help explain why SVB qualified for a non-bailout?

    1. Covid “vaccines” are poison.

      Remember who threatened to get you FIRED FROM YOUR JOB for not getting injected with deadly mRNA poison?

      Who? Democrat Party, that’s who.

  6. “The Federal Housing Administration, a department of HUD, initially increased loan terms from 30 years to 40 during the pandemic. Since that time the government found a need to make this a permanent solution.”

    I’m not so sure about that messaging.

  7. “A good way to look at it is through the lens of cartoons from the ’60s — Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner, running off a cliff, spinning his legs and then plummeting with a crash. So, are U.S. consumers now that coyote, falling to the bottom of the economic cliff?”

    Those aren’t consumers falling to the bottom of the economic cliff. Rather they are recent homebuyers, watching their mortgages go underwater as home values drop at double-digit rates.

    1. I’m gonna guess that their victims’ studies majors are also getting laid off from their make work corporate jobs and they are learning that they have no marketable skills.

  9. There’s absolutely no incentive for the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco to do diligent underwriting – they win either way, whether the loan pays off or is taken over by the FDIC.’”

    It’s almost like the banksters & financier oligarchs run the show for their own exclusive benefit. Chief Running Deer, self-proclaimed Champion of the Middle Class, will get right on this.

    1. Elizabeth Warren was bought off years ago. She is a paid shill for billionaires – a wolf in sheeps’ clothing. She is hounding the FED to stop the rate hikes for her masters.

  10. April 15th is tax day, for all you slaves. Notice how the money only ever flows in one direction, from white Christians to Marxist globalists in Ukraine and Israel?

    Russia Today — Ukraine a ‘non-existent country’ financially – Orban (4/14/2023):

    “The EU will not provide Kiev with funds indefinitely, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban warned Friday during an interview with a Kossuth radio station.

    “Effectively, Ukraine is a non-existent country in financial terms,” he declared.

    “The fall in economic indicators is huge, which is completely understandable due to the war. Obviously, Ukraine can’t finance itself,” the Hungarian leader explained.

    The EU is now paying Ukrainian salaries, pensions and healthcare, allocating “huge sums, which the European economy is missing out on,” the PM pointed out. He added that this support “can’t continue indefinitely.”

    https://www.rt.com/news/574724-hungary-eu-ukraine-orban/

    1. Related article.

      “Ukraine will disappear because its Western backers, the rest of the world, and even its own citizens have no need for the troubled country to keep existing, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has implied.

      “Why would Ukraine disappear? Because nobody needs it,” Medvedev, who now holds the position of deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, wrote in a post on the VK social network on Saturday.

      “The prospect of decisively planting Ukrainian blood-sucking parasites on the neck of the shriveling EU” is real and, if it happens, it’s going to signal the demise of the bloc, Medvedev warned.

      https://www.rt.com/news/574402-ukraine-medvedev-us-china/

      Blood-sucking parasites? That sounds about right.

      Jonathan Greenblatt could not be reached for comment…

  11. If you want the truth, read the New York Times, Washington Post, UK Guardian, and believe the opposite.

    News To Keep You Out Of The Camps:

    https://normalamerican.com/news/

    Camps? Camps, did you say?

    Like the actual ones they built in Australia?

    Australia, NZ, the UK, and Canada should serve as a warning for what these Marxist globalists have planned for you, and three hundred million guns in the hands of U.S. citizens are the last thing, the only thing stopping them….

  12. Marxist globalists want you WEAK (see also: pretty much all of Reddit).

    Washington Post — Body dysmorphia in boys and men can fuel muscle obsession, doctors say (4/14/2023):

    “Fueled by the rise of social media and a lucrative, unregulated supplements industry, more boys and young men today are bulking up to the point of risking their overall health. A measured amount of weight training can be positive and healthy, but it’s neither when body image turns into an obsession or exercise becomes excessive.

    Nagata published research in the Journal of Adolescent Health in 2019 that found about a third of teenage boys reported trying to gain weight. The study was based on data from more than 15,000 high school students in the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. And in Current Opinion in Pediatrics in 2021, Nagata and his co-authors wrote that about 22 percent of teen boys and young men are engaging in some sort of muscle-building behavior.

    “Boys feel a lot of pressure when they’re in that stage of development where they haven’t really gone through the later stages of puberty yet,” says S. Bryn Austin, a professor in Harvard University’s Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. But they “don’t have the same kind of hormonal environment” to support significant muscle gain, which means there isn’t a lot of potential to gain muscle mass for the average 10- to 14-year-old boy who lifts weights and drinks protein shakes.

    Although muscle strength can improve performance in sports, often this pursuit of the ideal male body isn’t to do better on the field, but to look better — or more muscular — in the mirror. The goal isn’t bigger, stronger and faster. It’s just bigger.

    “In terms of how boys and young men learn about masculinity, just being big is a way of expressing masculinity and dominance,” Austin says.

    https://archive.is/zo7Rr

    Remember during the phony CCP Flu plandemic, all the gyms were closed, but liquor stores, weed dispensaries, and every fast food restaurant stayed open?

    Hit that gym, boys. The outcome of the coming civil war depends on it…

    1. I refuse to buy into fear. The bad guys want us to fight each other. If we do that we won’t be asking questions like, why are guberments all over ditching the death injection?

      1. Agreed, it certainly seems like the gooberment is trying to provoke a violent reaction from the right. It would give them an excuse to declare martial law or some other state of emergency.

        1. It’s everybody susceptible to fear. How do they paint it? We have irreconcilable differences. When I go around all I see are polite people, going about their business. Turn off the TV and realize the internet is used the same way. Keep you afraid, fighting fellow citizens.

        1. Let’s just have the conversation
          Not every Liberal is dumb, not all Republicans are racist
          The government wants everybody fighting with their neighbors
          ‘Cause they know that if we get along, we’ll probably go against ’em

          Tom Mac Donald …. Brainwashed

  16. From Bloomberg. “Central banks risk losing their autonomy if they’re not publicly accountable over past mistakes, including playing down the risks of inflation that has punished consumers and hurt economies, Mohamed El-Erian warned. El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz SE and Bloomberg Opinion columnist, said the market doesn’t trust the Fed’s forward guidance on interest rates. ‘The marketplace itself is doubting the Fed,’ he said. Policymakers also face another challenge from financial-stability risks as interest rates rise, El-Erian said. The financial system has been ‘conditioned to live with ultra-low interest rates and abundant liquidity,’ he said. It’s unclear yet how it will operate in ‘a world of higher rates for longer.’”

    – Central banks are not publicly accountable to anyone. They’re unelected and unaccountable, wielding vast powers over U.S. (fiat) money and the economy. Their power grows after each successive financial crisis. This is a feature, not a bug. Along with the Administrative/Deep State, they are the 4th and 5th branches of government. No checks or balances here. All is proceeding according to plan. CBDCs are next.

    – The Federal Reserve System and the Federal Income Tax were both created by Progressives in the same year: 1913. Both of these are pathological to the then essentially free market economy. Now 110 years later, these Progressive policies are bearing their intended fruit.

    “The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath.” – Revelation 14:19

    “They sow the wind
    and reap the whirlwind.
    The stalk has no head;
    it will produce no flour.
    Were it to yield grain,
    foreigners would swallow it up.” – Hosea 8:7

    “I have had men watching you for a long time and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the Bank. … You are a den of vipers and thieves.” – Andrew Jackson, 1834, on closing the Second Bank of the United States; (unabridged form, extended citation)

    “The bold effort the present (central) bank had made to control the government…are but premonitions of the fate that await the American people should they be deluded into a perpetuation of this institution or the establishment of another like it.” – Andrew Jackson

    “The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.” – Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

    “The establishment of a central bank is 90% of communizing a nation.” – Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov Lenin

    The Ten Planks of the 
    Communist Manifesto
    1848 by Karl Heinrich Marx
    Plank #5:
     5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.

    “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” – George Orwell, Animal Farm

    “If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” – George Orwell, Animal Farm

    – Few. This is not taught in U.S. K-12 public schools indoctrination centers, as per Plank #10.

    1. “When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the Bank.”

      IIRC

      2007 – 2008 they hung it on the taxpayers as it will be with King Biden’s recent bank bailout guaranteeing deposits over $250k.

    2. if they’re not publicly accountable over past mistakes

      Sorry Mohamed, they didn’t make “mistakes”. They are thieves. I expect you know this.

    3. To complete the horrors of 1913, we must add the 17th Amendment, which stripped the states of their representation in Congress.

    1. James O’Keefe Questions

      Bud deserves ridicule. I’m not sure the frightened little cross-dresser deserves to be assaulted. As far as I know, he’s not a jail house rapist.

      There is something wrong with Mr. O’Keefe.

      1. Very bizarre interpretation. There was no assault, and there is nothing “wrong” with O’Keefe. He is exposing the corruption and the rot in the system.

      2. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/assault:

        Assault is generally defined as an intentional act that puts another person in reasonable apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive contact. No physical injury is required, but the actor must have intended to cause a harmful or offensive contact with the victim and the victim must have thereby been put in immediate apprehension of such a contact.

  19. No matter how many times they get caught, they just keep lying.

    Russia likely behind U.S. military document leak, U.S. officials say

    By Phil Stewart
    April 7, 20239:03 PM EDT
    Last Updated 8 days ago

    WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) – Russia or pro-Russian elements are likely behind the leak of several classified U.S. military documents posted on social media that offer a partial, month-old snapshot of the war in Ukraine, three U.S. officials told Reuters on Friday, while the Justice Department said separately it was probing the leak.

    The documents appear to have been altered to lower the number of casualties suffered by Russian forces, the U.S. officials said, adding their assessments were informal and separate from the investigation into the leak itself.

    The U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the matter and declined to discuss the documents in any detail.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/us/russia-likely-behind-us-military-document-leak-us-officials-say-2023-04-07/

    1. No mention of the Biden administration being the most deverse ever.

      “Some fear the Biden administration is losing control of our southern border; losing control of our decaying, crime-infested big cities; creating a recession; vilifying and needlessly destroying the fossil fuel industry while pushing suspect and subsidized “green” energy alternatives; leaving tens of billions of dollars in military equipment in Afghanistan while withdrawing our troops and abandoning an ally; stepping closer to a trip-wire in the Ukraine war, which could trigger a nuclear strike; turning on Israel over ideological issues as Turkey and others call on Arab and Muslim nations to unite and crush the Jewish State; weakening our military with one “woke” edict after another; focusing on “trans” issues at the expense of failing transportation infrastructure; cheerleading the social justice warrior takeover of our colleges and universities; and weakening the dollar (the currency much of the world depends upon).”

  21. Some replies on a Reddit thread titled: What is causing the general dissatisfaction with Denver recently in the public eye these days?

    “COVID killed a lot of neat little niche restaurants, breweries, shops, and other businesses. Homelessness skyrocketed and previously safe and enjoyable spaces are dirty and extremely sketchy. Lack of traffic enforcement between the initial COVID lockdowns and now police goldbricking means the roads are also way more dangerous than before.”

    “It is fentanyl and meth addiction – it is much more of new drugs impacting society and people getting addicted. There is a subculture around it. Yes there are homeless people in the system who got priced out or are temporarily homeless. The tent and burner RV dwellers are mostly white dudes who are drug addicts and embrace it as a lifestyle. This is the problem that needs to be addressed by the (nonexistent in Denver) criminal justice system.”

    “Honestly have you looked at most of the true homeless people living in tents or shitty RVs. It’s not rocket science that there’s a major drug component for that population. Perhaps statistically that’s not the majority, and I believe anyone who needs help should have access. But when I walk around Denver, the homeless I see are clearly tweaking or mentally unwell”

    “The people sleeping on the streets who make the city feel unsafe (note this definitely Isn’t all of them) wouldn’t be able to afford rent no matter how cheap it is. They’d rather commit crimes to support their habits and no amount of services/cheap housing is gonna change that.”

    ^California has entered the building.

    “Everyone I know that visits, even people from Baltimore, Atlanta, Philly, DC, say that they’ve felt more unsafe walking around downtown Denver than they usually do in their own cities which have frequently suffered from negative perceptions due to crime.”

    “I wouldn’t call Denver “scarier” than NYC, but I’ve definitely had more close calls here than I ever did back home. I walked through plenty of “sketchy” areas late at night and did plenty of “no nos”, while never being bothered or even looked at. Walking along the bike path here sometimes feels sketchier than walking across the bridge from Icahn at 11pm. Here, there’s always something. Whether it’s some nutjob yelling, acting shady, or even trying to intimidate you. There used to be a guy I’d see every single night walking around swinging a bicycle chain and calling anyone he passed a “f*got”. Maybe I just wasn’t aware of it, but it’s like folks here are out looking to cause trouble, while back home, *you had to go looking for it.”

    “I’m from Chicago and same kind of deal. The bad parts of Chicago are definitely scarier than Denver, but it doesn’t feel like Denver has good or bad parts anymore. It’s just all kind of bad. So exactly like you said, Chicago can feel safer in a way because you can avoid the scary bullshit way easier than here”

    “Walking around Philly at night feels literally nothing close to as dangerous as this. I am talking about only perception. I feel in danger walking around Denver because there are frequent and recurring sketchy events and incidents that I don’t experience in east coast cities.”

    “I think it depends on what you mean by better and worse. I’m from Baltimore and considering moving back after visiting b/c I sincerely feel more unsafe walking around/living in Denver proper than I have in Baltimore.”

    1. Sounds like a nice place to me. I mean, it has all of the qualities and attributes that liberals cherish: Letting people live “freely” and in touch with their “environment”! What’s there to complain about????

      Make some popcorn and watch this slow moving train wreck. The Democrats and libs thought that B. Hussainn was going to deliver the goods for their cause and had wet dreams over the future. Well he didn’t, but Brandon is DELIVERING! Since he really belongs in a dementia ward, the crazies in the Democrat Party are having a field day running the Oval Office. Open Borders, transgenders grooming 5 years in how to do oral sex, mandating an end to fossil fuel use, etc.

      What could possible go wrong? Remember, never interfere when the enemy is in the process of making a mistake.

    2. “COVID killed a lot of neat little niche restaurants, breweries, shops, and other businesses.

      COVID didn’t kill any of those. “Pandemic preventive measures” killed all those businesses, by design.

        1. “Don’t need a watch to waste your time”

          Chicago — Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

      2. Classic

        “Hey, what’s the matter man?
        We’re gonna come around at twelve
        With some Puerto Rican girls that are just dyin’ to meet you.
        We’re gonna bring a case of wine
        Hey, let’s go mess and fool around
        You know, like we used to”

        Aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah

    2. “Chicago — “Saturday in the Park” & “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?”

      Awesome!

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