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It’s Like A Race To The Bottom

A weekend topic starting with the Washington Examiner. “The United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit is not the only reason why cities across the West Coast have been overrun with plague-infected homeless camps, but the court is a big part of the problem. The Eighth Amendment has since been used to overturn sentences for crimes that were considered disproportionate, including life sentences for juvenile offenders. Never has the Eighth Amendment been used to invalidate a criminal statute entirely. Never, that is, until the 9th Circuit did exactly that in 2018.”

“In Martin v. Boise, the 9th Circuit held that cities were prohibited from enforcing their anti-camping statutes unless they could prove that the city had enough shelter beds available to house every homeless person in the city. Never mind that most homeless don’t want shelter — usually because they don’t want to comply with shelter rules. If there were one more homeless person in the city than beds available, not a single anti-camping citation could be given out. The homeless population was already rising before Martin, but it has exploded since then. More than half of all unsheltered homeless people now live in California alone, and Los Angeles has over 70,000 homeless people in encampments today.”

The Kitsap Sun in Washington. “When the legal decision known as Martin v. Boise, which essentially prohibits homeless sweeps if nearby shelters are not available, came out in 2018, downtown merchants urged Walla Walla’s city government to find a way to clear the homeless people outside their businesses. The city allowed the Alliance to construct a fenced area on the edge of a city park as a sanctioned encampment, where unhoused residents could set up tents. ‘Very quickly we had 60 people,’ said Chuck Hindman, the former president of the The Walla Walla Alliance for the Homeless. Homeless people liked that the police left them alone and they didn’t have to hide, he said.”

“The Alliance tried to manage the encampment itself, but ran into issues. ‘Well, we had no authority,’ said Craig Volwiler, a former board member with the Alliance who now lives in Bremerton. The Alliance couldn’t kick anyone out. If they called the police, the police wouldn’t come. Some of the more unruly people exploited the system, said Hindman. ‘It turned into a pretty much of a mess.'”

12 News in Arizona. “There’s no sugarcoating it. Things are bad in The Zone.’ It’s Phoenix’s largest homeless encampment, just blocks away from the State Capitol. The 12News I-Team started digging into reports of organized crime in the encampment, including allegations of drug deals and people being forced to pay to camp on city streets. Phoenix Police Commander Brian Freudenthal has spent nearly three decades with the Phoenix Police Department and worked in the area that includes ‘The Zone’ for most of his career, most recently as the commander of the Downtown Operations Unit.”

“BF:  I’ve worked I’ve been a police officer for almost 28 years. I worked through the crack epidemic, I worked through the meth epidemic. I’ve never seen anything like this -– the opioid epidemic is a whole other level. There were a lot of hurdles that we had to get over. I think that some of the impacts of COVID-19 truly impacted our response. And you can really see a direct correlation to that timeframe. And this can also see the correlation to the Martin v. Boise case, right? There was definitely a correlation to COVID and the response and the buildup of individuals down there during that time.“

Willamette Week in Oregon. “Last week, a photographer on assignment for The New York Times rolled up to the city’s newest tourist attraction. This was the third time cops had shepherded the Times through downtown Portland in recent years. A 2009 New York Times story headlined ‘Frugal Portland’ captured Portlanders’ ‘dedication to the things that really matter: hearty food and drink, cultural pursuits both high and low, days in the outdoors and evenings out with friends. It’s the good life, and in Portland it still comes cheap.’ Now, it’s mostly fentanyl that comes cheap. Over the past several weeks, our staff has been reviewing what others have said about us recently. Most memorable quotes: ‘One of the political cartoons after our legislative session had a person snorting cocaine out of a mountain of white. It said, ‘Which of these is illegal in Oregon?’ And the answer was the plastic straw.’ —Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike.“

“Most perceptive observation: ‘Portland will always live in Seattle’s shadow, even when the Rose City is on Fox News and Trump’s hit list. By late June, four people had been shot inside the [Seattle’s Capitol Hill Organized Protest], with two dead, while Portlanders were busy setting small fires inside garbage cans and playing Frisbee.'”

The Commercial Observer on California. “San Francisco’s commercial real estate distress reached earthquake levels in June, and the aftershocks may be felt well into the future. ‘With less commuting workers and with less tourism it brings trouble, and that trouble can be exacerbated with the higher interest rates and higher cost of capital,’ said Lu Chen, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics based in the company’s San Francisco office. ‘It has a snowball effect with people feeling less safe when they’re surrounded by less crowds when they walk on the street, and it makes some of the homelessness and public safety issues more obvious.'”

“Foot traffic in Downtown San Francisco was just 29 percent of pre-pandemic levels in June, according to cellphone data released July 3 by Apollo Global Management, which means San Francisco lags far behind other major cities like New York (71 percent), and Chicago (56 percent). The city’s office vacancy rate hit a record-high 31.8 percent in the second quarter, according to preliminary data released by CBRE in late June.”

The Desert Sun in California. “In the 12 years Francine McDougall has been renting out her central Palm Springs home on Airbnb and Vrbo, she’s never had much trouble finding people to stay there. Until now. ‘My calendar is wide open,’ she said. ‘And I’ve just never ever had that situation.’ Oscar Flink, who owns a company that manages vacation rentals for their owners, said properties he listed for $1,300 to $1,500 a night during the busy travel months of February and March in 2022 could only fetch $600 to $900 a year later. McDougall, meanwhile, said she’s been dropping her rates by about a third.

“McDougall hears from many of the other homeowners who are seeing a slowdown. She’s the administrator of a group where Coachella Valley property owners share information and discuss the industry. Recently that group has been dominated by discussion — and worry — about the rapid decline in bookings. ‘Everyone in my group is talking about no reservations, no inquiries even,’ she said. ‘Everyone’s feeling the pinch.'”

“But you don’t have to take her word for it, she says. People only need to peruse the big vacation rental sites Airbnb and Vrbo for Palm Springs listings to get a sense of how desperate some vacation rental owners have become. ‘It’s like a race to the bottom,’ she said. ‘Everyone’s dropped their nightly rate down to rates that I personally think are just not sustainable. It’s scary.'”

“When it comes to the impacts of a potential Airbnb bust, Palm Springs also appears to be far from alone. Earlier this month, CBS News reported that several popular tourism markets, including San Diego, Maui and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, have all seen a slowdown in bookings this year.Bruce Hoban, the co-founder of the vacation rental advocacy group said he thinks a lot of the current angst is driven by people who bought in when the industry was thriving last year. ‘Some people are going ‘Wow, I bought my house in 2021 and I made a fortune in 2022 and where did all the business go?’ he said. ‘2022 was an extraordinary year and they expect 2023 to be the same and it’s not.'”

“Among those disappointed new owners is Tammy Trull Skeath. She told The Desert Sun that she and her husband bought a home in the city in 2022, which she called ‘the height of the buying craze right before things went sideways with interest rates.’ Now, she said they are struggling to make enough to cover their mortgage payment, let alone make a profit and are feeling increasingly frustrated with the restrictions and taxes levied by the city.”

“‘It’s not what we expected,’ she said. ‘We always thought owning a vacation rental in Palm Springs would be a cash cow. It’s been a lot of work and hardly any cash.’ Now she says she’s hoping to eventually sell the house but currently plans to hold onto it until the real estate market improves. ‘A part of me is wondering, is this permanent?’ said McDougall. ‘Like is this the new normal for us? And if it is, then I kind of circle back to how that is going to impact property values in that a lot more people are going to be selling or being foreclosed on.'”

Smoky Mountain News in North Carolina. “In a neighborhood along Asheville’s French Broad River and abutting a residential street that includes young families, Upstream Way stands out. It’s not just because most of the homeowners live out of town but also because, neighbors say, it turns into a fraternity house-like party scene on some weekends. At least half of the houses are vacation rentals, with four accommodating parties of ’16+,’ including a ‘Bachelorette Oasis’ and a ‘Bachelor Sanctuary.’ The homes are part of a booming vacation rental industry in Buncombe County that has more than tripled in the past six years. At the same time, long-term rents in the county have soared 65%, and service workers are complaining they’re being priced out of the area.”

“In January 2017, vacation rentals in Buncombe numbered 1,555, according to AirDNA. By May 2023, that number had burgeoned to 5,466. Residents of Joyner Avenue, whose homes back up to the rentals, say they hear plenty. ‘What was a lovely, peaceful place, now there’s a hot tub in my backyard with revolving people like loud men with stinky cigars talking about women’s breasts,’ said a neighbor whose house is behind three rentals owned by people living in Florida, Texas, and Georgia. ‘Projectile vomiting bachelorettes off the back porch, that was another night.’ A homeowner adjacent to rentals described ‘noisy day-drinking all day long’ and a fraternity house atmosphere. ‘It’s not that I moved into the bar district; the bar district moved into my neighborhood,’ the homeowner said.”

“Indications are Buncombe’s supply of vacation rentals may already be at saturation point. ‘ have heard from multiple [vacation rental owners] that ‘I’m not getting as many stays or having to reduce what I charge,’ said Matt Allen, at Land of the Sky Association of Realtors. Chip Craig, owner of GreyBeard Realty based in Black Mountain, said the short-term rental market is ‘really soft just because of the increase of supply. We’re seeing people getting out of short-term rentals and moving into long terms just because the occupancy has been so low.’ Buncombe’s era of explosive growth in vacation rentals may be coming to an end.”

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This Post Has 72 Comments

  1. ‘In Martin v. Boise, the 9th Circuit held that cities were prohibited from enforcing their anti-camping statutes unless they could prove that the city had enough shelter beds available to house every homeless person in the city’

    I had never heard of this until the past week. I didn’t do any searches, you can find it in real estate searches. So this whole fooking mess was done to us by the guberment – real surprise. And the opioids – guberment isn’t doing a gotdam thing about it but handing out needles and beer money.

    1. unless they could prove that the city had enough shelter beds available to house every homeless person in the city’

      I’m not the legal eagle here, but it looks like the 9th Circuit just made up a new law on the spot.

      2. Does the same apply to federal lands? I can just camp out there unless the government provides me with free housing?

    2. Ben, I was a city manager in Oregon when this decision came down. It’s inherently flawed because once a city has more homeless than available beds, they will be hard pressed to ever catch up. Throw in the legalization of major drugs, poof—great expansion of homeless camps, and nothing they can do because not enough beds.

      1. It’s been 5 years, it’s obviously a colossal failure resulting in the deaths of thousands and harming millions of peoples lives, and I find it in a housing search in 2023. There’s no mechanism in our system to correct this? I find that hard to believe.

    3. They can’t even keep the interstates in decent repair up here in the northern part of the state. Potholes and FUBAR’d roads abound. No way they have the bandwidth to solve complex problems. By the time its finished, I expect Phoenix to look like Mogidishu. Maybe 60 year old shacks will be had for shack prices once again.

  2. BTW tomorrow I might do a part two to this topic cuz it’s the same or worse in K-da. They flood the place with African ‘refugees’, it all turns to sh$t and they say we gotta have more money and power to fix this! While bum ‘advocates’ shout for shame! These scumbags always hide behind fake moral indignation.

    1. same or worse in K-da

      My GF in Canada went “home” to Sarnia last week for a visit. She was mortified by the sudden homeless population there. Never had seen any ever before.

  3. ‘Most perceptive observation: ‘Portland will always live in Seattle’s shadow, even when the Rose City is on Fox News and Trump’s hit list. By late June, four people had been shot inside the [Seattle’s Capitol Hill Organized Protest], with two dead, while Portlanders were busy setting small fires inside garbage cans and playing Frisbee’

    I usually like the WW. This article veers into TDS yuugely. It is LONG, with lots of stuff worth reading.

  4. Wall Street Journal — Covid Censorship Proved to Be Deadly (7/7/2023):

    “Social-media platforms were powerful tools for full-spectrum censorship, but they didn’t act alone. Medical schools, medical boards, science journals and legacy media sang from the same hymnal.

    Legions of doctors stayed quiet after witnessing the demonization of their peers who challenged the Covid orthodoxy. A little censorship leads people to watch what they say. Millions of patients and citizens were deprived of important insights as a result.

    Health authorities and TV doctors insisted young people were vulnerable, demanded toddlers wear masks, closed schools, beaches and parks, and were loath to contemplate crucial cost-benefit analysis. The economy? Mental health? Never heard of them.

    These “experts” denied the protective effects of recovered immunity, a phenomenon we’ve known about since the Plague of Athens in 430 B.C. They effectively prohibited generic drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration, such as azithromycin and ivermectin, which low-income nations around the world were deploying successfully. They failed to appreciate the evolutionary dynamics of mass vaccination during a pandemic.

    The U.S. government spent $6 trillion to buoy its shuttered economy, and most people got Covid anyway.”

    https://archive.vn/FXxfN

    #MedicalGenocide

    1. Covid Censorship Proved to Be Deadly (7/7/2023)

      I was saying that 2 years ago WSJ, while you were worshiping that murdering rat-bashtard Fauci.

  5. ‘she and her husband bought a home in the city in 2022, which she called ‘the height of the buying craze right before things went sideways with interest rates.’ Now, she said they are struggling to make enough to cover their mortgage payment, let alone make a profit …’It’s not what we expected,’ she said. ‘We always thought owning a vacation rental in Palm Springs would be a cash cow. It’s been a lot of work and hardly any cash’

    Yer a toilet scrubbing FB Tammy.

    ‘Now she says she’s hoping to eventually sell the house but currently plans to hold onto it until the real estate market improves’

    That’s more like it Tammy, don’t give it away, don’t screw up the comps!

    1. Also BTW, I don’t bother with the STR ‘debate’ much cuz I’ve seen this movie before. It always ends in tears.

    2. “‘We always thought owning a vacation rental in Palm Springs would be a cash cow.”

      Same old story, just give me a no brainer road to riches because work is for suckers.

      Denninger laid into the STR bubble the other day:
      https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=249261

      ‘In a bubble economy, where the government is pressing new credit into the hands of the public, directly and indirectly, every business plan looks good.

      When the impact of that action turns back into inflation, and it always does, wherever that inflation shows up ultimately detonates every one of those firms.
      …
      The same sort of crap went on with the so-called “short-term rental” arbitrage market — AirBNB and VRBO, to name two of several. The embedded costs in this, including the platform fees, cleaning charges that someone has to eat between guests and similar, along with the pure arbitrage nature of these transactions in that the places being rented are neither built or maintained to commercial occupancy standards is obvious. This looks like a good deal but it only is due to inflationary credit creation; the business model is inherently bankrupt as the overhead exceeds that, by quite a bit, of a hotel or other lodging arrangement if the arbitrage and overhead costs are not available to be hidden via said credit creation. The belief in “free” feeds back into property prices which results in a further inflationary price spiral — this time in the acquisition price of said properties.

      The problem here is that such a price spiral in what is otherwise residential housing drives out the capacity of all the lower-wage-earning service providing people that every area that has said tourists and other buyers of that service must support in order to exist. Nobody is going to come to a place to hike, sun themselves, swim in the ocean or fish on the lake if they can’t fill their tank with gasoline to return home because the gas station can’t hire anyone at a reasonable wage and they can’t buy a beer after recreating or get some food because both the bars and restaurants can’t manage to hire anyone at a wage that supports them living in the immediate area. When that squeeze continues for a while you no longer have an employment base available for said people and now a beer in said bar is $20, nobody buys any and the bar goes out of business. This is shortly followed by all the so-called “AirBNB miracles” going out of business since nobody will come if they can’t get the beer or the steak.’

      1. That is a good synopsis.

        What would be a good way to manage such issues? Maybe we could create specific zones for things and try to maintain a balance. Perhaps we could call it ‘zoning’ or something. I dunno, just spitballin’ here.

        1. a good way to manage such issues?

          Just stop “helping”.

          Your help, subsidy, management and all cause distortions and instability.

  6. ‘It has a snowball effect with people feeling less safe when they’re surrounded by less crowds when they walk on the street, and it makes some of the homelessness and public safety issues more obvious’…Foot traffic in Downtown San Francisco was just 29 percent of pre-pandemic levels in June’

    On the bright side yer lamp posts are the most resistant to bum urine Lu. They’re not actually but it’s a good story.

    1. You should do some hits on Ookland. Their 911 service is almost completely broken yet they just voted to raise the mayors salary by 75k/year while making cuts to everything else. She didn’t even ask for it and hasn’t even been on the job a year yet. Meanwhile, the city is swirling the bowl. The incompetence on display around the bay area is jaw dropping. SF doesn’t deserve all of the attention. 🙂

      1. Meanwhile, the city is swirling the bowl.

        It’s like they are applying the South Africa template: gift everything you can while the everything goes to hades in a handbasket

      2. We all really want to believe but rumor has it that is not Mr. Pence in the video. Realistically the SS would have swarmed that girl.

    2. Treason.

      My greatest hope for Ukraine is that the Russians capture Zelensky and his skank wife ALIVE.

    3. What a surprise, not seeing any mention of this in MSM, no doubt because they hope Pence will siphon off Trump or DeSantis votes.

  8. Ont. residents raise concerns over growing homeless encampment and rise of violence
    CTV News
    Jul 14, 2023
    Residents raised concerns about crime and safety at a Thursday meeting. CTV’s Stefanie Davis gets reaction from Mayor Jan Ligett.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brIw5SudUaE

    3:26. “I’ve had my door kicked in” “countless overdoses”

  9. you have to change your lifestyle, my problem was i would never pay full price $5 for a half gallon of ice cream but 2 for 1 it was in my freezer…..probably a learned behavior from my mother…..managers special,50% off that’s what is for dinner tonight. So instead of ice cream its yogurt with fresh strawberries blueberries bananas. ….

    But if any of you need some tough love for whatever reason regarding excess heft you might be lugging around, here it is:

    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2023-07-13/surprise-surprise-right-your-eyes-miracle-weight-loss-drug-not-so-miraculous

    2. ozempic has terrible side effects, and half of the “weight” that you lose is muscle.

      of course, the best diet is low-carb, probably keto, with prolonged fasting. BTW, it costs the same as a regular diet.

      3. My wife, against my advice, decided to listen to her doctor and take this while undergoing chemo (Lymphoma and Type2 diabetes). 24 hours later we were in the ER. It gave her a terrible painful rash over ever inch of her body. She’s back on her old medication.

        Doctors reaction? “Well maybe now’s not the time to change”.

      4. Eli Lilly and Company, Pharmaceutical company headquarters in Alcobendas, Madrid, Spain.

        Is there a good reason for your headquarters in Spain?

  10. “I kind of circle back to how that is going to impact property values in that a lot more people are going to be selling or being foreclosed on.”

    Bingo! Many FBs think that if they don’t sell, then the price of their shack will be there when they do want to sell. What happens though is when 10 percent of shacks each year turn over, those set the market, and as those sell and then new distressed properties hit the market, it continues the downward pressure on prices.

    1. It won’t be that orderly. Because at some point panic kicks in. Then it’s “run for the exits” time.

  11. “Projectile vomiting bachelorettes…”

    You got the makings of a great band name there! Go PVB!!

  12. Fox Business
    Economy
    Published July 15, 2023 7:00am EDT
    The San Francisco real estate market is a ‘disaster,’ expert says
    San Francisco residential real estate ‘is dead, commercial is deader,’ Dolly Lenz added
    By Madeline Coggins FOXBusiness
    Dolly Lenz Real Estate CEO Dolly Lenz and managing director Jenny Lenz analyze the New York, Florida and San Francisco real estate markets on ‘The Claman Countdown.’ video
    San Francisco’s real estate market is a ‘disaster’: Dolly Lenz

    The Golden City has been no stranger to the volatile housing market, but one New York City real estate powerhouse led by mother-daughter team Dolly and Jenny Lenz warns San Francisco is now a “disaster” for the industry.

    “It was once the jewel and the crown. San Francisco was our personal favorite city, our clients’ favorite city. The jewel and the crown is a disaster,” Dolly Lenz Real Estate CEO Dolly Lenz said on “The Claman Countdown” Thursday.

    “Several huge hoteliers have given back the keys to the lenders” Dolly added. “They just said, You know what, I give up. I paid a billion and a half. You gave me a $700 million loan. I can’t afford to make the payments, and you’re not going to refinance.”
    …
    https://www.foxbusiness.com/real-estate/san-francisco-real-estate-market-disaster-expert

    1. There’s an irrefutable truth in that last paragraph. Many make the assumption that property owners want to hang on to their property and will do whatever it takes keep it, like working with a lender. So not true. During the last bust there were plenty of lenders willing to work with borrowers. But the borrowers didn’t want it. Why would they? They want to get off the sinking ship, not remain strapped to it! So much of this happened last time on the residential level. When we think of foreclosures we imagine folks being pulled out of their homes kicking and screaming. That’s not the way of it these days. Borrowers willingly mail in the keys!

      1. This is a good point and there are many many reasons that this occurs. If we could have access to real-time data we would probably see that there are already large inventories of properties that have been abandoned but have yet to go through the process.

        I can’t help but wonder how some of these marginal areas that have been invaded by actual zombies are going to fare. At a certain point it isn’t even worth the cost of mailing the keys.

  13. Nearly half of California residents are considering leaving the state, a poll finds. Many cite the cost of living as the main reason why.
    Itzel Luna
    USA TODAY

    Most Californians love living in California, but many are also considering moving to another state.

    A new statewide poll found 70% of respondents expressed high levels of happiness with living in California and applaud the state for its diversity. But 4 in 10 Californians are considering moving out of state, with the majority saying it’s too expensive to live there.

    California has had three consecutive years of population declines, according to U.S. Census data.

    “The state’s culture and diversity have proved to be a very powerful magnet to keep a lot of people here, even despite the affordability challenges,” said Dan Schnur, a communications professor at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Berkeley, who was an adviser on the poll. “But as the cost of living continues to be a greater challenge, it’s logical to assume that the allure of moving to a more affordable location is going to continue to grow.”
    …
    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/06/28/california-population-decline-costs-of-living-state/70363036007/

    1. I was a fourth generation Southern Californian. Lived there the first 29 years of my life. But for me, for the last 25 years of my life it’s just been a great place to visit. And that will never change.

  15. I’ve traveled and stayed overnights in Asheville nc for 30 years for work. I still don’t get why people think the place is so great. It’s ok at best. It’s almost like someone says: This is the new cool place….and the sheep show up!

    1. I was in Asheville in late fall 2019. I was surprised at how … rundown … the place looked. And the streets were kinda dead too, no homeless or tourists or workers walking around. Nobody was drinking craft coffees in mid-afternoon. Later that week I went to Gatlinburg and it was packed with tourists.

      1. Funny story, The Great Smoky Mtn Nat’l Park (between Asheville and Gatlinburg) is the most visited Nat’l Park in the country. It is run by a negro gentleman named Cassius Cash. Incidentally he is the highest paid park ranger in the nation (200k-ish) but decries the lack of park funding since it has always been free to enter. In TN state law forbids charging for state parks or blocking travel on our highways. So Cassius Cash (being all about the cash) decided to implement a parking fee so that if you stop anywhere in the park you need a parking pass. Good luck figuring out where to get one or actually being able to find a spot when you want to stop but if you do stop you will be fined big bucks if they catch you without a pass. I’ll leave it to the readers imagination as to where all this fresh cash is actually going.

  16. The Biden Adminstration has declared that the US should lead in the One World Order and that Transgenders are the soul of the Nation. That the Government can mandate vaccines, and a President has the authority to pay down student debt. That the Government can override the First Amendment and obstruct free speech. That the Government can stop the Tennessee ban on minors having sex change operations.
    Biden is using public tax funds to assert Government power . Biden is illegally transferring power to the UN by Treaty to override all Constitutional protections and Amendments. Biden is allowing a US Border Invasion. The Democrate are trying to assert that every Black gets 5 million in raparations claiming thats how much more they would be ahead each had it not been for slavery 165 years ago. This assertion is in spite of fact that that average wealth of US Citizens is 46 thousand to pass down and they didnt benefit by 5 million.
    And we are suppose to believe that Biden got about 82 million votes, more than any President, and half the Country are enemy of the State terrorists.
    And Climate Change fraud and Panademics are being used to literally take over the World, and enslave the Worlds populations by a small group of unelected Private Parties in collusion with global Governments.
    Covid Panademic launched the take over, and the rigged 2020 election to put Puppets in to advance the One World Order/ Great Reset take over.
    Humanity globally can’t comply with the biggest power grab by powers that want to enslave humanity and take all freedoms and it evident that mass genocide is part of the agenda

  17. ‘My calendar is wide open,’ she said. ‘And I’ve just never ever had that situation.’

    Die, speculator scum.

  18. ‘It’s like a race to the bottom,’ she said. ‘Everyone’s dropped their nightly rate down to rates that I personally think are just not sustainable. It’s scary.’”

    Au contraire – it’s amusing. The sooner the housing speculator scum are forced to liquidate, the better.

    1. dropped their nightly rate down to rates that I personally think are just not sustainable.

      Apparently you paid too much for the shack.

  19. ‘Some people are going ‘Wow, I bought my house in 2021 and I made a fortune in 2022 and where did all the business go?’ he said. ‘2022 was an extraordinary year and they expect 2023 to be the same and it’s not.’”

    The Fed created $4 trillion in Yellen Bux funny money out of thin air & pumped it into the financial system during the scamdemic. To anyone paying attention, that kind of financial crack cocaine was never sustainable. Those who bought during Peak Housing Bubble 2.0 deserve every bit of the rectal trauma they’re about to experience.

    1. So by the Buffett rule, since everyone agrees we are headed for a soft landing and the sky is the only limit to stock prices, I should dump my HODLings and hide in the bunker.

      Does that sound about right?

      1. “Does that sound about right?”

        Once prices are high enough gravity’s pull will weaken, and it’s off to the moon!

      2. The Motley Fool
        Nervous About the Stock Market? Here’s Warren Buffett’s Life-Changing Investing Advice
        By Katie Brockman – Jul 15, 2023 at 5:15AM
        Key Points

        – The stock market has been soaring, but a recession might still be around the corner.

        – Despite volatility, it’s not necessarily a bad time to invest.

        – There’s one secret to keeping your money safe during a recession.

        – Motley Fool Issues Rare “All In” Buy Alert

        You’re reading a free article with opinions that may differ from The Motley Fool’s Premium Investing Services. Become a Motley Fool member today to get instant access to our top analyst recommendations, in-depth research, investing resources, and more. Learn More

        If you’re confused about the market or worried about a recession, Buffett’s words can calm your fears.

        The last few years have been a wild ride for the stock market, and if you’re feeling conflicted about investing right now, you’re not alone.

        Last month, researchers at Deutsche Bank made headlines for noting that they believe there’s a “near 100%” chance the U.S. will face a recession in 2023. At the same time, though, major market indexes like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq have been surging, leading many to claim that we’re in the early stages of a new bull market.

        All of this opposing information can make it a daunting time to invest. If a recession is around the corner, it may be tempting to stay out of the market for now. But if we really are in a new bull market, not investing now could be a missed opportunity.

        Fortunately, legendary investor Warren Buffett has some wise words for times like these.

        Should you invest in the stock market right now?

        When the market is volatile and the economy feels unstable, it’s easy to get caught up in the short-term ups and downs. But according to Buffett, the most intimidating periods are often the best times to invest.

        Back in 2008, at the height of the Great Recession, Buffett wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times to help reassure nervous investors.

        “A simple rule dictates my buying,” he writes in the article. “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. And most certainly, fear is now widespread, gripping even seasoned investors.”
        …
        https://www.fool.com/investing/2023/07/15/nervous-about-the-stock-market-heres-warren-buffet/

        1. Do you notice how the writer used a quote from the height of panic in 2008 to mischaracterize the status quo?

          Here are some suggestions:

          – Ignore the advice of motley fools who offer to take your money in exchange for more foolish advice.

          – Stick around here if you want the regulars to inform you when we are in panic mode.

          – At the moment, stock market investors are very complacent, and fools are advising to go all in: ‘Motley Fool Issues Rare “All In” Buy Alert”‘

          – It’s a good time to take chips off the table before the next CR8R event, not during.

  22. Khanna: We Spend Billions on Defense, But Are Running Out of Ammo, ‘Where Is This Money Going?’

    IAN HANCHETT1
    5 Jul 2023

    On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) stated that it makes no sense that we spend billions of dollars on defense every year but we have managed to run out of the ammunition that we give to Ukraine after a year of war and that this shows that there is a clear lack of accountability over where the money we spend in the defense budget ends up going.

    Khanna said, “Well, the first thing we have to also understand is the spending. Let’s be clear, Jim, we are being gouged by defense contractors in terms of the — what taxpayers are being charged. Here’s the question I have: We have almost a trillion-dollar defense budget, and we can’t make enough artillery to give to Ukraine? We’ve had this war for almost a year and we’ve run out of money to have sufficient artillery in terms of steel? Of the top 15 companies, nine of them are in China, not one in the United States. Where is this money going? We need accountability, and we need to be building the industrial base and actually having things that are going to strengthen our national security.”

    https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2023/07/15/khanna-we-spend-billions-on-defense-but-are-running-out-of-ammo-where-is-this-money-going/

  24. ‘It has a snowball effect with people feeling less safe when they’re surrounded by less crowds when they walk on the street, and it makes some of the homelessness and public safety issues more obvious’

    I used to enjoy walking around CBD’s when they were quiet.

  25. “‘It’s not what we expected,’ she said. ‘We always thought owning a vacation rental in Palm Springs would be a cash cow. It’s been a lot of work and hardly any cash.’ Now she says she’s hoping to eventually sell the house but currently plans to hold onto it until the real estate market improves. ‘A part of me is wondering, is this permanent?’ said McDougall. ‘Like is this the new normal for us?”

    And these Einstein’s get to vote!

    1. “We always thought owning a vacation rental in Palm Springs would be a cash cow.”

      She says, “we thought…” when it didn’t yield. If it was productive she would have likely said, “I knew a vacation rental…” 🙂

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