thehousingbubble@gmail.com
Blog

The Things Formerly Known As Crimes

A weekend topic starting with Denver 7 in Colorado. “Community advocates on Thursday shared mixed feelings about Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s plan for nearly a dozen potential sites across the metro area to house 1,000 homeless by the end of the year. Lisa Calderón, who ran for mayor in 2023 and now serves as a representative for the Latino United Neighborhood Association (LUNA), said we need to carefully consider where these sites are placed. ‘I think there is a concern we are moving [people] from broken down tents to glorified boxes. There’s this myth that just because you’re poor you should all be huddled together. In actuality, when you integrate people into the neighborhoods is when we see better outcomes,’ said Calderón.”

The Arizona Republic. “Phoenix-area advocacy groups issued a statement opposing the arrest of an advocate for people experiencing homelessness during Wednesday’s clearout of a block of ‘The Zone,’ Phoenix’s largest homeless encampment. Sophia Dancel of Unsheltered Phoenix was arrested during the city’s clearing operation of Ninth Avenue south of Jackson Street. Police say she was booked under preliminary charges for trespassing and resisting arrest. Dancel was released later in the afternoon that same day.”

“In a joint statement, 11 local organizations called for those charges to be dropped. The groups that issued the statement were Mass Liberation AZ, Black Phoenix Organizing Collective, Fund for Empowerment, BLMPhxMetro, Poder in Action, Fuerte Arts Movement, Cihuapactli Collective, Unemployed Workers United, Housing Initiative Project AZ, Chispa and White People Against White Supremacy. Coverage of housing insecurity on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Arizona Community Foundation.”

KXAN in Texas. “The Homeless Student Assistance Fund, once known as the Public School Energy Assistance Fund, increased in the number of donations and donors after a vital name change made earlier this year. The money in the fund, which is made up of donations from Austinites through their utility bill, will go to eight school districts in the Austin area to help students who do not have a permanent home and are facing obstacles. In 2013, the City of Austin Utilities started the Public School Energy Assistance Fund. It was added along with the existing Customer Assistance Program and the newly named Parks and Libraries Fund, which used to be called the Tree Planting Program Fund. In February of this year, the fund was changed to the homeless student assistance program and saw immediate success in its first month. The number of donations and donors increased by 50 percent.”

Fox 13 in Florida. “The SunRunner, the bus that shuttles riders between downtown St. Pete and St. Pete Beach, has been free since it launched last October, but the days of getting a free ride are coming to en end. Beginning Oct. 1 riders will have to start paying $2.25, one month before there was supposed to be a fare. ‘They [shoppers] were being accosted,’ Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri explained. ‘They were being hit up. They were being harassed. We started getting complaints about people sleeping on the beach. We’re getting complaints from families that this is not OK. As you’re walking down the beach access and there are showers there where you can rinse off your feet when you come off the sand, and there are people there naked, urinating and defecating when they’re trying to take their kids off the beach. That’s not OK. So, it was a huge quality of life and public safety issue.'”

ABC Action News in Florida. “It’s an issue that happens more than some may think—students facing homelessness while trying to balance school. However, a new prevention program aims to help be the solution to the problem. Pathways to Hope is funded by the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County and run by Metropolitan Ministries in partnership with Hillsborough County Schools and the Hispanic Services Council.”

The Spokeman Review in Washington. “A legal challenge to an anti-homeless camping initiative set to appear on Spokane’s November ballot was thrown out Wednesday by a Spokane County Superior Court judge. Judge Tony Hazel denied a request for injunctive relief from Spokane Low Income Housing Consortium Executive Director Ben Stuckart and Jewels Helping Hands, the service provider led by Julie Garcia that once managed Camp Hope. The plaintiffs had filed suit earlier this month against Brian Hansen, the lawyer leading an effort to ban camping within 1,000 feet of schools, day cares, parks and playgrounds.”

“The lawsuit had also argued Hansen’s proposal would violate federal court rulings if it became law and likely would be overturned. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2018 ruled that cities can’t ban camping on all public property unless they can offer campers a bed. The court found that criminalizing people for being homeless was cruel and unusual punishment, and violated the Eighth Amendment. Hazel acknowledged that decision, Martin v. Boise, could create enforcement issues for the initiative if passed. But Hazel added that it would be ‘improper for the court’ to rule on such matters prior to the election.”

“Mayor Nadine Woodward’s re-election campaign has for weeks demanded Stuckart and Jewels Helping Hands disclose the source of funding for the legal challenge. ‘Ben Stuckart and Julie Garcia must step into the sunshine and tell citizens who is bankrolling their lawsuit to block the citizens from voting on the protection of our children,’ Woodward wrote in a Aug. 10 campaign press release. Legal fees for the plaintiffs were paid by the Spokane Community Against Racism PAC, Stuckart wrote in a text shortly before Wednesday’s hearing. The political action committee’s only fundraising this year has been a $10,000 contribution by the Smith-Barbieri Progressive Fund.”

National Public Radio. “Needle exchange workers in Western Washington noticed a surprising trend recently: Far fewer people wanted needles. The Public Health – Seattle & King County syringe exchange saw their distribution drop by about half between 2021 and 2022, according to officials. One of the biggest changes has been in the way drugs are used. While the majority of people with opioid use disorder used to inject drugs like heroin, many are now smoking fentanyl and other powerful drugs, like methamphetamine. That means they don’t need needles; they need pipes. At Sound Pathways, outreach worker Joe Dugan said the addition of clean smoking supplies to that organization’s repertoire was a necessary shift. ‘We have to adapt, and then be able to be there to engage in that conversation with them,’ Dugan said. ‘If needles aren’t doing it, and more people are smoking, we need to bridge that gap.'”

KOMO in Washington. “Work began Wednesday morning to dismantle and remove the illegal homeless encampment on Mercer Street in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood. The encampment was the scene of a huge fire last week that sent a plume of smoke over downtown Seattle. In March, the body of a 66-year-old woman was found in the encampment. Investigators believe the woman was strangled and her body was left in the encampment for up to four days. ‘They are causing havoc, they are endangering people’s lives, they are starting fires. They want to be able to do drugs, they want the freedom to be drunk, they want to do whatever they want,'” said Cameron Scott, a manager at the apartments. ‘This state gives out things left and right and a lot of people are eligible for them, you just have to be willing to accept them.'”

Fox News on California. “Change may be in the offing in a city that’s infamous for its homeless street camping and poop map. San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Wednesday accused the homeless coalition of holding the city ‘hostage for decades.’ London made those comments while joining a crowd of more than 200 people who had gathered outside the federal courthouse to urge the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to cancel a federal judge’s order banning the city from clearing tent encampments until there are more shelter beds than homeless individuals. ‘The homeless coalition has held San Francisco hostage for decades. It is time for their reign to end,’ Breed said, noting that the city has spent billions of dollars to help homeless people.”

NBC Bay Area in California. “At 8:30 a.m., Jeffrey Kwong of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club kicked off the first rally in support of the injunction against the city. ‘Mayor Breed needs to do her job. Mayor Breed is failing our city and failing our homeless,’ Kwong said. Representatives from the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, the ACLU of Northern California and a series of political clubs took part in urging the city to not resort to homeless sweeps.”

“‘This city is being taken advantage of and we are tired of it,’ Breed said. ‘We are compassionate, we are supportive, we will continue to help people, but this is not the way,’ she added.”

Daily Mail on California. “Shocking video has emerged of a woman being pistol-whipped and dragged across gravel by two thugs in Democrat-led Oakland as the city grapples with a surging crime wave. The attack happened on Wednesday August 16, 6.15pm on International Boulevard, and left the unidentified woman with severe injuries, police investigating in the East Bay city said. Footage shows the woman being confronted by two men who try to grab several items from her, including her purse, before she’s violently struck with the gun. She is then seen falling to the ground before being pulled along by her purse as both men rifle through her pockets. The attackers are both on the run and the woman’s condition as of Tuesday is unknown.”

“Bruce Vuong, a Vietnamese national who owns an autoshop blocks from where the woman was brutalized, compared the area to his country during its infamous war. Ironically, the neighborhood is already named Little Saigon. ‘Oakland has become a warzone,’ Vuong, who has owned and operated Quality Tech Automotive Shop on International for 35 years, told ABC’s local affiliate. ‘I seen crime that I thought when I left Vietnam I wouldn’t see anymore,’ he told the station.”

From Cal-Matters. “While California has a long, sad history of poorly thought-out laws often passed for reasons of ideology, there is no way state legislators can pretend after passage that they weren’t warned about the current SB 553, the brainchild of Silicon Valley state Sen. Dave Cortese, a Democrat. His measure, which had a committee hearing just three days after a flash mob of 30 or more men and women pulled a snatch-and-grab robbery of a Nordstrom store in the Westfield Topanga Mall in the Canoga Park section of Los Angeles, passed the Senate on a 29-8 vote as a worker safety measure.”

“It aims to prohibit employers from requiring workers, even security personnel, to confront active suspected shoplifters. This, of course, raised the question of why any store would hire security folks if they can’t be expected to confront thieves they’ve caught in the act. Why also have security cameras making videos in stores? Why not just give everything away?”

“Cortese says his bill aims to protect retail employees from violence by relieving them of any responsibility to confront thieves, even if that’s the job they were hired for. ‘With growing awareness of workplace violence,’ he said, ‘California needs smarter guidelines to keep workers safe…’ He notes all employers would be required to train every worker on how to react to active shoplifting. ‘Let’s take every step to prevent another workplace assault or shooting,’ he added.”

The New York Post. “Welcome to the new New York. The Big Apple’s spiraling drug crisis has reached a new low, with depravity across the city so commonplace, a glass-eyed junkie can stand in the middle of a Midtown sidewalk on a weekday morning for five long minutes — with a needle jutting out of his scab-covered arm. The horrific example played out Wednesday around 11 a.m. on West 37th Street, where the man stood motionless with a needle jabbed into his vein, as passersby so numb to it all blithely maneuvered around him.”

“Even junkies such as Abraham Hwang, 32, can clearly see how grim the drug crisis has become in New York City, which he said is ‘at the climax’ of the epidemic. ‘I thought Long Island was bad,’ said Hwang — who recently moved to the Big Apple with the hope of getting clean. ‘My addiction definitely got worse here,’ he said, plunging a needle into his neck to get his fix in front of a vacant storefront in the middle of West 36th Street. On Wednesday, junkies later were spotted across the street from where the man with the needle in his arm stood, in front of a health center run by the nonprofit Housing Works, which provides clean syringes to addicts as part of its controversial ‘harm reduction’ services.”

From Fox News. “Hundreds of New Yorkers protested NYC’s plan to turn a former school into a migrant shelter as the city continues to battle an overflow of asylum seekers with limited resources. Parents took to the streets outside Staten Island’s St. John Villa Academy to rally against the move, citing concerns surrounding public safety, since it would ultimately position the site near multiple schools in the area. A large banner over the protest site read ‘NO F—ING WAY!'”

The Boston Globe in Massachusetts. “A new plan by the Wu administration to remove homeless people from the streets in the Mass. and Cass area by opening a ‘safe sleeping space’ nearby is being met with stiff opposition from South End residents who fear such a move would push the chaos of the open air illicit drug market into their neighborhood. Encampments continue to pop up around Mass. and Cass, with ramshackle shelters offering a reprieve from the elements for homeless people while providing a space concealed from law enforcement for opioid and sex trades.”

“Multiple people wondered aloud: Why couldn’t the city find another spot to host the 30 individuals? ‘This is ridiculous,’ said state Representative John Moran, his voice rising. ‘I’ve had it. We’re not putting a fourth shelter in the South End.’ David Stone added: ‘This is going to be a disaster for the South End neighborhood.’ ‘We are tired of Band-Aids,” said George Stergios, another resident. ‘This is another Band-Aid.'”

The Canadian Press. “Crystal Plume sits in the shade of a tree near a busy intersection in downtown Sudbury and carefully injects fentanyl into a vein on the back of her hand before licking the speck of blood left behind. The 36-year-old who regularly panhandles in the northern Ontario city says her substance use disorder has worsened in recent years and she’s lost many friends to opioid overdoses. ‘Before there used to be the drunks, the winos, but you don’t see those anymore,’ says Plume. ‘Everyone is using drugs now. It’s the fastest and easiest way to numb your pain. I was only smoking at first, now I smash it.'”

The Coeur d’Alene Press. “[SARCASM LOCK ON] Reclaim Idaho has a brilliant plan to deal with Idaho’s drug, crime, and homelessness problems while making housing more affordable for everyone. Remember that Reclaim brought us Medicaid Expansion that they promised would cost $350 million but it performed three times better and now costs about a billion dollars a year. Yippee!”

“Reclaim’s plan is elegantly simple: officially create the Uniparty by outlawing political parties, implement a Jungle Primary and use Ranked Choice Voting. Our intellectual betters at Reclaim know that using our current arcane system where political parties nominate candidates to run for office and are elected using one man one vote produces results progressives find unacceptable; they lose. They also know that everywhere this plan has been implemented progressive Democrats are quickly elected, turning cities and states from red to a fabulous shade of blue. After all, progressive Democrats are the best and smartest; seriously, just ask them.”

“How will this fix our drug, crime and homelessness problem? These are only problems because troglodyte conservatives think they are. If we just say they don’t exist then that becomes the new reality and poof, problem solved. Sure, the things formerly known as crimes will increase by a tiny fraction, maybe three to eight times, but since they are no longer crimes the crime statistics will drop and the local media will tell you what to believe. Besides what better way to start your day then with the bracing scent of human feces when stepping over a comatose fentanyl addict as you sip your non-fat soy latte through your mask while walking to work because you can’t afford gas. You don’t even have to close your eyes to imagine you are in Seattle or San Francisco.”

“Once they have defined crime as no longer a problem, that tiny minority of conservative voters (only 58%) will pack up and go, probably to Florida, and so will the tourists, leaving lots of homes on the market and emptying hotels. Houses will finally be affordable and the hotels can house all the immigrants to our new sanctuary state. We will all be global citizens of a world without borders.”

“The big advantage to this system is that it’s absolutely accurate, fair and honest. We know this because the results are the dominion of the big computer and cannot be audited so you can’t prove election fraud. Individual counties cannot be separately tallied because which of your four votes gets counted depends on how everybody else in the state votes so all that can happen is to re-run all the ballots through the big computer again and get exactly the same results…perfection.”

“We know from the 2020 election that even though there is corruption at nearly every level of government, elections are the one realm that is perfectly accurate everywhere. You can rest assured that our elections are fair and honest because if anyone protests or even says otherwise they will be charged with election interference or racketeering, arrested and thrown in jail. Nobody is above the law.”

“[SARCASM LOCK OFF] Reclaim Idaho is circulating petitions to put an initiative (a new law) on the ballot that removes party primaries and implements a Ranked Choice Voting scheme. If you sign the petition your name and personal information will become part of a progressive Democrat database for future use. Reclaim claims to be a grassroots organization but during the Medicaid expansion effort, out of state Soros funded PACs spent nearly $500,000 hiring paid signature gatherers. You can expect the same this time. Don’t let Boise turn into San Francisco. If approached to sign the petition, decline to sign.”

Related Posts
This Post Has 139 Comments

    1. 6th Avenue Freeway underpass near the electrical supply house downtown:

      https://ibb.co/HgXGmSg

      And a close-up of their sign “honk if you wish you were homeless”

      https://ibb.co/n6VJCY6

      Across the street from this (sorry, no photo) is a sprawling rat’s nest of tents and garbage and stolen bicycles that the city cleaned up a month ago, and it’s all back now.

      Decriminalize fentanyl and meth, and this is what you get.

      2. Honk if you wish you were homeless

        Are there any real statistics out there as to how and why these people are homeless? I don’t mean cherry-picked anecdotes from homeless advocates, clickbait journalism, stock phrases like “not enough housing,” or inarticulate lies from the homeless themselves. I mean real statistics — how many are there, how many on each drug, and did they come from another state. Then bin them into categories: how many are employed but struggling, how many are employable, how many can become employable with some rehab, how many can survive in a halfway house with babysitting, and how many are lost causes. Target any aid accordingly.

        1. Fentanyl gets all the media attention because of the fatal overdoses, but I think the bigger problem is METH.

          Tweakers stay awake for days at a time with no motivation to do anything but steal. Most of them are irredeemable, no amount of rehab or therapy can repair them.

          Time to bring back the war on drugs, years long mandatory sentences, and for dealers, the death penalty.

          1. Tweakers stay awake for days at a time with no motivation to do anything but steal. Most of them are irredeemable, no amount of rehab or therapy can repair them.

            I DESPISE tweakers. They are useless garbage. Long time ago I responded to an ad for firewood. I showed up to a large farm and the guy I was supposed to meet was not there. I waited a few minutes and a really old man came out, who turned out to be the grandfather of the guy who placed the ad. I told him I was there for the firewood. He said he wasn’t selling firewood. I told him the guy’s name I was there to meet and he said it was his grandson trying to sell grandpa’s firewood for drug money.

            The grandfather said that his daughter – the kid’s mom – lived in the house across the street, to go over there and talk to her. I decided to go knock on the door since I was kind of annoyed that I wasted my time on this whole drama. A woman opens the door and she looked like an extra from The Walking Dead. I asked her if the son was there and she said she hadn’t seen him for a few hours. I told her the story and she basically said “so?” She and her son were tweakers ripping off her dad and his grandpa. Total filth. I felt bad for the grandpa.

        2. “…how many are employable…”

          Those motorhome hobos are likely working, and they’re lucid enough to maintain an HGV license. Silicon Valley workers who live in the central valley (Modesto, Stockton, etc. ) sometimes buy a motorhome, and park it near work. Friday evening, they get a chance to count how many kids they’re supporting.

  2. ‘In a joint statement, 11 local organizations called for those charges to be dropped. The groups that issued the statement were Mass Liberation AZ, Black Phoenix Organizing Collective, Fund for Empowerment, BLMPhxMetro, Poder in Action, Fuerte Arts Movement, Cihuapactli Collective, Unemployed Workers United, Housing Initiative Project AZ, Chispa and White People Against White Supremacy. Coverage of housing insecurity on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Arizona Community Foundation’

    Says it all.

  3. ‘That means they don’t need needles; they need pipes. At Sound Pathways, outreach worker Joe Dugan said the addition of clean smoking supplies to that organization’s repertoire was a necessary shift. ‘We have to adapt, and then be able to be there to engage in that conversation with them,’ Dugan said. ‘If needles aren’t doing it, and more people are smoking, we need to bridge that gap’

    Those who say you get what you vote for, look in the mirror: yer paying for this. We all are. Not least of which is tax deductible non-profit commies.

    ‘The Homeless Student Assistance Fund, once known as the Public School Energy Assistance Fund, increased in the number of donations and donors after a vital name change made earlier this year. The money in the fund, which is made up of donations from Austinites through their utility bill, will go to eight school districts in the Austin area to help students who do not have a permanent home and are facing obstacles. In 2013, the City of Austin Utilities started the Public School Energy Assistance Fund. It was added along with the existing Customer Assistance Program and the newly named Parks and Libraries Fund, which used to be called the Tree Planting Program Fund. In February of this year, the fund was changed to the homeless student assistance program and saw immediate success in its first month’

    1. “The money in the fund, which is made up of donations from Austinites through their utility bill, will go to eight school districts in the Austin area to help students who do not have a permanent home and are facing obstacles.”

      Is that something Austin utility customers choose to add to their bill voluntarily, or is it compulsory?

      1. It’s probably added in and you can opt out. Of course are probably unaware, so they don’t opt out.

        Here in the Centennial state they add a $29 fee to auto license renewal and you get an annual pass to all the state parks. You can opt out and save the $29, but it’s already included in the renewal.

    2. Anarcho-tyranny

      Thugs can attack you or your business and the cops will shrug and say there’s nothing they can do. But if you accidentally do something “wrong” they are all over you like a cheap suit.

    2. Headline from WaPo: “The latest Covid variant could be the best yet at evading immunity.”

      Gee, ya THINK? That’s sort of the definition of “latest variant.” These are basically bad colds now.

      1. I’ve had hangovers that were worse than CCP Flu.

        Only NPC’s (i.e. Reddit) still believe in this hoax.

    3. Only NPC meatbots trust the corporate presstitute media owned by big pharma. The choice is clear. Use your brain to form your own opinions or follow the corporate narrative.

  6. there are showers there where you can rinse off your feet when you come off the sand, and there are people there naked, urinating and d

    At least in Ocean City, MD, and I believe Rehoboth, those half-showers are attached to the outside of the public restroom building. Either these folks aren’t human enough to use a restroom that’s right there, or they’re doing this between midnight and 6 am.

  7. McDonald’s #1 breakfast with a small orange juice $10.01.

    Remember 2019 when we had a mostly functioning economy?

    2. “McDonald’s #1 breakfast with a small orange juice $10.01.”

      “The surest way to destroy a nation is to debauch its currency.” – Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

      “The way to crush the bourgeoisie [middle class] 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

      “Socialism is the same as Communism, only better English.” – George Bernard Shaw

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQiOA7euaYA
      Talking Heads – Road to Nowhere (Official Video)
      Talking Heads
      12,787,755 views Mar 2, 2018

      1. “McDonald’s #1 breakfast with a small orange juice $10.01.”

        The last time I had breakfast at the Egg & I, the bill for two was almost $50, with the tip. It’s probably no better at Denny’s, IHOP or Cracker Barrel

        1. A couple of weeks ago my daughter and son were on the road getting his college apartment squared away, and they stopped at Subway along the way for lunch: $45.

          1. Which is just dumb and wasteful. They could get a ton of groceries for that much – a smorgasbord of food that would feed them for days.

          2. Paying the staff $20 an hour has consequences. And I say that because I see “Now Hiring! $18+/hr” signs in drive thrus.

    3. McDonald’s ‘Change Back’ Commercial (1971)

      10,814 views Jun 24, 2022

      “Something you haven’t seen for awhile – change back from your dollar.”

      McDonald’s commercial featuring two hamburgers, french fries, and a coke for less than a dollar. Narration by David Wayne. Spot aired in 1971.

      https://youtu.be/FcLzn3feBsE?si=zXn6tczzt3nBaTcV

      1. “…change back from your dollar.”

        Since covid I quit carrying cash all together, and now I have two banks’ apps and the Walmart app installed on my phone.

  8. “Phoenix-area advocacy groups issued a statement opposing the arrest of an advocate for people experiencing homelessness during Wednesday’s clearout of a block of ‘The Zone,’ Phoenix’s largest homeless encampment.

    You will never, ever see “homeless advocates” from oligarch-funded astroturf organizations leading protests against the #1 cause of unaffordable housing: the Federal Reserve.

  9. “In a joint statement, 11 local organizations called for those charges to be dropped. The groups that issued the statement were Mass Liberation AZ, Black Phoenix Organizing Collective, Fund for Empowerment, BLMPhxMetro, Poder in Action, Fuerte Arts Movement, Cihuapactli Collective, Unemployed Workers United, Housing Initiative Project AZ, Chispa and White People Against White Supremacy.

    Soros & his ilk must be writing a bunch of checks to get these “activists” to show up for their stage-managed “activism.”

    2. “Claims they are not commonly used for self defense” Try to take them judge and we can find out if they are commonly used

  11. – Thanks Ben for posting on the homeless/drug/social decay problem at home here in the USSA. There’s little MSM coverage of these issues other than some half-measures and pious platitudes from local government. That’s per the plan.

    – Few seem willing to understand this, but in my view it’s all a concerted attack on the American Middle Class and general Judeo-Christian values by the “Progressives.” This is now by both outside forces (e.g. Soros funding of DAs on other key political offices), and inside government. This is and has been the goal of Communism for years now. Our public education indoctrination system now openly teaches this, including those principles that seek to destroy the fundamental family unit.

    – Just read the 10 planks of the Communist manifesto and it’s clear as the nose on one’s face. Americans seem blissfully unaware, but this can’t go on much longer without a final collapse of our socio-economic system. Not a lot of time left I think. May God help us.

    “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 BC

    1. I’m just putting dots together from articles I come across in my usual searches. The only thing that changed are the results. If you search for Denver or Boston housing (for example), easily half the returns are about bums, drugs and squalor.

      It all came together at about the same time didn’t it? Minor respiratory illness: mayors and guvnahs all over set out to destroy the economies of their own cities. Remember cancel rent, defund police, DA’s letting hardened criminals out with no bail? That’s still pervasive. Closing churches while liquor stores stayed open, just one example.

      And the drugs! We went from ‘well pots legal there’ to open air hard drug markets. Ooops, how did that happen? I support drug legalization. But no one in their right mind would come up with a system where the Chinese and Mexican mafias are the ones making and selling the drugs. Drugs should be of reliably pureness and accurately distributed. Who decides what the level of fentanyl purity? Who is putting fentanyl in cocaine, for example. We have no idea? How many people are being killed alongside the still black market? If a drug is truly decriminalized, there is no black market. And if you do drugs, you do them at home and can’t stumble around in public. If someone gets hurt or killed as a result of your intoxication, we throw the book at them. That’s not happening is it?

      Anyhoo, it’s become something I can’t ignore. I’m not going to post this every day but once in a while on a weekend. I am going to drill down more on who’s paying for all this and how.

      1. Closing churches while liquor stores stayed open, just one example.

        Or closing the local mom and pop furniture/home goods store while Walmart was allowed to stay open and sell furniture the whole time. This wasn’t about health, this was about making wealthy globalists even more wealthy.

        1. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation got $5 billion from the stimulus bill while we got checks for $1400 if we didn’t make over $100K/yr.

      2. “it’s become something I can’t ignore”

        The conditions in my neighborhood in South Denver have gotten much worse in the past two years, specifically.

        There’s always been homeless in Denver proper, but it’s been an invasion creeping southward down the Santa Fe and Broadway corridors into Arapahoe County now.

        People straight up passed out on the sidewalk in broad daylight is my New Normal.

        Are they just sleeping? Drunk? On the nod from fentanyl? Or already dead from an overdose? I don’t know what the threshold is for the police etc to attempt to rouse them.

        People passed out on the ground are just part of the landscape now, like a planter or a bus stop bench.

        1. Related comment. I’m in Southern Colorado working on the teardown house today.

          Denver is a big part of the reason I bought it. 100+ miles of physical distance from that dump, and the lack of homeless here. Yes there are some tweakers, every small town has at least a few.

          There is no semblance of the sense of squalor here that there is in Denver.

          1. There is no semblance of the sense of squalor here that there is in Denver.

            The squalor really stands out now. I do wonder how long until it expands up north.

          2. Not long as you may think. Noticed this morning a setup near Standley lake. One car with bags of trash. That’s how it starts. I’ll see Monday morning if it’s status quo.

  12. The political action committee’s only fundraising this year has been a $10,000 contribution by the Smith-Barbieri Progressive Fund.”

    Another globalist oligarch “pass-through” organization to obfuscate the source of the funds & agenda of the donors. Forward, Soviet!

  15. While the majority of people with opioid use disorder used to inject drugs like heroin, many are now smoking fentanyl and other powerful drugs, like methamphetamine.

    “Opioid use disorder”? I see what you did there, globalist scum media. These hapless “victims” of the “opioid epidemic” aren’t suffering the consequences of their own litany of poor choices – rather, they were stricken by a “disorder” that requires endless interventions by highly compensated Compassion, Inc. (D) patronage racket staffers.

    1. A lot of them did get started with prescription opiates like oxycontin, which the FDA and doctors claimed were not addictive. It’s some nasty and powerful stuff.

      1. Which % of these homeless started off with a medical condition? Any many of them are so young, not the type that would need surgery or have chronic pain or need strong pain meds.

        1. Which % of these homeless started off with a medical condition? Any many of them are so young, not the type that would need surgery or have chronic pain or need strong pain meds.

          Car accidents are an example. I saw it happen to a friend. Utterly horrible. Overprescribed.

  16. Mass Liberation AZ, Black Phoenix Organizing Collective, Fund for Empowerment, BLMPhxMetro, Poder in Action, Fuerte Arts Movement, Cihuapactli Collective, Unemployed Workers United, Housing Initiative Project AZ, Chispa and White People Against White Supremacy….

    Apparently the only way that a group may have “white” in its name is if the group is anti-white.

  17. At Sound Pathways, outreach worker Joe Dugan said the addition of clean smoking supplies to that organization’s repertoire was a necessary shift. ‘We have to adapt, and then be able to be there to engage in that conversation with them,’ Dugan said. ‘If needles aren’t doing it, and more people are smoking, we need to bridge that gap.’”

    Translation: we need to find more efficient ways to hasten our globalist-orchestrated societal breakdown to bring about the necessary preconditions for the Great Reset.

  18. A reader sent these in:

    Part of Cheung Kei bankruptcy and a good primer on UK office space
    20 Canada Square in Canary Wharf (556k sq ft office) on the market at an asking price 60% below what it was bought for 6 years ago…

    https://twitter.com/INArteCarloDoss/status/1695034481168548069

    Rite Aid Prepares to File Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Within Weeks, Sources Say

    https://twitter.com/DeItaone/status/1695103704125296674

    BREAKING: Odds of a 25 basis point rate hike in September more than double, to 21.5%, after Powell speech. Odds of an additional rate hike this year just hit a 2-month high of 52.1%. Rate CUTS are now NOT expected to begin until JUNE 2024. The Fed wants 2% inflation and will do whatever it takes to get there. The rollercoaster ride continues.

    https://twitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1695077794789704141

    This is an actual BLS chart of the purchasing power of the dollar (and that’s if you believe their CPI is realistic).

    https://twitter.com/RudyHavenstein/status/1695105701943587273

    Yes, she’s at #Jacksonhole too. Same people, always. No accountability.

    https://twitter.com/RudyHavenstein/status/1695103492598231308

    Narrative violation: Dealership service volume has officially hit a *5-year low* for the month of July. 5-YEAR-LOW.
    (Service volume = auto repair and maintenance)
    Here’s why i’m struggling to reconcile this:
    1) Average cost of a new car is at all-time highs
    2) Average monthly payments are at all-time highs
    3) Average age of vehicles on the road is at all-time highs
    If people are holding on to their cars longer than ever before… Service volume should be rising? Apparently not. Seems like consumers are either forgoing vehicle service or are resorting to alternative options. Will be keeping a close eye on this.

    https://twitter.com/GuyDealership/status/1694717775636484354

    Powell downplays soft landing narrative: “Getting inflation sustainably back down to 2% is expected to require a period of below-trend economic growth as well as some softening in labor market conditions.”

    https://twitter.com/pdacosta/status/1695075240064266356

    The finance world is *all in* on the soft-landing or no landing outcome. Promoting GDPNow at 6%. ’24 Earnings growth expected to be 12%. And this: 75% think either soft-landing or no-landing. Expectations of a good economic outcome this cycle have become extreme.

    https://twitter.com/BobEUnlimited/status/1695062218335756348

    3 years ago: 30-yr mortgage rate was 2.91% & median existing home price in the US was $306k. Today: 30-yr mortgage rate is 7.23% & median home price is $407k. Result: $20k increase in down payment (20% down) and 117% increase in monthly payment (from $1,020 to $2,216

    https://twitter.com/charliebilello/status/1695052723949855161

    What is your legal basis for monetizing trillions of MBS, or buying Intel bonds, or quietly bailing out hedge funds? Also, isn’t your first legal mandate “stable prices,” and not “2% or 3% or 4% or whatever you make up” inflation?

    https://twitter.com/RudyHavenstein/status/1694724565115748636

    Millions in PPP went to organized crime and murder for hire. This will be news for a decade

    https://twitter.com/GRomePow/status/1695314751859912981

    Of course they don’t plan on moving. They can’t get approved! The typical amount of income needed to qualify for a mortgage before Covid was $42,232. Now it is $104,016. As the Boomers sell their homes, four words describe the scene: “For sale, price reduced.” END

    https://twitter.com/JeffWeniger/status/1695187553555566697

    When she doesn’t respect the lag, has a $1,400 a month car payment on a GLS, still gets mortgage assistance from parents, has 3 revolving credit lines that are maxed out, student loan payment resuming in a week, and thinks the Federal Reserve is a dive bar in Cabo.

    https://twitter.com/DonMiami3/status/1695210876658130995

    HOW MUCH TIME ⏲️ BETWEEN LAST HIKE & CUT

    https://twitter.com/WinfieldSmart/status/1570002668805914624

    US credit card debt has officially surpassed $1 trillion. This is not sustainable with credit card rates above 20%.

    https://twitter.com/GameofTrades_/status/1694733806744330418

    1. US credit card debt has officially surpassed $1 trillion. This is not sustainable with credit card rates above 20%.

      I wonder if there will be a stampede into BK courts? Of course if you do that all your plastic goes bye bye, at least for a while.

      1. 8% delinquency rate. That’s small banks mind you. Student loan repayment begins sept 1st. Should make for a blight Christmas

  19. “If people are holding on to their cars longer than ever before… Service volume should be rising? Apparently not. Seems like consumers are either forgoing vehicle service or are resorting to alternative options. Will be keeping a close eye on this.”

    Stopped and had a conversation with a gal the other day who was under the hood of her car with a wrench in one hand and her iPad in the other. She was watching a YouTube video on how to fix the problem. She’d never worked on a car in her life but said there was no way she could afford to get it fixed. This was in a nice middle class neighborhood.

  20. “Millions in PPP went to organized crime and murder for hire. This will be news for a decade”

    Such a complete joke! And stop using the word millions.

    2. PPP will go down as the biggest fraud in american history!!!! About 5 trillion in totally covid money

      You can look up companies you know on the SBA website.

      It’s – w.Federalpay ppp org. It’s unbelievable. I’ve got neighbors and friends that got millions and didn’t need it. They just got to keep it. I know several.that bought yachts, 2nd homes. Plus big cars….one buddy, a developer I went to school with got 1.5 million he has about 12 employees but he claimed his subs so 145 people on total. I hope he gets caught. It sucks ….the kids in the country will have to pick up the pieces.

      1. I remember it seemed like overnight every contractor was driving a brand new 100k+ truck. I was living in coastal Oregon and one of the largest boat dealerships suddenly emptied out once the stimi money started flowing….the lot was empty, with most of those boats well over a 100k. One of my buddies works for a nationwide hot tube wholesaler. He said once the stimi floodgates opened they experienced historic sales. He’s been in the biz for 30 years and never seen anything like it. Why wouldn’t folks pray for another pandemic?

        1. Yep same here. You can look up landscape or any company on the website I provided. It will .and you sick. I noticed it Immediately at the restaurant/bar on lake wylie near Charlotte in 2021. I’ve never seen so many new boats, ever. Brand new Escalades, fancy King ranch dualies.

          1. A lot of sarcasm there. Just pointing to how clueless the masses are. They have no idea what’s coming. And if they do know the idea that they’ll just get bailed out if things go south has become firmly entrenched. And why not? That’s been the pattern. Not anymore.

  21. Maria Sees on Stew Peters is doing a 4 part segment on what the Globalists plan in the way of Globalists Globalist Governance.
    Part of the UN 100 plan by 2045, that Maria was reading from, is that AI will run the World as well as Judicial.
    This is in their documents that a new social contract will be formed making AI the basic control grid of World.
    Remember when Klaus Schwab said words to effect, “Whoever controls technology will control the World. ”
    Well, we already know that they project that 40 to 50% of jobs will be taken by AI and Robots within 10 years.
    Now its apparent they want to put AI and Robots above humans and give this technology some kind of status that exceeds human rights.
    They are already writing up the rules for projected take over by AI, and destruction of any democracy and rights or say so by humans. So much for Bidens appointment of VP Harris being in charge of regulation on AI.
    Of course the justification for this is Climate Change and Panademics, requiring
    AI to determine everything, with Banks in control of your consumption.
    They want to establish the rights of AI and Robots, while humans are treated inferior to this technology.
    In everything they say and do, they want crazy Hal to take over the Space Ship.
    And , these crazy power mongers, with their vision of a AI ruled world, are expecting to enforce this new ruleship on humans, that they want to eat bird food.
    You don’t get any vote on the Global One World Order plan, because they are saving the earth from humans, who have been around for millions of years.
    Technology in the hands of anti-humanity Entities, who plan to subjugate humans to this new God of AI and Robots, is what they have exposed.
    Its all in their documents what their plans are of this One World Order, controlled by AI and Robots.
    And the crazy part is they don’t even know if AI is a power that can go amuck or not.
    This Cult is the greatest threat that humans
    have ever faced , and they have already shown genocide and withdraw of what sustains humans is the plan.
    Just saying.

    1. Yellen the Felon calls $1 trillion in credit card debt “evidence of a strong consumer.”

      The fed.gov gets to book the GDP right away, but in reality it hasn’t happened yet.

  23. “The finance world is *all in* on the soft-landing or no landing outcome. Promoting GDPNow at 6%. ’24 Earnings growth expected to be 12%. And this: 75% think either soft-landing or no-landing. Expectations of a good economic outcome this cycle have become extreme.”

    Just like in the last cycle, optimism remained until the bitter end.

    1. The old saw is the market always does whatever proves the most people wrong/causes the most pain. Since it’s going to crater, I guess that means most people have to be permabulls.

  26. The end game of the Globalists isn’t Communism or equity, which is just the lure by the fraudster tricksters to get useful idiots to buy into their power grab.
    The end game is to get humans to comply to enslavement, deprivation, total control , loss of freedom ,where they use AI technology to be the ultimate control method .
    Its more like 1984 on steroids, with more advanced technology than that book had at the time .
    It’s about using fraudulent emergencies like Climate Change and Panademics to lable humans as the culprits, that must be controlled and deprived to save the earth.
    Their fraud emergencies is justification to destroy all current systems for what would be human hell.
    This Innsurrection and take over of World, by the under 1% money powers, that have captured global government to partner in this power grab, is unleashed.
    They must of freaked out when Trump defunded the WHO, and pulled from the Climate Change narrative, and started producing more fossil fuels in US. But now we see why they freaked out over Trump and had to attack him non stop.
    So, how do you like the Biden tear down of USA, while he advances the One World Order agenda.
    Banks are places to keep your money, maybe get a loan you pay for, not Entities by digital currency controlling your consumption.
    Internet was suppose to be a source of information paid for by people, not a cloud of control and means to defraud people with censorship of dispute that it has become.
    AI/Robots are there to replace humans and rule over humans, not serve humans.
    There isn’t anything about the One World Order true ideology that isn’t the enslavement of humans.
    And don’t even think for one minute they are going to sustain you on a Universal Income after they replace you.

  27. Too many great quick videos here to leave out, however I will leave my personal favorite below the infowars link.

    ‘That Sh*t Gangsta!’: Black Voters Rally Around Trump After Historic Mugshot

    Infowars.com
    August 26th 2023, 11:10 am

    Black voters are sounding off on the left’s weaponization of the justice system against former President Donald Trump, claiming his mugshot has given him a major boost in street cred.

    The black community took to social media to rally behind the 45th president as he was booked at the Fulton County jail on Thursday on more than a dozen felony charges related to getting to the bottom of election fraud in 2020.

    https://www.infowars.com/

    INOJ
    @JayJackson24

    This is what the “Lame Stream Media” won’t let you see: BLACKS in the ghetto of Atlanta applauding & chanting “FREE TRUMP” at the 45th President’s motorcade. 😉

    https://twitter.com/JayJackson24/status/1695108989313306928?s=20

  28. Seriously, 14 US Cities to ban meat, dairy, other foods, cars by 2030 and that doesnt alert you to the government being in on this taking of all that sustains humans.
    Does that mean you can only have bug restaurants in these cities?
    And these liars don’t have to prove Climate Change, because bought off Science can’t be disputed.
    And their attempts to simulate Climate Change Emergency is so pathetic and absurd, and fires arent being caused by Climate Change. But, don’t ask any question about their cloud seeding and geo-engineering creating climate events.
    And don’t ask about their Covid bio-weapon gain of function creation of disease, because they have a mandated vaccine for you to take.
    Wouldn’t it be a violation of the constitution to force people to eat bugs and not be allowed to eat foods that have been around since the dawn of life on earth? Will babies be able to get milk if dairy is banned?
    These people are so pathetic and ridiculous and the public has to rebel.
    If corrupt government can vote something in , it can be voted out. Never allow their nonsense to take effect, like people did with the Covid brainwashing.

    1. “Does that mean you can only have bug restaurants in these cities?”

      You will eat the dirt,
      and you will enjoy the dirt.

      1. Does that mean you can only have bug restaurants in these cities?

        I don’t think meat, diary, etc. will be banned. But they will be so over regulated that they will be unaffordable for the masses.

        Like how eggs are being regulated to make them more expensive. They are starting with the cage fee BS. Then there will be more feed regulations, transportation regulations (say limit the distance they can be shipped to something absurdly low), etc.

    2. Seriously, 14 US Cities to ban meat, dairy, other foods, cars by 2030

      They also want to limit you to purchasing 3 items off clothing per year.

      Three items. Even slaves had more to wear.

  29. Are you stuck owning a house you can’t afford and don’t want to live in?

    You have lots of company, if you are an American homeowner.

    1. Axios
      6 hours ago – Economy & Business
      The problem with America’s high homeownership rate
      Felix Salmon, author of Axios Markets
      Illustration of a hand holding a credit card shaped like a house with the chips forming windows and a door.
      Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

      America’s decades-long love affair with homeownership is holding back the economy, hobbling the Federal Reserve, and exacerbating a national housing crisis.

      Why it matters: We’re stuck here now — at this point there’s just too much wealth stored in too many houses for anything to meaningfully change.

      The big picture: Life is an unpredictable journey. People change where they want or need to live all the time, and a country with a 66% homeownership rate is not conducive to that.

      We get married or divorced. Children arrive, leave the home, maybe come back again. Parents sometimes move in. A job might appear in a different city — or an employer might embrace remote work, allowing a move to anywhere. Wealth and income rise and fall, affecting the amount of house we can afford. Personal taste changes, too — someone who loves a sleek downtown condo when they’re in their 20s might prefer something secluded in the countryside a few decades later.

      For all these reasons and many more, there’s huge value in being able to easily move from one house to another. Instead, the U.S. system has effectively locked millions of Americans into a single home, one they can often barely afford and might not even much like.
      …
      https://www.axios.com/2023/08/26/housing-crisis-homeownership-nimby-mortgage-rates

        1. It’s an unhappy picture for renters in San Diego, as well. The only happy group is savers who can get a positive risk free return on fixed income investments for the first time in over a decade.

      2. I just couldn’t help but wonder what kind of fish is a Felix Salmon and why would it be advocating that we all embrace being mobile and unlanded. I’m shocked to discover it’s NOT a fish at all!

        Early life
        Salmon’s ancestors include Jews who bore the surname Solomon before it was anglicized as Salmon.[6] Salmon is a member of the Salmon & Gluckstein families who ran the Lyons teahouse and bakery chain in Britain. Salmon has an MA in art history from the University of Glasgow. He is now chief financial correspondent for Axios.

        Well how about that. Seems legit.

        He goes on to explain:

        “A market is efficient when there’s abundant liquidity and scarce resources get allocated to where they can be put to best use. The rental market, by those standards, while far from perfect, is vastly more efficient than the thin and janky market in existing homes.

        All humans need shelter. But homeownership has created a class of winners (think of everyone smugly sitting on a mortgage fixed at 3% regardless of what the Fed does) — who also have a financial incentive to deny new shelter to others.” Therefore you should own nothing so we can all be happy. So progressive!

  30. Given that interest rates returning to historic norms have brought the housing market to a near standstill, should we expect news of mortgage lenders going out of business?

    1. Mortgage lender AmeriFirst Financial files for bankruptcy
      Bankruptcy filing comes about two months after company resumed its forward mortgage origination business
      August 25, 2023, 11:27 am
      By Connie Kim

      Retail lender AmeriFirst Financial Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware, just two months after it got back into the forward mortgage origination business.

      The Mesa, Arizona-based company listed estimated assets and liabilities as much as $100 million each, according to a filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Delaware.

      RCP Credit Opportunities Fund is listed as the largest unsecured creditor in the AmeriFirst Chapter 11 case — with a claim of $17.9 million, court pleadings show.

      Other creditors in the AmeriFirst bankruptcy with unsecured claims exceeding $500,000 include – RCP Customized Credit Fund ($5.97 million) and Wells Fargo Bank ($1.1 million).

      The nature of the claims is listed as bond debt for RCP Credit Opportunities Fund and RCP Customized Credit Fund; and trade debt for Wells Fargo in the court pleadings.

      The bankruptcy filing so far does not include a list of secured creditors, only a creditors matrix (which does not include financial figures).

      AmeriFirst told Housingwire that the bankruptcy action has no impact on closed mortgages and the loans in the pipeline will be closed and funded. No further detail was provided.

      The Arizona-based lender relaunched its forward mortgage origination business in June after ceasing it in December 2022 against the backdrop of rising interest rates.
      …
      https://www.housingwire.com/articles/mortgage-lender-amerifirst-financial-files-for-bankruptcy/

      2. If you are in any part lending industry right now do what I did in ‘07 and get out early. I was a mortgage broker for 12 years. I’d actually started setting up my exit in ‘05 because I knew what was coming (started following this blog in ‘05 too). But seriously, cut your losses and get out. I watched so many of my friends in the biz completely bleed out waiting around for the “good ‘ol days” to return.

      1. Yahoo Finance
        A ‘valuation reset’ hits the IPO market as Better stock crashes 90% after debut
        Ines Ferré
        Sat, August 26, 2023 at 7:15 AM PDT·4 min read

        With the IPO and SPAC markets under pressure, no stock had yet been given the reception that online mortgage lender Better.com received this week.

        Shares of Better.com’s parent company, Better Home & Finance, fell more than 90% on Thursday after the company made its debut on the public market following a merger with Special Purpose Acquisition Company, Aurora Acquisition Corp.

        Aurora stock closed at $17.44 on Aug. 23, the night before its merger with Better. By Thursday’s close, the stock was at $1.15. On Friday, the stock closed at $1.19.
        …
        https://finance.yahoo.com/news/a-valuation-reset-hits-the-ipo-market-as-better-stock-crashes-90-after-debut-141559314.html

        1. Shares of Better.com’s parent company, Better Home & Finance, fell more than 90%
          Based on the way they reportedly treated their employees when firing a bunch of them via a zoom call they can never be successful. Anyone worth a $hit would never work for them.

  32. ‘The homeless coalition has held San Francisco hostage for decades. It is time for their reign to end’

    She’s right.

    1. She cut the ribbon this week on the new SF IKEA on Market St, she is trying to turn SF around! Interestingly, it will not be selling furniture, only small items that are easy to carry out the door. The shrinkage should be epic. Any bets on how long before they ‘temporarily close’?

      1. One thing we’ve seen is people are learning about reality. We’ve seen Soros DA’s voted out. Sanctuary city mayors demanding border control! Talk about a 180. Calling for more police in these sh$tholes. Meanwhile all the other places that went not so far or not at all can now regularly be quoted saying ‘we don’t want to be another San Francisco or Seattle.’ IMO it’s going to work out because it has too. It is already unbearable for the people living there.

        1. “already unbearable for the people living there”

          Why I bought a teardown to scrape and rebuild in a county with less than 20,000 population. Goodbye, Denver.

        2. But at the same time, the Dems did remarkably well in the 2022 midterm elections. (I don’t believe there was any tomfoolery there.) I guess they just really like killing babies.

          1. But at the same time, the Dems did remarkably well in the 2022 midterm elections
            They did very well.
            Most of my relatives and friends are liberals and they “hate” the conservatives (or maybe they just hate me?) and I am sure they will be voting D again.

          2. “…and they “hate” the conservatives…”

            Just wait ’til those student loan payments resume.

    1. I don’t think the 18 year cycle is too far off. I think where were at now is is much like end of ‘05 going into ‘06. Remember that by ‘08 prices had been dropping for some time in most places, especially where there’d been a lot of speculation. ‘08 is when it hit crisis mode and then really melted down. I personally think it won’t take that long to unwind this time around. But these bubbles don’t unwind overnight. It’s always a pain to wait them out.

    1. I get unsolicited emails from WF offering me cash if I move my checking to them. You only get the cash if your paycheck is directly deposited to them.

    1. Axios Homepage
      Aug 24, 2023 – Economy & Business
      The recession should probably be here by now
      Matt Phillips, author of Axios Markets
      Data: Campbell Harvey, Duke University; Chart: Axios Visuals

      According to Wall Street’s most talked-about recession indicator, the long-awaited economic downturn should be nearly upon us.

      The big picture: And yet, there’s virtually no evidence the U.S. economy is contracting, putting this indicator’s run of correctly predicting recessions — it’s called every one since 1955 — in peril.

      Context: We’re talking about the inverted yield curve, which has been in territory that supposedly signals a looming recession for nigh on a year.

      The curve “inverts” when yields on short-term government bonds are higher than those on long-term bonds — the opposite of the usual state of affairs.

      The latest: The curve remains inverted but is clawing its way back toward normal, as the yield differential between these two securities shrinks.
      …
      https://www.axios.com/2023/08/24/recession-indicator-us-economy-downturn

      1. The big picture: And yet, there’s virtually no evidence the U.S. economy is contracting, putting this indicator’s run of correctly predicting recessions — it’s called every one since 1955 — in peril.

        On all the other occasions I’ll bet the FedGov wasn’t running multitrillion dollar deficits. It’s buying time, at the cost of massive inflation, but its effectiveness is running out.

    2. Forbes
      Money
      Investing
      Is The Yield Curve Sending A Dangerous Message?
      Randy Watts
      Contributor
      I provide insight on market trends, economics, and investing.
      Aug 25, 2023, 2:54pm EDT

      The current economic, inflation, and interest rate cycle has been extremely unusual, driven by the worst global pandemic in over 100 years. Governments around the world reacted in a variety of ways. In the US, one of the governmental responses was to create negative real interest rates as well as issue record amounts of stimulus money into the economy. The US Federal Reserve, uncertain about the outlook for the economy and the effect Covid would have on the consumer and businesses, was fearful to raise interest rates and choke off any economic recovery. As a result, as inflation moved higher in the US, driven by the end of Covid lockdowns and aided by the previously mentioned government stimulus and negative real rates, the Federal Reserve did not react promptly. This resulted in a large gap between the Fed Discount rate and inflation. As seen in Figure 1, the gap reached record levels in 2022 and left the Federal Reserve greatly behind the current economic conditions.
      Picture1
      Picture1

      William O’Neil + Co.

      History clearly shows worse performance for the US stock market while the curve is inverted. However, note that the sample size for inversion periods is fairly small at only 11% of all weeks since 1970. Figure 2 demonstrates that the further out from each week the curve is inverted, the greater the negative returns have been.
      …
      https://www.forbes.com/sites/randywatts/2023/08/25/is-the-yield-curve-sending-a-dangerous-message/?sh=93739043e5f5

    3. US debt explosion may force the Fed to halt a key tightening campaign so the financial system doesn’t become unstable
      Filip De Mott
      Aug 25, 2023, 8:57 AM PDT
      Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell.
      Drew Angerer/Getty Images

      – The Treasury’s deluge of T-bills could force the Federal Reserve to halt quantitative tightening.

      – That’s as the debt binge may pressure bank reserves, economists at the St. Louis Fed wrote.

      – The Treasury has issued $1 trillion in T-bills since June, and another $600 billion is expected by year’s end.
      …
      https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/bonds/us-debt-federal-reserve-quantitative-tightening-bank-reserves-treasury-bills-2023-8

    4. Financial Times
      Markets Briefing
      Treasury yields and dollar rise after Jay Powell warns on inflation
      Choppy session for stock markets after Fed chair says interest rates must stay at current level or even increase
      A montage of a road sign for Wall Street and a chart
      The Jackson Hole conference comes at a time of heightened market anxiety over the future of global interest rates
      Jaren Kerr in New York and Daria Mosolova in London yesterday

      US Treasury yields and the dollar rose after Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell said the central bank would consider another interest rate rise, and that it intends to hold policy at a restrictive level to temper inflation.

      Powell, addressing the Fed’s economic conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday reiterated that US inflation “remains too high” and it necessitates the central bank either holding rates at their current level or raising them to bring inflation down to its 2 per cent target.

      Traders still expect the Fed at its September meeting to hold rates steady at a 22-year high, but futures markets on Friday pushed their expectations for a cut in the federal funds rate to June 2024, a month later than they expected at the start of the week.

      The sell-off in US government bonds, which took yields on long-term debt to a 16-year high at the start of this week, continued. The yield on the two-year US Treasury rose 0.06 percentage points to 5.07 per cent while that on the benchmark 10-year note was steady at 4.23 per cent. Bond yields rise as prices fall.
      …

    5. Average long-term U.S. mortgage rate jumps to 7.23% this week to highest level since June 2001
      Alex Veiga, The Associated Press
      Published Thursday, August 24, 2023 12:58PM EDT
      Last Updated Thursday, August 24, 2023 12:58PM EDT
      A sign stands outside a new home for sale Monday, Aug. 21, 2023, in southeast Denver. On Thursday, Freddie Mac reports on this week’s average U.S. mortgage rates. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

      LOS ANGELES (AP) — The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate climbed further above 7% this week to its highest level since 2001, another blow to would-be homebuyers grappling with rising home prices and a stubbornly low supply of properties on the market.

      Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year home loan climbed to 7.23% from 7.09% last week. A year ago, the rate averaged 5.55%.
      …
      https://www.cp24.com/mobile/world/average-long-term-u-s-mortgage-rate-jumps-to-7-23-this-week-to-highest-level-since-june-2001-1.6533011

    6. Financial Times
      European Central Bank
      Christine Lagarde warns of long-term inflation risks after global economic upheaval
      Head of ECB suggests more frequent shocks could result in persistent price pressures
      Christine Lagarde at the US Federal Reserve’s annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming
      Christine Lagarde in Jackson Hole, Wyoming where she repeated the need to set rates at ‘sufficiently restrictive levels for as long as necessary’ to bring inflation back to target in a timely manner
      Martin Arnold in Frankfurt and Colby Smith in Jackson Hole, Wyoming yesterday

      The head of the European Central Bank has warned that recent upheaval in the global economy threatens to result in long-lasting changes, keeping inflationary pressures higher than normal and complicating the role of monetary policymakers.

      Speaking at the US Federal Reserve’s annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday, Christine Lagarde said central bankers had to be “extremely attentive that greater volatility in relative prices does not creep into medium-term inflation through wages repeatedly ‘chasing’ prices”.

      “If global supply does become less elastic, including in the labour market, and global competition is reduced, we should expect prices to take on a greater role in adjustment,” Lagarde said. “If we also face shocks that are larger and more common — like energy and geopolitical shocks — we could see firms passing on cost increases more consistently.”
      …

    7. What about the central bankers’ commitment to contain inflation are stock market gamblers missing?

  36. ‘Even junkies such as Abraham Hwang, 32, can clearly see how grim the drug crisis has become in New York City, which he said is ‘at the climax’ of the epidemic. ‘I thought Long Island was bad,’ said Hwang — who recently moved to the Big Apple with the hope of getting clean. ‘My addiction definitely got worse here,’ he said, plunging a needle into his neck’

    Hey frozen soup line Larry how’s yer hotel empire working out?

    1. My addiction definitely got worse here,’ he said, plunging a needle into his neck’

      What does this guy offer to society?

      2. “My addiction definitely got worse here,’ he said…”

        Does he buy his drugs with a trust fund distribution, or is he a thief?

Comments are closed.