thehousingbubble@gmail.com
Blog

Using Various False Narratives To Cast Doubt On The System And The Path Of Socialism

A report from the San Francisco Examiner in California. “With record vacancies in San Francisco office buildings and home prices down, the number of property owners appealing to lower their property taxes has skyrocketed to the highest level since at least the Great Recession year of 2009. Patrick Carlisle, chief market analyst at Compass Real Estate, said many requests could be coming from the greater downtown SOMA, Civic Center area where condominium prices have declined sharply, from an average high of about $1.05 million per condo in 2022 to around $830,000 on average at the end of summer, according to a report he published this month. ‘The values in that particular area of The City for condos have been hit very hard,’ he said, putting prices about where they were in early 2014.”

“The vacancy rate in San Francisco’s office market was at a record high of 34 percent in the third quarter, according to the real estate firm CBRE. Hans Hansson, owner of Starboard Commercial Real Estate and a veteran of 35 years in the San Francisco market, said vacancy rates are higher than they appear because companies’ leases have not run out. He predicted the impact on The City’s finances from adjustments to commercial property values would be serious. Hansson cited recent sales of large office buildings at steep discounts from prior purchase prices. ‘It’s a disaster,’ he said.”

The California Newsroom. “The Los Angeles real estate developer Shangri-La Industries, a major recipient of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Homekey program, received more than $114 million in state funding to convert seven motels in San Bernardino, Ventura and Monterey counties into housing for homeless people. But instead of creating hundreds of apartments for some of California’s neediest, the company has left a trail of unpaid debts, properties facing foreclosure, buildings in receivership, and lawsuits accusing Shangri-La principals of running a financial shell game.”

“‘In effect, Shangri-La is operating a real estate Ponzi scheme, where loans that were supposed to be reserved to complete specific projects were commingled with other funds and entities to prop-up other failing Shangri-La projects,’ reads a court filing from December 8, by lawyers for a lender involved in several Shangri-La Homekey projects. ‘I’m not going to respond to that allegation at all,’ Shangri-La owner and CEO Andy Meyers said in an interview Friday. ‘We are an entity, Shangri-La Industries, and have a number of properties. But there’s no Ponzi scheme. Obviously, whomever made such an accusation doesn’t know what a Ponzi scheme is.'”

“One of Shangri-La’s selling points as a Homekey developer was its financial strength. In a 340-page packet of documents sent to the state housing department in April 2022 by Shangri-La/Step Up, and obtained by KCRW and The California Newsroom through a public records request, its executives claimed it was a ‘financial powerhouse.’ Shangri-La Industries and its development subsidiaries, Shangri-La Construction and Shangri-La Development, have ties to Shangri-La Entertainment, which was founded by the late film producer and philanthropist Steve Bing. In the materials, Meyers even pledged to commit up to $275 million to the company’s Homekey projects. When asked about that personal pledge on Friday, which bears his signature, Meyers said, ‘I’m not really sure what you’re talking about.'”

From Bloomberg. “This might have been the year that New York City’s ultra-luxury housing market entered a holding pattern. ‘Co-ops have been on the decline for quite some time, which is not to say they’re not beautiful—they are, and many have some of the best architecture ever built,’ said broker Donna Olshan, who publishes a weekly luxury market report. ‘But the shareholders [of co-ops] are suffering. They accept lower-than-true-market value for the privilege of being in a dysfunctional club.”

“Despite the similarities to 2022, Olshan says the city’s 2023 luxury housing market will be remembered as a slog. ‘In general, prices were much more negotiable, and units hung on the market much longer,’ she says. ‘We’re living in fragile times. It just takes a long time to do every deal—and get it across the finish line.'”

Building Salt Lake in Utah. “Salt Lake City’s record growth and building boom have delivered a massive new supply to the market. This has led to the market tipping in favor of renters as property managers try to fill units in a now-saturated market. After a period of quickly rising rent, Salt Lake City is now seeing average monthly rent fall and vacancy rates climb. As a result, concessions are spiking. Recent data on rent trends and concessions provided by Costar shows that rent concessions offered in the Salt Lake City submarket are at almost 40%, last seen during the height of the pandemic as people, mostly students, moved home.”

“CoStar found that while the supply of new apartments being delivered is large, with nearly 5,000 new units in 2023, demand is only at around 3,500 units. This is much higher than the previous year when demand was around 1450 units, a record low since 2013. Michael Pretrivelli, the Director of Marketing Analytics for Nevada and Utah at Costar, sees these pressures as part of a temporary oversupply of deliveries and pressures for more rent stabilization. ‘The other big issue we are seeing is lease-up times for new projects is jumping from an average of 12-14 months to almost 18-24 months,’ Petrivelli said.”

Blog TO in Canada. “A detached home in Brampton that’s been sold three times over the past two years shows just how much home prices in the GTA can change year-over-year. The four-bedroom, three-bathroom home at 140 Fernforest Dr., was first sold in December 2021 for $1,485,000. Just a few months later, the home was put back on the market and eventually sold for $1,565,000 in April 2022, an exact $80,000 markup from its previous price. In October 2022, the home was leased for $3,800 per month before it was put back on the market for sale. In December 2023, the home was sold for a third time for $1,052,000 — roughly $500,000 less than its sale price just a year and a half earlier. A power of sale, which slightly differs from a regular home sale, is a clause written into a mortgage note that authorizes the mortgagee to sell their property in the event of default in order to repay the mortgage debt.”

ABC News in Australia. “Property prices ‘defied expectations’ to hit record high values this year, but some suburbs and regional areas have bucked the trend and seen ‘very significant declines’ in their median house prices in the past 12 months. Data compiled by PropTrack found that some suburbs saw median house prices drop by more than 10 per cent in the past year. PropTrack economist Anne Flaherty said the housing market was experiencing a correction after a surge in buying demand during the pandemic, which has led to ‘very significant declines over the past 12 months’ in some suburbs.”

“The biggest decline in house prices in the past year were in the suburbs of greater Hobart, with Carlton — around 25 kilometres east of the Tasmanian capital — seeing a 13.3 per cent fall in the last 12 months. House prices in the nearby suburbs of Dodges Ferry, Sorell and Primrose Sands all fell by more than 11 per cent year-on-year, while Kurrajong Heights, around 80km north-west of Sydney, was the only suburb outside of Tasmania to see the biggest fall in price growth. ‘Hobart really dominates the list of suburbs that have been big price drops over the past year, [and] I think that the reason for that is to do with the fact that during the pandemic, Hobart massively outperformed,’ Ms Flaherty said.”

“The reversal of the property buying trend during the pandemic — and the associated higher prices — reflects the changes in demand and borrowing capabilities. ‘What this comes down to is that competition to buy in these suburbs was so high during the pandemic years that buyers were basically just upping and upping their offers, and of course, interest rates were extremely low at that time, so people had greater borrowing capacities,’ she said. ‘Now we’ve seen that it’s not as competitive, so it’s taking properties longer to sell in these areas, and we’ve seen prices come back as a result of that low demand.'”

South China Morning Post. “Hong Kong may have seen the last of the interest rate hikes in the current tightening cycle, sparing homebuyers from higher borrowing costs, but analysts warn this may not prevent property prices from slipping further. Property prices in Hong Kong, among the most expensive in the world, have dropped by almost 20 per cent from their historical peak in 2021, according to data compiled by the Rating and Valuation department. Joseph Tsang, chairman of JLL Hong Kong echoed Wong’s sentiment, saying Hong Kong banks will delay lowering their prime rates. ‘Cutting interest rates doesn’t mean the market is going to rebound, we saw that in 1997,’ Tsang said, adding that JLL will not change its forecast on property price declines next year.”

“The expected Fed rate cut may not be fully realised, according to Chau Kwong-wing, the director of the Ronald Coase Centre for Property Rights Research at the University of Hong Kong. There is a possibility the Fed may hike rates again if inflation rears its head again, he said. ‘Inflation in the US is a structural [issue], the main cause being decoupling with China,’ Chau said. ‘The decoupling process will take a long time and therefore inflation and interest rates will remain high for the next couple of years, although there may be short-term fluctuation.'”

From Newsweek. “Weibo, China’s leading microblogging platform, is urging its users to refrain from badmouthing the economy, account holders have said. The apparently automated notices, first reported by Bloomberg on December 15, arrived in the inboxes of netizens who commented about the state of the Chinese economy, which has been in flux since the country embarked on its post-pandemic recovery one year ago. It was unclear whether the soft censorship had resulted in any shadow bans or outright suspensions of Weibo accounts, but it highlighted growing apprehension about whether China was likely ever to witness again the type of explosive growth it had enjoyed for decades, and which eventually propelled it to the world’s No. 2 economy in 2010.”

“Weibo is often likened to its Western counterparts like Facebook or X for its influential role in shaping China’s social media landscape, but it has always existed in a strictly regulated online environment overseen by the country’s cyber watchdog and large censorship apparatus. On the website and elsewhere this month, expressive users shared screenshots of their inboxes and the Weibo notice that explicitly advised them ‘not to badmouth the economy,’ hinting at potential risks for their account.”

“In tandem with Weibo’s warnings was a cautionary message issued by China’s State Security Ministry, which warned users against spreading ‘false narratives’ about the economy. ‘Their essence is to use various false narratives to construct a ‘discourse trap’ and ‘cognitive trap’ of ‘China’s decline’ in order to continue to cast doubt on the system and the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics,’ the ministry said in a December 15 social media post on WeChat.”

“China’s state media also have published official lines that sought to push back against negative remarks concerning the state of the economy. An official Xinhua News Agency article carried a headline that said, ‘China’s economic resilience effectively refutes pessimistic views.’ A related Weibo hashtag that said, ‘those who badmouth the Chinese economy are destined to be disappointed,’ amassed over 140 million views between December 14 and 18.”

Related Posts
This Post Has 87 Comments

  1. ‘In effect, Shangri-La is operating a real estate Ponzi scheme, where loans that were supposed to be reserved to complete specific projects were commingled with other funds and entities to prop-up other failing Shangri-La projects,’ reads a court filing from December 8, by lawyers for a lender involved in several Shangri-La Homekey projects. ‘I’m not going to respond to that allegation at all,’ Shangri-La owner and CEO Andy Meyers said in an interview Friday. ‘We are an entity, Shangri-La Industries, and have a number of properties. But there’s no Ponzi scheme. Obviously, whomever made such an accusation doesn’t know what a Ponzi scheme is’

    I’ve been proposing for a while that the US guberment needs to regulate ponzi schemes and put an end to these false narratives.

    1. They could start by regulating Social Security and putting an end to the false narrative that it can continue forever.

  2. ‘‘Hobart really dominates the list of suburbs that have been big price drops over the past year, [and] I think that the reason for that is to do with the fact that during the pandemic, Hobart massively outperformed’

    Anne is saying that what goes up comes down.

  3. ‘He predicted the impact on The City’s finances from adjustments to commercial property values would be serious. Hansson cited recent sales of large office buildings at steep discounts from prior purchase prices. ‘It’s a disaster’

    I said at the time these lockdowns were going to ruin yer sh$tholes Hans, and it has. Now yer property tax is sinking like a human turd on yer shoe.

    1. “With record vacancies in San Francisco office buildings and home prices down, the number of property owners appealing to lower their property taxes has skyrocketed to the highest level since at least the Great Recession year of 2009.

      I guess the repatriation office ain’t gonna be opening soon in San Fran.

    1. NPR — Texas governor signs law making it a state crime to cross the border illegally (12/18/2023):

      “Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas signed a controversial immigration bill Monday afternoon, which makes unauthorized border crossings a state crime. When the new state law takes effect in March of 2024, Texas law enforcement officers will have the authority to arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the Mexican border into the Lone Star State.

      A first-time conviction carries a sentence of up to six months in jail. For a second-time offender, the penalties are much steeper: up to 20 years in prison. After offenders serve their sentences, a judge would be required to issue an order for police to transport them to a port of entry. They could face a felony charge for refusing to return to Mexico.”

      https://www.npr.org/2023/12/18/1219790874/texas-immigration-law-abbott-mexico-border-crossing-illegal

      Controversial?

      These globalist scum media have never seen a native population that they don’t want replaced with illiterate rabble from the third world.

      Kill off the natives with fentanyl, replace them with a population of docile slaves permanently dependent of big government, and they’ll never vote to cut off their own free sh*t.

      1. Rest assured: the DNC will unleash its FBI Chekists on anyone who interferes with the Great Replacement.

        1. I saw my first “immigrants” in my little burg today. They were pounding the pavement, looking for work. They were oddly attired, none of their clothes seemed to fit correctly. Their features and complexions were different from what you see on Mexican mestizos. Definitely south Americans. Lucky for them the weather is mild (it;s 60F right now); but that will change.

          1. There are plenty more on the way.

            I do not speak Spanish, but I work with a lot of Mexicans, be they illegal or 2nd, 3rd, Nth generation and yes these newcomers are certainly different.

            All of this is going to cost taxpayers an incalculable amount of money.

  5. CNBC (12/19/2023):

    “After its last policy meeting of the year, the Federal Reserve said inflation has “eased over the past year” while maintaining that prices are “elevated.”

    However, the number of households stretched thin has barely budged. As of November, 62% of adults said they are living paycheck to paycheck, according to a recent LendingClub report, unchanged from a year ago.

    Even as credit card debt tops $1 trillion, almost all — or 96% — of shoppers said they expect to overspend this season, a separate TD Bank survey found.

    Half of consumers plan to take on more debt to cover those holiday expenses, according to another report by Ally Bank. Only 23% have a plan to pay it off within one to two months.”

    https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/19/62percent-of-americans-are-living-paycheck-to-paycheck-as-holidays-approach.html

    “This sucker could go down” — George W. Bush

      1. “Another poll, from Bankrate, found 35 percent of adults carrying credit card debt from month to month. Of that group, two-fifths said they didn’t know how much interest they were paying.”

        With CC rates above 20% their monthly payments are largely interest with little toward the principal balance.

    2. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin just announced an “Operation Prosperity Guardian” in response to the Houthis in Yemen firing missiles at shipping in the Red Sea. Which begs the question: Whose “prosperity” is being guarded? The American middle and working classes are getting more pauperized every year, thanks to the Fed’s debasement of the currency and the Brandon regime’s drunken-sailor spending.

      https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/18/us-to-expand-red-sea-defense-as-houthis-disrupt-trade.html

      1. Money printer go BRRR… time to open another front in this endless neolib/neocon deep state war.

  6. In December 2023, the home was sold for a third time for $1,052,000 — roughly $500,000 less than its sale price just a year and a half earlier.

    And the HBB observes a moment of silence in memory of those Dear Departed Yellen Bux.

  7. Europe’s EV market enters ‘valley of death’

    Philip Nothard, insight director at dealer services firm Cox Automotive, said low residual values also put buyers off as companies and many consumers choose new cars based on what they can sell them for a few years down the line.

    “We call it the valley of death, which we will be going through in 2024 to 2027: low residual values, high supply and low demand,” Nothard added.

    https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202312/18/WS657fa52ca31040ac301a837e.html

    German government terminates EV back program amid budget crisis

    https://menafn.com/1107623652/German-government-terminates-EV-back-program-amid-budget-crisis

    The founder of Nikola Corp. was sentenced Monday to four years in prison for his conviction for exaggerating claims about his company’s production of zero-emission 18-wheel trucks, causing investors to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars.

    Trevor Milton learned his fate in Manhattan federal court when Judge Edgardo Ramos announced the sentence, saying he believed that a jury in October 2022 “got it right” when it convicted him. The judge also ordered Milton to pay a $1 million fine.

    “Over the course of many months, you used your considerable social media skills to tout your company in ways that were materially false,” the judge said, noting investors suffered heavy losses. “What you said over and over on different media outlets was wrong.”

    Before the sentence was handed down, Milton fought through tears in delivering a half-hour rambling statement portraying some of his actions as heroic at Nikola and his intentions sincere as he sought to produce trucks that would not harm the environment.

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-nikola-corp-founder-jailed-for-four-years-for-defrauding-investors-on/

    1. low residual values also put buyers off

      FWIW, because of onerous annual Ministry of Transportation inspections, which typically produce long and pricey mandatory repair lists, cars in Europe depreciate much faster than in the US. I have relatives over there who scrapped perfectly good cars because the repair list cost was more than the value of their car. And their repairs are utterly unneeded. If you buy a used car over there you need to factor in thousands and thousands for the MoT repairs.

      So if EVs are depreciating even faster then they must quickly become nearly worthless.

      1. So what happens when the MoT tells you that you have to replace the battery pack, even though you have only lost 10% of range?

        1. Recycle it and ride the train. I think the only good part is that public transportation in Europe is 10x better than US. When in Europe, I kind of hate to drive anyway. So much more convenient to just use public. But it may be just me. Anyway, most families have one car and use it a lot less than in US.
          On the other hand, when in US, I have no idea how I would survive without a car. There is limited to absolutely no public transportation, and whatever is there, it’s rather pathetic. I hate cars, but there is some magic in driving the wide open country in US. Only riding the train in Europe beats it. 🙂 🙂

          1. There is limited to absolutely no public transportation

            Your mileage may vary. Some US metros have good public transportation. The real question is are you willing to share it with the dregs?

            But my point was that as a car owner in Europe you are subject to the whims of the various ministries of transportation. And the MoT doesn’t want you to have a car, which is why they make car ownership so inconvenient, burdensome and expensive.

            A few years ago I had a chat with a British colleague. I told him about how minimalist car inspections are in the US, usually being nothing more than an emissions test every few years. He was aghast, and asked how could we drive so dangerously. I told him that cars don’t go flying off the road, and that owners used common sense as to when to make repairs, instead of having the government make you replace parts that are perfectly fine and which still have years of operation left in them.

  8. ‘‘Inflation in the US is a structural [issue], the main cause being decoupling with China,’ Chau said. ‘The decoupling process will take a long time and therefore inflation and interest rates will remain high for the next couple of years, although there may be short-term fluctuation.’”

    First time I have heard that explanation. Not sure how it squares with CR8Ring Chinese demand for oil and other natural resources driving deflation in some commodities?

  9. “China’s state media also have published official lines that sought to push back against negative remarks concerning the state of the economy.’

    I guess they aren’t allowed to discuss whether pandemic lockdowns followed by ripping the bandaid off were a good policy path for the Chinese economy?

    1. ‘followed by ripping the bandaid off’

      That’s not what happened. Because I watch the ADV China guys and other outlets, there were a series of protests that turned increasingly violent and anti-CCP. IIRC the spark was a fire in a tower that had been welded shut. People were burned alive and the video got around before the commies could censor it. It mushroomed and large crowds were attacking police all over the country and calling for the overthrow of Xitlers guberment. So Xitler got scared, announced they had defeated minor repository illness and began to erase as many signs of the draconian period right away.

  10. Paul Krugman informs the ungrateful poors that the chocolate ration has been increased from 20g to 15g.

    New York Times (via Archive) — Beware Economists Who Won’t Admit They Were Wrong (12/18/2023):

    “From an economic point of view, 2023 will go down in the record books as one of the best years ever — a year in which inflation came down amazingly fast at no visible cost, defying the predictions of many economists that disinflation would require years of high unemployment.

    So far, at least, the public seems unwilling to believe the good news, or to give the Biden administration any credit.

    How amazing has the economy been? As recently as March, the Federal Reserve committee that sets monetary policy projected that we’d end this year with 4.5 percent unemployment and with the Fed’s preferred “core” measure of inflation running at 3.6 percent. Last week, the same group projected year-end unemployment of only 3.8 percent and core inflation at only 3.2 percent. But actually the news is even better, because that last number is inflation for the year as a whole; over the six months ending in October, core inflation was running at 2.5 percent, and most analysts I follow believe that when November data come in later this week, it will show inflation down to around 2 percent, which is the Fed’s long-run target.”

    https://archive.is/umZYm

    While this jack@ss is splitting hairs over the definition of inflation, half the country can’t afford food or gas or a place to live.

  11. ‘There is a possibility the Fed may hike rates again if inflation rears its head again, he said. ‘Inflation in the US is a structural [issue], the main cause being decoupling with China,’ Chau said. ‘The decoupling process will take a long time and therefore inflation and interest rates will remain high for the next couple of years, although there may be short-term fluctuation’

    I’ve been meaning to make more of a point of this. Why did we get inflation after so many decades? Sure Jerry and the girls printed lots of money but that had gone on since Greenspan. It was China’s major screw up during minor respiratory illness that did it. They were increasingly unreliable for global trade. The wages were now too high and factories were leaving. The glue that made globalism work was cheap Chinese labor, polluting the planet, no unions, no workplace safety and because that inflation took hold. Vietnam is not going to give us another China in the 1990’s situation.

    So Jim Grant may be right. We could be looking at 40 years of way higher inflation and interest rates than we’ve experienced for so long.

    1. My understanding: Up until the recent expansion of BRICS, we were able to export our inflation because we were the world’s reserve currency.

    1. Should You Get Out of Cash Before It Starts Underperforming Thanks to Fed’s Pivot?
      Lance Roberts | Dec 19, 2023 06:48AM ET

      A recent warning by YahooFinance warns investors to sell their cash and buy bonds and stocks now as the Fed pauses. To wit:

      “Get out of cash now. Take advantage of some of these incredible things in the fixed-income markets, especially in the belly of the curve. Take advantage of the companies that are still available to you at reasonable prices,” said Gargi Chaudhuri, head of investment strategy at BlackRock) iShares Americas.

      Such advice certainly goes against a mountain of historical evidence from both inverted yield curves and Fed rate cuts that suggest investors should be selling stocks and heading to the safety of cash.

      For example, the four-panel chart below shows the previous yield curve inversions when more than 50% of the ten economically sensitive yield spreads we track were inverted.

      The red lines denote where 50% of the yield curves became inverted and how investors fared during the un-inversion process. In every case, investors were better off in cash, except for 1990, when it was virtually breakeven.
      …
      https://m.investing.com/analysis/should-you-get-out-of-cash-before-it-starts-underperforming-thanks-to-feds-pivot-200644517

    2. Ryan Cohen Plans to Save GameStop By Becoming Warren Buffett

      It’s a long shot. But Mr. Cohen’s new plans for GameStop might work out.
      5d ago · By Thomas Yeung, CFA, InvestorPlace Markets Analyst

      On Dec. 7, shares of GameStop (NYSE:GME) tumbled 5% after CEO Ryan Cohen proposed using his company’s $900 million in cash to buy stocks.

      It’s “one of the most inane moves we have ever seen,” criticized Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter. “GameStop’s management believes it will achieve better returns by buying equities aside from its own.”

      But behind this “inane” decision is a cold calculation. Cohen knows he owns a struggling business in a fast-shrinking industry. 90% of all video games are now sold digitally, and selling gaming collectibles won’t make up the difference. As a Master Yoda bobblehead might say, a dying enterprise, GameStop is.
      …
      https://investorplace.com/2023/12/ryan-cohen-plans-to-save-gamestop-by-becoming-warren-buffett/

      1. Cohen might be behind the ball on buying politicians and insider trading if comments on Munger’s death are true. I honestly don’t know. But if you want a real scandal involving Republicans, look no further than the Franklin scandal and coverup.

    3. https://nitter.poast.org /gurgavin /status /1737160754921443474#m:

      INVESTORS PULLED OUT $5.2 BILLION DOLLARS FROM THE $QQQ NASDAQ 100 ETF ON FRIDAY

      THIS WAS THE BIGGEST 1 DAY OUTFLOW SINCE THE DOT COM BUBBLE PEAK IN 2000

      THE NASDAQ 100 FELL 70% OVER THE NEXT 2 YEARS AFTER THAT PER BLOOMBERG

  13. Efraín González
    @efraiinGzz
    ·
    New groups of migrants are buying bicycles to get to Eagle Pass faster.

    These Venezuelans bought each bike for 50 dollars today because they were prevented from buying bus tickets.

    Now they head straight to cross the Río Grande.

    https://x.com/efraiinGzz/status/1736935513326526901?s=20

    Border Hawk
    @BorderHawkNews

    Sources on the ground are telling us as many as 10,000 illegals stormed Eagle Pass today

    More info to come at http://BorderHawk.news

    https://x.com/BorderHawkNews/status/1736948584480739688?s=20

    1. Sources on the ground are telling us as many as 10,000 illegals stormed Eagle Pass today

      It’s Camp of the Saints time. All control of the border has been lost.

  14. Russia Today — US national debt jumps $2.6 trillion in six months (12/19/2023):

    “US national debt has continued to mount, jumping by $2.6 trillion in the six months through December to reach $33.8 trillion, according to the Treasury Department.

    “The national debt just exceeded $100,000 per citizen,” Republican Congressman John James said last week. “This should send a message to the White House that this reckless federal spending is at a breaking point.”

    The latest fiscal data showed that as of November 2023, it cost $169 billion for the US to maintain the debt, which equates to 16% of total federal spending.

    According to Bank of America (BoA), public debt could surge by $20 trillion over the next decade. It is likely to grow by $5.2 billion daily for the next ten years, which would put it at around $54 trillion by 2033, BoA warned last month.”

    https://www.rt.com/business/589311-us-national-debt-rise/

    $54 trillion is that a lot?

    1. surge by $20 trillion over the next decade

      Right. It’s already growing at over twice that rate, and accelerating.

      1. So what happens when no one will buy our paper? The Fed steps in and indirectly buys it all up?

        Hey, America, you think inflation is bad now? You ain’t seen nothing yet.

        1. So what happens when no one will buy our paper?

          Treasury tries selling more short term versus long term like now.

  15. Joe Biden’s America.

    Revolver — A mentally ill liberal mother decides her 2-year-old son is a girl; when Dad fights back, California bulldozes him (12/18/2023):

    “This is the current nightmare for a California man named Adam Vena, who is watching his son be transformed by his ex-wife into his daughter. Adam’s son was taken from him when he was just two years old because mommy decided he was a girl now. When Adam tried to intervene to protect his son, the state of California responded with a 5-year restraining order against him.

    This case is among the most infuriating you’ll ever come across. Radicalized mothers who are zealously imposing their radical LGBTQ agenda on their innocent children are tragically ruining their lives in pursuit of some twisted left-wing “trend.”

    How is it even conceivable for a two-year-old to make such permanent life decisions? This is the absurdity of the left: you’re not allowed to get a tattoo until you’re 18, but you can start changing your gender before you’re potty trained. It’s baffling how mentally sick these people are.”

    https://revolver.news/2023/12/mentally-ill-liberal-mother-decides-2-year-old-son-is-a-girl-when-dad-fights-back-california-bulldozes-him/

      1. Another 10% say they’d vote for some other candidate

        Kennedy would get 16%

        I’m not quite understanding how both of those can be correct.

      2. “Election 2024: Trump Opens 10-Point Lead”

        I smell 120 million votes for Biden in our future.

    2. “A mentally ill liberal mother decides her 2-year-old son is a girl; when Dad fights back, California bulldozes him”

      Truly disgusting story.

  16. “The biggest decline in house prices in the past year were in the suburbs of greater Hobart, with Carlton — around 25 kilometres east of the Tasmanian capital — seeing a 13.3 per cent fall in the last 12 months.

    Is that a lot?

  18. This one goes out to The Satanic Temple of Iowa.

    White Christmas

    Sung by The Drifters. Cartoon by Joshua Held.

    https://youtu.be/Ooc5eJc5SHA?si=gb-1OegkF-M79Eh1

    Why A Satanic Holiday Display At The Iowa Capitol Building Has Been Allowed To Stay Up Despite Backlash

    James Farrell
    Forbes Staff
    6 days ago

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesfarrell/2023/12/13/why-a-satanic-holiday-display-at-the-iowa-capitol-building-has-been-allowed-to-stay-up-despite-backlash/

    1. Why A Satanic Holiday Display At The Iowa Capitol Building Has Been Allowed To Stay Up Despite Backlash

      It’s how the Left gives the finger to the rest of us.

      They don’t seem concerned at all about losing next November. A friend of mine predicted earlier this year that the Dems would pivot back to the middle and become very “law and order”. But no such thing is happening. I can only conclude that they are confident that The Great Ballot Box Stuffing Machine will deliver the results they want, because they have no intention of relinquishing power.

      2. A friend of mine predicted earlier this year that the Dems would pivot back to the middle and become very “law and order”.

        That friend isn’t paying close enough attention.

          1. To be fair, it’s both parties. It’s no longer D v R. It’s nationalist v globalist. Choose wisely.

  19. Canada’s Inflation Drop HALTS: Pushing Back Rate Cut Bets
    Mark Mitchell – Mortgage Broker London Ontario
    4 hours ago

    Canada’s inflation data came in hotter than expected in November, opening the door for the Bank of Canada to hold off on imminent interest rate cuts. The CPI came in at 3.1%, unchanged from October, but higher than the 2.9% which had been expected.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-9qERlIaQE

    6:24.

  20. ‘In the materials, Meyers even pledged to commit up to $275 million to the company’s Homekey projects. When asked about that personal pledge on Friday, which bears his signature, Meyers said, ‘I’m not really sure what you’re talking about’

    You know Andy, the thing! All this money flew away and you signed for it. How can you turn one of the big bum-D’oh!-tel deals with the guberment into this sh$t farce?

  22. ‘Co-ops have been on the decline for quite some time, which is not to say they’re not beautiful—they are, and many have some of the best architecture ever built,’ said broker Donna Olshan, who publishes a weekly luxury market report. ‘But the shareholders [of co-ops] are suffering. They accept lower-than-true-market value for the privilege of being in a dysfunctional club’

    Communism doesn’t work Donna.

  23. ‘The other big issue we are seeing is lease-up times for new projects is jumping from an average of 12-14 months to almost 18-24 months’

    How do those 5% cap rates look now Mike?

  24. ‘first sold in December 2021 for $1,485,000. Just a few months later, the home was put back on the market and eventually sold for $1,565,000 in April 2022, an exact $80,000 markup from its previous price. In October 2022, the home was leased for $3,800 per month before it was put back on the market for sale. In December 2023, the home was sold for a third time for $1,052,000 — roughly $500,000 less than its sale price just a year and a half earlier. A power of sale’

    This foreclosure took out the December 2021 number by a third.

  25. ‘The biggest decline in house prices in the past year were in the suburbs of greater Hobart, with Carlton — around 25 kilometres east of the Tasmanian capital — seeing a 13.3 per cent fall in the last 12 months. House prices in the nearby suburbs of…’

    This is an example of the continuous crashing of housing bubbles. Australia is to the moon, oh it’s crashing!

  26. ‘highlighted growing apprehension about whether China was likely ever to witness again the type of explosive growth it had enjoyed for decades, and which eventually propelled it to the world’s No. 2 economy in 2010…in tandem with Weibo’s warnings was a cautionary message issued by China’s State Security Ministry, which warned users against spreading ‘false narratives’ about the economy. ‘Their essence is to use various false narratives to construct a ‘discourse trap’ and ‘cognitive trap’ of ‘China’s decline’ in order to continue to cast doubt on the system and the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics’

    IMO communist China will be a brief period historically speaking.

    1. Considering that China has been around for a few thousand years, it is likely that the PRC will just be a blip in its long history.

  27. Toronto Real Estate Market Update – Where Did All My Money Go? (Dec 13, 2023)
    Team Sessa Real Estate
    36 minutes ago

    In this episode we take a look at the current Toronto Real Estate home prices and market trends for week ending December 13, 2023. We also discuss the problems with not having a plan to payoff debts and how that is negatively affecting many current homeowners.

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

    17:18.

    1. not having a plan to payoff debts

      It wasn’t that long ago these fools believed that a house would pay for itself.

    2. “not having a plan to payoff debts and how that is negatively affecting many current homeowners”

      Ha! The biggest TV for every bedroom, summer sports cars covered in the garage for winter, lavish vacations and all on credit.

      But when interest rates rise they’re selling the house they bought last year for less than they paid.

  29. Got shrinkage?

    What I don’t get is what happens to the houses these people leave behind when they move of to Florida or Texas. It seems like hundreds of thousands of people leaving would open up more housing for the remaining population, unless their houses somehow disappear when they leave.

    1. The Mercury News
      Breaking News Colorado Supreme Court bars Donald Trump from appearing on the state’s ballot in 2024
      California’s population shrunk in 2023 for the third straight year, but exodus slowed
      The country is closer to pre-pandemic growth in 2023 than previous two years
      By John Woolfolk | Bay Area News Group and Harriet Blair Rowan | Bay Area News Group
      PUBLISHED: December 19, 2023 at 4:27 p.m. | UPDATED: December 19, 2023 at 8:53 p.m.

      The California exodus isn’t over yet.

      For the third consecutive year, the Golden State’s population continued to shrink in 2023, even as 42 other states grew this past year, many reversing population declines during the COVID pandemic, according to figures from the U.S. Census Bureau released Tuesday.

      Overall nationally, the U.S. gained more than 1.6 million people this past year, growing by 0.5% to 334,914,895, the Census reported, with more states seeing population growth in 2023 than in any year since the start of the pandemic. While national population growth remains historically low, the U.S. saw a slight uptick from the 0.4% increase in 2022 and the 0.2% increase in 2021.

      The Census said population trends are returning to pre-pandemic growth rates as international immigration returns and death rates continue to drop.

      “Although births declined, this was tempered by the near 9% decrease in deaths,” said Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the Population Division at the Census Bureau. “Ultimately, fewer deaths paired with rebounding immigration resulted in the nation experiencing its largest population gain since 2018.”

      So what’s going on in the Golden State?

      California’s population shrank by 75,423 residents in 2023 to 38,965,193, a drop of 0.2% from 2022. But the so-called California exodus is slowing. The drop is less than the 0.3% annual decline in 2022 from 2021, and the 0.9% yearly drop in 2021 from 2020, when 39,503,200 called the Golden State home.
      …
      https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/19/californias-population-shrunk-in-2023-for-the-third-straight-year-but-exodus-slowed/

Comments are closed.