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Many Had Been Built Without Consideration For Actual Market Demand

It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Seattle-area home prices dipped last year at levels unseen in more than a decade, signaling the hit the region’s housing market has suffered since high mortgage rates dampened buyer and seller enthusiasm. The price drops, reflected in year-end data the Northwest Multiple Listing Service released Thursday, are a sign that the Seattle-area housing market is ‘finally coming back to reality,’ said Mason Virant, associate director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at the University of Washington. The ‘off-the-charts’ double-digit price spikes of the early pandemic years have given way to a smaller ‘correction,’ Virant said.”

“Facing high interest rates, many shoppers found their mortgage payments would be ‘significantly more than what they could potentially rent for,’ said Jenny Wetzel, an agent with Windermere Abode in Tacoma. ‘So, people are now opting to rent rather than buy — or they’re being forced to,’ Wetzel said. ‘It’s not affordable for many homebuyers right now to purchase.’ Throughout 2023, Wetzel heard from curious potential home shoppers who successfully qualified for a loan, but then decided against it ‘because of the significant financial strain that it would put on them,’ she said.”

“The Central Texas housing market took a breather last year. Across the five-county region, sales and median prices were down in every county except one: Caldwell, where Lockhart is the county seat. In the Austin-Round Rock metro that extends from Georgetown to San Marcos, sales fell 9.8% as 30,438 homes changed hands. Half of those homes sold more for more than $450,000 and half sold for less, for a 10.2% drop in the median closing price. Here are the numbers for each county: Travis, median price: $523,800, down 8.9%. Hays, median price: $397,330, down 9.7%. Bastrop, median price: $350,210, down 11.3%. ‘Housing inventory reached the highest level it’s been in more than eight years, and while there was a drop in closed sales and median close price, these were both symptomatic of higher mortgage rates,’ said Kent Redding, president of the Austin Board of Realtors.”

“Raising the stakes for Steve Wynns’s Beverly Hills estate seems out of the question at this point in the game. The casino mogul’s 11-bedroom, 16-bathroom mansion at 1210 Benedict Canyon Drive has been on and off the market for a few years. On Jan. 17, its price dropped about 12 percent. The property is currently listed for $75 million. A year ago, the 27,000-square-foot estate was listed for $85 million. Its initial off-market ask in 2020 was $135 million. The price cut for Wynn’s house follows a tough year for L.A.’s luxury home market, where agents have counseled sellers in almost every segment to bring down prices. ‘Most never sell and are ultimately taken off the market. So it is more unusual when one sells than when it doesn’t,’ said Anthony Marguleas of Amalfi Estates headquartered in Pacific Palisades. Eventually, the over-priced aspirations come down to meet reality. Price reductions of 30 to 50 percent are not uncommon for luxe homes in this market, Marguleas noted.”

“Actor Kevin Spacey’s waterfront home in Baltimore will be sold at a foreclosure auction in February. The auction will be held on Feb. 29 at a yet-to-be decided time, according to the website of the debt collection firm of McCabe, Weisberg & Conway. A limited liability company tied to Spacey snapped up the apartment in 2017 for $5.65 million, records with PropertyShark show. The foreclosure has been pending for more than a year without resolution, the Baltimore Banner reported, adding that a mediation session in August failed to produce a settlement.”

“On Dec. 28, Arianna Kamal, Teena Kamal, and Rakesh ‘Rick’ Kamal were found dead in their sprawling Dover estate. Authorities have called the incident a murder-suicide and said initial autopsy results point to Rick murdering his wife and daughter before taking his own life. Investigative reporting by The Boston Globe, some light is being shed on the Kamal family and the circumstances that led to their deaths. The Kamals lived in a massive house that included 21 rooms, a spa, a movie theater, and a pool. On Dec. 11, the company that developed the property and loaned the family the money to buy it received a court approval for their eviction. It was the culmination, according to the Globe’s reporting, of years of financial troubles that were carefully hidden by Rick from his family.”

“While all of this happened, Teena and 18-year-old Arianna were reportedly kept in the dark. ‘Teena had no clue that there were financial problems,’ her brother, Sandeep Bedi, told the Globe. ‘She thought that they were rolling in money.’ Teena had even begun buying furniture for a lavish second house that she believed the family was on the verge of buying.”

“The value of city buildings is sinking under the weight of high interest rates, crippling regulations and large vacancies caused by work-from-home and pandemic downsizing. Many properties are now worth no more than their debt, and they’re still not selling. According to the Real Estate Board of New York, sales in 2023 were the lowest since 2009. You have to be ‘a really smart analyst and appraiser to read the tea leaves,’ added Adelaide Polsinelli of Compass. ‘Many buyers have left the market, and the rest are going bargain hunting and not buying unless it’s a steal.'”

“B.C. financial regulators received complaints about accused fraudster Greg Martel, including that a high-return investment opportunity might be a ‘scam,’ years before his alleged $300-million Ponzi scheme collapsed in 2023. The complaints about Martel’s investment schemes were made to the B.C. Financial Services Authority and the B.C. Securities Commission in early 2017 and mid-2021, according to financial services authority records. On learning complaints had been made well before the scheme collapsed, one investor, Kelly, who wished to be identified only by her first name, said if regulators had dug deeper maybe investors could have saved tens of millions of dollars. She acknowledged the regulator is not 100 per cent responsible for money she invested, as she has to own some of that responsibility. But Kelly, whose family lost $1 million in the alleged Ponzi, said: ‘I get angry when I hear that people have filed previous complaints and nothing was done about it. I get very angry.’ If Martel’s scheme proves to be a Ponzi, it would be the largest in B.C. and one of the largest in Canada.”

“Banks and building societies reported the biggest rise in households failing to keep up with repayments on secured loans – overwhelmingly mortgages – since early 2009, according to a closely watched Bank of England survey. Stephen Perkins of Yellow Brick Mortgages said: ‘After cutting back where possible and exhausting all available credit options, many households are now at breaking point.’ Michelle Lawson, from Lawson Financial, said high living costs will continue pushing mortgage holders into difficult territory. She said: ‘Property isn’t easy to sell at the moment if there is a downsizing option and this also doesn’t come without costs. I would expect these default figures to rise further as some households will be left with nowhere to go. Many people have simply run out of road.'”

“Segments of the property market in Malaysia are expected to perform well in 2024, but elsewhere there are areas of concern. In Johor, for instance, a large overhang of residential property remains, according to Siva Shanker of Rahim and Co International Property Consultant. It is the same in the small states such as Perlis, Melaka and Negeri Sembilan as well as the less developed states such as Kelantan. Siva said there is also an oversupply of serviced apartments. ‘Many had been built without consideration for actual market demand,’ he said.”

“Many real estate properties below the price of 3 million baht in Bangkok and surrounding provinces in 10 locations are not selling well and an expert predicts it will take 30 to 78 months to clear the stocks. Darunee Rungruangphon, Managing Director of Darvid Property Service, stated that the number of second-hand houses, including townhouses, single-family homes, condominiums, commercial buildings, and other real estate being offered for sale in the market has increased as owners have been impacted by the economy and are unable to continue making payments. Her information is consistent with knowing that the Government Housing Bank (GHB) is organizing the GHB GHB ALL HOME EXPO 2024 used home expo, presenting 924 second-hand houses for sale and 500 real estate items in the region, including single houses, semi-detached houses, townhouses, and condominiums, with discounts of up to 50% off current prices.”

“The news that condotels, resort villas and officetels will be granted a red book, or land use right certificate, was good news. Le Dinh Chung, SGO Homes CEO, said real estate with red books can sell more easily as buyers feel secure about the legal status of the property and can borrow money from banks to buy it. The large cities of Quang Ninh, Da Nang and Nha Trang are expected to see recovery sooner as they are famous tourist sites and are not new markets. Meanwhile, the other areas such as Quy Nhon, Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan will need more time to recover. Many real estate investors are selling resort real estate at prices 30-40 percent lower than the buy prices.”

“China’s population decline accelerated in 2023, official data showed on Wednesday, extending a downward streak after more than six decades of growth. Last year’s decline was more than double the fall reported for 2022, when the country lost 850,000 people as its population shrank for the first time since 1960. ‘The trend of China’s population decline is basically impossible to reverse,’ He Yafu, an independent Chinese demographer, told AFP. China’s economy last year suffered one of its worst annual performances in more than three decades, official figures showed Wednesday, as the country battled a crippling property crisis, sluggish consumption and global turmoil.”

“An intractable real estate crisis, record youth unemployment and a global slowdown are also gumming the gears of the Chinese growth engine. Financial woes at major firms such as Evergrande and Country Garden are now fuelling buyer mistrust against a backdrop of unfinished housing developments and falling prices. Property has long been seen by many Chinese as a safe place to park savings, but price drops have hit their wallets hard. A record of more than one in five people aged 16 to 24 in China were unemployed in May, according to officials. Beijing has since suspended the monthly publication of youth unemployme

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  1. ‘many shoppers found their mortgage payments would be ‘significantly more than what they could potentially rent for,’ said Jenny Wetzel, an agent with Windermere Abode in Tacoma. ‘So, people are now opting to rent rather than buy — or they’re being forced to,’ Wetzel said. ‘It’s not affordable for many homebuyers right now to purchase.’ Throughout 2023, Wetzel heard from curious potential home shoppers who successfully qualified for a loan, but then decided against it ‘because of the significant financial strain that it would put on them’

    That’s some sound lending there Jenny.

  2. ‘Last year’s decline was more than double the fall reported for 2022, when the country lost 850,000 people as its population shrank for the first time since 1960. ‘The trend of China’s population decline is basically impossible to reverse’

    Communist central planning strikes again He. China and globalism are fooked.

  3. ‘Most never sell and are ultimately taken off the market. So it is more unusual when one sells than when it doesn’t’…Price reductions of 30 to 50 percent are not uncommon for luxe homes in this market’

    Tony tell those losers to go out to the front yard, look under the El Camino and tell me what they see. Gold nuggets baby! Just sitting on the dirt.

  4. ‘Many buyers have left the market, and the rest are going bargain hunting and not buying unless it’s a steal’

    That’s the spirit Adelaide!

      1. That’s a lot of money to pay for a badly-renovated split-level. It also seems rather cramped for a little horse property. I don’t know the market there… maybe $600K?

        1. Niwot is a Boulder “suburb”, which account for the high price. That shanty would be much cheaper in Larimer county.

  5. [Here is a long, non-housing related article – an opinion – originating from some far off place located somewhere south of the equator (whatever that is).]

    WEF say World’s greatest threat is “Misinformation” — (The biggest threat to experts and billionaires is free speech)

    https://joannenova.com.au/

    Finally, they admit that Free Speech is more scary than climate change
    The WEF, being the billionaire’s ski club — are of course, talking about the worlds greatest threat to them, not to you.

    In the WEF Global Risks Report they asked 1,490 experts and leaders and their the list of biggest risks in the next two years was misinformation and disinformation. Forget bioweapons, nuclear bombs, wars, corruption, asteroids, inflation and global boiling — the thing that keeps the favored “experts” awake at night is whether people will point out their flaws and expose the rorts* that put them at the top of the pile.

    The “Misinformation and Disinformation” line is dressed up as a concern that AI generated or false information is the problem, but note the giveaway — those in authority are most worried about public opinion shifting to distrust those in authority — as if “authority” could never be wrong.

    Blind trust is how you build nations right?

    Persistent false information (deliberate or otherwise) widely spread through media networks, shifting public opinion in a significant way towards distrust in facts and authority. Includes, but is not limited to: false, imposter, manipulated and fabricated content.

    Fake news has been around since the Stone Age, and the only way to deal with it is to correct it with better information, not with gatekeepers of truth or government rules. Free speech works because anyone caught spreading lies got a bad reputation, and everyone else was free to repeat that.

    How is it that those who control the research grants, the media licenses, and one third of the whole economy could be unable to defend themselves? Do they lack a thousand paid agents with supercomputers, guns and security passes to find out the truth? Nay, these are the poor poppets who only have whole institutions, ministries, and public broadcasters with budgets of billions to tell their side of the story. The problem is they have everything on their side except the truth.

    Their greatest fear is that you might hear the other side
    Imagine the billionaires have puppets and allies among politics and bureaucrats, and have set up a system of grift and graft where they creamed off nice profits for fixing the weather, say, while they flew on their jets and cruised on their yachts. Imagine the plumbers and truckies found out that the medicines they were forced to take were contaminated, the climate was controlled by sun, not their car, and their children were being taught to hate the country the plumbers and truckies had built.

    The WEF want to stop the workers getting angry, not by fixing the problem but by keeping the workers in the dark:

    Misinformation and disinformation may radically disrupt electoral processes in several economies over the next two years.
    – A growing distrust of information, as well as media and governments as sources, will deepen polarized views – a vicious cycle that could trigger civil unrest and possibly confrontation.
    – There is a risk of repression and erosion of rights as authorities seek to crack down on the proliferation of false information – as well as risks arising from inaction.

    All around the world political puppets are saying the same things about the “dangers of misinformation”.

    Although, Javier Milei, the new President of Argentina, was not. He warned that the Western world was in danger, and that the socialists changed their agenda and instead of dividing us by class, they created other social divisions instead — like women against men, (and presumably race against race). Collectivism and socialism, he said, were the path to poverty. And Argentina, with all it’s riches and skills lost the free market and still ended up poor.

    His speech was a call to arms of the businessmen to stand up to the political class:

    Do not be intimidated, either by the political caste or by parasites who live off the state. Do not surrender to a political class that only wants to stay in power and retain its privileges. Do not surrender to the advance of the state. The state is not the solution. The state is the problem itself. You are the true protagonists of this story and rest assured that as from today, Argentina is your staunch, unconditional ally.

    He warns of tyranny:

    Today, states don’t need to directly control the means of production to control every aspect of the lives of individuals, with tools such as printing money, debt, subsidies, controlling the interest rate, price controls, and regulations to correct so-called market failures. They can control the lives and fates of millions of individuals….

    UPDATE: From a better translation

    Socialism shrinks the pie:

    11: “They say that capitalism is evil because it’s individualistic and that collectivism is good because it’s altruistic, of course with the money of others.”

    12: “Those who promote social justice, they advocate the idea that the whole economy is a pie that can be shared in better ways, but that pie is not a fixed given, it’s wealth that get generated in what Israel Kirzner for instance calls a Market Discovery Process.”

    13: “If the state punishes the capitalists when they are successful, and gets in the way of the (Market) Discovery Process, they will destroy their incentives and the consequence is that they will produce less, and the pie will be smaller, and this will harm society as a whole.”

    14: “Collectivism, by inhibiting the (Market) Discovery Process and hindering the appropriation of discoveries, ends up binding the hands of entrepreneurs and preventing them to provide better goods and services at a better price.”

    *For foreign readers — a rort is a “a fraudulent scheme or a trick”.

    1. “Misinformation and Disinformation”

      Any article or opinion piece that references these terms is deep state propaganda and lies.

      The 2020 election was stolen.
      Covid vaccines are poison.
      There are only two genders.
      Climate change is a hoax.

      And most importantly, replacement theory isn’t a theory. It’s a coordinated globalist genocide of white European Christian nations.

    2. I’m surprised they even allowed Milei to land his plane at the Davos airport, much less give a speech.

  6. Vaughan, Richmond Hill & Markham Real Estate Update – Buyer’s Walk Away At Big Cost – (Jan 10, 2024)
    Team Sessa Real Estate
    13 hours ago

    In this episode we take a look at the current Vaughan Home Prices, Richmond Hill Home Prices & Markham Home Prices and market trends for week ending Jan 10, 2024. We discuss Buyer’s who are considering or have chosen to walk away from purchase agreements, often times leaving them exposed to potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars of liability down the road.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzrlXe8dKEE

    14:44.

  7. Does is seem like Mr Market has managed to stay drunk since New Year’s Eve on the alcohol the Fed left in the punch bowl it didn’t remove?

    1. Finance economy
      Jamie Dimon says assuming ‘everything’s hunky-dory’ is a mistake as a booming stock market is ‘like this little drug we all feel’
      “When stock markets are up, it’s kind of like this little drug we all feel, like it’s just great,” Dimon warned CNBC in a wide-ranging interview.
      BY Hannah Levitt AND Bloomberg
      January 17, 2024 5:23 PM EST
      …

      1. a booming stock market is ‘like this little drug we all feel’

        Speak for yourself. I don’t do drugs.

    2. What is it called when the entire Treasury yield curve is rising, but it is also becoming more inverted?

      1. Bond Report
        10-year Treasury yield heads for another 2024 high after U.S. consumer sentiment data
        Last Updated: Jan. 19, 2024 at 10:19 a.m. ET
        First Published: Jan. 19, 2024 at 7:10 a.m. ET
        By Vivien Lou Chen and Barbara Kollmeyer

        Treasury yields were rising Friday morning, pushing longer-term rates toward more 2024 highs, after data showed consumer sentiment soared this month.

        What happened

        -The yield on the 2-year Treasury BX:TMUBMUSD02Y rose 4.7 basis points to 4.402%, after ending at a one-week high of 4.355% on Thursday.

        – The yield on the 10-year Treasury BX:TMUBMUSD10Y jumped 4.4 basis points to 4.186% from Thursday’s level of 4.142%, which was the highest since Dec. 12.

        – The yield on the 30-year Treasury BX:TMUBMUSD30Y rose 2.6 basis points to 4.397% after hitting its highest since Dec. 4 on Thursday, at 4.371%.
        …
        https://www.marketwatch.com/story/treasury-yields-back-away-from-highs-as-more-economic-data-awaits-ba2c7f84

  9. Electric cars lose as much as half of their value after just three years on the road, new figures show, as the rate of depreciation far outstrips petrol equivalents.

    Research from Auto Trader said there were “unsustainable levels of depreciation” in the electric car market, with used prices of battery-powered vehicles dropping by 23pc in the last year alone.

    The online vehicle marketplace said a motorist buying a £50,000 electric car could expect to lose £24,000 in value over three years, while a similarly priced petrol car could lose £17,000.

    The value of used electric cars has dropped dramatically in the last 12 months after Covid-related supply shortages eased and as rising electricity prices hit demand.

    This coincided with petrol prices falling to a two-year low.

    It said that the price of used electric cars could come under further pressure this year as thousands of motorists return vehicles acquired on three-year leases and as manufacturers cut the price of new vehicles.

    “With over 800,000 new electric cars registered between 2020 and 2023, supply returning to the used car market will only increase in 2024, and if demand does not keep up, electric cars could depreciate even further, undermining both consumer and retailer confidence,” it said.

    Manufacturers are now applying record discounts to new electric vehicles in a bid to boost stuttering demand.

    Auto Trader said car makers were slashing thousands of pounds off prices, with average discounts of 10.6pc offered in December. This compares to discounts of 4.8pc a year earlier.

    It predicted that a wave of Chinese entrants would further push down the cost of electric cars.

    Sales of new battery-powered vehicles in Britain rose by 18pc last year but accounted for just 16.5pc of all new cars sold – a slight decline from 2022.

    New electric cars are still more than a third more expensive than their petrol or diesel equivalents.

    However, from this month, electric cars will need to account for 22pc of every manufacturer’s sales, which analysts expect to lead to heavy price cuts to encourage consumers.

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/electric-cars-lose-half-value-060000890.html

    1. Heh heh…our aging fleet of gas-powered Japanese automobiles is running fine, with high resale value.

      1. The UK relatives were forced to junk their 12 year old Japanese car because of MoT requirements. I was told that the most recent punch list would have cost over 5000 pounds, so they traded it in for 500 pounds when they bought the next one. My understanding is that the car was sent to a scrap yard. A perfectly good car that probably had 10 trouble free years left. The car ran perfectly when it was inspected.

        When I tell Brits we have no such equivalent inspection here in the US they are aghast. They really believe that cars become death traps without the MoT inspections and their long and expensive punch lists.

        1. The UK relatives were forced to junk their 12 year old Japanese car because of MoT requirements.

          Insane. But hey, for the planet or children or something. The smart people with degrees from the right schools decreed it.

    2. “New electric cars are still more than a third more expensive than their petrol or diesel equivalents.”

      “However, from this month, electric cars will need to account for 22pc of every manufacturer’s sales, which analysts expect to lead to heavy price cuts to encourage consumers.”

      \\

      – 1) There’s the price of the EV vs. ICE autos.
      – 2) THEN there’s the lifecycle cost; the cost of operating the vehicle over the life of the car, including all inputs and factors.
      – 3) From what I gather, EVs don’t “pencil out” in both categories, but “climate change,” “carbon footprint,” “global warming,” etc.
      – How much CO2 did all of the private jets at Davos produce vs. a MS Teams meeting or a Zoom meeting. Did they really need to fly to Davos, or was it all about the escorts?
      – F the globalists. Let the market decide. Eliminate government subsidies and interventions. Free markets. Free men (and women).
      – Political science vs. Physical science. Fact or heresy? And yes, “The Left” is a religion.

      \\

      https://www.washingtonpolicy.org/publications/detail/natiional-lab-study-shows-evs-are-more-expensive-than-gas-powered-cars-and-provide-modest-co2-reduction

      National lab study shows EVs are more expensive than gas-powered cars and provide modest CO2 reduction
      By TODD MYERS | Jan 17, 2024

      Do electric vehicles (EVs) affordably reduce CO2 emissions and save money for their owners despite their higher purchase price? These are questions the researchers at Argonne National Labs sought to answer in an updated report comparing the cost and life-cycle energy use of gas-powered vehicles, electric vehicles, hybrid vehicle, and vehicles using other fuel types.

      The findings show that, on average, current EVs are more expensive to operate than comparable gas-powered vehicles over their lifetime, the reduction in CO2 emissions is relatively small, and those reductions likely cost more than the value of the environmental benefits.

      \\

      https://greet.anl.gov/publication-c2g_lca_us_ldv
      Argonne National Laboratory
      Publication Details
      Title : Cradle-to-grave lifecycle analysis of U.S. light-duty vehicle-fuel pathways: a greenhouse gas emissions and economic assessment of current (2020) and future (2030-2035) technologies

      Publication Date : November 01, 2023

      Authors : J. Kelly, A. Elgowainy, R. Isaac, J. Ward, E. Islam, A. Rousseau, I. Sutherland, T. Wallington, M. Alexander, M. Muratori, M. Franklin, J. Adams, N. Rustagi

      Abstract : This study provides a comprehensive life cycle analysis (LCA), or cradle-to-grave (C2G) analysis, of the cost and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of a variety of vehicle-fuel pathways, the levelized cost of driving (LCD) and cost of avoided GHG emissions. The C2G analysis assesses light duty midsize sedans and small sport utility vehicles (SUVs) across a variety of vehicle-fuel technology pathways, including conventional internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs), flexible hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), battery electric vehicles (BEVs) with varying vehicle ranges, and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs).

    3. It is worth noting that ICE cars in the UK depreciate faster than in the US, mostly because of expensive mandatory repair lists of Ministry of Transportation (MoT) inspections. Often by the time a car is 10 years old the cost to bring up to MoT requirements is in the thousands.

      So, even with that handicap EV still depreciate faster.

    4. When they get cheap enough, could you just put a harbor freight generator in the trunk and run it on regular gas? Some of the battery packs are so expensive that they will be giving these cars away, why not convert them?

  10. JPMorgan Chase chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon shared this pointed advice at the forum, “I wish the Democrats would think a little more carefully when they talk about MAGA.”

    Dimon warned harsh criticism of MAGA Republicans by the left could backfire.

    “The Democrats have done a pretty good job with the deplorables,” said Dimon referencing Hillary Clinton’s now infamous comments during the 2016 election. “I mean really? can we just stop that stuff and actually grow up and treat people with respect.”

    Dimon argues it’s incorrect to say Donald Trump supporters share the former president’s polarizing character. Dimon also pointed out Trump’s policy successes have added to his political popularity and it’s dangerous for Democrats to dismiss those.

    “He was kind of right about NATO. Kind of right about immigration. He grew the economy quite well. Tax reform worked. He was right about some of China,” said Dimon.

    Towson University professor emeritus Richard Vatz points out that Dimon identifies as a centrist Democrat and the advice he’s giving Biden is sound.

    “Start emphasizing why we should vote for you on policy issues That will win you some votes. Don’t keep harping on how bad the people are that support Donald Trump because this is an ever-increasing number of people who are concerned about the country,” argued Vatz.

    Dimon’s warnings come as a January ABC/Ipsos poll shows Biden’s approval ratings sank to 33% percent, a record low not for his presidency but for any president in the last 15 years.

    https://idahonews.com/news/beyond-the-podium/jpmorgan-chase-ceo-warns-democrats-over-fiery-maga-criticism-jamie-dimon-politics-republicans-donald-trump-2024-election-policy-issues-popularity#

  12. Pfizermoderna-itis

    Shawn Barber, world champion pole vaulter, dead at 29

    By Associated Press
    Published Jan. 18, 2024, 6:01 p.m. ET

    Shawn Barber, the Canadian pole vault record holder and 2015 world champion, has died from medical complications.

    He was 29.

    Barber died Wednesday at home in Kingwood, Texas, his agent, Paul Doyle, confirmed to The Associated Press.

    A cause of death was not yet known.

    Barber had been experiencing health issues.

    https://nypost.com/2024/01/18/sports/shawn-barber-world-champion-pole-vaulter-dead-at-29/

    2. Pole vaulters are usually very skinny, for obvious reasons. Not the sort of people who are prone to heart attacks.

    3. From the comments in the article, a big chunk of corporate America is still requiring the jab as a condition for employment.

        1. My employer doesn’t require it. It did, until the Biden mandate was overturned by a judge, fortunately I was able to dodge that needle.

      2. From the comments in the article, a big chunk of corporate America is still requiring the jab as a condition for employment.

        I mostly see this as a requirement for roles related to healthcare or education.

        So I pass.

  13. Just like here, the local TDS News conveniently forgets to mention this illegal had already been deported 4 times.

    Driver accused of killing mother and son in crash has been charged with DUI in past

    Dec 22, 2023
    The driver accused of killing a mother and her teenage son in a crash near Broomfield High School has a history of DUI charges.

    https://youtu.be/vdP05sLpbpY?si=LpWPD0GjAFD4Zi8p

    Suspect in deadly Broomfield DUI crash previously deported 4 times: ICE

    by: Heather Willard
    Posted: Jan 9, 2024 / 03:29 PM MST

    DENVER (KDVR) — Details are emerging about a 37-year-old man who police say hit and killed a mother and son near Broomfield High School on Dec. 12, 2023.

    Jose Guadalupe Menjivar-Alas is facing charges of vehicular homicide, driving under the influence and aggravated habitual offender driving with a revoked license after he allegedly hit a vehicle with Melissa Powell, 47, and her son, Riordan Powell, 16, at an estimated speed of 100 miles per hour.

    U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told FOX31 that Menjivar, an El Salvador citizen, had been removed from the U.S. four times before the deadly crash. The agency said Menjivar “first entered the country at an unknown time and place without inspection by an immigration official.”

    https://kdvr.com/news/local/suspect-in-deadly-broomfield-dui-crash-previously-deported-4-times-ice/

    2. Man arrested for DUI after already serving 5 years for killing 8yo boy in 2019 crash.
      January 12th 2024

      According to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, 40-year-old Karmjit Singh was arrested on December 4th for DUI when he was found to be driving with a blood alcohol content of .08.

      Singh was first arrested for DUI back in 2016 in Tulare County.

      Four years later he was arrested for the fatal 2019 crash where he ran a stop sign at 100mph and crashed into a family’s car, killing 8-year-old Maverick Martzen and severely injuring the parents.

      https://kmph.com/news/local/man-arrested-for-dui-after-serving-5-years-for-killing-8yo-boy-in-2019-crash-singh-martzen-family-injured-hospital-severe-fatal-died-driving-under-influence-tulare-county

    3. Build the wall, deport them ALL.

      I told some Venezuelans to get the f* away from my van in Lakewood today. They are Poisoning The Blood of this country.

  14. – Populism is the new black.

    \\

    https://twitter.com/WinfieldSmart/status/1747768502394429884
    Win Smart, CFA @WinfieldSmart

    President Milei just went to the WEF and roasted the elites

    Full Speech

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1747768502394429884

    4:50 PM · Jan 17, 2024 · 77.1K Views

    \\

    – Also here:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DYQQf1KjYo&t=6s
    Argentina President Javier Milei slams elites at Davos: ‘the state is the problem’
    New York Post
    1.14M subscribers
    Jan 17, 2024 #wef2024 #javiermilei #davos

    Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei praised free markets and slammed socialism at Davos on Wednesday (January 17) during the first overseas tour for the self-proclaimed ‘anarcho-capitalist,’ who is battling to fix a major economic crisis at home.

    \\

    – and, surprisingly, here:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfcd0gWNIog
    Special address by Javier Milei, President of Argentina | Davos 2024 | World Economic Forum
    892K subscribers
    320,500 views Streamed live on Jan 17, 2024 #WorldEconomicForum #wef24 #Davos2024
    A special address by Javier Milei, President of Argentina.

    \\

    https://twitter.com/KevinRobertsTX/status/1748022794405794166
    Kevin Roberts @KevinRobertsTX

    My message to the self-appointed global elites: Your time is up.

    [Heritage President Goes Scorched Earth on Globalist Elites at WEF]

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1748022794405794166

    9:41 AM · Jan 18, 2024 · 3.7M Views

  15. Jan Jekielek
    @JanJekielek

    “We’ve exempted the pharmaceutical industries from liability, but that doesn’t exempt the federal government from liability,” says
    @RepAndyHarrisMD
    .
    “Let’s create compensation for these individuals. I mean, if they’ve been harmed by a government program—which was the COVID mandatory vaccination…the government should do something when they get a side effect of basically what was the government’s recommendation.”

    “We have to deal with that as Congress.”

    https://x.com/JanJekielek/status/1748063487924847091?s=20

    1. THE REAL DI55IDENTS TRIED TO WARN US FROM THE VERY BEGINNING 🔥

      AND THEY WERE SILENCED ONE WAY OR ANOTHER

      Remember all these doctors sounding the alarm in 2020!? Why are there suddenly new Narrative Gatekeepers who pushed lockdowns and masks but who now want to claim that they are somehow the leaders of the ‘covid dissident dream team’. They make me sick! They ignore every doctor who came out early and risked it all to tell the truth! Many more docs and researchers came forward, so please see Full Video “Honest Experts are Trying to Warn You” 👇

      https://www.bitchute.com/video/EU5b9cR4BE6D/

      https://www.bitchute.com/video/Auxpb8chOXVn/

      12:23.

  16. Usually when dictorships want to take over they do a false sales job on how much better your life is going to be under the proposed regime.
    Not the Davos One World Order group.
    You will own nothing, eat bugs and fake food, 24/7 surveillance, hacked, mandated vaccines, Banks controlling your consumption, living in 15 minute City prisons, no cars, 3 garmets a year, forced deprivation, AI and Robot replacement, on and on.
    And add to that freedom and rights , disinformation and free speech is dangerous threat.
    Disease X fear mongering, gain of function bio weapon creation of disease they make vaccines for. CLIMATE Change doomsday, with bizarre solutions like crop reduction, kill livestock, limit energy, and have 0 Co2 by 2050, which would turn earth into a Mars like barren dessert.
    Of course they have to obstruct anything that disputes their “Great Narratives. ”
    BUT, they offer nothing to the human race but ambitious claims they are saving the Planet, and saving lives from bio weapons they create.
    Was there ever a election were 8 billion people voted for a One World Order. This is a forced agenda by a powerful special interest group of Mega Corporations, Banks, Rich Elites, and a bunch of corrupt organizations of unelected parties in the WHO and UN.
    Klaus Schwab predicts that in the future there will be no need for elections.
    So, billions of people are suppose to trust this special interest power grab by this insurrection by this group, who offers a dismal existence to humanity, and bizarre solutions to their alleged Gobal emergencies.
    Don’t mess with their Great Narratives , or the obvious genocide they are committing.

  17. Tucker Carlson (1/19/2023):

    “In other words, it’s ending. The country you grew up in no longer exists. Soon it will be unrecognizable. No one is fighting back, few are even acknowledging it. And the people who lead us are letting it happen. Why are our leaders letting this happen? Well, to destroy the country and to change the demographics. Who lives here determines what the country’s like. This country is changing faster than you may understand. Americans are being replaced. That’s not a conspiracy theory. It’s a fact. In August of 2023, illegal immigration outpaced American births, a brand new population. Last year alone, over 3 million people came here illegally just over our southern border. The media won’t tell you it’s happening, but if you look around, you can see it and you can see it most clearly in our cities, which are collapsing. We elect people to protect us. That’s what politicians are paid to do. But they’ve done the opposite. They’ve sold us out and they’ve crushed what our ancestors built. Take a look at our cities. They’re hellish. And immigration is the reason.”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/tucker-carlson-invasion-country-you-grew-up-no/

    Sounds about right.

    1. Take a look at our cities. They’re hellish.

      For the time being living in outer suburbs and exurbs provides some relief from this, but it’s only a matter of time before the invaders show up there as well.

      1. California is the model, the whole state is overrun. We must adapt, luckily this nation has an abundance of space to try new things in. Eventually we will reorganize but it might take awhile judging from the levels of stupidity we are seeing.

      2. “…but it’s only a matter of time before the invaders show up there as well….”

        Speaking from personal experience, they already have.

        Only difference is that they are more well hidden.

        1. Question is, where are they hiding? It’s not like this is a new group of El Salvadorans finding some fellow Salvadorans in the neighborhood to crash at. From what In Colorado says, these are Venezuelans that the Central Americans turn up their nose at. And who know where the West Africans are hiding.

          1. None of them belong here. None of them not a single one.

            When your first action on American soil is breaking into my country illegally, you deserve nothing, and need to be removed, immediately.

          2. “…where are they hiding?…”

            Here in SoCal, there are progressive [private] organizations that will sponsor / support individuals / families.

          3. “…where are they hiding?…”

            Lots of Christian organizations assist. Probably for the tithing growth.

          4. Probably for the tithing growth.

            Hispanics are notorious for being very, very stingy when the collection plate is passed.Whatever harboring them achieves in the long run, it won’t be tithes.

    2. From a CNN article I won’t link:

      Overall migrant encounters on the US southern border topped 10,000 per day in mid-December, then – following high-level talks between Mexico and the US in Mexico City – dropped to about 3,000 per day in January.

      The Department of Homeland Security has attributed the drop to a few things:

      – Enhanced enforcement actions by Mexico, including on trains and buses;

      – Mexico moving migrants along the country’s northern border to the southern border;

      – Mexico reinstating deportations of Venezuelans.

      Mexico has confirmed devoting resources but hasn’t provided details.

      The rumor is that the US has sent Mexico several billion in cash to perform the dirty work it refuses to do itself.

      I hope Texas continues to ship as many invaders as possible to sanctuary cities

      1. Chicago and NYC both need at minimum 100k more apiece. Chicago could use 250k. Give them the diversity they crave, it is racist not to.

  19. Don’t get sick in Dumver:

    Denver hospital system may collapse due to migrant crisis: ‘We are turning down patients’

    How bad is it?

    Denver Health CEO Donna Lynne warned the center is in a crucial moment due to unexpected costs associated with immigrant visits.

    Eight-thousand migrants from Central America accounted for approximately 20,000 visits in 2023. Denver Health asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide funds for immigrants’ medical costs. The state and federal governments aren’t reimbursing the hospital, which spent $136 million for patients who didn’t pay.

    Is $136 million a lot? Is help coming?

    Lynne asked council members to increase the city’s financial support for the hospital system. She also appealed to other counties for help with little success.

    Guess what, Lynne? Money’s too tight to mention right now. And don’t expect any help from DC. And I’ll bet other hospitals in Dumver are having the same problems.

  20. ‘She acknowledged the regulator is not 100 per cent responsible for money she invested, as she has to own some of that responsibility. But Kelly, whose family lost $1 million in the alleged Ponzi, said: ‘I get angry when I hear that people have filed previous complaints and nothing was done about it. I get very angry’

    I’ve posted tales of woe on this crater before. The was no actual real estate involved. It was a ponzi about non-existent RE bridge loans.

  21. [This long, non-housing related WSJ article is being posted here in the form of snips rather than its entirety due to its length. For the complete version you will need to access the link.]

    Why Americans Have Lost Faith in the Value of College
    Three generations of ‘college for all’ in the U.S. has left most families looking for alternatives.

    https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/why-americans-have-lost-faith-in-the-value-of-college-b6b635f2

    The political turmoil that rocked universities over the past three months and sparked the resignations of two Ivy League presidents has landed like an unwelcome thud on institutions already struggling to maintain the trust of the American public. For three generations, the national aspiration to “college for all” shaped America’s economy and culture, as most high-school graduates took it for granted that they would earn a degree. That consensus is now collapsing in the face of massive student debt, underemployed degree-holders and political intolerance on campus.

    In the past decade, the percentage of Americans who expressed a lot of confidence in higher education fell from 57% to 36%, according to Gallup. A decline in undergraduate enrollment since 2011 has translated into 3 million fewer students on campus. Nearly half of parents say they would prefer not to send their children to a four-year college after high school, even if there were no obstacles, financial or otherwise. Two-thirds of high-school students think they will be just fine without a college degree.

    The pandemic drove home a sobering realization for a lot of middle-class American families: “College for all” is broken for most.

    Arthur Levine, president emeritus of Columbia Teachers College and author of “The Great Upheaval: Higher Education’s Past, Present and Uncertain Future,” compares this moment in post-secondary education to the seismic change that followed the Industrial Revolution. That 19th-century wave of disruption washed over schools designed to meet the needs of a sectarian, agricultural society and transformed higher education into a sprawling system of community colleges, land-grant universities and graduate schools.

    The dilemma faced by today’s high-school students is that while a similarly massive economic disruption has arrived, new educational alternatives have not. “Whatever comes next,” Levine says of Generation Z, “It’s not going to come soon enough for them.”

    So how did one of the crown jewels of American society squander so much confidence so quickly?

    If the pandemic marked the moment the “college for all” model finally cracked, 1965 marked its birth. As the baby boomers came of age, the federal government made loans available to any college-bound 18-year-old with a high-school diploma, in order to maintain the most educated workforce in the world. High schools scrapped vocational education programs in favor of college preparatory classes.

    Cash and prestige saturated college campuses while alternatives like vocational and technical schools withered. Between 1965 and 2011, university enrollment increased nearly fourfold to 21 million as the earning differential between high school and college graduates expanded. But embedded in the infrastructure of universities were hairline fractures and misaligned incentives that have led the system to buckle.

    University governance was designed for an analog era. Decisions are sifted through a slow, deliberative process until faculty, administrators and trustees reach consensus. The genius of the system is that it avoids the strictures of top-down control and protects academic freedom against political interference. The weakness is that it’s a recipe for stagnation.

    The digital revolution demanded a nimble realignment of the academy so that students could learn a quickly emerging set of skills to meet changing labor-market demands. Instead of adapting, campus interest groups protected their turf. Decisions reached by consensus usually meant the adoption of modest reforms that were the least objectionable to the greatest number of people, said Brian Rosenberg, former president of Macalester College and author of “‘Whatever It Is, I’m Against It’: Resistance to Change in Higher Education.”

    As students abandoned the humanities and flooded fields like computer science, big data and engineering, schools failed to respond. The result was undersubscribed history and English departments and waiting lists for classes that led to well-paying jobs. New programs in emerging fields did not start because schools could not free up the resources.

    Many university presidents who pushed for new programs, the faster adoption of technology or the removal of undersubscribed majors faced no-confidence votes from their faculty. “Presidents come in and run smack into the culture and the structures of an institution, and they realize that if I want to keep my job, I’m not going to push for transformational change,” said Rosenberg.

    In 2021, when Chuck Ambrose became chancellor at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Ark., the school was in financial peril. The music department had more faculty than graduating students, and none of the 60 academic programs was generating enough revenue to cover its costs, Ambrose said. When he announced that the school was going broke, the faculty rejected his data.

    Ambrose declared a fiscal “exigency”—the academic equivalent of bankruptcy—and recommended that the school’s board eliminate a third of its teaching positions and nearly half of its degree programs. The faculty asked for his termination, and Ambrose left the next year.

    “Systems don’t want to change,” Ambrose said. “Problems accumulate and so does culture.”

    The misalignment between universities and the labor market is compounded by the failure of many schools to teach students to think critically. Many students arrive poorly prepared for college-level work, and the universities themselves are ill-equipped to provide intensive classroom instruction.

    Professors compete for tenure on the basis of the quality of their research and publishing track record. Teaching is mostly an afterthought. Professors who earn tenure negotiate lighter teaching loads. To fill the gap, schools hire less expensive adjuncts with little job security. Non-tenure track professors now make up three-quarters of college faculty, up from a quarter in 1975.

    These precariously employed adjuncts depend on strong student performance reviews for job security, a system that incentivizes them to make few demands in exchange for high ratings. Students spend about half as much time studying and attending class as their counterparts did in 1961, but they are three times more likely to earn an A—now the most common grade in colleges across the country.

    A quarter of college graduates do not have basic skills in numeracy and one in five does not have basic skills in literacy, says Irwin Kirsch, who oversees large-scale assessments for ETS, the company that administers the SAT.

    Quality control for college degrees falls to accreditors, but they approve programs at hundreds of schools that fail to produce financial value for graduates and have kept many schools in business with a single-digit graduation rate. About one in 40 U.S. workers draws a paycheck from a college or university, and in recent decades the powerful higher-education lobby in Washington has quashed dozens of proposals to measure the sector’s successes and failures.

    Meanwhile, through a combination of state budget cuts, administrative bloat and runaway spending on campus amenities, the real cost of a four-year college degree climbed 180% between 1980 and 2020. The high cost increased pressure on universities to treat students as consumers purchasing a credential, instead of scholars receiving an education.

    One result of this transactional attitude has been a sharp increase in cheating. College is one of the few products whose consumers try to get as little out of it as possible, because its market value is tied to the credential, not to the education that it is meant to represent, says Bryan Caplan, an economist at George Mason University and author of “The Case Against Education.”

    Cheating is a rational choice on the part of students when credentials are decoupled from learning, Caplan says. He believes that 80% of the value of graduating college today is the signal it sends to employers, and that few students outside of the hard sciences learn much of real value.

    The combination of more college graduates and weaker learning outcomes has diluted the signal provided by a degree from less prestigious colleges. That has led to a host of knock-on effects, including credential inflation, in which employers ask for college degrees for jobs that don’t need one and previously did not require one.

    For middle-class Americans, college made sense as long as a degree generated a large enough wage premium to make the rising cost of the investment worthwhile. As that premium became less consistent, the risks of going to college grew and confidence in college as an institution declined.

    Of 100 random freshmen enrolling in college today, 40 will not graduate. Of the remaining 60 that earn a degree in six years, 20 will end up chronically underemployed. In other words, for every five students who enroll in a four-year college, only two will graduate and find a job based on their degree.

    A college education is among the largest investments most Americans will make. The total cost of attending a public college is about $36,000 a year, and the average length of time to a degree is nearly five years. Tack on debt service for student loans and the opportunity cost of not working while in school, and the real cost of college can easily pass $300,000—more than the median net worth of most families.

    That math doesn’t work for a growing number of families. The percentage of students who enrolled in college after graduating high school fell from 70% in 2016 to 62% in 2022.

    The challenge faced by students willing to buck the gravitational pull of college is to find an alternative. In an economy becoming ever more specialized, most jobs and careers demand skills beyond high school. The question becomes how to get them.

    A poll published in 2022 asked parents if they would rather their child attended a four-year college or a three-year apprenticeship that would train them for a job and pay them while they learned. Nearly half of parents whose child had graduated from college chose the apprenticeship.

    But unlike the European model of higher education, where students enter a vocational track and apprentice with an employer with the assistance of government support, the U.S. invests almost exclusively in students heading to college. Government financial support for universities outstrips apprenticeships by about 1,000 to one, writes Ryan Craig, author of the book “Apprentice Nation” and managing director of a firm that invests in new educational models.

    The pressure to place less emphasis on four-year degrees is growing, however. In what has been called the “degree reset,” the federal government and several states eliminated the degree requirements for many government jobs. Companies like IBM and the giant professional services firm Deloitte have too. Last year, a survey of 800 companies by Intelligent.com found that 45% intended to eliminate bachelor degree requirements for some positions in 2024. The Ad Council recently ran a campaign encouraging employers to get rid of the “paper ceiling.”

    In place of a degree, some employers are adopting skills-based hiring, looking at what students know as opposed to what credential they hold. The problem is that the signal sent by a college degree still matters more, in most cases, than the demonstration of skills. The result is something of a stand-off between old and new ideas of job readiness. A LinkedIn study published last August found that between 2019 and 2022 there was a 36% increase in job postings that omitted degree requirements—but the actual number of jobs filled with candidates who did not have a degree was much smaller.

    New initiatives may start to change that balance. New York Mayor Eric Adams has called for 30,000 new apprenticeships in the city by 2030. California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to create 500,000 in the state by 2029.

    Deloitte is one of dozens of big companies championing the idea that skills matter more than degrees. “This is a decade-long journey,” said Kwasi Mitchell, Deloitte’s chief purpose and DEI officer. “It’s going to be a little bit of time before we really open the floodgates with respect to skills-first hiring.”

  22. [Yawn.]

    San Francisco’s largest mall loses more retailers as exodus continues

    https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/san-franciscos-largest-mall-loses-200727996.html

    Tenants continue to flee San Francisco’s largest mall, the beleaguered Westfield San Francisco Centre, with another string of retailers announcing that they are packing up in the past month.

    Clothing retailer J. Crew, its sister brand Madewell, shoe store Aldo, and Lucky Brand all said in recent weeks that they are shuttering their locations at the shopping center. According to the New York Post, the flurry of departures will leave the mall at only 25% occupancy.

    The mall was hit with a major blow last year when its anchor store, Nordstrom, announced that it was closing both of its downtown San Francisco locations due to the “dynamics” of the area.

    In June, the mall’s owner, Westfield, announced that it would be handing the property back to a bank due to “the challenging operating conditions in downtown San Francisco.” Days later, Cinemark Holdings announced that it would be closing its theater at the mall.

    The Post reported that a judge has appointed Gregg Williams of Trident Pacific Real Estate Group to take over management of San Franciso Centre, but the property’s future remains uncertain. San Francisco Mayor London Breed last year floated the idea of tearing it down and building a new soccer stadium on the site.

    San Francisco’s downtown area has struggled to recover following the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw widespread lockdowns and caused many of the tech hubs’ employers to embrace remote work, hurting foot traffic in the area that has not returned. Meanwhile, the city has continued to grapple with retail theft and a homelessness crisis, which some businesses have cited as their reasons for leaving.

    The city suffered a number of high-profile losses in the area last year. In addition to San Francisco Centre, Park Hotels & Resorts stopped making payments on a $725 million loan for its Hilton San Francisco Union Square and Parc 55 San Francisco properties, pointing to several “major challenges” in the city.

  23. [Hey. it’s California!]

    Beverly Hills mansion neighboring LeBron James’s dream home is overtaken by ‘squatters’ hosting nightly raucous raves and charging $75 entry
    A vacant four-bed, 5,857 sq ft Beverly Hills home has become the site of almost daily raucous late night parties hosted by a group of alleged squatters
    Neighbors told DailyMail.com that the noisy gatherings often start at 2am, and have resulted in assaults, fires and arrests since they started in October
    Authorities haven’t been able to evict the residents who have purportedly been able to produce proof of address, and even a ‘fake’ rental agreement

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12971139/Beverly-Hills-mansion-LeBron-James-squatters-party.html

    ‘Squatters’ who have overrun a $4.3million mansion two doors down from LeBron James’s new pad are throwing near-nightly raucous rave parties – and police are powerless to shut them down.

    The parties often don’t start until 2 am, run on for hours, and have resulted in assaults, fires and arrests since they began in celeb-packed Beverly Hills in October.

    The ‘squatters’ are even advertising rooms in the four-bed, 5,857 sq ft home on Booking.com for $300 per night and charge hundreds of party guests $75 entry fees at the gate.

    They claim that they are valid tenants, though the homeowner and property agent deny any rental agreements exist.

    Among the residents of the affluent Beverly Crest neighborhood are singer John Legend and his wife Chrissy Teigen, Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane, and Entourage and Ballers producer Steve Levinson – while LA Lakers star James is currently building his dream home a stone’s throw from the squat house.

    Billionaires Jeff Bezos, Steve Wynn and Ron Burkle all live within half a mile of the home.

    James’s house manager, who asked not to be named, said that he had to keep security guards at the NBA star’s building site 24/7 in part because of the squatters’ parties.

    ‘I’ve heard from my security team up there about all the crazy cars, crazy parties at night, how we’re not able to get into our property sometimes because they’re blocking the street with their cars, and just the nuisance at night with the loud music and people floating out to the streets,’ he said.

    ‘It’s one of the reasons we have security 24/7. Otherwise there’s no need for me to have security there 24/7 because it’s just a construction site.’

    Last week there were parties every night from Wednesday to Saturday, leaving detritus on the cul-de-sac including nitrous oxide canisters inhaled by partygoers from balloons to get high, crushed Solo cups, pools of vomit, and condom packets.

    One neighbor, Rick Rankin, told DailyMail.com that police were unable to evict the residents because they had obtained drivers licenses with the property address, and even produced a rental agreement, which the property’s current listing agent insists is fake.

    ‘The officers told me the house was trashed,’ Rankin, a 65-year-old technology consultant, said. ‘It’s like they’re hoarders. The garage is full of s**t.

    ‘Young women have been seen coming and going in and out of the house at all hours.

    ‘When people leave they’re stumbling. You know when someone’s high. It’s not a drunken thing. They’re jittery, nervous, eyes spinning.

    ‘One night they had a party I went around and there were at least 50 cars. These are one-way, narrow streets, but they just plop their cars down and get out.’

    Parties at the house are even being advertised on events website get-in.com, showing start times as late as midnight and a $75 cover charge, which the organizers claim was ‘for the nova festival victims from the massacre on October 7’, a reference to the Hamas attacks on Israel.

    The ‘squatters’ appear to have also listed the home they are occupying on Booking.com as a vacation rental.

    Photos from the four-bed, six-bath home show it has a pool and bar – as well as an LED-lit disco room, according to neighbors.

    The Booking.com listing for the house calls it the ‘Beverly Hills Lodge’, and offers a room for four people for $300 per night, including a ’60-min massage’.

    ‘At the lodge guests are welcome to use a spa center,’ the listing said. ‘A casino and a children’s playground, are available for guests at Beverly Hills Lodge.’

    The homeowners and their realtor said they have not authorized any rentals or residents, who have hired journalist and crime writer Mark Ebner as a private investigator to probe the squatters.

    Ebner said he has spent several nights outside the mansion watching the raucous antics from the street.

    ‘If you stake out at 8am after a party night, it’s like Night of the Living Dead up there. These people are zombies. They’re just completely whacked out by the binge they’ve been on,’ he said.

    ‘There are nitrous canisters that litter the street, broken glass, things like that.’

    He said cops towed a party attendee’s Porsche 911 last week, after he photographed a bag of pill capsules in the back.

    The pills and other potential evidence of drug use around the house has prompted LAPD to refer the case to its Narcotics division.

    Ebner said he has also handed over all his files on the accused squatters and their parties to the department’s Major Crimes unit.

    Recent police callouts to the home recorded on the app Citizen include a report of a man in a bucket hat assaulting someone with a metal box on January 13, a battery incident on December 2, and a reported burglary on November 23.

    An aide for councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky told neighbors in an email that ‘LAPD is working with the City Attorney’s office to file a Trespass Authorization Form so they have the authority to remove squatters from the site.’

    LAPD Senior Lead Officer James Allen told DailyMail.com he had been handling the police investigation.

    He said the controversial residents claimed to cops that they were friends of the former owner, and had been invited by him to live in the home.

    But he added that the current ownership of the home is uncertain, has been the subject of a bankruptcy court case, and that the home is entering foreclosure.

    ‘I guess he left his friends in the house. I guess we can say they’re squatters. But they’re squatters to the owner that’s in foreclosure to the bank,’ Allen said.

    ‘We’re working on a plan with the bank to evict the individuals because there’s no one at this point to evict them and say they’re there illegally.

    ‘I’ve submitted it to the City Attorney. I’m citing the home every time we get a radio call for a party.

    ‘They’re using the home outside of its original purpose, illegally.’

    City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto did not respond to a request for comment.

    Allen said that because the squatters got their drivers licenses registered at the home, the case had to go through a court eviction process.

    ‘If you were able to grab a house illegally, and I didn’t catch you during that process, but now you have an ID because you went to DMV and you got mail to that house, then it has to go through the eviction process,’ he said. ‘I’m no longer able to just take you out of that home,’ he said.

    The mansion itself has a colorful ownership history.

    A title report on the property reveals that it was previously owned by hip-hop mogul Damon Dash from 2003 to 2007.

    The gated home on Beverly Grove Place was also owned by Dr. Munir Uwaydah, who fled the US in 2013 amid an investigation into the murder of his mistress, Maxim model Juliana Redding, and indictments for a multi-million-dollar health insurance fraud.

    Jeff Scapa, a private mortgage lender, told DailyMail.com he loaned $3.8million to the current owner, a company called MDRCA Properties LLC.

    Scapa said a court ruled he could foreclose on the home, but that process was frozen when MDRCA filed for bankruptcy last month.

    Scapa said he discovered squatters had taken over the home in October last year, and shared videos with DailyMail.com he took of one man admitting he started moving his belongings into the house ‘the first week of October’.

    He said that he and MDRCA offered the alleged squatters $25,000 cash to leave, but they declined.

    Scapa said he was frustrated with police and the LA courts for not evicting the alleged unlawful residents already.

    ‘Everybody knows this guy is not supposed to be there, and they do nothing,’ he said.

    Fran Solomon, 61, owns the home next door to the squat house and rents it to long-term tenants.

    ‘Less than a month after we had a tenant in there, we were informed there were squatters next door,’ she told DailyMail.com.

    ‘In our neighborhood, it’s a very high net worth area in the hills, you wouldn’t expect squatters.

    ‘These seem to be more than just people taking over a home. They appear to be doing very nefarious things out of the home. They’re trashing the neighborhood.

    ‘Our tenants have hired security. They’re not only kept awake late at night because of the parties going on, but because they’re right next to the squatters, their guests late at night are ringing our doorbell, and their vehicles are intruding on our security sensors.

    ‘There appears to be a pit bull that wanders the street. My tenants have children. Let alone being afraid for themselves, they’re terrified for their children.

    ‘I want to see the law being enforced and the squatters getting out, and being put in jail. They are there illegally. We’re legal citizens paying exorbitant taxes and nothing is being done,’ she said.

  24. “Teena had even begun buying furniture for a lavish second house that she believed the family was on the verge of buying.”

    Moral of the story:

    Don’t count your chickens before they come home to roost.

  25. Is a soft landing underway, despite appearances of asset price volatility, extreme underlying market stress, widely divergent views on the way forward, and a perfect post-WWII track record of yield curve inversions preceding recessions?

    1. Stocks Are in a Bull Market. What Does That Mean?

      It doesn’t mean stocks will continue to rise indefinitely, but it does reflect a generally optimistic outlook on Wall Street.

      J. Edward Moreno

      By J. Edward Moreno
      Jan. 19, 2024
      Updated 7:34 p.m. ET

      The S&P 500 index closed at a record on Friday, crossing above its old high-water mark, set in early 2022. The gains show that investors have overcome fears of rising interest rates and panic about a recession that had governed stock trading for much of the past two years.

      Instead, they’re now betting that a drop in rates will help expand corporate profits, while the economy stays on a relatively solid footing.
      …
      https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/19/business/stocks-bull-market.html

    2. Economy
      Bank credit is shrinking for the first time since the Great Recession – and that’s a red flag for the economy
      George Glover
      Jan 19, 2024, 8:54 AM ET

      – Bank credit is seeing a sustained contraction for the first time since the Great Recession, according to Fed data.

      – That means businesses are borrowing less, as high interest rates chip away at confidence levels.

      – The US economy avoided a recession last year, but some Wall Street analysts and investors are still pessimistic.
      …
      https://www.businessinsider.com/recession-outlook-bank-credit-contracts-federal-reserve-interest-rates-economy-2024-1

    3. Yahoo
      Bloomberg
      Seismic Bond Shift Has Traders Watching Yield Curve’s Moves
      Michael Mackenzie and Liz Capo McCormick
      Fri, January 19, 2024 at 5:00 AM PST

      (Bloomberg) — Bond traders are growing convinced that US Treasury yields are on the brink of returning to the way they’ve traded for most of their existence — it’s the how, why and when of the normalization that keeps financial markets bouncing around.

      The shift many investors bet is now underway would see the interest rate on 10-year Treasuries rise above those on US two-year notes, a steepening of the so-called yield curve that would mean banks and investors get rewarded for the risk of lending money for longer periods as is typical.

      That’s a world away from last July, when two-year Treasury yields exceeded 10-year ones by more than a full percentage point. It was the sort of deeply inverted yield curve last seen in the early 1980s, a side effect of the Federal Reserve’s series of rate hikes aimed at fighting inflation. The campaign, it was feared, risked tipping the economy into recession.

      Veteran investor Bill Gross, the co-founder of Pacific Investment Management Co., and Harley Bassman, a long-time bond expert who invented the MOVE Index of Treasury market volatility, are among those predicting that chapter will soon end.

      What is the subject of fierce debate is what propels the pivot, and the answer means money for some and losses for others. If rate-cuts emerge as the economy slows then yields will shrink on the short-end, but if inflation remains a concern and the Fed stays on hold then 10-year yields will rise more in a higher-for-longer scenario.
      …
      https://finance.yahoo.com/news/seismic-bond-shift-traders-watching-232500070.html

    4. Financial Times
      Transcript: Is America overpriced?
      Ethan Wu talks to Robert Armstrong
      yesterday

      This is an audio transcript of the Unhedged podcast episode: ‘Is America overpriced?’

      [MUSIC PLAYING]

      Ethan Wu
      2023 was a great year for US stocks and in truth, the last decade’s been pretty good for US stocks overall. The question on a lot of investors’ minds is, can the US keep on winning? This is Unhedged, the markets and finance show from the Financial Times and Pushkin. I’m reporter Ethan Wu here in the New York studio, joined by red-blooded American patriot Robert Armstrong.

      Robert Armstrong
      I am draped in the flag here, buddy. Feeling good.

      Ethan Wu
      Robert, where do you park your eagle when you drive it into work every day?

      Robert Armstrong
      I have an aviary. Is that what you call the thing you put a bird in? I have an enormous aviary for my giant mastodon American bald eagle that is on top of my apartment.

      Ethan Wu
      We’re gonna be hearing from the ornithologists of the Unhedged audience about how we completely messed that up. (Robert laughs) But anyway, we’re not talking about birds today. We’re talking about US stocks, which are also flying high. And I think we wanna consider this on three dimensions, right? One is the valuation of US stocks — how expensive are they? The other is what do the fundamentals look like, right? If you’re paying up, what are you paying for? And thirdly, what does the rest of the world look like? What do the alternatives to US stocks look like?

      Robert Armstrong
      Very good. Let’s start with pricing.

      Ethan Wu
      Yeah, Let’s start with pricing. So I mean, expensive. There’s a premium. You pay more for US stocks.

      Robert Armstrong
      It’s not just a premium, Ethan. It is a historically large premium. So the S&P 500, the index of large-capitalisation US stocks, which we focus on at Unhedged, it’s at about 23 times earnings. Most markets in the rest of the world — let’s talk about Europe or let’s talk about emerging markets, Japan, are at like 15 times earnings. Some of them are at less. Let’s unpack what that price/earnings ratio means. That means to buy a current dollar of profit in the United States, you pay $23. The rest of the world, you’re paying $15. It’s a huge difference. And that difference has just gone from very little to 50 per cent over the last 10 years. The wedge is just getting bigger and bigger.

      Ethan Wu
      Yeah. You pay roughly 50 per cent premium to buy US stocks over the rest of the world. Like you said, that’s expensive. It’s historically expensive. The question, of course, is what do you get for that price? You know, if you can buy something that’s twice as good for 50 per cent more, it’s a pretty good deal. So what are you getting for that $1.50 on US stocks?

      Robert Armstrong
      Well, you are getting the most awesome country in the history of the world. Let me explain. Demographics — much better in America than in the rest of the developed world, meaning, we’re gonna have a larger working-age population relative to the total population for longer than the rest of the world. We won’t face a demographic crisis to the degree that other developed countries will.

      We have a huge internal market, which means our companies can sell a lot of product to people within America. And that means unlike countries like the UK, which are basically completely caught in the flow of global trade, there’s an island of stability effect in the United States.

      And of course, we have a great corporate culture. We have strong rule of law, we have great companies. We have a huge lead in particular in technology. We spend way more in research and development.

      And there’s a lot of doomerism around about America. You know, people on the right, people on the left, everybody like say, boo hoo, America, this, America that. Well, we make more oil and gas in America than Saudi Arabia now. You know, greenhouse gases or whatever. But just as an economic matter, you know, we’re the biggest oil and gas exporter in the world, we are the biggest exporter of food in the world, we’re the biggest farming country in the world. In a lot of ways, America is just extraordinary.

      Ethan Wu
      Yeah. And you see that show up in stock returns. In the past 10 years, which has coincided with an incredible boom in technological development in the shale revolution, which completely changed the US global energy position, US stocks overall returned 12 per cent. Now, that number is a little bit distorted, you could argue, because there’s, as we talk about almost every episode of Unhedged, there are the Mag Seven tech stocks. Those kind of distort the market because they take up so much of the headline indices. So another way to look at it is by looking at the S&P 500 Equal Weight, which treats all 503 companies in the S&P 500 as equal instead of overweighting Apple and Microsoft or whatever.

      Robert Armstrong
      The biggest companies.

      Ethan Wu
      Yeah. On that basis, S&P 500 Equal Weight, in the past decade, returns have been 10 per cent, which is pretty respectable.

      Robert Armstrong
      Killing the rest of the world.

      Ethan Wu
      Yeah. And that . . . 

      Robert Armstrong
      Even on that basis.

      Ethan Wu
      Even on that basis, equal weight, that beats Japan at 6 per cent, (inaudible) the UK at 2 per cent, emerging markets at 3 per cent and Europe at 5 per cent. I mean . . . 

      Robert Armstrong
      That’s a whippin’.

      Ethan Wu
      You doubled the rest of the world. That’s amazing.

      Robert Armstrong
      Amazing. I mean, obviously, if you’re gonna anticipate that kind of outperformance, you’re very happy to pay more. The problem is, that is not consistent with some very basic truths about markets. Some version of the efficient markets hypothesis is roughly correct. In other words, when a company or a market or a country or an asset or whatever has particular advantages, there’s a lot of smart people out there in the world trying to take advantage of that and to buy that asset, so prices will come to reflect those advantages. So if you think, if you’re sitting here thinking America has outperformed massively for 10 years, I’m gonna overweight America or stick with America. What you’re saying is that view of markets, the efficient view of markets, there’s something wrong with it in the case of the United States.

      Ethan Wu
      That there’s good news priced in and there’s going to be even more good news into perpetuity.
      …

      1. Take home:

        America is the amazing land where trees grow to the sky, and stocks and housing amazingly always go up.

    5. Animal spirits have returned to the stock market, Blackstone boss Steve Schwarzman says
      George Glover
      Jan 19, 2024, 2:30 AM PST
      Steve Schwarzman, the chief executive of Blackstone, wears a purple tie in front of a blue background.
      Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

      – Some investors are behaving irrationally as they wait for a Fed pivot, according to Blackstone boss Steve Schwarzman.

      – “The expectation that interest rates are going down is creating animal spirits again,” he said Thursday in Davos.

      – Stock prices skyrocketed over the final quarter of 2023, despite signs the economy is slowing down.
      …
      https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-market-outlook-blackstone-steve-schwarzman-animal-spirits-federal-reserve-2024-1

  26. Does the ugliness of China’s $6.3 trillion stock market selloff worry you?

    And is $6.3 trillion alot?

    1. Bloomberg
      Markets
      China’s $6.3 Trillion Stock Selloff Is Getting Uglier by the Day

      – Property sector’s slump and geopolitical risks are negatives
      – China’s valuation discount to India hit a record this week
      – China Stocks’ Sudden Rally Thursday Points to State Funds’ ETF Buying

      By Abhishek Vishnoi and Charlotte Yang
      January 19, 2024 at 1:49 AM PST
      Updated on January 19, 2024 at 6:49 AM PST

      Chinese stocks just capped another dismal week, with a gauge of mainland firms listed in Hong Kong languishing at the bottom of global equity index rankings for the year so far.

      Grim milestones have kept piling up in recent days: Tokyo has overtaken
      Shanghai as Asia’s biggest equity market, while India’s valuation premium over China has hit a record. Locally, a meltdown in Chinese shares is wreaking havoc on the nation’s asset management industry, pushing mutual fund closures to a five-year high.
      …
      https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-19/china-s-6-3-trillion-stock-selloff-is-getting-uglier-by-the-day

      1. “China Stocks’ Sudden Rally Thursday Points to State Funds’ ETF Buying”

        Where does a brokeback state find the money to fund hair-of-the-dog stock market intervention?

    2. Financial Times
      Chinese equities
      Chinese stock rout accelerates as foreign investors sell out
      Fall in Hong Kong and Chinese indices defies many Wall Street banks’ hopes of rebound after last year’s losses
      Investors sit in front of an electronic stock board at a securities brokerage in Shanghai, China,
      The Hang Seng China Enterprises index has dropped more than 10% so far this month, while mainland China’s CSI 300 has shed almost 6%
      Hudson Lockett in Hong Kong and Joe Leahy in Beijing yesterday

      A punishing sell-off for Chinese equities has worsened in recent days, as international investors who bet on a rebound lose faith that economic stimulus from Beijing is on the way.

      The Hang Seng China Enterprises index, a closely followed gauge of large Chinese listings in Hong Kong, has dropped about 11 per cent so far this month after losing 14 per cent last year. The benchmark CSI 300 index for domestically traded stocks has shed more than 5 per cent, after taking into account the renminbi’s depreciation against the dollar.

      The January downturn has confounded expectations from Wall Street banks including JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs that China’s stock market was primed for a recovery in 2024.
      …

    1. Pure Ponzi assets are destined to CR8R, and I look forward to saying, “I told you so,” when they do.

  28. Yahoo
    The Telegraph
    Mortgage losses surge at fastest pace since financial crisis
    Eir Nolsoe
    Thu, January 18, 2024 at 4:50 AM PST·3 min read
    Mortgage losses are growing at the fastest rate since the financial crisis as families struggle to keep up with rapidly rising interest rates.

    Banks and building societies reported the biggest rise in households failing to keep up with repayments on secured loans – overwhelmingly mortgages – since early 2009, according to a closely watched Bank of England survey.

    A net score of 25.2 reported an increase in losses from defaulting customer in the final three months of 2023. The number factors in both the proportion of banks and building societies seeing an increase and the extent of the rise.

    It signalled the biggest rise in homeowners struggling since 2009, though the jump is dwarfed by the score of 63.8 recorded in the spring of that year.

    The sharp increase comes after the fastest rise in borrowing costs in nearly four decades. The Bank of England has taken interest rates from 0.1pc in December 2021 to 5.25pc today.

    Mortgage defaults have stayed low by historical standards over the past two years even as millions of homeowners have rolled onto higher interest rates. However, the Bank’s latest survey of lenders suggests cracks in household finances are now starting to show.

    Stephen Perkins of Yellow Brick Mortgages said: “After cutting back where possible and exhausting all available credit options, many households are now at breaking point.”
    …
    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mortgage-losses-surge-fastest-pace-125040210.html

  29. User
    Are home prices falling in San Diego?

    ChatGPT
    I don’t have real-time data. For the latest information on home prices in San Diego, consider checking real estate websites or consulting with local real estate professionals.

    User
    Realtors are liars.

    ChatGPT
    While it’s important to approach any transaction with caution, it’s unfair to generalize an entire profession. Not all realtors are dishonest, and many operate with integrity. It’s wise to do thorough research and choose a reputable realtor if you decide to work with one.

    User
    You aren’t really very intelligent, either.

    ChatGPT
    I’m here to provide information and assistance to the best of my abilities. If there’s something specific you’re dissatisfied with or have feedback on, feel free to let me know so I can improve.

    User
    But at least you are polite.

    ChatGPT
    Thank you for your feedback. If there’s anything else you’d like assistance with or discuss, feel free to let me know!

Comments are closed.