It Was All Based On A Belief That Land And Housing Prices Could Only Go Up

1. Property taxes.

   1. Note that this article does not once use the word illegal.

      Denver7 — Colorado schools adjust to influx of migrant students in the classroom (1/19/2024):

      “The influx of migrants has boosted enrollment at schools across the Front Range. Jeffco Public Schools said it has been serving an additional 335 students this school year. Slater Elementary has seen around 50 new students this school year.

      During the 2023-2024 school year, Denver Public Schools has seen 2,705 newcomer students, Aurora Public Schools has seen 1,914, and Adams 12 has seen 605. Many migrant students arrived after the state’s October count date, which is used to determine per-pupil funding.

      Denver Public Schools, which is seeing the most amount of newcomer students, says it has submitted an adjusted budget to its Board of Education that will be voted on at their meeting Thursday.”

      https://www.denver7.com/lifestyle/education/colorado-schools-adjust-to-influx-of-migrant-students-in-the-classroom

      Submitted an adjusted budget? Get used to hearing that phrase, because your property taxes are paying for ALL of it.

      1. Related article.

         Note the language, the above article calls them newcomers, this one calls them new arrivals. They’re illegals.

         Denverite — Support can’t come soon enough for DPS classrooms crowded with new migrant students. A new fund may help (1/19/2024):

         “The Denver Public Schools Foundation launched a new fundraising initiative on Thursday, Jan. 18, that targets schools impacted by the new arrivals.

         Financial and other support can’t come soon enough.

         More than 2,400 new students mostly from Venezuela have enrolled in DPS schools since the summer. The district said it’s still enrolling 100 new students a week and doesn’t expect the number to slow. At least 25 schools have 50 or more new students.

         Many of the new students arrived after the state’s October count date, which determines state funding for students. That means the district has to draw from its own resources. DPS has already allocated more than $1.6 million to 48 schools to help support late arrivals.

         McMeen Elementary in southeast Denver has a kindergarten and second-grade class with 35 students each.

         “It has meant scrambling to find furniture for classrooms that have historically only had 20 to 25 students,” said principal Andria Hinman.

         She said the school began seeing an influx of new students from other countries in the fall of 2022. She believes the dual-language program and the availability of housing in the neighborhood, fueled by word of mouth in the migrant community, has contributed to the influx at her school.”

         https://denverite.com/2024/01/19/new-fund-may-help-crowded-dps-classrooms-with-new-migrant-students/

         Fueled by word of mouth? Free sh*tters gonna free sh*t.

         1. My out of state school teacher relative tells me that :refugee” enrollment at her school has exploded. She also tells me that the kids are unruly and entitled.

         2. Legality etc aside, the best thing they can do for these kids is to not speak a word of any language other than English. Children have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to learn another language with ease, and that chance shouldn’t be wasted, especially if that language is English. If they can speak English they can get by in almost any other country when they grow up.

2. ‘Sangar Osman, a realtor with Baghy Shaqlawa, believed that the drone attacks did damage to the real estate sector a few months ago but argued the impact has gradually faded away. ‘When the first drone attack was conducted [in late October], many people were alarmed but when the attacks recurred, people got used to it and things returned to normal,’ he said. Mahdi Salam, CEO of Haji Salam chain of real estate offices, agreed that the impact of drone attacks is ‘temporary’

   Fooking UHS are the same everywhere. I posted some housing bubble articles in Kurdistan before years ago, I believe it was around the time of the end of the Iraq war or the ISIS deal, which is apparently still going on. Prices were higher than the US cuz of all the money the US gubment was handing out like cardboard to warlords etc. Same thing happened in Kabul, Afghanistan.

   The Iraq war hasn’t ended. The pentagon is a never ending flow of pesos going away.

   1. The neocon invasion of Iraq on false pretenses was the biggest strategic blunder in US history.

      1. It wasn’t a blunder for the MIC.

      2. The larger goal was to sandwich Iran from both east and west, Afghanistan and Iraq respectively, to better enforce the economic embargo. And lets not forget that Saddam Hussein was due payback for the Scuds fired on Tel Aviv and Haifa.

         1. I remember that… something about “securing the realm.”

            But I have a stupid question: if the ultimate objective was to cripple Iran, then why not just attack Iran itself and leave the rest of the Middle East alone? I’m not a warmonger, but if you ARE going to perpetrate death and destruction on Iran, using other countries to circle around Iran, like some Rube-Goldberg machine, just seems awfully inefficient.

            1. If Iran were crippled then the Arabs would quickly act on their opportunity. I suppose the goal is to manage the players in the region such that they can’t broadcast their power too far, i.e., contained. The middle-east is a complicated gameboard.

      3. But Daddy Bush got his revenge…

3. Banks still lying to FBs, because no banksters will ever go to prison for committing financial fraud.

   https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/banking/me-bank-slapped-with-almost-1m-in-fines-after-providing-misleading-home-loan-information-to-customers/news-story/5c38847226606657aaf166feb3d99ddd

4. ‘Even during the 2008 housing bust, home sales weren’t as weak as they were in 2023,’ Holden Lewis, a senior writer on mortgages at NerdWallet, said in a statement shared with Fortune.”

   Yellen the Felon assures us that our “strong economic performance” validates the Biden regime’s drunken-sailor spending.

5. ‘It’s landlords who once saw their financial freedom in a one-room apartment in Mustamäe District bought on massive leverage that are in trouble; they’re definitely in trouble today,’ the fund management company chief commented. ‘But from the tenants’ perspective, things are looking more good than bad right now’

   That’s the spirit Viljar!

6. “‘The latest month’s sales look to be the bottom before inevitably turning higher in the new year,’ NAR economist Lawrence Yun said.

   Inevitably, huh? Spring Miracle Revival? The economy – as opposed to the Fed-juiced Wall Street casino – is in free-fall, yet the REIC shills are still promising a mythical Spring Miracle Revival.

   1. Lawrence Yun goes on to pontificate:

      “…Obviously, the recent, rapid three-year rise in home prices is unsustainable…”

      But Lawrence Yun, the REIConplex during these very same 3 years was telling us that Real Estate prices can only go up and that if you didn’t buy now, ‘you would be forever locked out’.

      Locked out of what? Eternal debt?

      1. Mortgage debt is not eternal. In my calculations, I predict that I will spend 19 years renting, 19 years paying a mortgage, and ~20+ years in a paid-off dwelling. But that’s with a stable good-paying job and few relocations. For people who struggle, they will be in eternal debt to a landlord.

         1. You bought before the 50% pandemic stimulus price bump. Anyone who buys now who is not independently wealthy is vulnerable to becoming a FB.

            Case in point: 3br 1800 sq ft homes in our area rent for $4-5K. A mortgage to buy such a place over 30 years will cost you $9K a month. It would take a lot of higher-for-longer inflation for a current purchase to seem retrospectively rational.

         2. Your good fortune is surpassed only by your humility.

            1. A guide for us all.

7. ‘But the couple still feels like they’re on a knife’s edge. Their day-to-day lives are dictated by a spreadsheet where Garrett, 35, meticulously manages every dollar coming in and out. Between 2021 and 2022, home prices surged to record highs. Then, as inflation took root and interest rates rose, those too-good-to-miss 3% mortgages vanished. For Garrett and Rachael, missing the low-rate window was a painful blow. ‘I don’t think anyone could have foreseen house prices going up 20% or 30% in a three-year period,’ Garrett says. The couple says they’re now stuck with a monthly outlay that amounts to about 40% of their take-home income’

   Garrett and Rachael, you borrowed a sh$tload of pesos at the peak. There is an answer though. You two and yer rug rat are just going to have to stop eating expensive food. For a few years at least, then you’ll be winnahs!

   1. pimp-out the sister.

8. ‘The fallout is now plain for all to see. ‘Frankly, I’m surprised we screwed it up because we sit in such a privileged position in Canada,’ Toronto-Dominion Bank chief economist Beata Caranci mused last week, noting that this country has not faced the same influx of economic migrants seeking asylum that the United States and Europe have been grappling with. ‘We designed our own policy, we put it in place, we implemented it, and we still screwed it up’

   Beata is demonstrating that odd K-da superiority complex. They’ve never had a housing bubble. There’s never been subprime loans. Banks never fail, you get the idea.

   1. this country has not faced the same influx of economic migrants

      From 500,000 acknowledged immigrants and 900,000 on the college visa scam, they have much more relative to their population.

   2. It’s not just Canadian schools which rake in money from foreign students. Schools in the US do the same. The schools don’t collect specific fees for foreigners, but they don’t have to bother with pesky grants or scholarships or loans or teaching assistant stipends. Nope, all full freight tuition.

9. ‘Defaulted and distressed developers are rushing to sell assets to generate revenue to pay their bills, rather than buying land and building new projects. For example, a month ago a land plot owned by Logan Group in Shenzhen failed to find a buyer at a forced auction despite a 24 per cent discount’

   How the mighty have fallen.

   1. A forced auction at a fixed price. Ingenious!

10. If price increases continue at the current pace, the country could accelerate into haves and have-nots.

    The scamdemic massively accelerated the transfer of wealth and property from the increasingly pauperized middle and working classes to the oligarchy – by design. “Price increases” reflect the Fed’s debasement of the dollar and massive liquidity-pumping into a doomed financial house of cards.

11. Colorado Sun — Nearly 90% of people who are homeless in Denver were already living in Colorado, report shows (1/19/2024):

    “Relationship problems, family breakups, inability to pay rent or a mortgage, losing a job and inability to find work are the top contributing factors leading people into homelessness across metro Denver, according to the findings of an annual report released Thursday.

    A surge of about 38,000 Central and South American migrants who have arrived by buses from the Texas border since December 2022 are also finding themselves included in the region’s homeless crisis. Not all of them stayed in metro Denver. But as of Thursday, there were more than 4,300 migrants living in emergency shelters and hotels.

    The State of Homelessness report does not include data specifically about the number of migrants who are homeless.

    More than 30,000 people accessed homeless services between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, in the metro area, the report found. About 45% were seeking services for the first time.

    During the 2021-22 school year, public school districts in the metro area identified almost 10,000 students who were homeless, the report states.

    Rising rents and low wages make it increasingly harder for people to find and keep stable housing in one of the most expensive metro areas in the country, according to the report.”

    https://coloradosun.com/2024/01/19/denver-homeless-population-report-2024/

    1. How much of this is due to CO being the first state to legalize pot? Yes, now it’s legal in other states, but being the first, CO got the *ahem* enthusiasts … i.e. the ones most likely to graduate to stronger substances. Also, in today’s world, if you’re not constantly trying to better yourself, you fall behind. And enthusiasts were never known for trying to better themselves.

12. Better get to sawin’ and slashin’ if you expect to find a buyer, greedhead sellers.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/19/december-home-sales-slump-to-close-out-worst-year-since-1995.html

13. “Creating a path towards homeownership for today’s renters is essential.’”

    And that path is paved with the corpses of yesteryears buyers. Sorry pandemic buyers, your schlongings have only just begun.

    1. NAR’s solution is more building and lower rates while lower prices and schlonged STR owners and occupancy fraudsters would probably suffice.

14. What do all of these articles have in common? An endless, infinite drain on productive taxpayers to give free sh*t to invaders who have no legal right to be in my country.

    Westword — “No Freezing Sweep” Vote Postponed as Push for Migrant Support Heats Up (1/18/2024):

    “The January 16 rally in front of the Denver City & County Building was hosted by the Housekeys Action Network Denver, or HAND, which has dubbed the proposed ordinance the “No Freezing Sweeps” bill. In addition to homelessness advocates, it attracted a half-dozen migrants who weren’t as concerned about the “No Freezing Sweeps” proposal as they were with the treatment they said they’d received at temporary shelters.

    Clevis Mujica, a Venezuelan migrant who came to Denver a month and a half ago, was at the rally “supporting the cause,” he said. But Mujica also wanted people to know that he and other migrants were unhappy with the situation at the McNichols Building, where they were offered only two meals a day, breakfast and dinner.

    “I’m not going to say it’s all bad, but there is something that gives pause,” Mujica said. “They started to become stricter; everyone acts like an authority.”

    The policy at the McNichols Building is to “ensure that two meals are provided to adults per day,” the city responds in a statement. “Because we are operating with limited resources, we have openly welcomed the community to assist us in providing additional meals. Also, guests are allowed to bring single meals into the shelter.”

    While Mujica disputes whether the shelter allows people to bring in food, both he and the city agree that no food storage is allowed inside — and that policy holds at both congregate and non-congregate shelters like hotels.

    Mujica has a bigger worry, though: “In another week, they’re going to take us out of the shelter, throw us back out onto the streets.”

    “Mayor Mike Johnston, his administration and the City and County of Denver are committed to the health, safety and well-being of all Denverites, including those living on the streets and experiencing homelessness,” according to a statement from the mayor’s office. “Cold temperatures pose a serious danger to those living outdoors. If it’s below 32 degrees and we have a place indoors for folks living in an encampment to move into, we know that’s a better, safer option.”

    Johnston is in Washington, D.C., this week for a mayor’s conference. Before heading there, he said he would appeal for federal funds to help deal with the migrant crisis in Denver, as well as ways to make it easier for migrants to get jobs; as non-citizens, they don’t have permission to work.

    Many members of Colorado’s congressional delegation will join Johnston at a press conference today, January 18, to call on Congress to take action to support communities that are receiving migrants.

    According to Johnston, the city has spent more than $38 million responding to the migrant crisis, and he’s asked Denver departments to start considering cuts of between 10 and 15 percent to deal with the hit to the budget.”

    https://www.westword.com/news/denver-activists-push-ban-against-sweeps-cold-weather-18884961

    1. “I’m not going to say it’s all bad, but there is something that gives pause,” Mujica said. “They started to become stricter; everyone acts like an authority.”

       Hoo boy, that sure sounds scripted.

       They can protest all they want, the city is broke and the buses keep arriving.

15. The Federalist is usually a good website, but the language of this article needed corrected.

    Survey: Two-Thirds Of Parasites Say There’s Too Much Freedom In America (1/19/2024):

    “The nation’s ruling class holds deeply authoritarian opinions widely divorced from the rest of the American electorate, finds a survey out this week. It found nearly 60 percent of American “parasites” think there is too much individual freedom in America. Meanwhile, nearly 60 percent of registered voters have the exact opposite opinion, reporting the United States has too much top-down control, limiting liberty.

    Such people account for about 1 percent of Americans. The study also examined a sub-sample of the 1 percent who graduated from Ivy League schools or other name-brand institutions such as Northwestern, Duke, Stanford, and the University of Chicago.

    The study from the Committee to Unleash Prosperity found ruling class opinions on climate policies were particularly harsh and despotic. More than two-thirds of the 1 percent support rationing vital energy and food sources in an attempt to control the globe’s weather. That number jumped to nearly 90 percent among the Ivy Leaguers. Around two-thirds of normal registered voters, however, oppose rationing vital resources.

    Limiting food and water consumption is a serious proposition to global leaders. For example, the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, an environmentalist organization of city leaders across the globe, has proposed annihilating meat and dairy consumption by 2030.

    “An astonishing 72% of the Parasites – including 81% of the Parasites who graduated from the top universities – favor banning gas cars,” the study authors continued. “And majorities of parasites would ban gas stoves, non-essential air travel, SUVs, and private air conditioning.”

    Parasites’ view of other parasites is very different from regular registered voters’ view of parasites. On the education front, “Two-thirds (67%) [of the 1 percent] say teachers and other educational professionals should decide what children are taught rather than letting parents decide.” Only 38 percent of registered voters felt the same.

    “About six of ten parasites have a favorable opinion of the so-called talking professions—lawyers, lobbyists, politicians, and journalists,” wrote the study authors. Additionally, “In stark contrast to the rest of America, 70% of the Parasites trust the government to ‘do the right thing most of the time.’”

    Unsurprisingly, “about three-quarters of these cultural parasites are Biden supporters.” While only 20 percent of Americans say they are better off financially under Biden, nearly three-quarters of the parasites say they are better off under Biden.

    The study comes as global leaders meet in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting to discuss draconian climate policies and crackdowns on freedom of speech and therefore freedom of thought. So far at the conference, parasites have discussed establishing a “new world order,” lobbied for censorship in the name of “disinformation and misinformation,” and labeled farming and fishing “ecocide.”

    https://thefederalist.com/2024/01/19/survey-two-thirds-of-elites-say-theres-too-much-freedom-in-america/

    1. teachers and other educational professionals should decide what children are taught rather than letting parents decide

       Of course parents don’t want their kids to learn about multigenders and radical political theory. But I’m thinking back to when I was in school and our state had a pretty strict curriculum for schools: math, science, history, social studies, English, foreign language. Surely those order curriculums, developed by the education professionals, still have some value.

       1. Of course parents don’t want their kids to learn about multigenders

          My almost 14yo autistic son has been asking quite frequently the last few weeks if he’s a boy and a former classmate is a girl. I have no idea if this is delayed awareness or gender ideology being pushed in school in response to bullying.

       2. teachers and other educational professionals should decide what children are taught rather than letting parents decide

          Seattle school district teaches young kids how ‘people get pregnant,’ trades ‘male’ for ‘person with sperm’
          
          “Sex education for elementary-age students in Seattle Public Schools seeks to reduce “heteronormativity,” or the idea that heterosexuality is normal.”

16. Meanwhile, somewhere in Eastern Europe…

    Russia Today — ‘No money’ can make Hungary accept immigrants (1/19/2024):

    “Hungary will not change its mind about immigration, gender issues, and the Ukraine conflict no matter what, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday.

    In an interview with the state broadcaster Kossuth Radio, Orban touched on the ongoing dispute with Brussels, which had frozen around 20 billion euros (almost $22 billion) in funds intended for Budapest over ‘rule of law’ and ‘human rights’ concerns.

    According to the PM, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently admitted that the bloc’s problem with Hungary was that it refused to accept immigrants and allow LGBTQ activists into schools.

    “Their allegations are nonsense,” Orban said. “We cannot concede on migration, gender, and the war. These issues are more significant, more valuable parts of life than money.”

    “No amount of money can make us accept migrants or allow our country to be taken away from us,” he added. In some other EU member states, he said, mass immigration has resulted in terrorism, rising crime, and even “parallel societies.”

    He described the demands from Brussels about the LGBTQ agenda as “inconceivable” and argued that “the upbringing of children, especially their sexual education, belongs to families and parents, not schools.”

    https://www.rt.com/news/590972-orban-hungary-immigrants-eu/

    What do globalists want? They want you replaced, or better yet, dead, and your children groomed and mutilated and raped.

    Globalists gonna globe.

    1. “What do the Globalist want.”
       The Davos group Insurrection is a terrotist Cult of private party unelected Monopoly Corporations, Rich Elites, Banks , other conspirators, wanting a One World Order Dictorship.
       They want to form a facist dictorship partnership with captured governments.
       They justify their World take over by fraudulent Great Narratives of panademics and Global Climate Change Doomsday.
       They want to stop all dispute or free speech against their fraud Narratives calling it disinformation.
       They want the global populations to comply with their false solutions to their false Narratives of Global emergencies.
       They want to control all earth resources and humanity consumption they control .
       Their end game is mass depopulation, humanity enslaved, deprivation , all justified by their fraud they are saving the earth and lives based on their fake Global emergencies

17. Britain imported a record amount of electricity from Europe last year as solar and wind farms struggled to generate sufficient energy in the wake of coal and nuclear power plant closures.

    The UK forked out £3.5bn on electricity from France, Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands last year, accounting for 12pc of net supply, according to research from London Stock Exchange (LSEG) Power Research.

    According to official data, France accounted for around £1.5bn of power sold to the UK in the year to November 2023 while Norway earned around £500m.

    Electricity imports were brought to the UK via the growing network of interconnector cables designed to boost the collective resilience and energy security of neighbouring countries.

    But closures of British power stations means the traffic is increasingly one-way with the UK instead becoming dependent on its neighbours.

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/britain-pays-france-1-5bn-193657051.html

    1. But closures of British power stations means the traffic is increasingly one-way with the UK instead becoming dependent on its neighbours.

       The British cannot produce their own food (and I’m not talking about tomatoes or bananas) or supply their own power. And that’s with the Tories in charge. Imagine if Labor was running the government.

18. It would be difficult to overstate how important Ireland’s international reputation is to the country’s political establishment.

    Priding themselves on being the “best boys in class”, not least in seeing no surge of the populism which has swept through discontented voters in other countries, was integral to the national sense of self. Whatever else happened, the Irish could always reassure themselves that they weren’t like those racist Brits who voted for Brexit.

    This week, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has made his way to Davos in Switzerland for the annual gathering of the world’s financial and political creme de la creme as the leader of a country which is now in the throes of an increasingly bitter popular revolt against mass migration.

    Immigration into Ireland has hit levels not seen since the days of the Celtic Tiger. The number of people who came to the country in the year up to April 2023 was greater than the population of Ireland’s second city, Cork. A big difference is that the newcomers two decades ago were largely Poles, with a culture very similar to the white Catholic native majority, and they came to Ireland to work and pay their own way. The economy was booming. Acceptance was easy.

    Immigrants in recent years have pitched up in a country which, post boom and post lockdown, is much less sure about itself and its future in a globalised world. Many have been Ukrainians fleeing the war, but others have come too, from Nigeria, Algeria, Afghanistan, Syria and elsewhere.

    Many were no doubt encouraged by a 2021 tweet from the Irish government’s integration minister, Roderic O’Gorman, which, in eight languages – among them Albanian, Arabic, Somali, Urdu, and, yes, Georgian – promised “own-door” accommodation to asylum seekers.

    The new arrivals taking up this offer have been unceremoniously dumped into communities either in the inner city or in rural areas which were already struggling with a lack of facilities and investment. There are jobs aplenty in Ireland, but young people are priced out of the housing market, so the spectacle of new arrivals being given free and immediate accommodation was bound to stir up resentment.

    Protests are now taking place across the country against an influx of what are feared to be largely single males. So far, the political establishment’s main response – spurred on by a liberal Dublin-based media which sees mass migration as an unassailable social good – has been to claim that opposition is down to misinformation about the impact of immigration on crime and the availability of housing, and to insist that Ireland has obligations under international asylum law from which it cannot escape.

    The protesters know very well the agreements to which Irish leaders were only too eager to sign up. They just don’t want to pay the price for it, and are ready to organise to ensure it cannot be done against their will, no matter how much they are denounced by the media and politicians as “far-Right”.

    Such accusations carry little weight when polls show widespread agreement that Ireland has taken in too many migrants too quickly. The vast majority of those out on the streets in the freezing cold making their voices heard night after night are surely ordinary people who’ve seen what mass migration has done to the UK and Sweden and are determined that Ireland learn the lesson whilst there’s still time.

    Thanks to the internet, it is now possible for them to gather numbers quickly in response to community halls and hotels and old people’s homes being snapped up to provide hurried accommodation in places which have already welcomed more than their fair share of migrants whilst the leafy suburbs of affluent south Dublin remain unaffected.

    Opportunistic agitators will inevitably gravitate to any protest, but what’s happening in Ireland looks very much like an organic movement from the ground up against a government which has failed to listen to their legitimate concerns, and instead lies to their faces by insisting that Ireland is not a “soft touch” for immigration though hardly anyone who arrives illegally is ever sent packing.

    Speaking in the snow in Davos this week, the Taoiseach urged people when thinking about migrants “to see them as individuals and not as a group”; but that’s not a courtesy which his government extends to the protesters. They’re crudely branded as an “anti-democratic” rabble rather than as individuals with families, worries and personal struggles of their own, despite the fact that many politicians, the Taoiseach included, were willing to accept a few years ago that there needed to be limits on the number of migrants.

    That the next general election is expected to be held before the end of the year is adding to the alarm in government circles in Dublin. More than a quarter of voters now say they would consider voting for a party with “strong anti-immigration views.” That figure has doubled since 2021.

    In finally joining the unease about mass immigration, Irish people are becoming more European by the day, just in ways that their political representatives never foresaw and which threatens their hold on power. Is it any wonder they’re panicking?

    https://news.yahoo.com/ireland-pro-immigration-elites-living-164501251.html

    1. They suffered so much to gain their independence from Britain, and now they are willingly handing their country over to 3rd world invaders. The Camp of the Saints.

    2. “spurred on by a liberal Dublin-based media”

       Vermin.

       And because it’s the EU, they’ll arrest you for even discussing the problem.

    3. old people’s homes being snapped up

       I’m going to assume these are nursing homes with some capacity, right? Not single-family homes that old people paid for and live in. I’ve been to Ireland. The roads are crap and there is barely any signage. Maybe the immigrants can get to work on that.

19. Speaking of assets whose price always goes up, how about that stock market?

    And are you mystified by the divergent signals between burgeoning stock prices and the persistently inverted Treasury yield curve? Somefing’s gotta give!

    1. Is it different this time with the Treasury yoeld curve inversion?

       1. Financial Times
          Opinion On Wall Street
          Yield curve adds to mystery over US economy
          Soft landing hopes clash with bond market’s recession-forecasting reputation
          Jennifer Hughes
          The Federal Reserve building
          For every curve inversion there is an accompanying debate about whether this time is different
          Jennifer Hughes yesterday

          There is always a point in working out a whodunnit where a half-forgotten fact resurfaces to complicate the evolving theory. There is a similar pattern developing in the current investor narrative of the US economy with a much-watched phenomenon in the bond markets the candidate for the awkward point.

          There is rising confidence in a US economic soft landing but a classic recession-predictor in markets is still flashing red — the so-called inversion of the yield curve.

          Normally, the longer the term of a bond, the higher the yield as investors seek compensation holding the debt at a greater time and the extra risk that entails. When the yield curve inverts, yields on short-term bonds rise above longer-term ones. It has been seen as a harbinger of bad economic times because it implies expectations that interest rates will be lowered in the longer term to stimulate growth.

          Are investors missing something or is it this time a red herring? Few issues in markets can have consumed more little grey cells, to use Hercule Poirot’s favourite phrase, than debating why the yield curve predicts downturns and exactly what it is signalling when it does it.

          There are different measures of the curve but the most popular is the gap between two- and 10-year yields, which have been inverted since July 2022. At the deepest point of inversion in July last year, 10-year notes offered 3.9 per cent, against almost 5 per cent for two-year debt. This week the gap shrank as low as 0.15 percentage points but still remains inverted. And regardless of the precise curve being measured, this current inversion over 19 months and counting is the longest since the early 1980s.
          …

       2. Economy
          The inventor of the market’s most famous recession indicator is confident the inverted yield curve is accurately calling a slowdown in 2024
          Phil Rosen
          Jan 20, 2024, 12:17 PM ET
          Campbell Harvey
          Screengrab/YouTube

          – An inverted yield curve has preceded every recession since 1969.

          – The inventor of the famed indicator said it is accurately predicting a downturn this year.

          – When the yield curve inverted in November 2022, he said it was a false signal.

          Wall Street has ramped up its soft-landing calls for 2024, but a renowned economic expert who popularized the most famous recession indicator in markets says to expect a downturn this year.

          Campbell Harvey is a Canadian economist and researcher at Duke University whose work showed that, for decades, an inverted yield curve — that is, when short-term Treasury yields exceed the yield on longer-term government bonds — has preceded as US recession.

          Dating back to 1968, the indicator’s predictive power is eight for eight, with zero false signals. Harvey told host Jack Farley on the Forward Guidance podcast Thursday that given that yields inverted in the fall of 2022, this suggests a recession will happen in the first or second quarter of this year.

          He had predicted previously that the indicator may turn out to be wrong this time, given the strength in the labor market and other positive economic data. However, he’s reversed that outlook.
          …
          https://www.businessinsider.com/recession-outlook-economy-inverted-yield-curve-inventor-financial-markets-investors-2024-1

       3. Its the same this time, because its looks different, just like it always does

    2. Markets
       This record-breaking market just keeps going higher and higher. Here’s why
       Published Fri, Jan 19 2024 2:41 PM EST
       Updated Fri, Jan 19 2024 3:50 PM EST
       Jeff Cox

       Key Points

       – As it has digested the various headwinds and tail winds, the market is pushing toward a record closing high.

       – Economic data outside of manufacturing and housing has been mostly solid, particularly where it concerns the seemingly unbreakable labor market.

       – Combining a tough economy with a more accommodating Fed and an outperforming tech sector is adding up to a winning formula.
       …
       https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/19/this-record-breaking-market-just-keeps-going-higher-and-higher-heres-why.html

       1. Has the housing market shaken its pandemic tailwinds?

          1. Yahoo Finance
             Existing home sales sank to slowest pace in 30 years in 2023
             Even with slower sales activity, median home prices continue to climb.
             Gabriella Cruz-Martinez
             Fri, January 19, 2024 at 8:24 AM PST·7 min read

             Sales of previously occupied US homes slumped to the worst level in decades last year, as elevated rates and rising home prices deadlocked affordability.

             Year-over-year sales of previously owned homes declined by 6% and came in weaker than predicted by economists polled by Bloomberg.

             Existing home sales fell 1% last month from November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.7 million, the National Association of Realtors said Friday. That marked the lowest sales activity since August 2010, when 3.68 million sales were recorded.

             The median home price jumped more than 4% year over year, marking the sixth straight month of annual gains. The median price of $382,600 was the highest for the month of December on record.

             The data reflects how tough it was for first-time homebuyers to break into the market last year, as they dealt with a trifecta of challenges to affordability: tight inventory, climbing prices, and elevated mortgage rates.
             …
             https://finance.yahoo.com/news/existing-home-sales-sank-to-slowest-pace-in-30-years-in-2023-162424891.html

    3. Financial Times
       US equities
       Wall Street limps to all-time high as ‘sugar rush’ fades
       Tech stocks lift S&P 500 past January 2022 record after broad-based rally fizzles out
       Montage of stock trader and chart
       Friday’s record high for the S&P 500 was ‘less meaningful because the momentum that carried us over the finish line [was] weaker’, a strategist said
       Nicholas Megaw and Kate Duguid in New York yesterday

       A month ago, the S&P 500 seemed to be heading towards an all-time high in a broad-based rally that had raised hopes for further gains this year. But on Friday afternoon, when the index finally cleared the bar, it was being carried by just a few large tech stocks as markets more broadly struggle for direction.

       The S&P closed at 4,839.81, eclipsing its previous high from January 2022, a milestone that reflects the widespread belief that the Federal Reserve is on track to successfully bring inflation under control without causing a major recession, executing a so-called soft landing.

       But the enthusiasm that drove a rally of almost 16 per cent in the last two months of 2023 has ebbed in the new year. The main Wall Street benchmark has taken three weeks to add another 1.5 per cent, as recent economic data reignited the debate over how soon central banks will start cutting interest rates.

       The shaky final stretch to Friday’s record highlights how further gains will rely on the Fed continuing to walk a delicate tightrope.

       “That soft landing is a thread-the-needle event that is not easy to do, and that’s why we have very few throughout history,” said Jurrien Timmer, director of global macro at Fidelity, the asset manager. “There are ways that this perfect goldilocks scenario could be upended.”

       New economic data had already “taken a bit of the wind out of the sails” of the market, said David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management. “I think the environment is relatively good for stocks but don’t expect a big rally this year.”

       A record high for the S&P, he added, was “less meaningful because the momentum that carried us over the finish line [was] weaker”. The tech-concentrated Nasdaq Composite remains below its previous record close.

       Most investors say they have not changed their longer-term assumptions of falling interest rates and decent corporate earnings growth, but the new economic figures have been enough to put the brakes on the rally after exuberance got out of hand in the final months of 2023.

       “The end-of-the-year rally was a sugar rush,” said Russ Koesterich, global head of investment strategy at BlackRock. “The market had gotten ahead of itself a bit at the end of the year, but the economic data has been resilient and the Fed has talked down some expectations of rate cuts.”
       …

       1. “Most investors say they have not changed their longer-term assumptions of falling interest rates and decent corporate earnings growth, but the new economic figures have been enough to put the brakes on the rally after exuberance got out of hand in the final months of 2023.”

          Goldilocks is not dead, but she is not exactly in robust health during this brutal season of colds, flu, RSV and covid, either.

20. We are going to be doing some HBB software upgrades and server changes ahead.

    1. I’ve noticed a recent serious delay in posting comments.

21. Air tight lending standards

    https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/houses-spouses-austin-woman-went-110000702.html

22. really in depth analysis of very cold. EV

    I Deep Froze My Tesla And Immediately Plugged It Into A Supercharger To See What Happens. 21 min

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-c8AUeKs5c

23. How many attacks can humans take, without a Representative Government.
    Attack by border invasion
    Attack on children by transgengers
    Attack by increase in crime
    ATtack by censorship and dispute to fake narratives and obstruction of free
    speech
    Attack on right to defend yourself and attack on 2nd amendment
    Attack by fake killer vaccines to remedy fake Pandemics.
    Attack by Climate Change Doomsday fraud.
    Attack by inflation
    Attack by lockdowns, masks and vaccines and transfer of trillions to Monopoly Corporations
    Attack by bankruptcy of small business.
    Attack by threatening job
    Attack by bribery.
    Attack by claiming Trump supporters and Christains are enemies of State.
    Divide and conquer attack of racism. ATTACK on religion and family structure.
    Attack by brainwashing, fear mongering and false advertising
    Attack by withdrawing energy, food production , cars, etc
    Attack by digitization currency
    Attack by gaslighting, cover up and fraud.
    Attack by rigged elections placing puppets who are enemy.
    Attack by corruption of government agencies.
    Attack by proxy wars
    Attack by unconstitutional Treaties and collusion with WHO and UN
    Corruption of Judicial system and Judicial attack
    Attack by Corruption of food, geoengineering of clouds, bugs and fake food
    Attack by bioweapons that are either fake or real
    Attack by necular threat, World War 3, or terrorist threat
    Attack by Big Pharmacy, medical system committing mass genocide.
    Attack by IRS, FBI, CIA, FDA
    ATTACK BY DISEASE X (probably faked)
    Attack by threat of cyber attacks and grid Attack
    Attack by AI and Robot replacement.
    ATTACK by illegal drugs, and psychotropic drugs pecribed.
    ATTACK by school indoctrination and dumbing down of students.
    Attack on Capitalism for rigged systems like communism and fascism.
    Attack to sterilize youth
    Attack on sanity , for dysfunction, mass demoralizing, and powerlessness of targeted populations.
    Attack by 2030 UN Sustainable Earth Agenda, a blueprint for mass genocide.
    Attack by collapse of financial systems
    Attack by promoting suicide
    Attack by non stop attacks
    This was a pre-planned take over that operated covertly, now they are a overt operation.
    John Kerry basically said at Davos that no governments can stop them, like don’t even try. STATEMENT of threat to the world. How do you like the One World Order now , a group of psychopathic power mongers that hates the human race.

24. Feel-good story of the day. 

    https://humanevents.com/2024/01/20/journalist-who-tried-to-cancel-novak-djokovic-over-not-taking-covid-vaccine-collapses-and-dies-while-covering-australian-open

    1. One less eater, I suppose.

25. ‘The 378-unit Gabriella high-rise is on Live Oak Street near Good-Latimer Expressway. It was developed by North Carolina-based Greystar Real Estate Partners and opened in 2020. The building is substantially leased with rents starting near $1,400 a month for the smallest units. The Gabriella is one of the largest potential property foreclosures in North Texas…Greystar Real Estate is one of the country’s largest builders and operators of apartments’

    So one of the bigs, nothing wrong with it, almost new, and they tossed the keys.

26. ‘Deeds-in-lieu offer a faster alternative to a traditional foreclosure proceeding, though still a last resort for borrowers — other remedies, like extensions or a forbearance agreement, at least allow borrowers to keep ownership of their properties while working out debt issues. A source familiar with Shekhter’s deeds-in-lieu said most of the assets are not cash flowing, but the majority of his loans were floating-rate’

    Niel was a rate dater! Well yer fooked now Niel. Maybe you should have factored making a profit going in, but then you wouldn’t have been a winnah!

    1. . A source familiar with Shekhter’s deeds-in-lieu said most of the assets are not cash flowing, but the majority of his loans were floating-rate’

       I just don’t get it. Not cash flowing at the lowest rates ever.
       This logic reminds me of the 2000 stock bubble where stocks were valued based on “eyeballs” at times and profits were never a consideration when valuing the stocks. Well, I guess stupid should hurt and I am guessing he is hurting.

27. ‘I’m not putting fear on anybody. I’m saying there are right and wrong ways to move to any country. When you’re coming to any country, please make sure you do your research. And make sure you go to like if you’re coming to Canada I speak on Canada because that’s my home. Go to other provinces that are less populated. I’ll tell you again stay away from Ontario. Housing is extremely expensive. I have four days ago, two immigrants that are sleeping outside passed away’

    That’s what happens when you parachute into a foreign country with no rights to be there and it’s a cold sh$thole.

    ‘Go to other provinces that are less populated’

    Ontario is a barren vast sh$thole.

    1. That’s what happens when you parachute into a foreign country with no rights to be there and it’s a cold sh$thole.

       But the NGO worker told me that I would get una casa y un coche, los dos gratuitos. They never said anything about it getting tan frio como el polo norte.

       Half the world thinks that if they can sneak across the border that the “American dream” will be handed to them on a silver platter.

28. Booker T. & The MG’s – Time Is Tight (Live, 1970)
    60s70sVintageRock
    12 years ago

    Booker T. & The MG’s opened this Creedence Clearwater Revival concert at the Oakland Coliseum, 1/31/70. Seen offstage are John Fogerty, Doug Clifford (w/beard), and Stu Cook (w/glasses).

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbBcXvKvB08

    5:27.

29. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel for China’s property meltdown?

    And is its source a train?

    1. Finance · China
       China’s middle class battered by real-estate meltdown—and it might be just ‘the beginning of more wealth losses’
       BY Bloomberg
       December 17, 2023 at 4:47 PM PST
       China’s real-estate crisis is hitting household wealth hard.
       Qilai Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images

       Stock investments: down 30%. Salary package: down 30%. Investment property: down 20%. As Thomas Zhou reflects on 2023, his household finances are front of mind.

       “It’s just heart-breaking,” the 40-year-old financial worker from Shanghai said. “The only thing that still keeps me going is the thought of keeping my job so I can support my big family.”

       Zhou’s predicament will resonate with many people in China, where slumps in the real estate and stock markets are wiping away household wealth. And as the world’s second-largest economy struggles to regain momentum after years of Covid-19 lockdowns, there’s also the growing threat of unemployment.

       Now, middle class households are being forced to rethink their money priorities, with some pulling away from investing, or selling assets to free-up liquidity.

       At the heart of the decline in family wealth is China’s real estate meltdown, which having a pervasive effect on a society where 70% of family assets are tied up in property. Every 5% decline in home prices will wipe out 19 trillion yuan ($2.7 trillion) in housing wealth, according to Bloomberg Economics.

       “It might just be the beginning of more wealth losses in coming years,” said Eric Zhu, an economist with Bloomberg Economics. “Unless there’s a big bull market, small gains in financial wealth are unlikely to offset losses in housing wealth.”

       While China’s official data show just a mild drop in its existing home prices, evidence from property agents and private data providers indicate declines of at least 15% in prime areas in its biggest cities.

       The housing sector’s value may shrink to about 16% of China’s gross domestic product by 2026 from around 20% of GDP currently, according to Bloomberg Economics. This would put about 5 million people, or about 1% of urban workforce, at the risk of unemployment or reduced incomes.

       Rainy Days

       Financial investments offer little respite. Chinese shares underperformed emerging-market peers by the widest margin since at least 1998 earlier this month. Mutual funds were in the red as of the third quarter. Yields on banks’ wealth management products remain subdued and deposit rates have seen three reductions in the past year.

       The $2.9 trillion trust industry, where wealthy Chinese investors have sought high returns from products sold by loosely regulated shadow banks, is showing cracks, with one recent scandal potentially involving tens of billions of dollars in losses.

       Net worth per adult in China slid 2.2% to $75,731 in 2022, UBS said in its August global wealth report, while total assets per adult fell for the first time since 2000 as non-financial holdings shrank due to the housing market difficulties.
       …
       https://fortune.com/2023/12/17/china-middle-class-real-estate-meltdown-wealth-loss/

    2. China’s Economy
       Shrinking Population
       G.D.P. Data
       Youth Unemployment
       Investors React

       China Bet It All on Real Estate. Now Its Economy Is Paying the Price.

       After relying on a borrow-to-build model for decades, Beijing must make difficult choices about the country’s housing market and economic future.

       An aerial view of a group of buildings under construction in an urban environment.
       Before it defaulted, the developer China Evergrande was at the center of China’s economic boom.
       Credit…Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times
       By Alexandra Stevenson
       Reporting from Hong Kong
       Published Oct. 16, 2023
       Updated Oct. 17, 2023
       阅读简体中文版閱讀繁體中文版

       When China’s housing boom seemed like a one-way bet, Gary Meng’s parents bought an apartment from China Evergrande, the country’s biggest developer. Soon the company called with another pitch: to manage their wealth.

       It was a good deal with little risk, the family thought. Evergrande had global recognition and was a politically important company at the heart of China’s growing economy. They invested all their savings.

       Then the unthinkable happened. In 2021, Evergrande defaulted, representing the start of a real estate meltdown that has shaken China’s economy, felled some of its biggest companies and left home buyers waiting on more than a million apartments. Last week, another embattled real estate company, Country Garden, said it had run out of cash, signaling that the worst may be yet to come. The companies have a combined $500 billion in debt and face critical hurdles in the coming weeks.

       Beijing’s ability to slow the collapse is now in doubt as consumers continue to show a lack of interest in buying real estate, even during a recent Golden Week holiday, usually a bumper period for sales.
       …
       https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/16/business/china-evergrande-country-garden.html

    3. Fear & Greed Index
       China’s economy will be hobbled for years by the real estate crisis
       Analysis by Laura He, CNN
       7 minute read
       Published 5:47 AM EDT, Fri October 6, 2023
       The stakes are too high to let Evergrande fail. Here’s why (2021)
       03:13 – Source: CNNBusiness

       Hong Kong CNN —

       China’s robust growth, one of the fastest sustained expansions for a major economy in history, was propelled for decades by a housing boom fueled by a rising population and urbanization.

       But the all-important property market, which has accounted for as much as 30% of the economy, fell into crisis more than two years ago after a government-led clampdown on developers’ borrowing.

       Investment in real estate fell last year for the first time in a decade, and with no bailout from Beijing in sight, the property downturn is likely to drag on, posing a major threat to China’s growth prospects over the next three to five years.

       “For China, the only way out of this [property] crisis is a slow but painful adjustment,” said Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis. “The adjustment has only started and will take years to conclude.”

       The country needs to match the supply of housing with much lower demand, which is waning because of an aging population, she added.

       It’s a tall order. Last month, a former deputy head of the national statistics bureau was quoted by state media as saying China’s entire population of 1.4 billion would not be enough to fill all the empty apartments littered across the country.

       The government has already introduced a “de-stocking” policy nationwide to reduce oversupply, including slowing the pace of land sales in cities and encouraging developers to lower housing prices to spur demand.

       Absorbing this “excess capacity” in the property sector will inevitably hurt China’s economic growth, according to Garcia-Herrero.
       …
       https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/06/economy/china-economy-real-estate-crisis-intl-hnk/index.html

    4. China Economy
       China’s big property market problem will take at least 4 to 6 years to resolve
       Published Wed, Dec 6 2023 7:23 PM EST
       Evelyn Cheng

       Key Points

       – China has a big problem within real estate that will take at least four to six years to resolve, according to analysis from Oxford Economics Lead Economist Louise Loo.

       – “However one slices the data, the existing excess supply in the market is likely to take at least another four years to unwind, absent a meaningful pickup in demand,” Loo said in a report Tuesday.

       – On the extreme end, residential construction in the relatively poor province of Guizhou could take well over 20 years to complete, Loo said in an email, while it will likely take at least ten years in several other provinces such as Jiangxi and Hebei.
       …
       https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/07/chinas-big-property-market-problem-will-take-years-to-resolve.html

    5. The Japan Times
       COMMENTARY / World
       Fixing China’s real estate sector
       The government needs to take concerted action to address the deteriorating finances of developers
       Past warnings of a housing-market crash in China have never been borne out. But unless the government takes concerted action, this time may well be different.
       | REUTERS
       By Yu Yongding
       BEIJING
       Jan 21, 2024
       Project Syndicate –

       In the two decades since China’s State Council officially classified the real estate sector as a “pillar industry,” the sector has undergone rapid development, propelling gross domestic product growth and inspiring in millions of Chinese the dream of owning their own home.

       But the sector is now plagued by problems, from high prices to massive debts, and threatens to undermine growth at a time when China can ill afford it.

       Though there is no private land ownership in China, households are eager to own their own homes, both to improve their living conditions and to accumulate wealth. Chinese cannot easily purchase foreign assets, owing to capital controls, and Chinese stock exchanges have not been performing strongly. China does not tax residential real estate, capital gains, or inheritance — and promises major gains in value. As a result, property becomes the most attractive asset form to own.

       From 2005 to 2021, the real price index for residential property in China increased by 28.5%, from 87.95 to 112.99. While the price index has fallen a few times over the years, it has always rebounded strongly, giving Chinese the impression that, when it comes to wealth accumulation, home ownership is practically a sure thing.

       But as expectations of rising housing prices and speculation cause actual prices to increase at a far higher rate than growth in household disposable income — homes have become increasingly unaffordable for young Chinese people, let alone migrant workers, who do not enjoy the same rights as permanent city residents. In some first-tier cities, housing units cost more than 40 times the average income.

       China’s government has repeatedly attempted to rein in housing prices, such as by restricting the number of real estate purchases a single household can make and even imposing administrative controls on house prices. But such measures have proved largely ineffective and sometimes even counterproductive. While this is partly because buyers and sellers find ways to circumvent the restrictions, the fundamental reason is that the real estate sector has effectively hijacked the Chinese economy.

       The real estate sector has a very long value chain, so whatever happens there has far-reaching effects, both upstream and downstream. Slower growth in housing prices leads to slower growth in real estate investment. Since such investment and related activities account for a major share of Chinese GDP — more than 10%, on average, over the last decade — this drags down overall economic growth.

       For years, whenever this happened, China’s government would respond by loosening or reversing whatever measures were impeding price growth, opening the way for a powerful recovery in both real estate investment and property prices. After the 2014-15 crash, housing prices surged — and continued to increase for the next six years, in what amounted to the longest (mostly) uninterrupted price rise since 2003.

       So, in 2021, China’s government again intervened, introducing three “red lines” for real estate developers. If any developer had a liability-to-asset ratio of more than 70%, a net gearing ratio of more than 100%, or a cash-to-short-term-debt ratio of more than 100%, it would lose access to bank credit. Not surprisingly, the housing price index soon started to fall, followed by growth in real estate investment.

       What was surprising was the magnitude of the fall: In 2022, real estate investment plummeted by 10% year on year. And even though the government soon loosened its restrictive policy significantly, the familiar rebound never materialized. On the contrary, in the first 10 months of 2023, growth in real estate investment fell by another 9.3% year on year and the amount of unsold floor space increased by 18.3%.
       …
       https://www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2024/01/21/world/chinas-real-estate-sector/

       1. “From 2005 to 2021, the real price index for residential property in China increased by 28.5%, from 87.95 to 112.99.”

          How does that 16 year increase compare to US residential property price gains from 2019 to the present?

          “While the price index has fallen a few times over the years, it has always rebounded strongly, giving Chinese the impression that, when it comes to wealth accumulation, home ownership is practically a sure thing.”

          Note to US home owners: Read the handwriting on the wall.

          1. One final thought for now:

             Perhaps US real estate investors need not worry too much about China’s real estate woes. Like COVID-19, they most likely will be contained to China.

             Oh wait…

30. Re: A Belief That Land And Housing Prices Could Only Go Up

    As long as prices are measured with a fiat currency with no intrinsic value which asymptotically approaches its true worth, i.e., zero, the theoretical price of everything with real value approaches infinity. It is simple high school arithmetic There may be periodic fluctuations just as a falling leaf temporarily floats upwards but in the long run ends up on the ground.

    The catch phrase “fighting inflation” endlessly parroted by the same bunch of morons who create it and even sets a target, no less, is like Al Capone fighting crime and Dillinger guarding the banks.

    Since sanity is too heavy a burden to carry for long, it is only a matter of time before the Fed will pivot and re-open the floodgates in the name of “saving the economy” and will become a whirling dervish . . .

31. ……..sites across L.A. County, as a way to relieve itself of about $1.1 billion………
    They relieved themselves,,,,,,,,,that make me chuckle.

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