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We’re Going To Lose, We’re Not Going To Get What We Paid For It

A report from Sarasota Magazine in Florida. “See ya later, panic-buying, bidding wars and forgone home inspections. The post-Covid buying rush is all but gone, and important housing market markers like inventory, and days on the market have increased substantially compared to 2022, according to the Realtor Association of Sarasota Manatee (RASM). ‘There are many options for buyers to choose from right now,’ says local realtor Jeremy Egglefield of Keller Williams Realty. ‘I see a lot of price decreases on listings that aren’t selling right away. Some go ‘pending’ and then later to ‘back on market’ at a lower price until finally it sells. The bidding wars are long gone.'”

KOAA News 5. “Some home prices are falling in Colorado Springs. One local Realtor tells us that in the last seven days, there have been 186 home price reductions. ‘The reason is, caused by the interest rate, mostly, and the optimism of people thinking we’re still back in 2020, and we’re not, and they put it on the market at a high number. Then they realize they’re not going to get showings, they’re not going to get feedback, and they go ahead and lower it,’ said Joe Clement, Broker Owner of Remax Properties in Colorado Springs.”

The Real Deal on California. “While San Francisco officials have pitched plans to upzone transit corridors to make way for thousands of homes, residents are shocked by the results. The reality of those blueprints are now sinking in for neighborhoods such as Lakeside, where the city proposes to allow 85-foot-tall apartment buildings next to single-family homes, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Resident Jim Hurlihy agrees that there are some sites where more density is appropriate. But he called the current rezoning plan ‘sloppy, one-size-fits-all.’ ‘It’s a knee-jerk reaction to what is going on in Sacramento, a flawed process the consequences of which we are going to have to live with for decades,’ Hurlihy, a Lakeside resident since 1987, told the Chronicle. ‘How many other neighborhoods haven’t read the fine print and will be stuck with this kind of stealth upzoning?'”

WNEM in Michigan. “The rain and snow of the past week left a single mother with a severely flooded basement. It was her first home, and it may end up leaving her bankrupt. ‘It breaks my heart. I mean, I bought this house for my kids and I worked really hard to get this house,’ said Flint Township resident Jayla Beggs. When Beggs moved into her first home in Flint Township the day before Thanksgiving, she thought it was a dream come true. However, on Friday, Jan. 26, that dream turned into a nightmare. Two months after buying the home, she smelled smoke coming from her furnace. ‘I came downstairs and my house was flooded. The basement and the other level above the basement was flooded,’ she said. ‘I do know it came in through the foundation.'”

“Beggs said the water came from rain and melting snow from her neighbors’ properties, which was information she said was not disclosed by the real estate agent, who also was the owner of the property. She said because she knew the seller personally, she didn’t have the home inspected, which is a decision she now regrets. ‘The inspection process was something I should have done but didn’t because I trusted who I bought the house from,’ she said. Beggs filed a claim with her insurance company but said it was denied because she did not have flood insurance, which is something she didn’t think was necessary for the area in which the home is located.”

From Woodward News. “According to real estate experts in the region, the housing market in Woodward and Northwest Oklahoma may be more active in 2024. Veteran Woodward realtor, Ashley Lookingbill of Omni Realty believes overall the real estate market here will have some highs and lows through the year – with more volatility in this year than maybe is normally experienced. ‘One thing causing dramatic turmoil are the effects of recent forbearance options offered by lenders,’ Lookingbill said. ‘These options have allowed people to delay their loan payments for six months. They have done this by adding an additional loan amount in what is most likely a bulk interest and payments, which is tacked onto the end of the buyer’s loan.”

“On the face of it, the ability to take a break from a mortgage might seem like just what the doctored ordered. But she wonders if this will place additional pressure on the market as well as lenders through 2024. ‘Now we have additional loan payoff amounts, plus lenders starting foreclosures on people they have forbearance agreements with and other complications that are making the process almost predatory instead of helpful,’ Lookingbill added.”

The Canadian Press. “One walk through a home tells Rachael Stafford what adjustments are needed to pique the interest of potential buyers. For Stafford, the founder and creative director of organizing and staging company Order in the House, changes can range from decluttering rooms to services like painting and repairs, or even bringing in furniture rentals. It’s a service valued by homeowners, she said, especially in a hot market where sellers look to gain any advantage that can help drive up the price of their property. But as home sales throughout much of Canada have turned sluggish, home staging services have taken a hit as sellers rethink the cost of a thorough revamp, Stafford said.”

“‘We’re still supplementing with some (furniture) rentals where rooms really need it,’ she said. ‘But I find that sellers are more so trying to scale back a little bit on the rentals, concerned about the initial investment and the ongoing monthly fees should the property not sell quickly.’ Stafford, who is based in the Toronto area, said companies like hers have had to adapt in this high interest rate environment after a years-long housing boom. When interest rates were low coming out of the pandemic, ‘realtors and homeowners were willing to put in that extra money and go that extra mile because they knew they were getting the [return on investment] on it,’ she said.”

The Evening Standard in the UK. “Thousands of homes under construction have been left abandoned at stalled ‘ghost housing developments’ across London as a result of last year’s sudden downturn in the property market, the Standard has learned. At the year end, construction work at 61 house-building sites where at least 20 homes are due to be completed had been halted with the gates padlocked. Together they accounted for just over 6,000 half-built homes at a time of severe housing shortages across London. Industry experts say the number of schemes on hold is unprecedented in recent history, apart from the early months of the first pandemic lockdown. By contrast, in the wake of the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009 only 10 schemes were put on hold.”

“The boss of one London housebuilder told the Standard: ‘I have never seen so many stopped building sites in London. The economics of these sites don’t make any sense. It’s not just the state of the market. There is so much regulatory uncertainty over issues such as second staircases and heat pumps. The whole system is clogged up.'”

Daily Mail Australia. “Reports emerged in 2018 that Jordan Springs East estate, in the western Sydney suburb of Llandilo, was sinking due to being placed on insufficiently stable landfill, causing large cracks to appear in houses, driveways and footpaths. Lendlease, the $4billion company that developed the estate, was forced to start a compensation scheme in 2020 and bought back 50 homes from people to either fix and put back on the market or knock down because they were ‘unlivable’. Retired couple Robert and Veronika Borland bought one of the repaired properties on Private Circuit late last year for $820,000 after getting an engineer’s report that it was sound – but are now shocked to learn the house next to theirs is being demolished.”

“‘If we’d have known that house was coming down, it was too badly damaged or not up to standard, we wouldn’t have bought this property,’ Ms Borland told Nine News. Mr Borland agreed. ‘The heavy machinery is going to impact our property and we have no insurance,’ he said. ‘We’re going to lose. We’re not going to get what we paid for it and we’re on a pension and retired so where do you go?’ The Borlands have already spent around $30,000 on renovating their home. ‘Everyone’s gonna say ‘well, it’s your fault, you signed the document,’ which we did,’ Ms Borland told the ABC. ‘But yeah, we just feel like we’ve been deceived, that the situation here in Jordan Springs isn’t as secure as they make out.'”

The Telegraph. “After years of turbulence, Chinese property giant Evergrande was hit with a winding-up order by a judge in Hong Kong on Monday, setting up a multibillion-dollar battle between Western creditors and Chinese authorities. The decision wiped a fifth off its share price in Hong Kong before trading was halted, meaning Evergrande is now worth $275m (£216m) but has $328bn of debt. Given the scale of its borrowings, it is unclear what happens next. Will local authorities stiff them, further undermining China’s status as an international market? Or will they be minded to preserve China’s attractiveness to Wall Street and the City of London and pay investors back?”

“‘If there’s a choice that needs to be made, I’m sure the Chinese Government will protect the domestic retail investor versus the foreign one,’ said Natixis’ Hong Kong senior economist Gary Ng. For Western investors, the liquidation of Evergrande marks the end of a slow-motion car crash that started several years ago. Before China’s property crisis, when the so-called Golden Era was in full swing, Evergrande raised money by issuing IOUs in dollars rather than renminbi to lure international investors.”

“Western fund managers like Ashmore, Amundi and Legal & General, as well as banks such as HSBC and UBS, lapped up so-called ‘Kungfu bonds,’ with Evergrande holding around $19bn worth of IOUs at its peak. However, as the company unravelled and ultimately defaulted, these bonds fell from being worth 95 cents in the dollar to just 20. They are now trading at around just 1.5 cents in the dollar.”

“Xi Jinping is being pulled in two directions. ‘There’s a bit of schizophrenia,’ adds William Hurst, Chong Hua Professor of Chinese Development at the University of Cambridge. . ‘On the one hand, there is huge domestic emphasis and a trepidation about too much international integration. On the other, there is an overriding imperative to try to bring global business back to China.’ One bond investor says: adds: ‘Xi is paranoid about a subprime crisis, which leaves him in a tough spot.'”

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This Post Has 98 Comments

  2. ‘said was not disclosed by the real estate agent, who also was the owner of the property. She said because she knew the seller personally, she didn’t have the home inspected, which is a decision she now regrets. ‘The inspection process was something I should have done but didn’t because I trusted who I bought the house from’

    You know what they say about UHS Jayla.

    ‘Beggs filed a claim with her insurance company but said it was denied because she did not have flood insurance, which is something she didn’t think was necessary for the area in which the home is located’

    Ring ring!

    Hello Acme Insurance.

    Hi, this is Jayla, I’d like to file a claim for my flooded basement.

    What’s yer policy number?

    I don’t have a policy cuz I didn’t think was necessary for the area.

    Click.

    2. Hi, this is Jayla, I’d like to file a claim for my flooded basement.

      And Pee Wee Herman’s bike was in the basement of the Alamo.

  3. Before I forget, today or tomorrow the software upgrade and server switch should happen. Those things can get weird.

  4. ‘If there’s a choice that needs to be made, I’m sure the Chinese Government will protect the domestic retail investor versus the foreign one’

    That’s why you make the big bucks Gary. They’ve been fooking the gringo for over 3 years now.

    1. Deloitte did a recent analysis and calculated that the liquidation process would recover 3-4 cents on the dollar, and most of those 4 cents would be taken up by the cost of liquidation. I’m not sure that *any*one will get any money back, Eastern, Western, or otherwise.

      I feel for the average Chinese folks who pre-bought an unbuilt apartment. IIUC, they put down a deposit, and they were paying a mortgage on a unit that wasn’t built yet. Will the liquidators claim the full amount of those mortgages, or just grab the deposits and forgive the rest of the mortgage?

  5. Is this a good time for US investors to HODL cash, given how overvalued risk assets have become in the US?

    1. Financial Times
      Venture capital investment
      Silicon Valley investors build $300bn cash pile in start-up funding crunch
      US venture capitalists are sitting on a record amount of ‘dry powder’ as they avoid risky bets on fledgling companies
      The logo of the ChatGPT application developed by US artificial intelligence research organization OpenAI
      Some of the most active venture firms such as Thrive Capital are signing several cheques for companies already within their portfolios. Thrive is also leading a purchase of employee stock at ChatGPT-maker OpenAI
      George Hammond and Tabby Kinder in San Francisco yesterday

      US venture capitalists are sitting on $311bn in unspent cash, as they shy away from risky bets on Silicon Valley start-ups and concentrate on finding ways to return capital to their own backers.

      American VC groups have deployed just half of a record $435bn they raised from investors during the pandemic-era boom between 2020 and 2022, according to private markets data company PitchBook.

      That has added to a pile of unspent reserves — known in the industry as “dry powder” — which has accumulated as venture firms adopt a more cautious stance to investing amid declining start-up valuations, preferring to find ways to back more established tech groups or prop up their existing portfolio of companies.
      …

    2. Home prices in top 20 U.S. cities hit new all-time high: Case-Shiller

      FA Center
      What does Berkshire Hathaway’s $150 billion in cash say about Warren Buffett’s view of stocks now?
      Last Updated: Jan. 27, 2024 at 6:33 a.m. ET
      First Published: Jan. 22, 2024 at 7:15 a.m. ET
      By Mark Hulbert
      Berkshire’s cash allocation hasn’t been constant, but has fluctuated in a narrow range
      Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, attends the annual Berkshire shareholders meeting in Omaha, Neb., in May 2019.
      AFP/Getty Image

      Warren Buffett’s company may be sitting on a record amount of cash, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the famed investor thinks the stock market is overvalued.

      It’s important to point this out in order to counter the narrative that has emerged since the latest quarterly report from Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway. Some financial advisers are asserting that the conglomerate’s huge cash hoard — more than $150 billion in cash and short-term investments, largest ever in the company’s near-60-year history — indicates that Buffett is finding it harder than ever to find undervalued companies to acquire. If so, that in turn would imply that the stock market is dangerously overvalued.
      …
      https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20240122793/what-does-berkshire-hathaways-150-billion-in-cash-say-about-warren-buffetts-view-of-stocks-now

    3. Stocks look ‘highly vulnerable’ and the economy is likely to enter a year-long recession, a 30-year market veteran says
      Phil Rosen
      Jan 29, 2024, 11:23 AM PST
      Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., February 7, 2017.
      REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
      Thomson Reuters

      – A long-time market veteran anticipates a bear market and recession to hit the US.

      – Jon Wolfenbarger pointed to falling earnings and the inverted yield curve, among other factors.

      – He said the extended duration of the yield-curve inversion suggests a longer recession.
      …
      https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-market-outlook-economy-recession-bear-market-earnings-tech-bubble-2024-1

    4. 5 ways today’s record-setting stock market is reminiscent of the dot-com era
      Filip De Mott
      Jan 30, 2024, 8:32 AM PST
      Silver Bull and Bear on Newspaper
      Getty Images

      – Today’s market is showing striking similarities to the dot-com bubble, JPMorgan said in a note.

      – Current top 10 stocks actually have more risk exposure and are more concentrated than in 2000.

      – Valuations, price performance, and earnings also show worrying trends.

      The stock market’s endless upside may excite investors to keep piling in, but equity conditions resemble those that preceded the tech crash of the early 2000’s, JPMorgan outlined in a Tuesday note.

      “When viewed in a historical context, parallels to the ‘Dotcom Bubble’ era are often dismissed due to the ‘irrational exuberance’ that characterized this period,” analysts led by Khuram Chaudhry wrote, adding: ‘Our analysis shows that while there are notable differences, they are far more similar than one may think!’

      Here are six concerning signs that the modern market is not so different from the one that preceded the Dot-Com Bubble.
      …
      https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-rally-top-stocks-price-earnings-concentration-dot-com-crash-2024-1

      1. Here is another concerning sign: Before the tech stock crash, nobody could see it coming and everyone was certain piling into tech stocks was a sure road tr

    5. Investors want big rate cuts in 2024 – but markets crashed the last time the Fed moved aggressively before a recession hit
      Phil Rosen
      Jan 30, 2024, 10:52 AM PST

      – Markets are expecting multiple rate cuts from the Federal Reserve in 2024.

      – DataTrek Research notes, however, that stocks plunged in 1987 after an aggressive move to ease policy.

      – “The Fed knows the cautionary tale of 1985-1986 and, at lower absolute policy rates now, they have even more reason to be cautious.”

      Markets are looking for multiple interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve in 2024, but history suggests severe downside for investors if policymakers fulfill those expectations before a recession strikes.

      Fed funds futures show investors think odds are about 32% for interest rates to finish the year at 4.00%-4.25% and 37% odds for 3.75%-4.00%, a level that would represent five or six cuts to come over the course of 2024.

      The Fed, on the other hand, has projected three rate cuts, according to its December 2023 Summary of Economic Projections, which would bring the benchmark rate to the 4.50-4.75% range by the end of this year.

      “There is only 1 instance in the last 44 years when the Fed has cut rates by 1.25 points or more in a 12-month period without a recession either already underway or clearly in the offing,” DataTrek Research cofounders Nicholas Colas and Jessica Rabe wrote in a note Tuesday.
      …
      https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-market-crash-fed-rate-cuts-economy-investors-1987-finance-2024-1

  6. ‘On the face of it, the ability to take a break from a mortgage might seem like just what the doctored ordered. But she wonders if this will place additional pressure on the market as well as lenders through 2024. ‘Now we have additional loan payoff amounts, plus lenders starting foreclosures on people they have forbearance agreements with and other complications that are making the process almost predatory instead of helpful’

    We don’t hear much about the forbearance stuff do we?

    1. I don’t understand this one. Six-month forbearance sounds too short to be a pandemic program; pandemic forbearances were 18-24 months weren’t they? So what is a six-month forbearance? You call up the bank and say “Hey I lost my job can I take six months off from the mortgage please?” I’ve never heard of that.

      1. The US guberment already set up a HAMP like program for these loans. I posted about it when it happened a year+half or so ago. Nobody talks about it and maybe that what Ashley is seeing.

  7. She said because she knew the seller personally, she didn’t have the home inspected, which is a decision she now regrets.

    If stupid didn’t hurt, fools would never learn.

    1. “If stupid didn’t hurt, fools would never learn.”

      It doesn’t matter how much stupid hurts fools will never learn.

  8. “Some home prices are falling in Colorado Springs. One local Realtor tells us that in the last seven days, there have been 186 home price reductions.

    They need to fall a lot harder, a lot faster. Median shack prices are completely out of whack with median incomes all along the Front Range, but the greedheads are still clinging to their delusional wish prices.

  9. ‘The inspection process was something I should have done but didn’t because I trusted who I bought the house from,’ she said.

    Another “victim” of her own stupidity and negligence.

  10. Imagine if someone closely associated with progressives in San Francisco—say, a major donor to left causes and candidates or a prominent spokesperson for left-leaning organizations—said that the mayor and her political allies should “die slowly.”

    But when it’s Garry Tan, the CEO of Y Combinator and a major donor to so-called “moderate” causes? Only MissionLocal has run the rather shocking story: ‘F@ck Chan, Peskin, Preston, Walton, Melgar, Ronen, Safai, Chan as a label and motherf@cking crew,” he wrote in a since-deleted post on X, formerly Twitter, to his 408,000 followers during the early morning hours of Saturday. “Die slow motherf@ckers.’

    https://48hills.org/2024/01/tech-leader-wants-supes-to-die-slow-wheres-the-mayor-and-the-chron/

  11. ‘Everyone’s gonna say ‘well, it’s your fault, you signed the document,’ which we did,’ Ms Borland told the ABC. ‘But yeah, we just feel like we’ve been deceived, that the situation here in Jordan Springs isn’t as secure as they make out.’”

    It could be that your sole purpose in life, Ms. Borland, is to serve as a cautionary tale to others.

  12. Australian cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam Lee has been charged for his alleged role in a $US1.89 billion ($2.85 billion) fraud scheme alongside two others.

    The US Department of Justice has announced the charges against Mr Lee, 35, alongside US nationals Rodney Butron and Brenda Chunga for allegedly co-founding HyperFund, also known as HyperTech, HyperCapital, HyperVerse and HyperNation.

    The trio is charged with defrauding investors for allegedly falsely representing that investors would receive substantial returns paid from cryptocurrency mining operations, which did not exist. “The level of alleged fraud here is staggering,” US Attorney Erek L. Barron for the District of Maryland said.

    The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has labelled it a fraudulent cryptocurrency pyramid scheme.

    The SEC’s complaint outlined that Mr Lee knew or was reckless in not knowing that HyperFund was a pyramid scheme and had no real source of revenue other than funds received from investors.

    According to US Department of Justice court documents, Mr Lee and his co-conspirators allegedly offered and sold investment contracts to the public through HyperFund’s online investment platform from June 2020 to November 2022.

    False claims were allegedly made in the company’s promotional materials, including that investors who purchased memberships would receive between 0.5 per cent to one per cent daily in passive rewards until the company either doubled or tripled the investor’s initial investment.

    According to the US Department of Justice, HyperFund allegedly claimed that its payments would be disbursed in part from its revenues from large-scale crypto-mining operations but HyperFund did not have such operations.

    Beginning in at least July 2021, HyperFund allegedly began to block investor withdrawals.

    Mr Lee is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud and could face up to five years in prison if convicted.

    Mr Burton is charged by criminal complaint with one count of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business and one count of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business.

    He also faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on each count.

    Ms Chunga has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud. She faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

    A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the US Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-30/australian-sam-lee-charged-over-cryptocurrency-fraud-scheme/103405862

    1. “…The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has labelled it a fraudulent cryptocurrency pyramid scheme…”

      Shocked I tell you, totally shocked.

      Investor alert: ‘Pyramids’ and a ‘Limited Supply of Nothing’ do not mix for romance.

  13. Why is it that Wall Street firms keep piling into US residential housing, even though it is already incredibly overvalued? Aren’t they afraid they will get burned in a future crash, just like hordes of hapless Chinese investors are currently?

    Magic 8 Ball sez the Fed will not repeat Quantitative Easing bailout operations at a time of severely inflated risk asset prices.

    2. User
      Would it be better if REITs were banned from competing with Mom and Pop in the US market for existing homes?

      ChatGPT
      Banning REITs from competing with individual homebuyers in the existing home market could have both pros and cons. On one hand, it might make homeownership more accessible for individuals by reducing competition from large investors. On the other hand, it could limit investment options for REITs and potentially reduce liquidity in the housing market, which could have broader economic implications. Any decision would need to carefully consider these trade-offs and potential unintended consequences.

      User
      Do you make money from Wall Street for spouting their BS?

      ChatGPT
      No, I don’t make money from Wall Street or any other entity. My purpose is to provide helpful and accurate information to users based on the data I’ve been trained on.

        1. I.e. there is no original thought in Artificial Intelligence. That is why it is artificial, not actual intelligence.

          1. “…there is no original thought in Artificial Intelligence.

            Query: “taylor swift ai;” now there’s base instinct!

    3. Home prices began to cool in November after nine straight months of gains, S&P Case-Shiller says
      PUBLISHED TUE, JAN 30 2024 9:00 AM EST
      UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO
      Diana Olick

      KEY POINTS

      – Home prices started to fall in November, after nine straight months of gains, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index.

      – Seattle and San Francisco reported the largest monthly declines, falling 1.4% and 1.3%, respectively.
      Prices nationally were still higher compared with the year before, and those annual gains increased again.
      For the second straight month Detroit reported the highest year-over-year gain among the 20 cities, with prices rising 8.2% in November, followed again by San Diego with an 8% increase.
      …
      https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/30/home-prices-november-sp-case-shiller.html

      1. “Home prices began to cool in November…

        Home prices started to fall in November…”

        Are cooling and falling one and the same?

        1. “neighborhoods such as Lakeside, where the city proposes to allow 85-foot-tall apartment buildings next to single-family homes”

          The full article gives enough details that I could find the site on Google maps. It really is a bad place for apartment buildings.

      2. “Seattle and San Francisco reported the largest monthly declines, falling 1.4% and 1.3%, respectively.
        Prices nationally were still higher compared with the year before, and those annual gains increased again.”

        Like they always say, the housing market climbs a wall of worry.

        1. “…falling 1.4%…”

          FYI, 1.4% of $1 million is $14,000. Is that alot to lose over one month? How about 12 × $14,000 = $168,000 a year?
          Are Seattle homeowners wealthy enough to eat that?

    4. “Why is it that Wall Street firms keep piling into US residential housing, even though it is already incredibly overvalued?”

      Because there’s nothing else to pile into. CRE is in crater, retail is faltering, bitcoin is a crapshoot, gold is doing ok but it’s too slow, green economy is ironically energy- and cost-intensive, EV is wall-to-wall range anxiety, and government (bonds) are facing wave after wave of retiring boomers demanding pensions. What does one invest in? Wal-Mart, trailer parks, and Raytheon, I guess.

    1. “Big Mike”

      Has anyone ever seen a photo of the Obama “family” with their alleged daughters as young children?

      Anyone? Ever?

      They certainly didn’t come out of Big Mike’s body, you can’t make babies without ovaries or a uterus.

      1. The only dirt I know about is that $300K job at the hospital system in Chicago, which seems comparatively tiny by modern standards. Any TDS-er would gladly accept a little corruption vs. the spectre of Trump. And no, I don’t believe any of the “Mike” stuff.

        2. If you already knew it, it wouldn’t be useful. Trump’s co-defendant/staffer outing Fani Willis is an opposition researcher.

  15. However, as the company unravelled and ultimately defaulted, these bonds fell from being worth 95 cents in the dollar to just 20. They are now trading at around just 1.5 cents in the dollar.”

    I sense a great disturbance in the force, as if billions in fictitious Yellen Bux “wealth” screamed out their last, and were suddenly silenced.

  16. Joe Biden’s America:

    “In a controversial and heart-wrenching case, Montana’s Child Protective Services has been accused of forcibly transporting a 14-year-old girl from her family in Montana to Wyoming for gender transition treatment, leading to a complete revocation of her parents’ custody.

    Todd and Krista Kolstad have been embroiled in a legal and emotional struggle for their 14-year-old daughter after Montana CPS took drastic action that is tantamount to “kidnapping.”

    On January 19, 2024, a judge completely revoked the Kolstads’ custody rights for refusing to support their child’s transition, further instructing them to remove an online video detailing their plight.

    Todd and Krista are now under a gag order with threat of contempt of court for even speaking.”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/montana-child-protective-services-medically-kidnapped-teen-girl/

    California State Senator Scott Wiener hand rubbing intensifies…

  18. How popular would Michelle Obama be if the voting public knew it was a transgender male , still carry their junk parading as a women.
    The possible first felmale President who is also black, being a dude in drag.
    To me it would be a fraud of epic proportions to fake your sex.
    This might explain all this pushing of transgenger nonsense, and a man is a women and a women is a man just by saying so.
    So, if you believe that transgengers are probably mentally ill as I believe, do you think Michelle Obama is the one to save democracy.
    Saving Democracy no doubt will be the theme song of Dem platform.
    Trump is a Dictator who wants to take your democracy and his supporters are enemies of State. MICHELLE IS here to save US democracy because she just can’t sleep at night if Trump prevails.
    Accusing a political candidate and their supporters of being treasonous innsurrectionist wanting to form a Dictorship is a projection of what Joe Biden has been doing, and what the Dem party wants to continue to do.
    It’s fraud if you don’t disclose your a dude in drag, trying to be the first felmale President. Just like it’s a fraud that dudes get to beat felmales in sports, just because they say they are a women.
    These are fraudsters who want to bring down America with their Communist/ Fascist nonsense, with the One World Order psychopaths being behind it.
    This is why this transgenger attack on children has been going on I submit, to normalize the fraud of the Obamas, with MICHELLE being a dude, parading as a women. The Obamas are 2 gay dude fraudsters posing that they are a traditional normal heterosexual couple, with children even.
    As a side point, if a Presidential Canadiate lies about their sex, they are subject to blackmail by any force that threatens to expose their fraud. Talk about a compromised President.
    But same operative forces pulled off locking down the world, forcing useless masks, forcing fake vaccines over fake Panademic, rigging 2020 election, on and on.
    I think they will try to run Michelle at the last minute.

          3. I love the two Tickle Me Elmos I received as an adult in law school: one TMX and one that says “bouncy, bouncy.”

  19. New York Times — If It Walks Like an Insurrection and Talks Like an Insurrection (1/30/2024):

    “While we await oral argument in Trump v. Anderson — the Supreme Court case that will evaluate the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to exclude the former president from the state’s Republican primary ballot — it’s worth revisiting the arguments leveled against the Colorado court’s decision and, by extension, its interpretation of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

    I’ve argued before, relying on evidence drawn from an amicus brief to the Colorado Supreme Court, that the former president’s actions make him an insurrectionist by any reasonable definition of the term and certainly as it was envisioned by the drafters of the 14th Amendment, who experienced insurrection firsthand.

    Whatever the political arguments against disqualification — and whatever the practical considerations of keeping the former president off the ballot — both the Constitution and the historical record are clear. Donald Trump is an insurrectionist and Donald Trump has no rightful place among the leadership of the American republic.”

    https://archive.is/qY9Is

    The 2020 election was stolen.

    1. The 2020 election was stolen.

      And they are working assiduously on the 2024 steal, which will be a lot harder, but not impossible to pull off.

      1. “The 2020 election was stolen.”

        And the recipient of the larceny is in my town screwing up traffic and promising favors for money to da rich folks as we post.

        What can’t be found with a google search is the crowd of Flag waiving Trump supporters who line Southern Blvd on the route the commander in thief will be taking on his way to the Pelican Club in Jupiter.

        397 views 1 hour ago

        President Joe Biden arrives at Palm Beach International Airport ahead of a campaign fundraising event in Jupiter.

        https://youtu.be/WAzB8iuz-u4?si=HQEUqZFGtz3dMj3K

      2. How many other elections are being stolen? In the top nine US cities by population, 6 of them are run by negro mayors. Coincidence? Curiously, not one white male runs one of the top 9 US cities by population. Only one white mayor in the top 9 and she is a Harvard leftist. Seems legit.

        1,2,3,4,6 and 9, all run by africans! Two are even in that evil racist state of Texas! Weird huh? The top 3 cities in Texas are run by non whites.

        1 – NYC
        2 – LA
        3 – Chicago
        4 – Houston
        6 – Philly
        9 – Dallas

    2. I’ve argued before, … that the former president’s actions make him an insurrectionist by any reasonable

      Very well then, why didn’t you charge Trump with insurrection and put him on trial?

  20. The Washington Post is the enemy of the American people.

    Texas border city on edge as Gov. Abbott dials up battle with Biden (1/30/2024):

    “In a Shelby-like act of defiance, the governor is invoking the state’s right to defend itself against what he sees as an invasion. Abbott made national headlines when he seized the park in Eagle Pass this month and shut out U.S. Border Patrol agents who had long used the terrain as a staging point — action the governor’s supporters saw as a take-charge move, while his detractors viewed it as a dangerous overreach of state power.

    The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered Abbott to allow Border Patrol agents to remove or cut wire to reach the river and aid migrants in distress. Abbott’s troops are installing even more wire. Twenty-five Republican governors recently signed a letter expressing their support for Abbott’s rebellion, and former president Donald Trump is calling on states to join the standoff …

    The transformation of the city’s riverbank into a militarized zone is harmful, residents said …

    the soldiers and state troopers who unspool the ugly razor wire, more often reserved for prisons and battlefields …

    The militarized response to migration “is damaging everyone it touches,” said Valeria Wheeler, who runs the lone nongovernmental organization in the county assisting migrants after they are released from federal custody. “I can’t believe how far this has gone.”

    “People are frustrated and angry, but at the same time, those same people feel concern and empathy for these people because we know they are trying to survive,” said Riojas, who has created satirical comics of the scene at the park. “My bicycle was stolen, but of course, it could’ve been anybody. But in my mind, if it was a migrant, at least it could help them with something.”

    https://archive.is/bsJbL

    They’re stealing more than bicycles, every invader who enters is stealing from U.S. taxpayers.

  21. This is video of the article I posted recently:

    Why some Mike ‘Holmes Approved Homes’ are now being demolished
    CBC News: The National
    16 hours ago

    CBC News has learned two homes in a Meaford, Ont., development promoted by celebrity contractor Mike Holmes have been demolished because of alleged defects. CBC News’s Sophia Harris breaks down what went wrong and Holmes’s company’s response.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEEljb-_3OE

    7:35.

  22. Ok, the mainstream news now reporting on some vaccine injury. Only about over three years to late.
    Since the Davos Group has a agenda to “restore trust” after 4 years of fake news cheerleaders defrauding the public on fake Panademic and fake vaccines,now it’s time to restore trust.
    The article exposing some vaccine injury, when it was censored before is a attempt to make it look like they are outlets telling the truth. Next will come some shill medical authority downplaying vaccine injury and death.
    With the purchase of vaccines being down by over 90 %, the trusted news has to make it look like they report the news.
    No doubt because 43% of public is aware of death or injury by vaccines to someone they know, it’s time to restore trust.
    This is not the kind of trust that can be restored because the fraud and censorship resulted in massive death and injury.
    The Davos group thinks they can buy anything, lie about anything , bribe anything, extort anything, threaten anything and buy back trust after their deadly harm attack on targeted populations.
    And they have immunity from accountability they think, just as Big Pharmacy asserts they have immunity on any vaccine they produce.
    Fake news will say some injury/death occurred but it’s so rare. Other injury and death is by other causes not associated with the Covid vaccines. Their dropping like flies by Climate Change, cold showers, plastics, long Covid, being unvaccinated, anything but the expermental Covid vaccines.

  24. Three Provinces In China Abandoned, Houses Selling For Dirt Cheap, 90% Of Villas Uninhabited
    China Observer
    21 hours ago

    The woman in the video is an experienced real estate professional, and when asked whether investing in Harbin’s property market is a wise decision, she emphatically advises against it. She explains that despite Harbin’s popularity as a tourist destination, it’s not an ideal choice for property investment due to its consistently declining property prices, which have been on a downward trend for 37 consecutive months.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNWWGq2CmnE

    20:32.

    3. And these were the people building a city the size of Boston every ten days… all for naught. We should make them pay reparations for the greenhouse gases they produced.

  25. Trump Defamation Case Falls Apart: Judge Linked To Lawyer & E. Jean Carroll Wants To Take Maddow Shopping

    by Kelen McBreen
    January 30th 2024,

    On Monday night, Carroll and her attorney joined MSNBC‘s Rachel Maddow in what turned into another circus when Trump’s accuser told the anchor, “First thing Rachel, you and I are going to go shopping. We’re going to get completely new wardrobes, new shoes…” adding, “Rachel, what do you want, penthouse? It’s yours Rachel! You want France? You want to go fishing in France?”

    Meanwhile, it was revealed this week the judge presiding over the Trump-Carroll defamation suit reportedly used to be the “mentor” to Carroll’s attorney.

    As reported by the New York Post, “Trump lawyer Alina Habba said she was unaware Manhattan federal Judge Lewis Kaplan and Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan worked together in the early 1990s at the same powerhouse white-shoe law firm until Saturday, when asked about it by Post columnist Charles Gasparino, who was told by a source that the judge was once Roberta Kaplan’s ‘mentor.’”

    Habba said, “It was never disclosed. It’s insane and so incestuous.”

    If there is any justice left in the country, Trump should easily be able to appeal this entire defamation case as it is a corrupt fraud with biased parties trying to interfere in a presidential election.

    https://www.infowars.com/posts/trump-defamation-case-falls-apart-judge-linked-to-lawyer-e-jean-carroll-wants-to-take-maddow-shopping/

  26. ‘We’re still supplementing with some (furniture) rentals where rooms really need it,’ she said. ‘But I find that sellers are more so trying to scale back a little bit on the rentals, concerned about the initial investment and the ongoing monthly fees should the property not sell quickly’

    Rachel also said storage costs for the furniture was kicking her a$$.

  27. ‘I have never seen so many stopped building sites in London. The economics of these sites don’t make any sense. It’s not just the state of the market’

    That’s not consistent with a shortage boss.

  28. ‘‘Everyone’s gonna say ‘well, it’s your fault, you signed the document,’ which we did…But yeah, we just feel like we’ve been deceived, that the situation here in Jordan Springs isn’t as secure as they make out’

    Bargaining <- Veronika you are here.

  29. ‘For Western investors, the liquidation of Evergrande marks the end of a slow-motion car crash that started several years ago. Before China’s property crisis, when the so-called Golden Era was in full swing, Evergrande raised money by issuing IOUs in dollars rather than renminbi to lure international investors’

    Also hailed as a novel Chinese financial innovation at the time by globalist scum media.

    ‘Western fund managers like Ashmore, Amundi and Legal & General, as well as banks such as HSBC and UBS, lapped up so-called ‘Kungfu bonds,’ with Evergrande holding around $19bn worth of IOUs at its peak. However, as the company unravelled and ultimately defaulted, these bonds fell from being worth 95 cents in the dollar to just 20. They are now trading at around just 1.5 cents in the dollar’

    How could you go wrong with Kungfu bonds?

  30. Toronto Real Estate Market Update – Buyer FOMO Strikes Again!
    Team Sessa Real Estate
    5 minutes ago

    In this episode we take a look at the current Toronto Real Estate detached home prices and market trends for week ending January 24, 2024. We also send a message to anyone thinking of buying a property that might be just outside their reach. It’s important to stay within your means especially during uncertain times like this. We don’t have to look far to see examples of those who have recently been burned from purchasing beyond their means.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRAknlC2waE

    13:52.

  31. Russell Brand Responds to Coordinated Smear Campaign Against Him
    Tucker Carlson
    1hour ago

    Governments colluded to shut down and destroy Russell Brand. This is his first interview since that happened. It’s one of the most brilliant explanations of the modern world you’ll ever hear.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VnNf0azNTQ

    46:17.

      1. Have to take time to watch.

        If you have British, Scottish and Irish relatives, no problem, though I did have particular difficulty with the older Scottish relatives a couple of times when there. It was okay bc they didn’t understand us either.

    1. Financial Times
      Opinion The FT View
      The many cautionary tales in China Evergrande’s demise
      Liquidation of developer raises the alarm over Beijing’s economic malaise
      The editorial board
      A child on a slide in front of unfinished apartment buildings at the construction site of a China Evergrande Group development in Wuhan, China
      A spillover risk of the collapse of Evergrande is that Chinese companies listed both in the mainland and offshore may lack the money to deliver at least some of their unfinished housing units
      The editorial board yesterday

      The order by a Hong Kong court on Monday to wind up China Evergrande, once the world’s most valuable property company, represents a cautionary tale for investors, other indebted businesses and China’s own leadership.

      Most immediately, the liquidation process is set to highlight the sparse legal protection afforded to offshore investors in Chinese assets. A raft of competing international and domestic claims on Evergrande assets bedevils the restructuring of a company with more than $300bn in liabilities. If — as expected — domestic claims take precedence, investor confidence in Chinese assets trading in Hong Kong may be further undermined.

      More broadly, it stands as a test of Hong Kong’s authority with mainland China. It is not clear to what extent — if at all — local government entities, courts and creditors across the mainland will acquiesce to orders from Hong Kong to transfer assets they currently possess to a liquidator.

      On a national scale, the implications are yet more fundamental. The bursting of China’s property bubble, along with deteriorating demographics and a huge debt overhang, raises the spectre of “Japanification”, under which the world’s second-largest economy may slip into the type of low-growth malaise suffered by Japan in the 1990s.

      Evergrande’s demise already ranks as a long-running saga. The company, which aside from real estate has a string of interests in sports, entertainment, finance, health, cars and agriculture, started its descent into insolvency after it missed coupon payments on offshore bonds in late 2021.

      Since then, its shares have lost almost all of their value and its outstanding dollar bonds are trading at deeply distressed levels, with one bond maturing in 2025 priced at less than two cents on the dollar. Hui Ka Yan, its chair, has been placed under “mandatory measures” on suspicion of “illegal crimes”, authorities have said.

      An important risk now is that Evergrande’s crisis — which has already acted as a drag on China’s overall economic growth — will continue to have spillover effects. One of these is that Chinese developers listed both in the mainland and offshore may lack the money to deliver at least some of their unfinished housing units, which Gavekal Dragonomics, a consultancy, has valued at Rmb7.5tn ($1tn). Another risk is that financially-strapped developers may be unable to pay their suppliers. Here again, the numbers are huge: listed developers collectively owed Rmb3.4tn in payables to their suppliers as of mid-2023, according to Gavekal.

      The magnitude of such figures hints at an uncomfortable truth for Beijing. By several yardsticks, China’s weaknesses appear more pronounced than those of Japan some 30 years ago. The vacancy rate for urban residential property is around 20 per cent in China, more than double the 9 per cent in Japan in 1990, according to Goldman Sachs research. Housing prices are at around 20 times household income, compared with 11 times in Japan in 1990, Goldman Sachs added.

      The big unanswered question in the face of these dire scenarios is: how much does Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader, really care?
      …

  36. Investors are too complacent and the stock market could be headed for a sharp reversal this year, according to the investing legend who called Black Monday
    Jennifer Sor
    Jan 30, 2024, 8:04 AM PST
    Stock market crash
    OsakaWayne Studios/Getty Images

    – A correction could be on the way for the stock market, according to Robert Prechter.

    + The investing legend who predicted the 1987 crash says a 30% reversal wouldn’t surprise him.

    – Investors have become too complacent, Prechter said, evidenced by the low levels in the VIX.
    …
    https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-market-outlook-1987-crash-sp500-bull-market-robert-prechter-2024-1

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