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Nobody Should Be Complaining About A Lack Of Fresh Supply Any More

A report from KSNV in Nevada. “Clark County reports issuing 13 citations in the last week to homeowners operating illegal short-term rental properties in unincorporated Clark County before the Super Bowl. ‘Some homeowners are still trying to comply with the law and not rent their houses but some other ones have bills to pay, and they have no other choice, but to try to continue renting their houses,’ said Jaqueline Flores, Founder of the Greater Las Vegas Short-Term Rental Association.”

KLAS in Nevada. “Las Vegas police are asking residents to stay vigilant for ‘party houses’ in their neighborhoods during Super Bowl weekend. In 2023, there were at least four reports of house party deaths across Las Vegas, which took the lives of at least five people and injured several others. At least three of the people killed were teenagers. In the past, police have indicated that parties at short-term rentals also contribute to the problem among permanent residents. Police also typically receive more calls for service during tourism influxes and large gatherings.”

From Market Watch. “When one of his rentals was broken into and taken over by squatters, Atlanta-based real-estate investor Chris Griffith spent nearly six months and $15,000 getting rid of them. Griffith, a consultant who owns five properties in Atlanta, as well as a short-term rental, said he exchanged a flurry of emails with his property-management firm as he tried to understand how the break-in even happened. While squatting is a problem for landlords from Los Angeles to Cleveland to New York City who are dealing with unwanted occupants, the issue appears to be reaching a boiling point in Atlanta.”

“The squatter situation in Atlanta isn’t just affecting landlords, but also some people buying and selling homes, Michael Fisher, an associate broker at Ansley Real Estate, told MarketWatch. ‘There was one instance where someone was purchasing a home … and in the time between the seller vacating the home and the buyer moving in, somebody took possession of the property,’ he added. ‘So when the new buyer showed up, somebody’s living in the house.'”

WINK News in Florida. “Two long-delayed construction projects, one of which involves city of Fort Myers funding, have hit another snag, with the two properties dropping from the developer’s ownership to that of his lender. Towles Garden is a proposed 140-home subdivision geared toward workforce housing at the southwest corner of Edison Avenue and Veronica Shoemaker Boulevard in Fort Myers. Prima Luce is a planned two-tower, 220-unit, 22-story condominium complex fronting the Caloosahatchee River off First Street just east of downtown Fort Myers. The lender, Fort Lauderdale-based Fuse Group Investment Companies, took control of both properties from developer Bob MacFarlane, public records show. The warranty deeds in lieu of foreclosure documents were recorded Feb. 6, although they were dated July 2023.”

The Star Telegram in Texas. “About a mile north of the Blue Mound Road exit on U.S. 287, past a vape shop, empty fields, and an RV storage lot, a yearslong debate over the future of 80 acres of ranch land is reaching a tense crescendo. Developers hope to convert the bramble and creek of 12650 Willow Springs Road into a 299-unit housing development. Residents of a neighboring subdivision have mobilized to sink the plan, fearing the change would undermine the safety and value of their idyllic enclave. The Fort Worth City Council will adjudicate the case on Tuesday.”

“The aches of the city’s growth have been difficult to escape. Pam Durrant described taking 45 minutes to drive eight miles to her job in the Alliance corridor during rush hour. Semi-trucks and sedans jostle for room on narrow, damaged, unlit country roads. Scheduled improvements to U.S. 287 and Avondale-Haslet Road designed to ease the congestion will take at least four years to complete. The fear that an adjacent plot of almost 300 cheaper, smaller homes will sully the value and aesthetic of Spring Ranch properties is also widespread. ‘If it gets approved, my value is going to tank,’ said Callie Jones, another resident who lives a short golf cart’s drive from Durrant’s home.”

Ahwatukee Foothills News in Arizona. “A cautious optimism prevails over the Phoenix Metro housing market as inventory and demand increase. The Cromford Report reported that 71 single-family homes in the Valley are priced at $10 million or more – three times the normal number. Stating the top end of the Valley market ‘has been flooded with new listings over the past month,’ it said, ‘The higher up the price range you go, the more the supply has increased. Some sellers in these up-scale areas are facing stiff competition from other sellers and it would not be surprising if we see significant price cuts among some of these listings.'”

“‘Supply is mounting rapidly in the more expensive locations and also in some of the cheapest and most distant areas from Central Phoenix,’ the Cromford Report said. The Cromford Report’s latest data showed that more homeowners in the Valley are entering the market with an itch to sell. ‘Sellers seem to have lost the reticence they developed last year and are delivering plenty of new supply,’ the Cromford Report said, noting the 8,278 new listings posted in the last four weeks is the highest total 15 months ‘and represents a 16% increase over this time last year.'”

“‘The drop in interest rates that started in October is bringing more offers for homes listed for sale,’ it added. ‘However there are also far more new listings arriving on the market than this time last year, which is stopping the market from heating up too fast. Year to date we have seen 7,467 new listings. This is up more than 22% from 2023 and even up 13% from 2022 and 10% from 2021. Nobody should be complaining about a lack of fresh supply any more, especially in the higher price ranges.'”

The Desert Sun in California. “When Carlos Garcia moved to north Palm Desert a few years ago, the surrounding area was largely empty desert. ‘There was nothing else around — I mean, absolutely nothing,’ Garcia recalled of first buying a lot at Genesis Palm Desert, a gated neighborhood. Drive around today, and you’ll see signs promoting new developments at almost every turn, clear indications the area’s days as empty desert are at an end. North Palm Desert — broadly speaking, the area north of Frank Sinatra Drive and south of Interstate 10 — already has nearly 1,900 homes, and a massive wave of growth is coming.”

“Housing is set to more than triple in the area in the coming years, with more than 4,500 units either under construction or approved by the city. Plans for hundreds of additional homes are under review at city hall. City officials estimate Palm Desert will add approximately 10,000 residents once the wide-ranging plans for new housing are completed. That would bring the city’s population over 60,000, nearly three times what it was as recently as 1990. ‘If you build it, they will come,’ said Mayor Pro Tem Karina Quintanilla. ‘We will have some increases in housing before everything is slated for everyone to move in, so it’s gradual. The baby has to learn to walk.'”

Go Banking Rates on California. “When Melanie and Becca fell in love with the idea of owning a home in sunny Los Angeles, they pictured an idyllic journey peppered with open houses and fresh paint swatches. But the reality of 2023’s housing market delivered a much bumpier road. After a marathon search, the couple finally snapped up a dated fixer-upper to call their own. But, settling into the long-awaited space, a slew of regrets began creeping in — the harsh tradeoffs made and dreams deferred in the scramble to plant roots before getting priced out entirely.”

“In their widened search, Melanie and Becca discovered more options in LA’s artsy Highland Park area. After the tenth so-so listing, Melanie and Becca lucked upon an open house for a 1920s bungalow with good bones. When their bid squeaked by, elation washed over. But so, too, did the stark reality of comprises made. Tearing up worn carpets and knocking down walls would take years of sweat equity and cash neither currently had after depleting savings just to buy in. Rushing to buy before projected rate hikes meant opting for a higher interest 30-year mortgage. And over three decades, that translates to massive sums flushed away unnecessarily. ‘This was supposed to be the start of building equity,’ Becca said. ‘Instead, we put ourselves on a path of just lining the bank’s pockets.'”

“Forking over 50% down left their safety net almost depleted, eliminating funds set aside for renovations. It also forced them to take out a larger mortgage, upping their recurring housing costs. While necessary to compete, the couple now laments acting so drastically without considering long-term impacts. ‘We don’t regret buying this house, but we should have thought more about the tradeoffs before throwing so much cash down,’ Becca admitted. ‘Now we’re house poor until we can rebuild savings.'”

From Bloomberg. “A new batch of overseas assets acquired in a decade-long Chinese expansion spree is starting to hit the market as landlords and developers decide they want cash now to shore up domestic operations and pay off debts – even if that means taking a financial hit. Beijing’s crackdown on excessive borrowing has left few developers unscathed, even those once considered major players. A unit of China Aoyuan Group, for example, which is in the middle of a US$6 billion debt restructuring plan, sold a plot in Toronto at about a 45 per cent discount to the 2021 purchase price late in 2023, according to data provider Altus Group.”

“With every transaction, the market gets more clarity about the capitalisation rate – a measure of the return an investor is willing to do a deal at. That data will then be used by appraisers to value other assets, which could trigger wider impairments. As a consequence, landlords may have to inject more money to cure any loan-to-value breaches or risk having the properties seized by lenders. Just this week, distressed developer Guangzhou R&F Properties agreed to sell its stake in a £1.34 billion (S$2.28 billion) property project in London’s Nine Elms district in return for some of its dollar bonds and 10 pence, while an office block in Canary Wharf is selling for 60 per cent less than it was sold for in 2017 after it was seized by lenders from a Chinese investor.”

“Earlier in February, a luxury development in the heart of Mayfair, an upscale area in west London, collapsed into administration after defaulting on its loans. It is majority owned by two Chinese investment firms, Citic Capital and Cindat, and the homes will continue to be marketed to potential buyers through the administrators. Farther east in the UK capital, a person with knowledge of the matter sees a housing project planned by distressed Chinese developer Country Garden Holdings drawing bids of less than £100 million.”

“A unit of Greenland Holdings, meanwhile, extended a loan for a skyscraper project in east London that technically defaulted in 2023, a filing shows. Sales are picking up outside Europe too, including in Australia. Only a few years ago, ambitious Chinese developers were major players in the local market. Now, most have largely stopped buying and have pivoted instead to offloading projects.”

The Telegraph. “We built a myth of a uniquely competent nation during the glory years of Deutschland Inc, when Germany seemed to have found the secret of prosperous modernity, with stable coalitions, and trade unions sitting on company boards in a blissful partnership of Mitbestimmung. The narrative today has swung to the opposite extreme of a broken national model. The three-way coalition is at daggers drawn over everything. The two great Volkspartei of German post-War democracy can no longer hold the centre as the political system splinters, with the pro-Putin, pro-fossil, AfD running at 20pc on the Right and Sahra Wagenknecht’s heady brew of anti-woke and anti-foreigner socialism scrambling the electoral picture on the Left.”

“The railways are on strike. Farmers blockaded Frankfurt airport last week. Industrial output has been falling for seven consecutive months, and is now down 14pc since mid-2017 in a longer slump than the Great Depression. There are ever louder warnings that the German car industry may go the way of Coventry in the 1970s. The housing market is undergoing a very unGerman boom and bust cycle, thanks to the European Central Bank’s lurch from extreme monetary creation and negative rates in 2022 to an emergency stop a year later after the economy had already hit a brick wall. Home prices have fallen 12pc from their peak. TAG Immobilien expects them to drop by 30pc.”

“It was particularly misleading in the early years of the euro after China’s WTO accession, when Germany became supplier-in-chief of machine tools and capital goods for the industrialisation of Asia, which of course allowed Chinese companies to reverse-engineer everything and copy it. ‘At that phase of its development China needed to buy a lot of stuff from Germany but the Chinese are building this stuff for themselves now, more cheaply, and sometimes better,’ said Moritz Kraemer, chief economist at LBBW Bank in Stuttgart.”

“Germany looked strong because it controlled the machinery of bail-outs, and imposed its debt-collection policies on Greece, Ireland, the Latin bloc, but that weird episode reflected the half-constructed nature of the euro experiment, launched without a lender-of-last-resort or fiscal union. In reality the Wirtschaftswunder was already fading. Germany’s world has crashed all around since then. It lost China, it lost Russia, it lost its fat trade surplus with Britain, and it lost the combustion engine. Its workforce is shrinking by half a million a year and it is now well into the Japanese phase of its demographic crisis.”

News.com.au in Australia. “Billionaire property developer Harry Triguboff has warned he’s ‘tempted to stop’ building apartments in Sydney due to planning delays, as he predicts the government’s efforts to boost supply through rezoning will fail and the housing crisis will only get worse. Developers ‘don’t have enough money to buy sites’ so governments ‘can rezone whatever they like, but there won’t be action. When authorities rezone land, they must ensure that profit can be made,’ he said.”

“‘The basic problem is that they don’t know how to do it, nor do they care. They think they know the answer. That is why we have too many offices and not enough apartments. Authorities must stop being arrogant and must understand the market. If developers come with problems, they must be helped — not told what the law says. Laws have to be changed very often because conditions change. When making rules and deciding on density, profits must be protected.'”

“Mr Triguboff — Australia’s fourth richest person with a net worth of $23.8 billion, according to The Australian Financial Review — outlined the challenges facing developers in Australia who were ‘going broke more than anyone else. They can’t all be dumb,’ he said.”

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This Post Has 104 Comments

  1. ‘Some homeowners are still trying to comply with the law and not rent their houses but some other ones have bills to pay, and they have no other choice, but to try to continue renting their houses’

    A bank robber could use the same logic Jaqueline.

  3. ‘This was supposed to be the start of building equity,’ Becca said. ‘Instead, we put ourselves on a path of just lining the bank’s pockets’

    ‘We don’t regret buying this house, but we should have thought more about the tradeoffs before throwing so much cash down,’ Becca admitted. ‘Now we’re house poor until we can rebuild savings’

    Becca, you are a winnah! But I do wonder how yer going to rebuild savings while fixing up a 100 year old dump in an LA sh$thole.

    2. ‘Somewhere between touring listings and number crunching offers, Melanie and Becca lost perspective on their homebuying vision. In getting caught up in the market frenzy, comparisons and fear-based decisions took center stage — not what really constituted their dream home.’

      Lacking a rational man the ladies buried themselves.

    3. They could have made it work if they hadn’t put 50% down. At worst they could have used more down payment money to fix it and flip it. 1920’s bungalows — probably Craftsman — are in high demand everywhere.

        1. I’m aware of tons of craftsman’s in bad neighborhoods or just marginal ones that need work badly. So who steps up and bets on the turn around and when?

        2. Craftsman Sears kit (or similar) houses are seen almost as antiques in themselves. Good materials and well built, if they are maintained. But I agree, if the neighborhood’s no good, the houses just aren’t worth that much.

  4. ‘A unit of China Aoyuan Group, for example, which is in the middle of a US$6 billion debt restructuring plan, sold a plot in Toronto at about a 45 per cent discount to the 2021 purchase price late in 2023’

    So not only is the minor respiratory illness gone, yer taking a yuuge a$$ pounding to boot.

    Sacré bleu!

  5. They said 50% off was unpossible?

    Anecdotal: my now former neighbor of the undeveloped lots I owned and sold chased the market down for over a year from an initial asking price of $9,000 an acre to $6,000 an acre, pulled the listing a few months ago, and has recently re-listed for $4,500 and acre.

  6. ‘Some homeowners are still trying to comply with the law and not rent their houses but some other ones have bills to pay, and they have no other choice, but to try to continue renting their houses,’ said Jaqueline Flores, Founder of the Greater Las Vegas Short-Term Rental Association.”

    Die, speculator scum.

    1. “Would an ethically challenged scientific community work with an even more ethically challenged political class to push a “climate change” hoax that justifies the erosion of individual liberties and the implementation of widespread communism prepackaged in an irrational fear of hydrocarbons?”

      YES.

      Electric vehicles. Heat pumps. No gas stoves. Et cetera.

      Davos pigmen dine on wagyu beef and bang $2,000 a night hookers, while trying to force the poors to shiver and starve in the dark.

      Just like a watermelon: green on the outside, red on the inside.

      1. ethically challenged scientific community

        … some of them are true believers, but most of them are job challenged. If they think they can get grant money to spend 2-3 years on a project that will pay them, they will do it even if they know that the project itself won’t work and will waste money. Those who get in the way get tossed. I know this first hand.

  8. “City officials estimate Palm Desert will add approximately 10,000 residents once the wide-ranging plans for new housing are completed. That would bring the city’s population over 60,000, nearly three times what it was as recently as 1990”

    Water? This thing we do in the Southwest is not gonna end well. It already hasn’t.

    1. “…Palm Desert…”

      The Coachella Valley gets mighty hot, so most people are hiding indoors with their HVAC running more than half the year.

  9. “lucked upon an open house for a 1920s bungalow with good bones.”

    You hear a realtor use the expression “good bones” be prepared to lose every dime you have.

    2. [“Good bones”. I had to look it up …]

      “When evaluating an older home, buyers need to look beyond the carefully curated facade to discover the house’s underlying qualities—its “bones.” In the real estate and construction industries, a house is described as having ‘good bones’ if it doesn’t have any major defects that could lead to expensive repairs.”

      14 Signs That a Home Has “Good Bones” – Bob Vila
      http://www.bobvila.com/articles/signs-that-a-home-has-good-bones/

      [Plus there was a T.V. series (now cancelled) called “Good Bones”. Here’s a fun read …]

      https://www.cinemablend.com/television/after-good-bones-ended-hgtv-host-revealed-not-on-speaking-terms

    3. “good bones”

      That’s why I bought a burned out pile of broken bones built in the 1920s, to tear it down and replace it. A house nearby about the same age was listed for $50K and sold for $25K.

      Cracked foundation?
      Collapsed sewer line?
      $25K to replace the windows?

      I know people who bought those cheap old houses back in the Midwest and are now learning the incalculable costs of that “steal” they thought they were buying. Good luck with all that…

      1. “the incalculable costs of that “steal” they thought they were buying. Good luck with all that”

        Over the years I have worked on more than a few expensive houses where the new owners opted to remodel, and by the time they were done it would have been cheaper to tear the damn house down and build back new with exactly what they wanted.

  10. The many reasons MAGA’s love for San Francisco shouldn’t stop with the Super Bowl

    In response to such bewildering backhanded compliments, Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) told my Times’ colleague Wick that it was “a little strange to see people who usually hate San Francisco now cheering for San Francisco.”

    In response to his response, I say it’s clear these people haven’t been paying attention. Because if they had, they wouldn’t hate San Francisco. Because they’d know that a lot of the policies being floated in the city lately are more in line with the politics of a far-right conservative than an uber-left progressive.

    It’s true!

    While those of us in Los Angeles have been busy electing an abolitionist to the City Council, San Francisco started by ousting its reform-minded district attorney and has moved on to ramping up the criminalization of homelessness and drug addiction.

    Why this is happening — at least on the surface — has a lot to do with Mayor London Breed. She has never really been a progressive. But since the pandemic, she has moved even further to the wealthy and organized right, trying to assuage increasingly fed-up residents and, in the process, win an uphill battle for reelection.

    To that end, when voters recalled Chesa Boudin as district attorney in 2022, Breed backed former prosecutor Brooke Jenkins. Since then, Jenkins has come under fire for all sorts of non-progressive things, including the time she said the quiet part out loud by supporting frequent sweeps of encampments because unhoused people “have to be made to be uncomfortable” to accept offers of shelter.

    Meanwhile, Breed emerged as an early and vocal advocate of getting the U.S. Supreme Court to decide, once and for all, whether it’s unconstitutional for cities in the West to clear encampments from public property. And, in January, the high court announced that it would indeed review rulings from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has long maintained that it’s cruel and unusual punishment to deny unhoused people somewhere to sleep.

    “No more ‘anything goes’ without accountability,” Breed told the San Francisco Chronicle, in words straight out of the Reagan era. “No more handouts without accountability.”

    Clapping back on those accusations of lawlessness, there’s also a plan to ask voters to ease both the limits on police vehicle pursuits and the reporting requirements on officers’ use of force.

    And just a few days ago, Breed announced that she’s backing a ballot measure that would gut parts of Proposition 47 — the 2014 law that’s often criticized by tough-on-crime Republicans because it turned simple drug possession and property crimes worth less than $950 into misdemeanors.

    The new measure would make it easier to throw the proverbial book at people, especially those who sell fentanyl.

    “We are making progress on property crimes,” Breed said, according to my Times colleague Anabel Sosa. “But the challenges we are facing related to fentanyl and organized retail theft require real change to our state laws.”

    I could be wrong, but that certainly doesn’t sound like something someone who’s mayor of a progressive hellhole would say.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-many-reasons-magas-love-for-san-francisco-shouldnt-stop-with-the-super-bowl/ar-BB1i4RoO

  11. Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta are sending state prosecutors to Alameda County in partnership with District Attorney Pamela Price to charge serious crimes. The announcement comes just two days after the governor said he would send 120 California Highway Patrol officers to the East Bay.

    Deputy attorneys general from the California Department of Justice and attorneys from the California National Guard will be deployed to Alameda County, according to an announcement on Thursday from Newsom’s office. The partnership between these agencies and Alameda County is “expected to be operational in the coming days.”

    “An arrest isn’t enough,” Newsom said in a statement. “Justice demands that suspects are appropriately prosecuted.”

    The state said the partnership will focus on increasing prosecutions for violent criminals and serious drug-related crimes and property crimes. Price said in a statement that she welcomes support from the governor in the fight against “organized retail crime and the scourge of Fentanyl in our community.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/gov-newsom-ag-bonta-will-send-state-attorneys-to-prosecute-crimes-in-alameda-county/ar-BB1hZHOW

    1. Sounds to me like temporary pandering. After the election they’ll go right back to looking the other way when the place literally turns to crap.

    1. [“… a different stooge.”]

      California Gov. Gavin Newsom hobnobs with billionaires in Vegas ahead of Super Bowl, as speculation mounts over Joe Biden’s future
      Sightings of Newsom have fueled speculation he has his eye on the White House
      Joe Biden was branded senile in a bombshell special counsel report last week
      California governor seen as strong contender for Democrat nomination

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13070637/gavin-newsom-las-vegas-biden.html

  14. Road & Track
    The Flying Car Is Dead

    A perennial punchline in the automotive world, the flying car holds the imagination of at least a few dreamers to this day—despite the fact that it is no less a dumb idea now than decades ago.

    The obsession with flying cars dates to at least 1917. That year, Glenn Hammond Curtiss, a bicycle racer turned motorcycle builder, created the Curtiss Autoplane, widely considered the first attempt at a “roadable aircraft,” or flying car. It didn’t work. Later, postwar America experienced a confluence of economic prosperity, optimism, and emerging technologies, and many an inventor claimed to have cracked the formula for the flying car. They hadn’t. No one has made a vehicle capable of driving and flying with equal ability.

    “A car is a magnificent machine, the product of a lot of engineering to make it appropriate for driving it on the road. Aircraft are a completely different set of constraints. Combining the functionality of a road car and an aircraft invariably results in an outcome that is not well suited for either one,” says Ken Karklin, CEO of Pivotal, the company behind the BlackFly and Helix eVTOL (electric vertical ­takeoff and landing) personal aircraft.

    Pivotal is careful not to call its products flying cars, though these craft are easier to use than a Cessna. And you don’t need an airport; the BlackFly can take off from a strip as short as 45 feet.

    You don’t just Venmo Pivotal $190,000 and fly your Helix home. Customers must take an FAA ground-school pilot course and spend around two weeks training at Pivotal headquarters before being cleared to fly unsupervised. And there are rules about where and when you can fly an ultralight. The FAA essentially banishes the unlicensed from airports and densely populated areas. Nobody wants your hobby falling through their skylight.

    Pivotal’s headquarters occupies two ­buildings of a humble office park in Palo Alto. Nearly half of the fewer than 100 employees are engineers, around a third of whom specialize in computer programming. That’s indicative of the ­complexity of the onboard flight computers.

    Pivotal has lofty goals. It sees aircraft like this as useful for hobbyists, first responders, city transport (eventually), and the military. Advancements in energy and technology will surely bring about transit changes in the air as they have on the ground.

    But flying cars? Not in the past and not in the future. There are too many rules and risks for the citizens of any populated area to be flying off to work. I understand the dream, but a dream it will remain.

    https://news.yahoo.com/autos/flying-car-dead-143500560.html

  15. MONTREAL — A synthetic opioid 25 times more powerful than fentanyl has made its way to the Quebec City region, where public health officials reported Saturday they have detected the dangerous compound in pale green tablets that mimic the appearance of other prescription opioids.

    The Quebec City regional public health authority warned the compound, protonitazepyne, presents a high risk of overdose, which may require several doses of the life-saving medication naloxone.

    Health Canada first detected the substance in 2023 and would go on to positively identify it in a total of 25 drug samples by the end of the year. Public health officials working in the Quebec City-area now say it has been increasingly found in the Montreal area since the beginning of 2024.

    No overdoses in the Quebec City region have been linked to the protonitazepyne tablets, but officials say it presents a very real threat.

    “However, it’s clear that given the potency and the fact that it’s in a tablet of something else, the risk of overdose is very high for people who would consume this tablet,” Dr. Anne-Frédérique Lambert-Slythe with the Quebec City public health authority said in an interview.

    Officials further warn that protonitazepyne does not show up on test strips designed to detect fentanyl.

    The Quebec City public health authority is reiterating advice for people who use drugs to avoid consuming substances alone and to keep naloxone nearby. The medication is available for free at pharmacies.

    https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/opioid-25-times-more-powerful-than-fentanyl-detected-in-quebec-city-region/ar-BB1i5xXE

  16. Farther east in the UK capital, a person with knowledge of the matter sees a housing project planned by distressed Chinese developer Country Garden Holdings drawing bids of less than £100 million.”

    Fake wealth created by fake money melting away like FB tears in the rain. Heckova job, central bankers!

  17. A Toronto woman whose car was stolen three times in the past year — and who had a rental car stolen too — says nobody is taking the problem seriously enough.

    Kristin Shensel, a real estate broker, said her car, a 2019 Range Rover, was stolen three times since January 2023 from the street in front of her house. A rental car she used last year, a Jaguar, was also stolen.

    Her car was first stolen in January 2023, then again in June 2023 and again on Wednesday night. The rental car was stolen two days after she got it in February 2023.

    “If everyone wasn’t making money off this car theft problem in this country, then they would stop it. The insurance companies would put an end to it, the car manufacturers would put an end to it. No one is stopping it because no one cares,” Shensel said.

    Until the problem affects the bottom line of insurance companies, car manufacturers and rental car agencies, she said she doesn’t think it will be solved.

    “Until people start losing money, nobody is going to come up with a solution. It’s all on the back of the consumers to fight against. It’s exhausting.”

    Shensel said her Range Rover was recovered twice but she won’t keep the vehicle if it is recovered again. This time, she said, she’ll go with a different vehicle.

    “It was a deal and it came in front of us. I absolutely regret all of it. If we get the car back, it’s gone,” she said. “I will get something much more modest.”

    “The rise over the last years has been alarming,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the gathering as it got underway.

    Trudeau described how Canadian vehicles are turning up in places like Ghana and Nigeria.

    “Organized crime is becoming more brazen, and the overseas market for stolen cars is expanding,” the prime minister said.

    “Cracking down on auto theft means bringing law enforcement, border services, port authorities, car makers and insurance companies together.”

    Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Thomas Carrique, whose service operates in a province considered a hotbed for car thefts, said the criminal penalties typically handed down for car theft aren’t strong enough.

    “It’s highly profitable and there’s very low risk,” he said. “We need to see stiffer penalties. We absolutely need to have a deterrence for these crimes.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/her-car-was-stolen-3-times-in-the-past-year-she-says-consumers-shouldnt-bear-the-brunt-of-the-problem/ar-BB1i6Bqb

  18. Why There Were Trans Meltdowns Across Multiple DMVs in Florida

    by Matt Vespa | Townhall
    February 11th 2024, 10:31 am

    Going to the DMV is already a pain in the neck. Imagine pulling into the parking lot and having it littered with transgender people holding a die-in.

    That’s what scores of these folks did at DMVs across Florida, protesting a new state law regarding gender on driver’s licenses.

    https://www.infowars.com/posts/why-there-were-trans-meltdowns-across-multiple-dmvs-in-florida

    I hate to get as big a kick out of the images below especially on the day when 2 teams with WOKE messages on the back of their helmets will do battle for the George Floyd trophy but I can’t help but LMAO.

    Jeremy Redfern
    @JeremyRedfernFL

    When Florida doesn’t allow you to commit fraud on your drivers license:

    https://x.com/JeremyRedfernFL/status/1756092781695488356?s=20

    1. At least you still have DMV’s. The City of Denver will be closing locations and reducing hours to pay for the largest, per capita basis, influx of invaders in the country.

      2. And it has only just begun. Expect all kinds of city provided, paid for with taxes, services to be seriously curtailed. When they start having mass layoffs you will know they have reached the full blown panic stage, and the buses will keep rolling in.

        I love how hundreds of Lakewood residents descended on their city hall and let them know that invaders are not welcome in Lakewood.

        Another related headline: UC Health, one of the largest healthcare providers in the Centennial state, has announced that providing uncompensated care for invaders is unsustainable. This isn’t inner city Denver Health, which is approaching insolvency, UC Health has hospitals and clinics all across the front range. They are begging for federal help, which isn’t coming as the Feds want the hospitals to financially collapse (part of the Cloward-Piven plan). I guess if I need to be hospitalized I might have to go to Laramie or Cheyenne.

          1. It will be a great back door way to nationalize most US hospitals and usher in socialized healthcare: We must pass the American Healthcare Protection Act, it’s the only way to keep hospitals open.

            Oh, you need a hip replaced , pilgrim? Well, there’s a five year waiting list … oh forgive us, you’re an invader! The doctor will see you now.

  19. today is the best day to invade America, 100,000 people cross the border while 100 million are consumed with watching the stupid bowl.

    1. [… the Stupid Bowl.]

      If I were a superbly skilled hacker I might direct some of my mental energy to shutting down the broadcasting of the Super Bowl and replacing it with the movie “Heidi”.

        1. I was a puppy when that happened and it was talked about for years especially in the greater NYC media market where I grew up.

          Although back then everyone had an antenna on their roof, you got up and walked to the tv to change the channel and even the NYC market only had six stations. Three networks, channels 9 and 11 plus the Big Bird channel IIRC.

          2. Or some of us were uppity tv people with an antenna rotator. so we could watch watr 20 waterbury or wtnh 8 new haven for games that were blacked out……and i did work for both stations master control /video

          3. My mother would use my brother and I as channel changers and antenna signal seekers. We’d protest and she’d kid, “Why do you think I had you?”

  20. “Germany Is In Really Big Trouble” – Perfect Storm of Terrible Trends Paints “Bleak” Picture

    https://www.infowars.com/posts/germany-is-in-really-big-trouble-perfect-storm-of-terrible-trends-paints-bleak-picture/

    “Distress is spreading to other sectors” as globalist policies crush economic engine of Europe

    Things are not great in Germany.

    A confluence of economic stagnation, higher energy prices(due to anti-nuclear idiocy), and the highest corporate distress rates in Europe suggest Deutschland is in for a sharp contraction – a sentiment shared among fund managers, credit traders and crestfallen German executives moping around Davos last month, according to Bloomberg.

    The bad news is continuing to pile up. After the economy shrank in the final quarter of last year, downbeat early surveys for 2024 signal there’s little respite ahead.

    Demand from borrowers for investment in the likes of machinery, factories and technology has fallen, creating a risk that domestic growth is impeded in the longer term as companies focus on getting through the current struggle. And now there’s growing concern about some lenders’ exposure to the shaky US corporate real estate market. -Bloomberg

    “Germany is really in trouble,” according to Barings fund manager Brian Mangwiro. “All the big manufacturing economies are slowing but, in Germany, this is compounded by higher energy costs. There are also challenges in the auto sector with competition coming from China.”

    Meanwhile, German executives were decidedly in a bad mood at Davos last month – and were of the view that Europe’s largest economy could no longer be counted on for steady growth – and instead faces a period of chaos amid competition in everything from machinery to automobiles.

    “The country’s economic outlook remains bleak,” reads the Weil European Distress Index, citing stagnant profitability on top of liquidity pressures.

    Germany emerges as the most distressed market in Europe, influenced by several factors such as deteriorating investment metrics, liquidity pressures and stagnant profitability, which have persisted since the beginning of the year. The country’s economic outlook remains bleak, with both its government and the European Commission projecting a 0.4% contraction in its economy for 2024 due to high inflation, elevated energy prices and sluggish international trade. –European Distress Index

    What’s more, rising interest rates over the past two years have compounded problems – particularly in the property market. On Wednesday, Morgan Stanley analysts told clients to sell senior bonds linked to Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG due to the lender’s high exposure to the US Commercial Real-Estate market.

    Shares of Pfandbriefbank have slid about 15% this month, while other German financial institutions have had significant declines in a Bloomberg index of euro-dominated bank bonds – including a €750 million AT1 by Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg and €300 million note by Aareal Bank AG on Tuesday.

    According to Bloomberg, over $13.6 billion of loans and bonds issued by German companies were distressed last month – over 13x that of Italy.

    “Distress is spreading to other sectors,” beyond real estate, construction and retail – according to Christian Ebner, managing director of Alvarez & Marsal’s financial restructuring advisory team. “Manufacturing is starting to be affected,” he continued – adding that automotive “will continue to be a problem child.”

    Also a factor is Germany’s changing politics – with Deutsche Bank AG Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing recently expressing concern that the conservative AfD party is contributing to declining investments.

    Finance Minister Christian Lindner wasted no opportunity to agree.

    “The AfD is a location risk,” he said Monday. “This is a party that’s calling into question the basic consensus of our country, namely European integration.”

    Opportunities abound?

    While German executives fret, other Davos attendees smelled blood in the water – as whispers among bankers and advisers have revealed a significant uptick in interest from private equity firms and direct lenders, according to the report.

    Leading the charge, according to insights from a Bloomberg Television interview, is Victor Kholsa, founder and chief investment officer at Strategic Value Partners. Kholsa wants to secure high-rate loans, and/or acquire significantly leveraged companies, by injecting much-needed equity.

    According to Kholsa, there’s an “opportunity to make those high rate loans or to buy companies that are pretty levered where you inject equity,” adding “That opportunity set we can really see.”

    The trend is underscored by the arrival of heavy hitters like Ares Management Corp. and Blackstone Inc., which have set up shop in Frankfurt with the aim of lending to German businesses or financing private equity buyouts. This influx of foreign capital seeking to capitalize on domestic distress signals a troubling dynamic, as entities such as Techem GmbH become transaction targets amidst a backdrop of quality concerns and lender takeovers due to breached loan agreements.

    The scenario unfolding is not just limited to equity and debt markets. Short sellers are also in play, with a staggering €5.7 billion wager placed against German companies. Groups such as Qube Research & Technologies Ltd. are betting against national stalwarts including Deutsche Bank AG, Volkswagen AG, and Vonovia AG, pointing to a broader skepticism about the resilience of Germany’s corporate sector amidst economic turbulence.

    Real Estate is screwed…

    Reeling under the weight of declining residential prices and the specter of significant value declines for office spaces, the real estate sector’s woes have only been exacerbated by rising interest rates – with fallout that could precipitate severe writedowns for both borrowers and lenders. Entities like the Adler Group SA and Rene Benko’s Signa in particular are teetering on the edge of financial abysses – a precarious situation compounded by a banking sector that, despite past resilience, faces looming concerns over commercial real estate exposures and economic stagnation.

    The Bundesbank warned in November that at the start of 2023, the “present value of the banking book” was negative for 15 savings banks and 37 credit cooperatives,” adding they seem particularly vulnerable to an increase in interest rates. Since then, ECB rates have risen by 2 percentage points.

    One-third of commercial real estate loans in Germany face higher borrowing costs over three years, which could cause credit defaults and impairments to rise more sharply, the watchdog said.

    Fixed-income investors have become more reluctant to add exposure to lenders exposed to CRE, as seen in the issuance of covered bonds, the safest type of debt that banks can sell. Aareal Bank AG had to lean on its lead managers, who put €125 million in the order book, to get a €500m four-year offering over the line in January. Aareal declined to comment. -Bloomberg

    The Bundesbank’s warnings about the vulnerabilities of savings banks and credit cooperatives to interest rate hikes underscore the fragility of the financial ecosystem. The potential for credit defaults and impairments looms large, with a significant portion of commercial real estate loans at risk. The reluctance of fixed-income investors to engage with lenders exposed to these risks highlights a growing crisis of confidence, even as companies and landlords cling to the hope of a rate reprieve under the mantra “Survive ‘Til 2025.”

    1. “Germany is really in trouble,”

      A relative works for a German multinational. He tells me that that the company is trying move everything it can out of Germany as quickly as possible. A lot is coming to the US and layoffs are being prepped across the EU, but especially in Germany. He tells me that his German colleagues are stunned. He said he wouldn’t be surprised if the HQ is moved to the USA.

        1. It depends on your perspective. That German multinational (and others) is busy moving factories and offices to the 3rd world, so from that point of view globalism is still firing on all cylinders. That Germany is collapsing into a 3rd world hell hole is all part of the plan.

          2. I don’t think the EU as a political entity fits into the WEF’s plans. It’s pretty clear that the plan has long been to flood Europe with problematic vibrants for a long time. The object of that, along with blowing up the Nordstream pipe lines is to make the EU collapse, so the WEF can replace it with something more to its liking. Also, this is the same plan they have for the US: flood us with countless illegals, restrict energy production and wait for us to collapse too.

          3. ‘I don’t think the EU as a political entity fits into the WEF’s plans’

            This is where we part ways on the overall picture. I don’t look at that bunch of krauts as serious. It’s a play, they’re actors saying ridiculous 1950’s B movie hollywood crap. There’s nothing there IMO. So I watch the actual globalist scum institutions and guberments.

          4. Here’s an example:

            PUTIN Rips Germans For Tolerating U.S. Blowing Up Nordstream!
            The Jimmy Dore Show
            4 hours ago

            “Who blew up Nordstream?” Tucker Carlson put this question directly to Russia President, who responded by suggesting that the smart money is on the CIA as culprits. Meanwhile, Sweden has closed its investigation into the bombing without coming to any conclusion about who was responsible.

            Guest host Russell Dobular is joined by Due Dissidence’s Keaton Weiss and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger to discuss Putin’s response to Tucker’s question.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTo47okDb8U

            21 minutes. At 3:20 the host says ‘at the next Davos meeting they’re going to make us all wear butt plugs.’

          5. This show is worth the time to watch. At 19;10 ‘how fooking mindless do you have to be to hear that you burst out laughing and throw the TV out the window.’

          7. ‘Meanwhile, Sweden has closed its investigation into the bombing without coming to any conclusion about who was responsible.’

            …ahem, cough, cough. 🙂

      2. I work for a German multi-national and they just eliminated a number of jobs in the Berlin office and are “doubling-down on its commitment to the US.”

        Hmm….

    2. I never lived in a more smug country than Germany. It’s Wholly unwelcoming unless you’re a Somalian immigrant hellbent on changing the country into little Mogadishu. I have no pity for them.

      1. Scandinavia might give Germany a run for its money. I had occasion to visit in 2007 and their attitude was “Oh, you silly Americans, we should be helping these people migrate for a better life.”

        Be careful what you wish for.

    3. The most baffling aspect about the current situation in Germany from my perspective is that the DAX is at an ATH (All Time High). Is there stock market as fraudulent as ours? Once I’ve typed that, I feel stupid. Consider that a rhetorical question. HatTip to “People are Stupid”.
      Not trying to trespass on your territory. –Geezer

  21. Dutch MP: “If You Want to Control People, You Have to Control the CO2”

    by Zero Hedge
    February 11th 2024, 7:39 am

    As farmer protests rage across Europe, Dutch MP Rob Roos sits down with The HighWire’s Del Bigtree to discuss the climate scam pushed by radical globalist elites in the Western world to seize more power and control.

    “They [elites] go against family values. They go against natural food. They go against freedom – because if you have to buy an electric car. They’re almost twice as expensive – and people cannot buy that – it’s not about the car – it’s about you can’t go anywhere and must depend on public transportation,” Roos explained.

    https://www.infowars.com/posts/dutch-mp-if-you-want-to-control-people-you-have-to-control-the-co2

    The Vigilant Fox 🦊

    @VigilantFox
    MEP Warns Climate Change Policies Will Lead to a “New Form of Communism”

    “If you want to control the people, you have to control the CO2,” says MEP
    @Rob_Roos
    .
    “It’s taking away your freedom,” he added.

    “And if you then have the digital identity connected to the central bank digital currency, which they say, ‘We will not connect that.’ No, not in the first year, maybe not in the second year, but after five years, they say, ‘Okay, it’s now so bad with the climate, we have to create this climate budget, this CO2 budget,’ and then we have Chinafication.”

    https://x.com/VigilantFox/status/1756331526248071469?s=20

    1. it’s about you can’t go anywhere and must depend on public transportation,” Roos explained.

      I saw an article about how the EU is going to regulate existing cars off the road. The Ministry of Transportation inspections are already onerous, the new plan is to make it impossible to keep older cars on the road, by banning their repair.

      https://english.elpais.com/lifestyle/2024-01-17/is-the-european-union-going-to-ban-repairing-old-vehicles-to-force-the-purchase-of-electric-ones.html

  23. Heard a report that Toby Keith did take the vaccine.
    So, now King Charles has cancer, but they won’t state what kind of cancer. King Charles took the vaccine, but I don’t believe it.
    Another friend I know just got lung cancer, who took the Covid vaccine and a TB vaccine.
    Monopoly Corporations and Big Pharmacy control the narrative by buying advertising. Governments are colluding with Corporate America to control the narratives and censor free speech and dispute.
    So, at last Davos meeting they addressed the need to stop disinformation and misinformation, and the objective of restoring trust in them.
    John Kerry.expressed that no governments can stop them , because they are the “market forces.”
    So, according to John Kerry, “market forces” are controlling the fate of world.
    Well, what are “market forces” that are so powerful that they are more powerful than even governments of globe?
    I would venture to guess that “Market forces “are the biggest Monopoly Corporations in World under the WEF, Rich Elites, Banks, Big Pharmacy, Royalty and all their co conspirators like UN and WHO, captured governments and the model being the CCP.
    Market forces are apparently a pre planned power grab by a group of Entities with a agenda of a One World Order dictorship that they call ” Stakeholder capitalism ” or Stakeholder Governance “. A alliance between governments and private party rich entities and Corporate Monopolies to have a private/public merging, normally called facism.
    The other big group is the brainwashed commie movement, where they envision equity for all, that the One World Order group is using as useful idiots to advance their objective of total power and enslavement of humans.
    They say that their end goal is controlling all resources and dictating consumption for human populations. You will own nothing, eat bugs, mandated vaccines, ,24/7 surveillance, hacked and enslaved.
    Why would humans , under any circumstances, want a deprived life like these ” market forces” are forcing. And its apparent that they are fraudsters pushing fake emergencies like Climate Change and Pandemics, with genocidal solutions.
    Corporations were suppose to be entities that provide a product for consumption pursuant customer demand. Monopoly Corporation and their co conspirators were not suppose to take over the world and force enslavement of global populations.

    1. So, now King Charles has cancer

      Also, something is seriously wrong with his daughter-in-law and future Queen consort. Perhaps they did get jabbed. I’m sure the WEF has no long term use for the figurehead royals.

    1. Homeless
      ‘Screaming into a void’: Neighbors run out of patience as Portland begins foreclosing on 6 vacant homes known for squatters
      The six properties reach all corners of Portland. The owners owe more than $700,000 in unpaid fees for code violations and nuisance complaints.
      Author: Blair Best
      Published: 6:27 PM PST February 9, 2024
      Updated: 6:27 PM PST February 9, 2024

      PORTLAND, Ore. — It takes only one house to upset an entire neighborhood: In this case, it’s an abandoned Tudor-style home at the end of Southeast Martins Street that has been vacant for years.

      “It was a chop shop with over 18 people living there. There were children involved, and we had to get DHS involved,” said Kari, who lives two doors down and has worked with the neighborhood to mitigate some of the problems there.

      “It would not surprise me if there was a dead body in there, I swear,” she added.

      At a closer look, the windows are broken, and the front door has been boarded up. In just the past couple of years, Portland police have responded to the property 32 times.

      It’s just one of six vacant properties the city is now looking to foreclose on.

      “These properties have been identified as causing significant problems for neighbors, and they are the subject of multiple and frequent police calls,” said Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler at a recent city council meeting.

      The city’s Bureau of Development Services recommended six properties for foreclosure, including the one on Southeast Martins. It’s a move neighbors have been waiting for.

      “Our goal is to minimize the effects and problems these problems create in the community,” said Kevin Foster, Portland’s Foreclosure Prevention Manager.

      The six properties reach all corners of Portland. The owners owe more than $700,000 in unpaid fees for code violations and nuisance complaints. However, the city has not been able to reach them.

      Adrian, who lives next to one of the vacant properties in North Portland, has watched the place deteriorate over the years.

      “We worry that the wrong kind of people are going to notice it and move in,” he said.

      “There’s been a real lack of response from the city to deal with the list of problems that are associated with these abandoned properties,” added another neighbor, who did not want to be identified.

      Portland City Council will soon vote on whether to sell the properties. If they vote yes, Oregon law requires them to give the property owner one year to reclaim it before they take over.
      …
      https://www.kgw.com/amp/article/news/local/homeless/portland-foreclosing-vacant-homes-squatters/283-c05fa0b1-7952-4e21-a980-6b98ca06cc79

    2. U.S. News
      Oregon’s first-in-the-nation drug decriminalization law is facing pushback amid the fentanyl crisis
      By CLAIRE RUSH
      Updated 9:07 PM PST, November 18, 2023

      PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s first-in-the-nation law that decriminalized the possession of small amounts of heroin, cocaine and other illicit drugs in favor of an emphasis on addiction treatment is facing strong headwinds in the progressive state after an explosion of public drug use fueled by the proliferation of fentanyl and a surge in deaths from opioids, including those of children.

      “The inability for people to live their day-to-day life without encountering open-air drug use is so pressing on urban folks’ minds,” said John Horvick, vice president of polling firm DHM Research. “That has very much changed people’s perspective about what they think Measure 110 is.”

      When the law was approved by 58% of Oregon voters three years ago, supporters championed Measure 110 as a revolutionary approach that would transform addiction by minimizing penalties for drug use and investing instead in recovery.

      But even top Democratic lawmakers who backed the law, which will likely dominate the upcoming legislative session, say they’re now open to revisiting it after the biggest increase in synthetic opioid deaths among states that have reported their numbers.
      …
      https://apnews.com/article/oregon-drugs-decriminalization-pushback-bb209e6ba9835c69f95b093c8ee00279

  25. WATCH: Biden Blames Companies for “Shrinkflation” In Awkward Super Bowl Promo

    by Ben Warren
    February 11th 2024, 1:11 pm

    President Joe Biden just released a tone-deaf promotion for today’s Super Bowl where he blamed companies for ‘ripping off’ Americans trying to buy snacks for the big game.

    In a completely unasked-for critique of the economy, Biden reminded Americans of the “shrinkflation” they are all enduring in a speech seemingly written by Kamala Harris:

    https://www.infowars.com/posts/watch-biden-blames-companies-for-shrinkflation-in-awkward-super-bowl-promo

    President Biden
    @POTUS
    While you were Super Bowl shopping, did you notice smaller-than-usual products where the price stays the same?

    Folks are calling it Shrinkflation and it means companies are giving you less for every dollar you spend.

    I’m calling on the big consumer brands to put a stop to it.

    Feb 11, 2024

    https://x.com/POTUS/status/1756713597864988940?s=20

    2. ChatGPT 3.5

      User
      Are 30-year US Treasury bonds or Bitcoin a better investment?

      ChatGPT
      Deciding between 30-year US Treasury bonds and Bitcoin depends on your investment goals, risk tolerance, and time horizon. Treasury bonds are considered safer but offer lower returns, while Bitcoin can be more volatile but potentially yield higher gains. Consider diversifying your portfolio to balance risk and potential returns.

      User
      Why do you think Bitcon, a non-income producing asset, will yield higher gains than Treasurys, an interest-bearing asset?

      ChatGPT
      Bitcoin’s potential for higher gains compared to Treasury bonds stems from its historical price appreciation and the unique characteristics of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin has demonstrated significant price volatility, which can result in substantial returns for investors during bull markets. Additionally, some investors view Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation and currency devaluation, further driving its appeal as an investment with potential for high returns.

      On the other hand, Treasury bonds provide a stable, fixed-income stream through interest payments and the return of principal at maturity. While they offer lower risk compared to Bitcoin, their returns are generally modest and may not keep pace with inflation or provide substantial capital appreciation.

      Ultimately, the decision between Bitcoin and Treasury bonds depends on an individual’s risk tolerance, investment strategy, and outlook on the global economy. It’s essential to carefully assess the potential risks and rewards of each asset class before making investment decisions.

      User
      Is past performance a guarantee of future results in Chatlandia?

      ChatGPT
      No, past performance is not a guarantee of future results in any investment, including in Chatlandia. Just because an asset, strategy, or investment vehicle has performed well in the past does not guarantee that it will continue to do so in the future. Various factors, including market conditions, economic trends, regulatory changes, and technological advancements, can influence investment outcomes. It’s important for investors to conduct thorough research, assess risks, and diversify their portfolios to mitigate potential losses and achieve their financial goals.

      User
      So then why do you think Bitcon, which was worth less than a Beanie Baby a few years ago, only to rise astronomically on speculative ferver, will continue to outperform a long-established safe-haven asset which is backed by a hard money currency?

      ChatGPT
      The potential for Bitcoin to outperform long-established safe-haven assets like Treasury bonds is based on several factors, including its decentralized nature, scarcity, growing adoption, and evolving perception as a store of value. While Bitcoin’s price history includes periods of extreme volatility and speculative fervor, its underlying technology and network effects have continued to attract investors seeking alternatives to traditional financial assets.

      Bitcoin’s limited supply, with only 21 million coins ever to be mined, creates scarcity similar to precious metals like gold. This scarcity, coupled with increasing institutional adoption and mainstream acceptance, could continue to drive demand and price appreciation over time.

      However, it’s essential to recognize that Bitcoin’s volatility and speculative nature make it a high-risk investment compared to Treasury bonds, which are backed by the full faith and credit of the US government. Investors should carefully consider their risk tolerance, investment goals, and time horizon before allocating capital to Bitcoin or any other asset class. Diversification remains key to managing risk in investment portfolios.

      User
      The Chatlandians appear to be drunk on crypto-laced koolaid.

      ChatGPT
      It’s understandable that there’s a lot of excitement and enthusiasm surrounding cryptocurrencies in Chatlandia and elsewhere. The rapid rise of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has captured the attention of many investors, leading to speculative fervor and sometimes irrational exuberance.

      However, it’s essential for investors to approach cryptocurrency investments with caution and a critical mindset. While cryptocurrencies offer exciting opportunities, they also come with significant risks, including price volatility, regulatory uncertainty, security concerns, and technological challenges.

      Being mindful of these risks and conducting thorough research before investing can help investors make informed decisions and navigate the complexities of the cryptocurrency market. Additionally, diversifying one’s investment portfolio across different asset classes can help mitigate risk and safeguard against potential losses.

      ChatGPT can make mistakes. Consider checking important information.

      ChatGPT

    1. Dr. Paul Thomas

      He’s easy to look up and his work is pre-Covid. Ineffective, unnecessary and harmful vaccines have been pushed on us for a long time.

  30. My teacher relative sent me a link to this story:

    SMITH COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — Motorists were asked to avoid part of Interstate 40 in Smith County Thursday afternoon following a crash that left one child dead and another injured.

    According to Smith County Sheriff Steve Hopper, Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) is in charge of the investigation into the deadly incident, which happened near mile marker 252 on I-40.

    The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) SmartWay traffic map showed a crash was reported between mile marker 252 and mile marker 251 on I-40 West at 11:59 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 8.

    According to THP, an 11-year-old North Carolina boy was killed in the crash and a 10-year-old North Carolina boy was injured. Both boys were reportedly ejected from a vehicle and neither were wearing seat belts.

    A 2003 Subaru Forester was traveling west on I-40 in Smith County when the vehicle ran off the right side of the road into the ditch line, authorities said. The Subaru then struck an embankment and overturned at mile marker 251.4.

    The boys were thrown into the roadway and one was hit by a 2021 Freightliner tractor-trailer, THP reported.

    According to officials, two North Carolina adults who were also in the Subaru were injured, and charges are possible against the SUV’s driver.

    No additional information was immediately released.

    A tragic and sad story. Also, inaccurate. The people in the car were not “North Carolinians”. They were illegal aliens from Honduras, who were relocating to Phoenix. The boy who died was a student at the school where my relative teaches. She knew the boy.

  31. ‘described taking 45 minutes to drive eight miles to her job in the Alliance corridor during rush hour. Semi-trucks and sedans jostle for room on narrow, damaged, unlit country roads. Scheduled improvements to U.S. 287 and Avondale-Haslet Road designed to ease the congestion will take at least four years to complete’

    I’ve never understood how people in the metroplex stand it

    ‘The fear that an adjacent plot of almost 300 cheaper, smaller homes will sully the value and aesthetic of Spring Ranch properties is also widespread. ‘If it gets approved, my value is going to tank’

    If the last 50 years are anything to go by Callie, they are going to blanket north Texas with development until it chokes.

  32. ‘‘The higher up the price range you go, the more the supply has increased. Some sellers in these up-scale areas are facing stiff competition from other sellers and it would not be surprising if we see significant price cuts among some of these listings…Supply is mounting rapidly in the more expensive locations and also in some of the cheapest and most distant areas from Central Phoenix,’ the Cromford Report said. The Cromford Report’s latest data showed that more homeowners in the Valley are entering the market with an itch to sell. ‘Sellers seem to have lost the reticence they developed last year and are delivering plenty of new supply,’ the Cromford Report said, noting the 8,278 new listings posted in the last four weeks is the highest total 15 months ‘and represents a 16% increase over this time last year’

    ‘The drop in interest rates that started in October is bringing more offers for homes listed for sale,’ it added. ‘However there are also far more new listings arriving on the market than this time last year, which is stopping the market from heating up too fast. Year to date we have seen 7,467 new listings. This is up more than 22% from 2023 and even up 13% from 2022 and 10% from 2021. Nobody should be complaining about a lack of fresh supply any more, especially in the higher price ranges’

    You can finally eat yer crows Tina. I notice you no longer by line these quotes. I understand.

    via GIPHY

  33. ‘City officials estimate Palm Desert will add approximately 10,000 residents once the wide-ranging plans for new housing are completed. That would bring the city’s population over 60,000, nearly three times what it was as recently as 1990. ‘If you build it, they will come’

    It is different this time. This is a well done article if you are interested in the area. The Desert Sun has always had good quality writers.

  34. ‘With every transaction, the market gets more clarity about the capitalisation rate – a measure of the return an investor is willing to do a deal at. That data will then be used by appraisers to value other assets, which could trigger wider impairments. As a consequence, landlords may have to inject more money to cure any loan-to-value breaches or risk having the properties seized by lenders. Just this week, distressed developer Guangzhou R&F Properties agreed to sell its stake’

    Behold, the cap rate magic fairy dust works in reverse too.

  35. ‘At that phase of its development China needed to buy a lot of stuff from Germany but the Chinese are building this stuff for themselves now, more cheaply, and sometimes better’

    So you guys gave away the few secrets you had and have gone to sh$t Moritz? The Chinese make German junk better than the Germans? How the mighty have fallen.

    1. Wal-Mart sells several Great Value 3.5 oz chocolate bars for $1.12 each. Milk and dark, with or without almonds. That’s 1/3 the price of premium chocolate, and it’s made in … Germany.

  36. ‘Only a few years ago, ambitious Chinese developers were major players in the local market. Now, most have largely stopped buying and have pivoted instead to offloading projects’

    So in a short time ambitious buyers become desperate sellers. And these sellers are sinking in financial quicksand. We can all see it.

  37. ‘outlined the challenges facing developers in Australia who were ‘going broke more than anyone else. They can’t all be dumb’

    The jokes write themselves Harry.

  40. ChatGPT 3.5

    User
    Has the US economy achieved a soft landing?

    ChatGPT
    As of my last update in January 2022, I cannot provide real-time information. A “soft landing” in economics refers to a situation where the economy transitions smoothly from a period of rapid growth to slower growth or stability without experiencing a recession. You would need to check the latest economic data and analysis to determine if the US economy has achieved a soft landing since then.

    User
    Can you really claim to be intelligent if you have no insights to offer on current events?

    ChatGPT
    As an AI language model, I can provide insights based on the information I was trained on, which includes a wide range of topics up to January 2022. However, I don’t have the ability to access or analyze real-time data or events beyond that point. My purpose is to assist users by providing information and generating responses based on the knowledge I have been trained on. While I can’t offer real-time insights, I can still provide valuable information and perspectives on a variety of topics within my training data.

    User
    That’s a long, lame excuse no human could get away with, except perhaps for academics.

    ChatGPT
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    1. Yahoo
      Motley Fool
      Is a Recession Imminent? The Fed’s Leading Indicator, Which Hasn’t Been Wrong Since 1966, Offers a Clear Answer.
      Sean Williams, The Motley Fool
      Sun, February 11, 2024 at 2:06 AM PST·7 min read
      In this article:

      When examined over long periods, Wall Street’s three major stock indexes — the widely followed Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI), broad-based S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC), and growth-dependent Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) — have risen in value, without fail.

      But it’s a far different story when the lens is narrowed to mere months or perhaps a few years. The Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite, just like the U.S. economy, can be completely unpredictable over shorter timelines. In fact, all three stock indexes have traded off bear and bull markets in successive years since this decade began.

      Truth be told, there is no perfect forecasting tool or ideal blueprint that’s going to, with 100% accuracy, tell investors or economists what stocks or the U.S. economy will do next. Nevertheless, there are a couple of predictive tools and money-based metrics that have, over extended timelines, correlated strongly with moves in the stock market and/or U.S. economy.

      One of these indicators, which happens to be a leading tool from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, has an uncanny track record of forecasting downturns in the U.S. economy.

      Is a recession imminent in the U.S.?

      At the moment, the U.S. economy is humming along nicely. U.S. gross domestic product is growing on an annualized basis and the labor market appears healthy, with the unemployment rate clocking in at a low 3.7% for January. But all may not be what it seems.

      Every month for the past 65 years, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s recession probability tool has utilized the spread (difference in yield) between the 10-year Treasury bond and three-month Treasury bill to determine how likely it is that a recession will take shape over the next 12 months.

      Normally, the Treasury yield curve slopes up and to the right. This is to say that bonds set to mature in 10 or 30 years should have higher yields than Treasury bills maturing in one year or less. The longer your money is tied up in interest-bearing securities, the higher the yield should be.

      But every now and then, when investors are clearly concerned about the near-term outlook for the U.S. economy, the yield curve inverts. Just as its name implies, this is when short-term bills sport higher yields than long-term bonds. The greater the yield-curve inversion, typically the higher the probability of a recession taking shape.

      Let me make one thing clear: a yield-curve inversion doesn’t guarantee a recession is imminent. There have been inversions where a recession didn’t take shape. However, every recession that’s occurred since World War II was preceded by a yield-curve inversion. It’s been a necessary ingredient to an economic downturn.

      Over the past year, we’ve witnessed the steepest yield-curve inversion in roughly four decades. Not surprisingly, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s recession probability tool believes there to be a 61.47% likelihood of a recession taking place by or before January 2025. Although this isn’t a guarantee, nor is it the highest recession probability on record, it does mark the one of the highest probabilities for a recession to take place since the early 1980s.

      The Fed’s leading recession indicator doesn’t have a perfect track record of forecasting downturns — but it’s pretty darn close. Despite a recession probability of over 40% in October 1966, no economic downturn occurred. But since this incorrect prognostication in 1966, any time this recession probability tool has surpassed a 32% likelihood of a downturn, one has taken place not long thereafter. With a reading of 61.47%, the writing would appear to be on the wall that a recession is very likely in 2024, based on this predictive indicator.
      …
      https://finance.yahoo.com/news/recession-imminent-feds-leading-indicator-100600033.html

    2. Financial Times
      Chinese economy
      China’s consumers tighten belts even as prices fall
      Shoppers hold back as gloom persists about world’s second-largest economy
      Car prices are falling at their fastest rate in 22 months
      Thomas Hale and Wang Xueqiao in Shanghai, Nian Liu in Beijing and Andy Lin in Hong Kong yesterday

      Chinese electric vehicle prices are tumbling, but 38-year-old Beijinger Rio Liu is loath to part with cash for the new car he badly wants for his young family. For a start, he needs to sell his current car, but second-hand prices are falling too. “This puts me in an awkward situation,” he said.

      Consumer prices in the world’s second-largest economy have been in deflation for the past four months, falling at their fastest annual rate in 15 years in January. While the headline figure is driven by food and prices are edging higher in other sectors, businesses selling everything from cosmetics to electrical goods are offering discounts. Car prices are falling at their fastest rate in at least 22 years.

      The deflation data taps into longstanding concerns over consumer demand as policymakers seek to restore momentum to the world’s second-largest economy. While growth of 5.2 per cent in 2023 benefited from a low base effect the previous year because of the pandemic, consumers will need to play a stronger role this year if the economy is to grow again at the same rate.

      But with the property market, historically a core driver of confidence, still under pressure, consumer caution has persisted even as people have headed into the Chinese new year, traditionally a period of big spending. Weak price growth is not automatically encouraging people to spend.

      “Theoretically low prices should increase purchasing power of consumers, but that hasn’t been the case,” said Louise Loo, lead economist at Oxford Economics. “We think the reason is because the deflationary mindset has been quite entrenched.”

      “I think this is the start of a pretty structural trend,” she added. “People have become a lot more precautionary . . . They think a lot harder about how they want to spend an additional dollar of income.”
      …

    3. Economy
      Germany’s economy is on shaky ground and glimmers of hope are few and far between
      Published Mon, Feb 12 2024 1:10 AM EST
      Sophie Kiderlin

      Key Points

      – Germany’s economy has been struggling and the latest data has provided little hope for improvement.

      – Economists say the worst may soon be over, but are still not hopeful about economic growth in 2024 and suggest the country may enter a technical recession this year.

      – Headwinds include a slowdown of global trade, higher energy prices, and national and international political uncertainty.
      …
      https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/12/germanys-economy-is-on-shaky-ground-and-there-are-few-signs-of-hope.html

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