Without The Buyer Loan, There Is No Sale, So There Is No Profit For The Seller
A report from Market Place. “On Friday the National Association of Realtors agreed to settle multiple lawsuits that accused its members of colluding to keep commission rates artificially high. Sacramento Realtor Erin Stumpf said many buyers may not be able to afford to pay agents out of pocket. ‘A lot of our buyers are using down payment assistance, 3.5% FHA [Federal Housing Administration] loans, and those buyers do not have the resources to pay their agent directly,’ she said.”
9 News in Colorado. “Along with a financial settlement, the agreement also binds the association from offering upfront buyer’s agent commissions on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and requires agents or anyone working with a homebuyer to enter into an agreement with them. ‘I think it’s going to hurt buyers because they’re going to be asked to pay money unless they can get it rolled into the closing costs. Nobody knows the answer to that yet,’ said Ron Throup, associate professor at the University of Denver’s Burns School of Real Estate.”
WYFF in South Carolina. “Linda Rademacher is the 2024 President of the Spartanburg Association of Realtors. She said she’s not sure what this will mean for realtors’ take-home pay, but she doesn’t think it will lower house prices. ‘I think where the challenges are going to arise are our first-time buyers or buyers who have more limited budgets. Because, if a seller doesn’t want to offer compensation, which again, all of that’s negotiable, then that buyer may not have the financial means to pay,’ Rademacher said.”
From 12 News. “Veterans of Arizona’s real estate industry say new rules for realtors expected to kick in this summer will change the dynamics of the home purchasing process, but to what extent is unclear. ‘I think that savvy buyers that don’t think they need representation and are buying houses on a regular basis and are comfortable with the process, perhaps there may be a benefit to them because extra compensation won’t be built into the purchase,’ said realtor Dennis Carr of HomeSmart. Mark Stapp, professor of Real Estate at ASU’s W.P. Carey School of Business, says if compensation fees are not wrapped into the mortgage, some buyers may be squeezed out of purchasing a home. ‘Maybe one of the things that transpires is that you will find buyers, especially at the lower end of the marketplace, less able to afford to buy a house because they don’t have the cash available to pay the agent.'”
KIRO 7 in Washington. “A $418 million settlement by the National Association of Realtors sends waves of shock and uncertainty across the real estate industry on Friday. Jantzee Ellis, a realtor with eXp Realty based in Thurston County, explains that no matter who is responsible for paying one of both fees, the money is still coming from the ‘same pot.’ Ellis said, ‘Without the buyer loan, without their down payment, without their funds, there is no sale, so there is no profit for the seller. There is no listing commission. There is no buyer agent commission.’”
From ABC 25. “Chris Meza is a Central Texas Realtor and managing partner with Carbajal Realty. Meza not only has serious concerns about his future income but how the change could impact the people he works for. ‘You do have to look at and be concerned about buyers and how those commissions are going to be covered moving forward — especially in particular the first-time home buyer, where they may not have that cash sitting around ready to buy properties,’ he said.”
The El Paso Times in Texas. “New homes priced at more than $300,000 are ready to sell, but no one can buy them at a large Upper Valley housing development that was at a standstill for months because of construction and contract problems tied to the developer, who had two high-profile El Paso commercial projects collapse several years ago. Dozens of houses have been built in the Village at Westside Crossing’s 253-lot first phase, near the intersection of Artcraft Road and Westside Drive. But city planning department officials won’t allow them to be sold or occupied until required subdivision improvements are completed.”
“Longtime El Paso homebuilder Zia Homes completed 60 houses in the subdivision, and has more than $12 million invested there, including almost $3.5 million for buying the lots, Zia owner Preston Brown said. That doesn’t include the more than $1 million in financing interest Zia has paid and continues to grow while the homes sit vacant, he said. ‘We will lose money on this neighborhood because of the lies of the developer,’ Brown said. ‘We are blessed and in a (financial) position to handle this. The sad thing is the homebuyers are being hurt by this,’ he said.”
From Bisnow. “A pioneer in the off-campus student housing business is fighting to stay afloat as foreclosures, bankruptcies, multimillion-dollar judgements and liens pile up against his businesses and personal assets. Patrick Nelson and his California-based firm, Nelson Partners Student Housing, owe at least $115M to small investors and a private equity firm as around a dozen active lawsuits weave their way through U.S. courts, The New York Times reports. As the bills are piling up, at least two judges have held Nelson in contempt of court for misappropriating settlement funds and misusing company money, including to pay for personal expenses.”
“Nelson has followed a similar track at other properties facing financial difficulties, moving five companies each associated with one property into bankruptcy after they defaulted on loans, the NYT reported. One of Nelson’s Southern California homes also has a $3M tax lien from the Internal Revenue Service. The first major lawsuit against him came three years ago when hundreds of investors in the acquisition of a student housing tower in Austin alleged they had been defrauded out of tens of millions of dollars.”
Globe and Mail in Canada. “476 Hawk Hill Dr., Kelowna. Asking price: $1.749-million (July 27); $1,699,900 (Aug. 2); re-listed $1.65-million (Oct. 4). Selling price: $1.6-million (Jan. 22). They were the only offer on the property and their timing was good because the fall market was slow. The property had initially been listed in the summer for $1.749-million and the sellers adjusted the price a couple of times. ‘They were reaching for the stars a bit there,’ says the buyer’s agent Richard Deacon. ‘The market was certainly not in a great spot back in the summer, and then the [forest] fires hit.'”
From Xinhua. “Germany’s housing crisis has shown no sign of easing, with a 23.5-percent decline in the number of residential building permits issued in January compared to the same period of 2023, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said on Monday. ‘The situation on the housing market is getting worse … the slump in residential construction is more than worrying,’ said Lukas Siebenkotten, president of the German tenants’ association (DMB).”
From News.com.au. “A major building company has collapsed with the majority of staff sacked and $120 million worth of projects up in the air. Project Coordination (Australia) Pty Ltd, which had been in business for 50 years, went into voluntary administration on Tuesday afternoon. The business had offices in Canberra and Wollongong and did construction work in the ACT and NSW. At the time of its demise, Project Coordination had $120 million worth of projects on its books and a further $90 million in the pipeline, ready to start. Most of the $20 million debt the business owes to creditors was only incurred in the past two months, the administrators also noted. Project Coordination’s 67 staff – 38 of whom are based in the ACT and 29 in NSW – have mostly been made redundant.”
“Co-director Paul Murphy, who is 72 years old and has been with the business from the beginning, said he was ‘devastated.’ ‘The economic and regulatory environment that building companies are working in now is more challenging than any other I’ve experienced in the past 50 years – worse than the recessions in the 1980s and 1990s and the Global Financial Crisis in 2007/2008,’ he said. ‘Nothing has been as bad as this.'”
South China Morning Post. “Hong Kong’s current property market downturn is cyclical and not structural, according to S&P Global Ratings, which expects home prices to decline by as much as 10 per cent this year as elevated interest rates keep demand in check. Late last month, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po scrapped all cooling measures restricting property transactions as he unveiled a budget aimed at restoring the city’s flagging fiscal health, addressing mounting calls from the property and business sectors to ditch the decade-old measures. The announcement came as lived-in home prices fell for a ninth straight month in January to a level last seen in 2016.”
“Given these dynamics at play, Wilson Ling, associate director for corporate ratings at the credit rating agency said home prices were likely to decline between 5 per cent and 10 per cent this year. ‘Even if there’s some support from all these policy stimulations, there’s probably still a long way to go from a demand perspective and before supply is digested to really reverse the oversupply situation,’ he said.”
From Bloomberg. “China Evergrande Group’s alleged $78 billion revenue overstatement escalates the legal peril of founder Hui Ka Yan, who now stands at the center of one of the biggest financial fraud cases in history. The nation’s top securities regulator said the developer’s onshore unit inflated revenue by recognizing sales in advance in the two years through 2020 that led up to its default. Evergrande’s alleged fraud dwarfs that of Luckin Coffee Inc. and Enron Corp., dealing a blow to the reputation of its former auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the country’s financial oversight. It fuels concern about how widespread such accounting issues are.”
“Regulators allege Hui instructed other personnel to ‘falsely inflate’ annual results. The onshore unit Hengda Real Estate Group boosted its 2019 revenue by about 214 billion yuan, and another 350 billion yuan in 2020, the regulator said. The inflated figures accounted for half of Hengda’s total revenue in 2019, and 79% in 2020. Hengda’s auditor in 2019 and 2020 was PricewaterhouseCoopers Zhong Tian LLP, a mainland entity affiliated with PwC’s network. PwC resigned as Evergrande’s auditor in January 2023 due to audit disagreements.”
“PwC has also resigned as auditor for other Chinese developers including Sunac China Holdings Ltd. and Shimao Group Holdings Ltd. In Hong Kong, the city’s Financial Reporting Council said in 2022 that it was looking into Evergrande’s financial statements for 2020 and expanding an investigation of an audit carried out by PwC. The auditor didn’t respond to requests for comment. ‘The more alarming question is — given than many other real estate developers have faced financial distress — who else relied on accounting gimmickry to buy them time,’ said Joel A. Gallo, an adjunct professor at New York University in Shanghai.”
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‘I think it’s going to hurt buyers because they’re going to be asked to pay money unless they can get it rolled into the closing costs’
Ho ho ho, look what sprang up out of the UHS lawsuit: the buyers have been getting most or all of their out of pocket costs rolled into the loan! Which makes them all subprime with no skin in the game. Did senator running deer expose this? Nope. But I’ve been mentioning it at every chance since 2017. It’s one of the biggest scams the UHS have been running and requires collusion with both agents AND the appraiser.
Sound lending!
“It’s one of the biggest scams the UHS have been running and requires collusion with both agents AND the appraiser.”
Don’t forget gubmint hillbillies such as Fannie Mae who will buy these mortgages that are 5x, or many times higher, than the buyer’s income.
I forgot the lender, who knows this is going on because it’s in the documents they are funding. Who then toss it into the guberment loan guarantee system. So everybody knows exactly what’s going on.
FWIW, the government is selling used houses at inflated prices to people who can’t afford them in order to “jin-up” the GDP in the fed’s Beige Book.
Should a used house be part of GDP? Nothing was “produced”.
A violent thug getting shot by police, but not killed, generates lots of GDP despite nothing being created or manufactured.
“Sound lending!”
and
“Are we there yet?”
\\
– There hasn’t been “sound lending” since before Housing Bubble 1.0.
– Fast and loose lending is the fuel of asset bubbles. This is policy. This is The Economy in most all OECD countries, funded by huge steaming piles of debt.
– The entire REIC, including Guberment are in cahoots. Enabled by GSEs and the Fed. Otherwise none of this is possible. Follow the money. It’s global. Don’t forget the money laundering, STRs, multiple shack owners. There’s no shortage, just misallocation of housing driven by malinvestment of capital in turn driven by Guberment cheap $ policies.
– This is 21st century (Keynesian) economics. Just stimulate the hell out of everything, because free markets bad and central planning good, comrad! This has worked so well in the former USSR and in current CCP China. 🙃
– I think if we’re not there yet, then “there” is just around the corner.
– Spoiler alert: Asset bubbles always burst and Socialism is a failure. Plan accordingly.
“Which makes them all subprime with no skin in the game”
It means buyer paid $412K for a $400K house. How does that make it subprime and no skin? What about people who put 10% down?
10% down is subprime too. They just don’t call it that. It’s now ‘non-prime’. Let’s walk through: no skin, not a prime loan. It’s subprime with no skin.
You might say, well Ben this is how we do things now. OK fine, but don’t say there’s no subprime cuz most of it is. And that’s hugely different from the 2000’s. Even so, 95%+ of the foreclosures in the 2000’s were prime because subprime was mighty rare back then. Subprime was just what defaulted first so the REIC/guberment seized on that and Ah_HA! subprimes caused, it wasn’t the prices. I blogged all about that sorry episode.
Still remembered clearly.
When I started this blog in December 2004, subprime was called just that by everybody involved. It was a category. You had prime and subprime, easy. Then I think it was 2007 and subprime became the most ominous word, there was even a magazine cover to that effect. Boom, they just got rid of it. They think changing the terminology solved the problem.
Short, subprime was a tiny portion of guberment backed loans up until 2003. Then came the crash, the propaganda thing about how great loans are. But they don’t talk about it really do they? Have you seen breakdowns for how much non-prime versus prime loans are being made or insured? I haven’t. That stuff used to be available and discussed widely in the 2000’s on blogs like this. I’m guessing the true amount of subprime shack loans today is way higher than 2005.
Happy 20th anniversary!
“When I started this blog in December 2004…”
Almost, but yes, a good call.
‘Evergrande’s alleged fraud dwarfs that of Luckin Coffee Inc. and Enron Corp., dealing a blow to the reputation of its former auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the country’s financial oversight. It fuels concern about how widespread such accounting issues are’
Bigger than Enron? Come to think of it I’ve been calling this giant sh$thole China-ron for many years.
‘Regulators allege Hui instructed other personnel to ‘falsely inflate’ annual results. The onshore unit Hengda Real Estate Group boosted its 2019 revenue by about 214 billion yuan, and another 350 billion yuan in 2020, the regulator said. The inflated figures accounted for half of Hengda’s total revenue in 2019, and 79% in 2020. Hengda’s auditor in 2019 and 2020 was PricewaterhouseCoopers Zhong Tian LLP, a mainland entity affiliated with PwC’s network. PwC resigned as Evergrande’s auditor in January 2023 due to audit disagreements’
Recall one firm said recently Evergrande has never made a dime of profit = ponzi scheme. And it’s rich that bloomberg has the nerve to write this article. They said 3 times that this company had made ‘last minute payments’ on their gringo bonds when the thing first went sideways. It wasn’t true and they simply pulled that lie out of their a$$e$.
“PwC has also resigned as auditor for other Chinese developers including Sunac China Holdings Ltd. and Shimao Group Holdings Ltd. In Hong Kong, the city’s Financial Reporting Council said in 2022 that it was looking into Evergrande’s financial statements for 2020 and expanding an investigation of an audit carried out by PwC. The auditor didn’t respond to requests for comment. ‘The more alarming question is — given than many other real estate developers have faced financial distress — who else relied on accounting gimmickry to buy them time,’
Could PWC go the Andersen way?
Seems like the cockroach nest has been uncovered and the little critters are scurrying about in plain view now.
dealing a blow to the reputation of its former auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
One of my former bosses was an auditor for a long time big 6 firm auditor and he always described his job as an auditor as being ” a prostitute in pinstripes.”
I am sure no low level auditor is ever going to challenge what the company CFO says because it could cost them their job and the company the account.
‘New homes priced at more than $300,000 are ready to sell, but no one can buy them at a large Upper Valley housing development that was at a standstill for months because of construction and contract problems tied to the developer’
Dozens of new shacks rotting in the sun cuz of alleged fraud.
Are we there yet?
‘said he was ‘devastated.’ ‘The economic and regulatory environment that building companies are working in now is more challenging than any other I’ve experienced in the past 50 years – worse than the recessions in the 1980s and 1990s and the Global Financial Crisis in 2007/2008,’ he said. ‘Nothing has been as bad as this’
That may be Paul, but it’s still a red hot sellers market!
Not to worry…what happens in Oz, stays in Oz. It can’t happen here, in the good ole USA.
You will own nothing.
I will own nothing
You will own nothing
They will own everything.
^ Somebody gets it.
Then comes the prison riots.
Top real-estate CEO sees decades of housing pain ahead: ‘What the Fed did will have a 30-year tail on it’
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/top-real-estate-ceo-sees-175538902.html
The Federal Reserve has a dual mandate: maximum employment and price stability. When inflation began creeping up (eventually hitting a four-decade high), the Fed took action. The Fed raised interest rates 11 times in less than two years, and as a result, mortgage rates skyrocketed. The historically low mortgage rates people were used to, were gone. So anyone who locked in a below-market rate, or were simply mortgage free, held onto their homes because to sell would mean giving up an insanely low rate that may never return.
What that’s done is exacerbate an existing housing supply crunch. The country is missing anywhere between two million and seven million homes. The lock-in effect only made that worse by curbing for-sale inventory, despite there being some demand. The housing market froze, and existing home sales fell to their lowest point in almost 30 years. Things have improved since, but we’re not in the clear by any means, and there will likely be reverberations felt across the housing market for decades, by one chief executive’s prediction.
“What the Fed did,” Redfin’s CEO Glenn Kelman said, “will have a 30-year tail on it. There’s going to be low supply for a long time to come unless America really gets [religious] again about building houses.”
In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Kelman mentioned that supply went up for the first time in eight months in February; he called it a “tiny break in the inventory logjam.” And he does see that continuing to improve.
“We need more listings, especially of single-family homes,” he said. “Consumer demand is still strong enough that prices keep going up. Home affordability is the big issue for almost every homeowner and every potential homebuyer. We need more supply.”
So how far do mortgage rates need to fall until we get that increase in much-needed supply?
When they drop from 7% to 6%, and then 5%, it’ll unlock more inventory, Kelman said. But there are also a number of people who deferred their plans, and they can only wait so long. (The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate is currently 7.11%).
“Many of the customers that we’re talking to today still don’t want to give up their 30-year mortgage at 2.5% or 3%, but they’ve just outgrown the house and they finally have to let go,” he said. “I do think that even if interest rates don’t come down significantly, we are going to see a modest uptick in inventory—but to see a big gain, you’re going to have to see a real drop in mortgage rates.”
Still, supply is a much larger and longer-term issue that won’t be solved once mortgage rates fall. The only way to really solve it is by building more homes. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said as much while testifying to Congress earlier this month. “The housing market is in a very challenging situation right now,” Powell said. “Problems associated with low rate mortgage [lock-in] and high [mortgage] rates and all that, those will abate as the economy normalizes and as rates normalize… But we’ll still be left with a housing market nationally, where there is a housing shortage.”
“What that’s done is exacerbate an existing housing supply crunch. The country is missing anywhere between two million and seven million homes.”
\\
– No mention of investors buying up all of the inventory for build to rent, SFH rentals (e.g. Invitation Homes), non-corporate STRs, multiple rental and vacation homes.
– Sure, owners locked into ultra low pandemic mortgage loans aren’t going to move unless they have to, but some will have to. Death, divorce, job loss, etc. will force this. The real cause of the housing “shortage” is investors, enabled by the Fed and GSE policies.
– Remove the investor class incentives and the “shortage” goes away. The contribution from low rate lock ins will work itself out over time. The real shortage is in affordable housing and caused by central planning interference in a once healthy housing market. Since housing is now such a large part of the economy, no one wants to address the gross imbalances.
– No one is addressing this as too much money involved. Senator Running Deer? Bueller? Hello, anyone?
– I wonder how many shacks Senator Running Deer owns? I’m sure that’s not materially important.
It amazes me how many SFH are available for rent.
The Redfin CEO won’t touch that with a 10-foot pole.
“What the Fed did,” Redfin’s CEO Glenn Kelman said, “will have a 30-year tail on it. There’s going to be low supply for a long time to come unless America really gets [religious] again about building houses.”
Plenty of houses were built when interest rates were higher than today. Glenn doesn’t understand demographics.
It’s happening. Now get ready for the next phase where everyone’s a victim.
And owed compensation…
“get ready for the next phase where everyone’s a victim”
+1
“Now get ready for the next phase where everyone’s a victim.”
You mean a repeat of 2007 – 20012 or the Robo signed through no fault of my own years?
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Does Nvidia stock always go up?
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No, Nvidia’s stock doesn’t always go up. Like any stock, its price is influenced by various factors including market conditions, company performance, industry trends, and economic factors. While Nvidia has shown strong growth in recent years due to its leading position in the semiconductor industry, there can still be periods of volatility or declines in its stock price.
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Updated Tue, Mar 19 2024 9:45 AM EDT
S&P 500 and Nasdaq fall as Nvidia shares pull back, Fed decision looms: Live updates
Pia Singh
Brian Evans
Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on May 6, 2022.
Source: NYSE
The S&P 500fell Tuesday as traders took to the latest announcements from Nvidia’s artificial intelligence conference. Wall Street also turned its eyes to Washington as the Federal Reserve kicked off its two-day policy meeting.
The broad market index dipped 0.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite
lost 0.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 30 points, or about 0.1%.
Chip darling Nvidia pulled back 3.1% as investors evaluate the news from its first-ever GTC Conference. CEO Jensen Huang unveiled Nvidia’s latest AI chip, labeled Blackwell, which he touted as a significantly more powerful successor to its chips that power a multitude of AI operations. The stock had rallied more than 78% year to date heading into the event, possibly enticing investors to book some profits following the news.
Super Micro Computer, a primary vendor for building out Nvidia’s AI servers, dropped 10% on news of a share offering. Shares have ripped more than 250% higher this year on AI enthusiasm, leading the stock to be added to the S&P 500 on Monday.
A recent slate of worrying inflation reports has investors concerned that the central bank could signal interest rates will remain higher for longer than expected. However, fed funds futures currently forecast a 99% likelihood that the Fed will leave benchmark interest rates unchanged this week, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
“The Fed is going to be taking a lot of the oxygen out of the room this week as they conclude their March meeting on Wednesday afternoon,” said Sam Millette, director of fixed income at Commonwealth Financial Network. “It’s going to be a really interesting meeting because markets don’t expect any interest rate changes at this meeting, and in fact, don’t have any changes priced into the next meeting either.”
…
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/18/stock-market-today-live-updates.html
The Motley Fool
Forget Nvidia: Billionaires Are Selling It and Buying This “Magnificent Seven” Stock Instead
By Sean Williams – Mar 18, 2024 at 5:06AM
Key Points
– The Magnificent Seven — Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and Tesla — are largely responsible for the current bull market rally.
– More than a half-dozen highly successful billionaire asset managers sold shares of AI juggernaut Nvidia during the fourth quarter.
– However, quite a few of these billionaires also piled into another Magnificent Seven constituent that’s the undisputed leader in two industries.
Prominent billionaire money managers ditched shares of artificial intelligence (AI) titan Nvidia in the December-ended quarter in favor of a Magnificent Seven stock that’s a leader in multiple industries.
It’s been another banner start to the year for Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite have all firmly placed the 2022 bear market in the rearview mirror and blasted to record-closing highs. While there have been pockets of strength in various sectors and industries, much of the heavy lifting for the current bull market can be attributed to the “Magnificent Seven.”
As their collective name implies, the Magnificent Seven are seven of the largest and most influential publicly traded companies. They’re often industry leaders (sometimes in more than one category) and traditionally on the cutting edge of technological innovation(s). In order of descending market cap, the Magnificent Seven stocks are:
Microsoft (MSFT -0.13%)
Apple (AAPL 0.04%)
Nvidia (NVDA -1.87%)
Amazon (AMZN -0.12%)
Alphabet (GOOGL -0.17%) (GOOG -0.26%)
Meta Platforms (META -2.41%)
Tesla (TSLA -1.64%)
…
https://www.fool.com/investing/2024/03/18/forget-nvidia-billionaire-sell-buy-mag-seven-stock/
Finance markets
FOMO-driven buyers could jump at Nvidia’s ‘three day AI lovefest’—but Fed Chair Powell is ready to play the spoiler, Ed Yardeni says
“Bearish traders might take the market down Tuesday afternoon,” veteran economist and market watcher Ed Yardeni warns.
BY Will Daniel
March 18, 2024 2:45 PM EDT
…
https://fortune.com/2024/03/18/nvidia-ai-conference-fomo-buyers-stock-ed-yardeni-jerome-powell
Yahoo Finance
Bloomberg
YOLO Crowd Bets Nvidia Could More Than Double in Value by Friday
Elena Popina
Mon, Mar 18, 2024, 2:00 PM PDT
2 min read
In this article:
(Bloomberg) — Nvidia Corp., the world’s third-largest company by market value, is turning into a casino for the YOLO trading crowd.
Just look at the options activity on Monday, when traders bet that shares of the $2.2 trillion chipmaker will more than double its $885 price — by the weekend. Nvidia is no stranger to triple-digit gains after soaring 231% in 2023 on optimism for its semiconductors used in artificial intelligence technology. But pulling that off in less than a week would be quite a reach, even for the hottest stock in the market.
Between 2 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., traders appeared to have bought more than 24,000 Nvidia call contracts that expire Friday with a strike price of $1,940. They bought it in small lots of about 900 contracts, which could be indicative of retail traders, and paid $24,000 in total.
While the trade is insignificant next to wagers on single-digit moves in the stock, it does bring back memories of 2021’s meme-stock mania. The difference this time is Nvidia is one of the most valuable stocks on the planet, not some tiny outfit that can rise and fall in an instant with traders capturing profits in either direction.
While there’s pretty much no chance Nvidia will close remotely close to the level of those options, traders could in theory sell the contracts for profit if Nvidia rallies during an annual AI conference that kicked off in San Jose, California, on Monday afternoon. Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s chief executive officer, delivered the keynote, introducing new chips aimed at extending his company’s dominance of artificial intelligence computing, a position that’s already made it the world’s third-most-valuable business.
“Nvidia has been an investor favorite to play the AI trend,” said Michael Beth, director of equity and derivatives trading at WallachBeth Capital LLC. “We are now also seeing what looks to be retail making some interesting plays while the Nividia AI developer conference goes on this week.”
…
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/yolo-crowd-bets-nvidia-could-210054935.html
The Buffett Indicator: Market Cap to GDP
https://www.longtermtrends.net/market-cap-to-gdp-the-buffett-indicator/
This is the captain…brace for impact!
“My favorite metric is the Total Market Capitalization of Equities as a percentage of GDP. In 1929 it was 117%, in 2007 it was 104%, today it’s 185%!” —Michael Pento
Business / Investing
Why Zillow is worried about America’s housing market shakeup
Analysis by Nicole Goodkind, CNN
Updated 8:44 AM EDT, Tue March 19, 2024
Tiffany Hagler-Geard/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Shares of Zillow have fallen as investors worry that lower commission rates for agents could impact the platform.
New York CNN —
Since its founding nearly two decades ago, Zillow has revolutionized the way Americans buy, rent, sell — and fantasize — about housing in the US.
But a settlement that breaks the grip of powerful real estate agents could trigger a range of problems for the platform already suffering from declining traffic in an increasingly competitive housing market.
…
https://cnn.com/cnn/2024/03/19/investing/premarket-stocks-trading
[This article has absolutely nothing to do with housing.]
Climate Super Heros Plan To Rescue The Arctic With 10 Million Wind Powered Pumps.
https://joannenova.com.au/
Brave researchers have decided to save the world by pumping seawater onto ice sheets in the depths of winter. They are struggling through -30C windy conditions somewhere off the top end of Canada. Their plan is to thicken the ice so it will survive longer in summer, thus presumably raising the albedo of Earth.
For some reason the dedicated team at the BBC don’t mention what energy source drives the pump. I wonder where that cord goes?
[A photograph appears here.]
Could the cord go to a diesel gen, sitting on arctic ice, snipped out of the photo?
If it was a solar panel, we know they would have told us.
Even the BBC calls the plan “insane” — though we sense they mean it in the same way a fourteen year old might describe a diamond encrusted skate park.
Perched on sea-ice off Canada’s northern coast, parka-clad scientists watch saltwater pump out over the frozen ocean.
Their goal? To slow global warming.
But a small number of advocates claim their approaches could give the planet a helping hand while humanity cleans up its act.
The ultimate goal of the Arctic experiment is to thicken enough sea-ice to slow or even reverse the melting already seen, says Dr Shaun Fitzgerald, whose team at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Climate Repair is behind the project.
Researchers are apparently excited that they’ve “already seen the ice thicken by a few tens of centimeters across their small study area.” That much eh?
Since arctic sea ice stretches across some 10 to 15 million square kilometers, this could be quite a task.
The experts at the BBC didn’t think readers need to know these details, but they do briefly hint that they might need “10 million wind-powered pumps to thicken sea-ice across just a tenth of the Arctic.”
Apparently the words “diesel, petrol, fossil fuel” can’t be mentioned in a story about solutions of climate change.
Naturally, they have a struggle session about whether this is even a wise experiment given that salty ice might melt faster than normal ice. The worst possible thing of course, is that polluters might get the crazy idea they could burn fuel without tantric guilt.
the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Climate Repair is behind the project
They sound like a bunch of grant chasers. They’ll’ install a few pumps, make no difference, but have money left for nice country estates in Britain.
“…have money left for nice country estates in Britain.”
Champagne liberals don’t come cheap!
“while humanity cleans up its act”
Translation: while unelected bureaucrats coerce governments into forcing their citizens (i.e. slaves) into a drastically reduced standard of living, with the end goal being famine and genocide.
These globalists want nothing less than the death of several billions leaving only a sufficient underclass of slaves, ideally a mixed race population with no identity, no nationality, no history, no culture, and no purpose but to serve the self anointed globalist pigs, the Parasite Class.
Parasites gonna parasite, blood poisoners gonna blood poison, because YOU are the carbon they need to reduce.
Bank of Japan ends the world’s only negative rates regime in a historic move, abandons yield curve control
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/19/bank-of-japan-boj-march-2024-policy-decision-mpm-meeting.html
CNBC: Bitcoin slumps below $63,000 after topping a record $73,000 last week.
Profit takers will regret their meager gains. My sources correctly inform that Bitcoin will be trading in the $1.5-$2M range by year end.
You’ll regret not going all in at $63,000, because the train is leaving the station.
Toot! Toot! Pump! Pump!
Real estate agents in my town often don’t make that much , except the past 3 years they’ve done quite well indeed ……As a small town rural landlord , I find I can do better selling my own property , it works out better , of course mine are all cash or owner finance deals ,which makes for a lot less complications ……
I think I see a great idea for a new reality tv show.
Squatter standoff captured on camera in Queens
WABC
Monday, March 18, 2024 6:00PM
https://abc7ny.com/videoClip/14541727/
‘A lot of our buyers are using down payment assistance, 3.5% FHA [Federal Housing Administration] loans, and those buyers do not have the resources to pay their agent directly,’
The day that buyers have to come up with their own down payments, sans assistance, is the day the market dies.
The day that buyers have to come up with their own down payments, sans assistance, is the day the market dies.
I know few people who have non trivial savings. They all drive super duper trucks, Teslas or Eurotrash, and admit that they save nothing, even forfeiting the 401K match where they work.
I love me some open borders and “Newcomer” crime.
White House refers to illegal immigrants as ‘newcomers’
By Chris Pandolfo Fox News
February 29, 2024
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-house-refers-illegal-immigrants-newcomers
I saw a link to a propaganda piece that claims illegals commit fewer crimes per capita than Americans, and therefore we should welcome them all with open arms, and open our homes to them.
Spin that narrative, MSM, gaslight us!
“White House refers to illegal immigrants as ‘newcomers’”
\\
– Well, some (low information) voters still refer to Joe Brandon as “President.” 😂
– Double-speak. Right out of the “1984” playbook.
– Did the ancient Romans call their barbarian invaders “newcomers?” History says they were called Goths and Vandals. What about Hannibal?
– BTW, the barbarian invasions signaled the end of Rome as an empire. Coincidence?
– Genghis Khan and his Mongol horde? Kublai Khan? Were they also “newcomers?”
– “We tortured some folks.”
– Somehow I don’t associate raping, pillaging and murder with “newcomers,”.
– Sending out the welcome wagon…
– It’s really an invasion.
– It’s really an invasion.
It’s a replacement.
step 1) Disincentivize heritage Americans from family formation or even having kids outside of wedlock, and their birth rate will collapse, check!
step 2) Promote sexual deviancy and abortion. Birth rate collapses even more. Check!
step 3) Convince the younger generations, the ones that should be havings kids, that they are LGBXYZ. Birth rate collapses even more. Check!
step 4) Import foreigners to fill in the void. Check!
step 5) Profit!
The high costs of housing, education, and healthcare make it harder to build a family.
If it takes someone until they are older than 30 to get an education, build skills, earn promotions, and pay off debt, the result is less kids (if they can even have them anymore).
It’d be nice if the government paid my rent, food, and gave me a phone. I would have lots more available to save.
Do you think the high cost of living is an accident? It’s perhaps the top disincentive against starting a family.
Elon Musk Posts DEVASTATING Ad by Western Lensman Exposing Migrant Invasion, Democratic Plan For One Party Rule (3/19/2024):
“Flood the country with untold millions of illegals by land, sea, and air from all over the world, enough to eclipse the populations of 36 individual U.S. states so far.
Prioritize the needs of these millions of non-citizens over the needs of American citizens with free flights, busses, hotels, meals and phones, ensuring their loyalty to the political party that imported them.
Keep them in the country at all costs, even when they commit violent crimes like murder or rape. Attack the language used to describe the criminals as opposed to the criminals themselves. Slander critics as racist.
Ensure their privileges are made irreversible with city and state sanctuary laws that act as population magnets. Codify permanent status and ensure non-cooperation with ICE.
Count the non-citizens in the census that will determine congressional apportionment in the House of Representatives. As of now, they would equal 13 extra Congressional districts, a tremendous amount of electoral power.
Launch a massive, heavily funded lawfare campaign to change state voting laws that legalize mass mail-in ballots. No signature verification or proof of citizenship requirements, making it almost impossible to prove voter fraud.
Lock in the permanent voting majority with campaign promises of lavish benefits and permanent privileges, enshrining generational fealty to the Democrat Party.
Win elections.
Entrenched single-party rule has been achieved.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/03/watch-share-elon-musk-posts-devastating-ad-exposing/
Sounds about right.
Paul Krugman scolds the ungrateful poors for being poors.
New York Times — Why Are Americans Still Down on the Economy? (3/18/2024):
“Some observers, however, tell us to ignore fancy statistics indicating that America is doing pretty well. Americans’ lived experience, they say, is that it’s still a lousy economy. And isn’t the customer — or in this case the consumer — always right?
Well, I do not think that word, “experience,” means what they think it means. It’s true that most Americans have a negative view of the economy. But people don’t directly experience the economy. What they directly experience are their own financial circumstances — and most Americans are feeling relatively positive about their own finances.
There may be multiple reasons for this disconnect between personal experience and narratives. Partisanship is clearly a major factor: Supporters of both parties tend to be down on the economy when the opposing party holds the White House, but the effect is much stronger for Republicans. Even though inflation has dropped, the inflation surge of 2021-22 may still be weighing on economic perceptions.
Whatever has been going on, it’s important to understand that the political challenge facing Democrats is not that they have to overcome a bad economy. What they need to overcome instead is the false narrative that the economy is doing badly.”
https://archive.is/b1Ff7
This piece authored by a man who has never worked a day in his entire life. Soft, soft, city boy hands, as soft as a little baby. Can’t change a flat tire, assemble a piece of IKEA furniture, or even lift 20 pounds using both hands.
Paul Krugman is the Parasite Class.
the consumer
They have been calling us “consumers” for a long time, as opposed t “citizens” or “Americans”. We are now an economic zone that pretends to be a republic. And the beauty of calling everyone a consumer is that sobriquet includes the invaders, those who are intended to replace us.
New York Post — 15M Americans — including those making more than $100K — buy groceries with ‘buy now, pay later’ apps as inflation rages (3/19/2024):
“The soaring rate of food inflation is forcing more Americans to use “buy now, pay later” apps when shopping for groceries, according to a study — including shoppers who are earning six figures.
An analysis by PYMNTS Intelligence found that 15 million people — or 6.5% of the US population — reported using “buy now, pay later,” or BPNL apps to pay for groceries last year.”
https://nypost.com/2024/03/19/business/15m-americans-buy-groceries-with-buy-now-pay-later-apps/
Buying food on layaway?
This is the Joe Biden Economy.
“Paul Krugman is the Parasite Class.”
Dug in like an Alabama tick!
Is da bears’ plan to maintain a stopped clock crash prediction until history proves them right?
DOW 30 +0.65%
S&P 500 +0.47%
NASDAQ 100 +0.28%
4 signals that suggest the stock market’s bull rally could soon reverse
Matthew Fox
Mar 19, 2024, 8:14 AM PDT
NYSE trader
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
– The stock market’s bull rally is at risk, according to economist David Rosenberg.
– Rosenberg highlighted four negative divergences that suggest a potential reversal in stocks.
– “The longer these indicators fail to confirm the broader move higher in prices, the more vulnerable the major averages become and the higher risk there is of a reversal,” Rosenberg said.
…
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-market-outlook-4-signals-suggest-imminent-reversal-bull-rally-2024-3
Antiwar — Macron Says Western Ground Operations In Ukraine May Be Necessary At ‘Some Point’ (3/18/2024):
“French President Emmanuel Macron shows no sign of backing down on his bellicose rhetoric related to the war in Ukraine as he said in an interview published over the weekend that at “some point,” Western ground operations in Ukraine may be necessary.
“Maybe at some point—I don’t want it, I won’t take the initiative—we will have to have operations on the ground, whatever they may be, to counter the Russian forces,” Macron told the newspaper Le Parisien. “France’s strength is that we can do it.”
Macron sparked controversy last month when he said NATO shouldn’t rule out sending troops to Ukraine, a position he has now reaffirmed multiple times. His comments brought attention to the fact that a small number of NATO troops are already inside Ukraine, but Macron appears to be talking about a major deployment for combat against Russia despite the risk of nuclear war.”
https://news.antiwar.com/2024/03/18/macron-says-western-ground-troops-in-ukraine-may-be-necessary-at-some-point/
This guy was molested by his uncle as a minor, and is now married to him, and he wants your boots on the ground in Ukraine?
Ukraine isn’t even a real country, it’s a money laundering operation pretending to be a country.
Russia Today — US is not a democracy – Putin (3/17/2024):
“The US has become a global laughing stock by criticizing democratic processes in other nations while suppressing a presidential candidate in its own election, Russian leader Vladimir Putin has claimed.
Speaking to journalists in Moscow early on Monday morning, shortly after preliminary results indicated he would be reelected with 87% of the vote in the Russian presidential election, Putin stated that the “whole world is laughing at what is happening” in the US.
In a pre-election interview earlier this week, Putin insisted that Russia does not meddle in foreign elections and will work with any elected US president.
“I think it’s obvious to everyone that the American political system cannot claim to be democratic in any sense of the word,” he said in an interview with journalist Dmitry Kiselyov. Putin refused to comment further on the current presidential campaign in the US, but described the atmosphere as becoming “increasingly uncivilized.”
https://www.rt.com/news/594400-putin-us-elections-democracy/
The 2024 election was stolen.
have you guys seen the case in italics (i saw it on reddit).
Here is an article on it as well: https://www.housingwire.com/articles/judge-closes-then-reopens-nosalek-commission-lawsuit-court-docket/
If this goes through – all the internet discussions where the buyer agent and seller agent talk to each other to find out the buyer agent’s commision would be invalid.
There is a separate lawsuit going on currently that the DOJ has weighed in on (Nosalek vs MLS PIN). Basically, the DOJ wants to have sellers pay for their own agents and buyers pay for theirs. Each side will independently negotiate for their own agent’s commissions and it will be illegal to offer anything to the buyer’s agent before the seller gets an offer. This is called decoupling. This case will affect commissions nationwide and will likely have an impact on how the judge ultimately rules in the NAR settlement/case.
The DOJ has been after agent commissions for decades, and it looks like this is going to be the one-two punch to finally change things. They have long believed that agents were wildly overcompensated for their work. In their statement of interest in the Nosalek case, the DOJ literally says:
“If buyers set the compensation for their own brokers directly, some buyer brokers might choose to offer flat fees or hourly rates in lieu of percentage commissions, since the amount of time and effort required by a buyer broker has a weak correlation, if any, to the ultimate sales price of the house. And most, if not all, buyers would likely prefer a fee structure that does not reward their broker for helping them to pay more for a home.”
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Texas to enforce a law that would allow local law enforcement officials to arrest people suspected of being illegal immigrants.
After the high court temporarily blocked enforcement of the law, the Supreme Court issued a decision to reject an emergency request that was made by the Biden Department of Justice, which argued that states have no right to enforce immigration law and that it violated the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.
The Supreme Court’s order provided no reasons, but Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh filed concurring opinions. Three Democrat-appointed justices, Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Sonia Sotomayor, dissented.
With the ruling, the immigration law can now go into effect while lower courts consider the law, known as SB4. It was passed by the Republican-controlled state Legislature last year and signed into law by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in late December.
Specifically, SB4 allows local and state police to arrest people who have illegally crossed the U.S.–Mexico border and imposes criminal penalties. State judges are also given the power to order illegal immigrants to be deported under the measure.
In her concurring opinion, Justice Barrett wrote that the high court has “never reviewed the decision of a court of appeals to enter—or not enter—an administrative stay.”
“When entered, an administrative stay is supposed to be a short-lived prelude to the main event: a ruling on the motion for a stay pending appeal. I think it unwise to invite emergency litigation in this Court about whether a court of appeals abused its discretion at this preliminary step,” she wrote.
The three dissenting justices, however, decried the law and said it would upend the federal government’s authority. “The Court gives a green light to a law that will upend the longstanding federal-state balance of power and sow chaos, when the only court to consider the law concluded that it is likely unconstitutional,” Justice Sotomayor wrote in her dissenting opinion, which was joined by Justice Jackson.
Reacting to the Supreme Court’s decision, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote on social media Tuesday that his state notched a “huge win” and that the law “is now in effect.”
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/us-supreme-court-lets-texas-enforce-illegal-immigration-law-5610501
“The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Texas to enforce a law that would allow local law enforcement officials to arrest people suspected of being illegal immigrants.”
– I see only two options at this point. Either the system and the rule of law function as intended, or there will be an accounting. One can only hope that the pendulum is swinging back away from banana republic and barbarism toward constitutional republic and civility again.
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 BC
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” – John F. Kennedy
Fed-up homeowner arrested after tense standoff with squatters ‘stealing’ $1M house she inherited from parents
https://nypost.com/2024/03/19/us-news/moment-nyc-homeowner-is-arrested-after-tense-standoff-with-squatters/
A New York City property owner recently ended up in handcuffs following a fiery standoff with alleged squatters who she has been trying to boot from her family’s home, tense footage shows.
Adele Andaloro, 47, was nabbed after changing the locks last month on the $1 million home in Flushing, Queens, that she says she inherited from her parents when they died, AB C’s Eyewitness News reported.
“It’s enraging,” the homeowner said of the squatter saga. “It’s not fair that I, as the homeowner, have to be going through this.”
Andaloro claims the ordeal erupted when she started the process of trying to sell the home last month but realized squatters had moved in — and brazenly replaced the entire front door and locks.
She said she got fed up, and went to her family’s home on 160th Street — with the local TV outlet in tow — on Feb. 29 and called a locksmith to change the locks for her.
A heated, caught-on-camera spat with the people occupying the house quickly unfolded. The police were eventually called, and escorted two people off the property.
In New York City, a person can claim “squatter’s rights” after just 30 days of living at a property.
Under the law, it is illegal for the homeowner to change the locks, turn off the utilities, or remove the belongings of the “tenants” from the property.
“By the time someone does their investigation, their work, and their job, it will be over 30 days and this man will still be in my home,” Andaloro said.
“I’m really fearful that these people are going to get away with stealing my home,” she added.
A woman who answered the door to The Post on Tuesday said she did not know anything about the squatting claims.
“I don’t have to explain more. Talk with the guy who has the business or the problem with the woman, but not with me because I don’t know anything about it. This is not my problem,” she said before slamming the door.
During the recent encounter at her home, Andaloro — who was armed with the deeds — was filmed entering the property after one of the apparent tenants left the front door open.
After changing the locks, a man who said he was leading the property — identified by the local outlet as Brian Rodriguez — returned and barged through the front door.
“You shouldn’t be trying to steal my house,” a furious Andaloro yelled at him during the caught-on-camera ordeal.
Following a flurry of 911 calls, responding cops told Andaloro she had to sort the saga out in housing court because it was considered a “landlord-tenant issue.”
Andaloro was ultimately given an unlawful eviction charge because she had changed the locks and hadn’t provided a new key to the person staying there, the NYPD confirmed to The Post.
She was slapped with a criminal court summons, cops added.
Despite the footage showing other alleged squatters being led away in cuffs, police said no other arrests or summonses were issued.
Andaloro said she is now being forced to start an eviction filing in court to settle the landlord-tenant dispute.
“It’s horrible. It’s her home. I’m glad it’s coming to the forefront, because it’s a disgrace. They can just come and take your house,” a neighbor, who didn’t want to be named, told The Post on Tuesday when asked about the ongoing spat.
“It’s just crazy. We don’t know how they got in, when they got in. We have no idea. How these people found out about the house being empty, I don’t know.”
S.S.S.
It’s going to get to that point, pretty rapidly. If the law is protecting the criminals, of what use is the law?
Squatter’s Rights are just more insanity thanks to democrats.
Junk Bond Default Surge Continues in 2024
https://schiffgold.com/commentaries/junk-bond-default-surge-continues-in-2024/
Consumers aren’t the only ones defaulting on their debts: Corporate bond defaults were up massively in 2023, especially for high-risk junk debt, and the trend is continuing this year at a pace not seen since the 2008 global financial crisis. Unsurprisingly, companies selling low-rated junk debt are being hit the worst.
Last year, according to S&P Global Ratings, corporate bond defaults increased by a disconcerting 80%. High interest rates coupled with high inflation have made it a struggle for companies to make good on their commitments even as waves of new bond buyers continue to arrive, eager to lock in higher yields before rates go down. Demand remains strong for junk bonds and hybrid debt, but for companies with poor liquidity, poor to negative cash flow, and/or an outsized existing debt burden, the result is a compelling setup for even more defaults in 2024.
For now, with rate cuts on the horizon, interest remains strong in junk bond debt even as effective yields have fallen from their 2023 highs, and yield spreads remain relatively low:
Junk Bond Effective Yields, Summer 2022 to Now
[A chart appears here …]
Meanwhile, debts that were financed in a low-interest rate environment are due to mature in the next few years, to the tune of over $1.8 trillion by 2028 according to the Fed. When those payments come due, more companies will fall to the default wave. And if the junk bond market goes off of a cliff, it could pop the broader $13.7 trillion corporate bond bubble and take the rest of the economy with it.
Even Bank of America is calling the overheated bond market “bubbly.” With no sign of a short-term slowdown in bond sales, the pressure on premiums is expected to keep increasing for high-risk debt as borrowers rush to fill the demand for high-yield offerings before the Fed cuts rates.
However, as quoted in Bloomberg, Band of America strategists said:
“The unusually supportive technicals currently are unlikely to be sustainable in the longer term.”
Last month, Moody’s changed their rating methodology to align with Fitch and S&P’s rules, making hybrid debt more attractive to overstretched companies in sectors like media, tech, and others. The rule change lets companies take on more hybrid debt to raise money without taking as much of a potential hit to their creditworthiness. As far as the next wave of defaults goes, Moody’s itself reported earlier this year that about 16% of speculative-grade companies are at high risk of defaulting on their obligations, including healthcare companies and airlines:
“Names added to the list last quarter include radio platform iHeart Communications and Spirit Airlines (SAVE.N), whose proposed merger with peer JetBlue (JBLU.O), was blocked on Tuesday…At the same time, as defaults have risen, the ratio of Moody’s downgrades to upgrades among speculative-grade companies grew to 1.8x in the fourth quarter of 2023, up from 1.3x in the previous quarter.”
The Fed hopes that its interest rate cuts will decrease the burden on indebted companies, but it will come at the cost of adding fuel to inflationary pressures that the higher-interest rate environment has failed to contain. Besides, a decrease in interest rates won’t be enough for many low-rated companies to successfully refinance their obligations or take on additional debt. If investors keep flocking to them in search of higher yield compared to Treasurys, that only makes a frothy market even frothier.
Either way, when the entire economy is addicted to an artificially low interest rate environment, the Fed constantly backs itself into a corner and turns to its only real policy tool: printing money. Feverish bond-buying inspired, in part, by artificially-induced interest rate changes is just one of the endless ways that the Fed’s meddling creates a zombie economy. This banker-run fantasyland acts not upon the laws of nature or the principles of sound economics, but the hubris-fueled whims of central bankers who eagerly play the roles of both pseudo-wizard and pseudo-scientist at the dire expense of the governed.
“I’ve Changed My Mind”: Swedish Open Borders MP Makes Complete U-Turn
Wants mass deportations.
https://modernity.news/2024/03/19/ive-changed-my-mind-swedish-open-borders-mp-makes-complete-u-turn/
A Swedish MP who advocated for open borders during the 2015 refugee crisis said she has completely changed her mind and now wants to see a significant number of deportations.
Louise Meijer, a lawmaker with the now-governing Moderate Party, previously “took a stand for openness” and supported the ‘Refugees Welcome’ mantra, but now wants to pull up the drawbridge completely.
“But I have changed my mind on the matter,” she told Expressen, adding she now supports “an even stricter migration policy than the one I opposed at the time.”
“The change that Sweden has undergone and is undergoing is fundamentally changing the country,” said Meijer, noting that “mass immigration has been followed by several major problems.”
Specifically, she pointed to the fact that “serious, organized crime is committed to a large extent by people with foreign assets,” that new arrivals are “not self-sufficient,” and that the “culture of honor, separatism, and Islamism is limiting and dangerous.”
Meijer asserted that integrating large numbers of migrants has been a total failure for Sweden and “for integration to work, people who both want to move here and who already live here need to adapt to Swedish society and our values.”
She is now calling for a strict limit on migration in the near future and dedicated herself to ensuring that the country begins a large deportation campaign.
“You need to work, speak Swedish, and do your duty before you demand your rights. Those who do not want to adapt and integrate should not stay in Sweden either. Deportation or repatriation should then be a real option,” said Meijer.
After being one of if not the safest country in Europe, Sweden now records the second most bombings out of any country not at war besides Mexico.
Violence and criminality caused by migrant gangland violence is so chronic, last year the Swedish Prime Minister met with the head of the military to try to formulate a plan to deal with it.
Riots and civil unrest have become commonplace, and in 2021, Germany’s Bild newspaper ran the headline: ‘Sweden is the most dangerous country in Europe.’
A 2018 report also found that 99 out of 112 gang rapists in Sweden had a foreign background.
When veteran Swedish police investigator Peter Springare was asked about the demographics of those responsible for violent crimes, he didn’t mince his words.
“Here we go; this is what I’ve handled from Monday-Friday this week: rape, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, rape-assault and rape, extortion, blackmail, assault, violence against police, threats to police, drug crime, drugs, crime, felony, attempted murder, rape again, extortion again and ill-treatment,” he wrote.
“Suspected perpetrators; Ali Mohammed, Mahmod, Mohammed, Mohammed Ali, again, again, again. Christopher… what, is it true? Yes, a Swedish name snuck in on the edges of a drug crime. Mohammed, Mahmod Ali, again and again,” he added.
Diversity proving to be “our greatest strength” yet again.
Specifically, she pointed to the fact that “serious, organized crime is committed to a large extent by people with foreign assets,” that new arrivals are “not self-sufficient,” and that the “culture of honor, separatism, and Islamism is limiting and dangerous.”
Nobody could have seen it coming. 🙂
Dominican Republic Builds 12-Foot Tall BORDER WALL to Protect from Haitian Gangs, Crime
by Adan Salazar
March 19th 2024, 5:34 pm
According to Fox News, “The president of the Dominican Republic says so far about 100 miles of border wall have been completed.”
“The goal is to eventually have a border wall run along the entire border with Haiti. He says it’ll change the Dominican Republic forever.”
D.R. President Luis Abinader lauded the wall’s construction, saying, “The physical wall is already doing its job.”
“From a security standpoint, it is helping us a lot,” Abinader added.
https://www.infowars.com/posts/dominican-republic-builds-12-foot-tall-border-wall-to-protect-from-haitian-gangs-crime
AWR HAWKINS
19 Mar 2024
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) is standing with House Democrats in her state who are pushing for a ban on “assault weapons.”
On March 19, 2024, Griswold posted to X:
Jena Griswold
@JenaGriswold
I support an assault weapons ban in Colorado. We can’t wait for the federal government to act.
10:09 AM · Mar 19, 2024
https://x.com/JenaGriswold/status/1770090267510731155?s=20
Ice T — Mic Contract:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj8TT4ypsw4
Ice Cube — What They Hittin’ Foe?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2860arthmBM
The 2024 election was stolen
И. С. Бах – Токката и фуга d moll
Ashkhen.Gevorkian
May 14, 2022
Исполняет Геворкян Ашхен
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAi1pn3kBqE
9:31.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erXG9vnN-GI
J.S. Bach : Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 / Liene Andreta Kalnciema live at Riga Cathedral
7,482,512 views Feb 21, 2021
J.S. Bach : Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565
Liene Andreta Kalnciema playing the great Walcker organ (1883) at Riga Cathedral in Latvia.
Performance recorded live on July 7, 2019.
\\
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojBYW3ycVTE
BACH: Toccata and Fugue, BWV 565 by Edson Lopes
Edson Lopes
111K subscribers
4,101,504 views Mar 31, 2020
March 21/31, 2020 – 335th Birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach
Edson Lopes plays Toccata and Fugue, BWV 565 by Johann Sebastian Bach
2nd edition to celebrate the 335th birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach
Beautiful Bach.
That tune makes me want to go out and pick up one of these…
https://youtube.com/shorts/Af68kcwMPmk?si=i12-LfoF_WH32_Gj
This was supposed to be under Ice T — Mic Contract:
It doesn’t go very well with the chick playing the harp.
Willin’ (Live at Lisner Auditorium, Washington, DC, 8/8/1977) · Little Feat
Waiting for Columbus
https://youtu.be/YIIDvLXySH8?si=k13Bu0ZPaf1K3f-b&t=43
A commenter said he’s Venezuelan.
Amazing and disgusting all at the same time.
Unlike my landlord, I will not gouge her on the price I will charge to occupy/protect her property (just a joke, LLs 😏)
Not likely to happen anyway, not with this place. After the last unpleasant conversation/rent negotiation, she may not offer us a lease extension. I was the polite one in comparison.
What would happen to debt donkeys if the Fed decided to keep rates higher for longer?
Yahoo Finance
Benzinga
‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ Robert Kiyosaki Asks, ‘Who’s Right?’ He Is A Billionaire $1.2 Billion In Debt, But Dave Ramsey Says ‘Live Debt Free’
Jeannine Mancini
Tue, Mar 19, 2024, 10:00 AM PDT4 min read
In a March 16 post on X, “Rich Dad Poor Dad” author Robert Kiyosaki revitalized the ongoing debate regarding the role of debt in achieving financial success.
Contrasting his stance with that of radio personality Dave Ramsey, a vocal advocate for a debt-free lifestyle, Kiyosaki’s insights stir a compelling discussion on financial strategies. “WHO IS RIGHT? My friend Dave Ramsey says ‘Live debt free.’ I say ‘I use debt to invest. I am $1.2 billion in debt,‘” Kiyosaki wrote, offering a bold entrance into the dialogue on debt management and financial freedom.
Kiyosaki’s argument unfolds with a reflection on the wisdom behind Ramsey’s advice versus his own. Acknowledging the validity of living debt-free for the majority, he said, “For most people with low financial acumen, Dave’s advice is the smarter advice.”
Yet, he counters this by highlighting the potential benefits of debt as an investment tool for those well-versed in financial matters. “For the financially educated and experienced, my advice may be better,” Kiyosaki said, suggesting a tailored approach to financial decision-making based on individual knowledge and experience levels.
This perspective is rooted in Kiyosaki’s financial journey, marked by his substantial $1.2 billion debt — incurred not as a burden, but as a deliberate strategy to invest in assets like gold and silver. Critiquing the conventional approach of saving cash, especially after the U.S. dollar’s decoupling from the gold standard in 1971, he presents his debt as a calculated risk aimed at wealth accumulation.
“If I go bust, the bank goes bust. Not my problem,” he said.
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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/rich-dad-poor-dad-robert-170012929.html
China facing multiple debt crises
On top of its housing bubble, the country is struggling with highly indebted local governments and a slate of bad loans in the developing world
Author of the article:
Diane Francis
Published Mar 18, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read
China is now juggling three debt crises: its domestic real estate bubble, its high infrastructure spending and its Belt and Road Initiative to build bridges, dams and ports in foreign countries.
Photo by Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images
Article content
TikTok and Taiwan dominate the news concerning China. But the real story is that Beijing is in financial trouble.
In January, a Hong Kong court ordered that one of China’s largest property developers, Evergrande, undergo liquidation, after it had taken on US$300 billion ($406 billion) in debts. And this month, its second gigantic real estate developer, Vanke, was downgraded to “junk” status by Moody’s and has the country’s state-owned banks scrambling to help it meet its repayment deadlines.
Many more Chinese enterprises are struggling. Its stock markets have dropped considerably over the past year, and youth unemployment is soaring.
“China’s Communist leaders on (March 5) set a goal of five per cent economic growth for this year, and the fact that this target is being described as ‘ambitious’ is a sign of Beijing’s economic troubles. It’s not clear President Xi Jinping can deliver even on this target,” wrote the Wall Street Journal.
China’s fall from grace began with COVID, but has also been caused by grievous errors of judgment made by Xi, who’s now a dictator for life. He turned the country into a casino by deregulating everything, and stripped the private assets of some of the country’s most successful entrepreneurs — tycoons like Jack Ma, who built Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd.
Xi further damaged the country’s reputation and prospects by not denouncing Russian President Vladimir Putin and his genocidal war against Ukraine, which has upset the West. Yet the fact remains that a diminished Beijing is a good outcome. Weak countries don’t invade their neighbours.
China is now juggling three debt crises: its domestic real estate bubble, its high infrastructure spending and its Belt and Road Initiative to build bridges, dams and ports in foreign countries to cultivate global allies.
“Investors in China have had a lost decade or more already,” wrote James Mackintosh in the Wall Street Journal last summer. “Put simply, China borrowed and invested way too much into unproductive assets such as housing, while suppressing consumption.”
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https://financialpost.com/diane-francis/china-facing-multiple-debt-crises
Yahoo Finance
Benzinga
Wharton Finance Professor Believes US Debt Could Send Interest Rates Skyrocketing Past 7% In 2025
Eric McConnell
Tue, Mar 19, 2024, 11:48 AM PDT 5 min read
If you are a prospective homebuyer or real estate investor concerned about high interest rates and you’re sick of bad news, you may want to stop reading right now. That’s because Joao Gomes, a finance professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, believes America’s $34 trillion in debt could spark a crisis that sends interest rates spiraling past 7% if the government doesn’t act soon.
Gomes does not see much evidence that either party possesses the political will, or even the right formula, to manage what he sees as a real crisis on the horizon. He’s not alone in that assessment, as JPMorgan Chase & Co, CEO Jamie Dimon and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell have both recently expressed deep concern about the amount of debt America is carrying and the potential threat it poses to the economy.
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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/wharton-finance-professor-believes-us-184811556.html
In One Chart
The stock market’s performance under Biden is now better than under Trump. But a big factor is COVID’s toll in 2020.
Published: March 19, 2024 at 8:30 a.m. ET
By Victor Reklaitis
Presidents probably get too much credit for how the market fares, one analyst says
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https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-stock-markets-performance-under-biden-is-now-better-than-under-trump-but-a-big-factor-is-covids-toll-in-2020-b655d1e8
What about this story about to post is not horrible?
Law
A student persuaded by his friend to get his legs amputated for a $1.3 million insurance scam wound up getting only $7,200 that he now has to return: prosecutors
Matthew Loh
Mar 18, 2024, 3:11 AM ET
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https://www.businessinsider.com/taiwan-student-convinced-friend-amputate-legs-insurance-scam-prosecutors-2024-3
Some would-be friends are best avoided.
“The bureau said a friend of Zhang’s from high school, identified only as Liao, persuaded him to carry out the insurance scam.
Liao, also 23, suffered losses from trading cryptocurrency, and he tricked Zhang into signing a legal note obligating him to pay about $800,000, investigators said.”
Do Powell & company plan to fix the housing market’s “how much a month” problem?
Yahoo Finance
The Fed won’t fix the housing market: Morning Brief
Myles Udland·Head of News
Tue, Mar 19, 2024, 3:00 AM PDT2 min read
In this article:
The US housing market has a simple problem: affordability.
But Jerome Powell and his colleagues at the Federal Reserve don’t see this tension in the current economic expansion as theirs to resolve.
“We’re not targeting housing price inflation, the cost of housing, or any of those things,” Powell said in a press conference in January. “Those are very important things for people’s lives. But they’re not — you know, those are not the things we’re targeting.”
The Fed, rather, seeks to fulfill its dual mandate of achieving maximum employment and stable prices, which it defines as inflation that averages 2%. The central bank’s struggles on this latter part of its mandate are why interest rates are so high and are expected to remain there this week.
Moreover, housing costs — and rent, specifically — remain the biggest factor in keeping inflation elevated. Home prices are at record highs. And the outlook on whether the supply needed to meet demand will make its way to the market is mixed, at best.
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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-fed-wont-fix-the-housing-market-morning-brief-100046368.html