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When Rates Are Low And Financing Is Cheap, Developers Build

A report from Realtor.com. “The official arrival of spring has also ushered in a pop of positive news for housing: A whopping 17.8% more sellers listed their homes in the week ending March 16 compared with last year. ‘This is the highest year-over-year growth rate in new listings seen since May of 2021,’ says Realtor.com® economic data manager Sabrina Speianu. As buyers mull their bottom line, some sellers are lowering asking prices to lure them in. ‘This pace of increasing price reductions has continued into the first few weeks of March,’ Speianu points out.”

The Palm Beach Post. “A financial cliff may await Florida condo owners at the end of the year, as new regulations may cause association maintenance fees to skyrocket. Roofs and other components of these older buildings, meant to last 20-30 years, have been pushed beyond their lifespan. Senate Bill 4D, enacted during the 2022 session, created new standards for condo buildings over three stories tall. Under SB4D, condo developments over 30 years old — two-thirds of all condos in Florida — must undergo inspections and immediately address critical defects. SB4D also eliminates the ability of COAs to waive reserve contributions, instead requiring that they collect the annual cost needed to repair and replace certain elements by the end of their life span, as determined by a 10-year Structural Integrity Reserve Study (SIRS).”

“The deadline to complete these inspections is Dec. 31, 2024. As inspection results come in, many condo associations and owners will realize the scale of the problem. Many associations may face repair costs in the millions. Even after allocating those costs among all unit owners, many owners in older buildings may not be able to afford the increased maintenance fees and special assessments to make immediate repairs. Condo owners need to understand: they’re going to be on the hook. The state legislature is committing budget and resources to ensuring enforcement; avoidance will not be possible. Their monthly association fees will increase as the building works to replenish deficient reserves. For millions of condo owners in Florida, the next year is going to be filled with painful choices.”

The San Francisco Chronicle in California. “San Francisco condominium values are still far below pre-pandemic levels, many large buildings remain half-vacant, and the prospective buyers who might fill them have yet to return. Few segments of the Bay Area’s housing market were hit as hard during the pandemic as San Francisco condos. From February 2020 to February 2024, the city’s single-family home values declined on average from $1.44 million to $1.36 million, about 5.5%, according to Zillow. But over the same four years, San Francisco’s condo values dropped by more than twice that rate, 12.8%, from $1.14 million to $997,000. That was the second-biggest value drop among any city in the San Francisco and San Jose metropolitan areas. Only East Palo Alto had a larger decrease — about 16.6%, from $822,000 to $686,000.”

Bisnow on Pennsylvania. “For Philadelphia renters considering a move to a new upscale building, there are options for bargains all along Broad Street. From Tower Place Apartments, at Broad Street and Spring Garden St., down to the 777 South Broad building, both older and newer developments are touting at least one month free and ultra-luxe amenities. A glut of new builds has landlords of the city’s most expensive projects going all out to get people in the door. And with thousands of additional units on the way, the competition could get even more intense. Just 45% of the 7,930 units across the 62 luxury buildings completed in 2023 have been filled. That’s likely because so many of them flooded into the market at once.”

“‘When rates are low and financing is cheap, developers build. Philadelphia is no different from many markets that are in a bit of oversupply,’ said Alan Feldman, a lecturer on real estate development at The Wharton School’s Zell Lurie Real Estate Center at the University of Pennsylvania. ‘A lot of what is still being delivered was planned three to five years ago.'”

The Wall Street Journal. “Student housing has emerged as a hot sector in real estate. But high rents are squeezing students, forcing some to take on more debt, and others to choose windowless rooms in expensive cities like Austin, Texas. A room with no natural light in a four-bedroom apartment there now costs $1,300 a month. Investors like student housing in part because students can borrow to cover the rent. ‘Students can take out loans for housing,’ said Shangxuan Tan, chief executive of Chicago-based private-equity firm OC Ventures, in an investor presentation viewed by the Journal. The firm buys and sells student-housing properties. ‘There is never a bad time to invest in student housing,’ he added.”

“For two years, biology major Breanna Ellis paid about $1,000 a month for a windowless room in a building called Lark Austin. She graduated with $20,000 in debt in 2021 despite working part time and receiving a scholarship covering tuition. During her senior year, Ellis sought mental-health treatment for a variety of reasons including what she said was the strain of living in a sunless room. She was prescribed antidepressants. The Lark is owned by real-estate firm The Scion Group, one of the biggest student landlords, managing nearly 83,000 beds. The company charges $30 extra a month for a window in a bedroom on top of a $55 monthly amenity fee. ‘While this young lady’s circumstance is unfortunate, those units are the most popular and the fastest to lease,’ said Scion Group President Rob Bronstein. ‘Her peers are voting with their dollars, and they are choosing the least expensive options first.'”

The Washington Post. “The percentage of voters in D.C.’s closest Maryland suburbs who say crime is the state’s biggest problem has risen sharply, from 7 percent in 2019 to 30 percent today, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll. Crime is now first in Prince George’s, as it is in neighboring Montgomery County, where in 2019 climate change topped the list and crime was seventh at 3 percent. The issues have essentially swapped places for Montgomery voters. Their views on crime mirror those across Maryland. ‘When we first came to Montgomery County, crime was not so bad. Now you have carjackings in broad daylight,’ said Rene Molina, a 50-year-old operating room nurse who lives in the Calverton area.”

CTV News in Canada. “A group of landlords are calling on the province to speed up the eviction process when tenants don’t pay rent, saying months of backlogs at the Landlord and Tenant Board is costing thousands. ‘We are seeing homeowners and landlords lose their properties. We are seeing them go into significant debt just to hold on to their houses,’ said Ottawa property manager, Varun Sriskanda. ‘It’s the small guys that are getting obliterated. It’s the small ones that are going bankrupt, not the big operators, so the issues at the LTB have a dramatic impact,’ said Toronto-area landlord, Chris Seepe. Seepe estimates he loses between $15,000 and $30,000 a year in unpaid rent and recently started a petition calling on the Ontario government to implement automatic evictions.”

From Reuters. “Swedish real estate group SBB said on Sunday it would buy back debt at a discount of 60% compared with the debt’s original value, in an attempt to calm investors’ nerves as it scrambles to tackle a multi-billion debt pile. The property group said it would pay 162.7 million euros ($176 million) to buy back 407.7 million euros’ worth of debt. The buyback will trim the struggling property company’s debts, which amounted to some 62 billion Swedish crowns ($5.9 billion) at the end of last year. High debt levels, interest rate hikes and a wilting economy have hit many European property companies, with the sector in Sweden among the worst affected.”

From Bloomberg. “When Eric Li lost his job after his family-office employer relocated away from Hong Kong, he knew he would be facing a tough job market. He had no idea how hard it would be. Seventeen months on, Li is still searching. The bills are piling up – nearly HK$60,000 (S$10,360) a month for rent and HK$1 million annually for his kids’ education. The worst part though is the fear, and gradual acceptance, that this is not even rock bottom. ‘I thought that China’s upward trajectory and the tighter ties between domestic and global financial markets was a norm – now I realise it might have been just a blip,’ said Li, who has also worked at Citigroup. ‘That is a scary thought.'”

“Nowhere is that pain more pronounced than in Hong Kong, the centre of such deal brokering. The damage is underscored by the barrage of layoffs by Wall Street firms, the retreat of global capital into the world’s second-largest economy, and the city’s diminishing role as an international financial centre. After looking at former colleagues who have been out of a job for more than a year, Henry, a debt banker working for a Chinese brokerage in Hong Kong, said even if his pay gets cut by 30 to 40 per cent he would accept it. ‘I’m worried I’m gonna get fired any day,’ he said. ‘All our revenue drivers are paralysed.'”

From Yicai Global. “Embattled Chinese developer China Evergrande Group has filed documents to a court in the United States to withdraw its bankruptcy protection application. Evergrande and its subsidiaries Scenery Journey and Tianji Holding are not expected to proceed with their previously planned offshore debt restructuring scheme, so they applied to withdraw their applications for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection on March 22, the Shenzhen-based parent company said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange yesterday.”

“Hengda, its founder Xu Jiayin, and other senior executives have been penalized for falsifying revenues by CNY560 billion (USD78 billion) in the two years preceding the builder’s default. In 2019 and 2020, Hengda inflated its annual revenues by about CNY214 billion and CNY350.2 billion, respectively, net profits by CNY40.7 billion and CNY51.3 billion (USD5.7 billion and USD7.1 billion), and costs by CNY173.3 billion and CNY298.9 billion, according to the results of an investigation by the China Securities Regulatory Commission. The falsified revenue and profit in 2019 accounted for about 50 percent and over 63 percent, respectively, of Hengda’s totals that year, per the CSRC, while the figures were nearly 79 percent and 87 percent in 2020.”

This Post Has 66 Comments
  1. ‘Students can take out loans for housing…There is never a bad time to invest in student housing’

    Whoever wrote this article has their head stuck in 2015. Billions of pesos have been washed down this rat hole since then.

    1. I’m going through this now with my son who’s in college. The rental game is criminal for these students (and parents who have to be guarantors).

  2. ‘Evergrande and its subsidiaries Scenery Journey and Tianji Holding are not expected to proceed with their previously planned offshore debt restructuring scheme, so they applied to withdraw their applications for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection on March 22’

    Nothing left for the gringo bond bag holders it seems.

    ‘The falsified revenue and profit in 2019 accounted for about 50 percent and over 63 percent, respectively, of Hengda’s totals that year, per the CSRC, while the figures were nearly 79 percent and 87 percent in 2020’

    This would make a ponzi scheme CEO blush.

  3. ‘Crime is now first in Prince George’s, as it is in neighboring Montgomery County, where in 2019 climate change topped the list and crime was seventh at 3 percent. The issues have essentially swapped places for Montgomery voters. Their views on crime mirror those across Maryland. ‘When we first came to Montgomery County, crime was not so bad. Now you have carjackings in broad daylight’

    You live in a crime ridden sh$thole Rene. Check this article out to see what out of control communism gets ya.

    1. The western part of Montgomery County is the tony area with all the mansions. The eastern part of Montgomery County borders PG County, full of small brick ranch homes from the 1950s and yeah, it’s starting to get crime-ridden. My guess is that they’re seeing the kid-glove treatment that criminals are getting in California and Oregon and Minnesota, and so they’re testing what they can get away with in blue-state MD. So far MD has been trying to keep a lid on it, but I don’t know how long they can maintain this. I’ve noticed a definite uptick in homeless cart-pushers, and one or two tents (which are quickly removed). We’re heading the same way as other states, but very slowly.

      If it’s any consolation, once you get outside these two counties and Baltimore, rural roads are full of Trump signs.

      1. I should add that the blue voters in MoCo are upper-middle-class suburban liberal moms and their hippie parents. They’re voting to virtue signal, not because they need the handouts. Maybe a couple of them will secretly change their minds.

  4. The Eviction process in my part of SC, almost always takes less then 30 days, for non-payment of rents ….The tenants see on the news where it takes months and months ,in other States, and they think, “Hey, I’ll try that “, and end up,quite soon, out on the street …
    Am doing an eviction now ,where a month ago,the woman sees about people boldly stealing whatever they want ,on the west coast…
    She goes to the local big grocery store, loads up half a cart full of frozen meat, and runs out the door with it…
    She told me later that “I hadn’t unloaded even half my meat into the car ,when here they come , threw me on the ground, and cuffed me ,and I had to call my BF from jail to bail me out,and I’m 7 months pregnant, too”….So that’s the way we do it in SC……

    1. But you still got at least 30 to 60 days without a return on your investment. And with where we all know the economy is going, even if you can evict in 30 days who wants to do that over and over again? None of the amateur wanna-be landlords out there ever factor in a minimum 15% vacancy when calculating ROI. So you want to be a landlord? No thanks.

      1. Squatters ? A new industry is appearing which deals with Squatters for about 5-10K a home. Some hard boys probably figured out this new game since the elected you pay taxes for wont do it.

    2. in NYC there has always been a fast track possession only eviction, you cant ask for money.

      also. talk about a la cartoon!!!!! The company charges $30 extra a month for a window in a bedroom on top of a $55 monthly amenity fee.

      1. Ellis sought mental-health treatment for a variety of reasons including what she said was the strain of living in a sunless room. She was prescribed antidepressants.

        Of course it was drugs. Drugs are always the answer. Just ask any crack addict. Why didn’t they tell her to go for a walk, or a bike ride and get some sunlight. Study in the Quad or library instead of your room.

        1. “…the strain of living in a sunless room.”

          How about vitamin D3 available over the counter?

  5. ‘San Francisco condominium values are still far below pre-pandemic levels, many large buildings remain half-vacant, and the prospective buyers who might fill them have yet to return. Few segments of the Bay Area’s housing market were hit as hard during the pandemic as San Francisco condos. From February 2020 to February 2024, the city’s single-family home values declined on average from $1.44 million to $1.36 million, about 5.5%, according to Zillow. But over the same four years, San Francisco’s condo values dropped by more than twice that rate, 12.8%, from $1.14 million to $997,000. That was the second-biggest value drop among any city in the San Francisco and San Jose metropolitan areas. Only East Palo Alto had a larger decrease — about 16.6%, from $822,000 to $686,000’

    The gist of this article is bay aryan real estate only goes up. But the time line is odd. ‘From February 2020 to February 2024, the city’s single-family home values declined on average from $1.44 million to $1.36 million.’ The peak overall was probably spring 2022, but airboxes there have been sinking like a turd in a well since 2015. Why even mention 2020?

  6. Come Jan. 1, associations need to have a solution — which means that these boards need to start engaging legal counsel immediately to help understand the scope of their options, and what needs to be done in order to get owners the best deal.

    SB4D is a vital update to Florida’s condominium regulations, and will undoubtedly help prevent tragedy. But the short-term impacts are going to be severe for owners.

    Ignoring the problem or pushing this decision off will only worsen the outcome. Condo owners still have control over their fate but only if they act quickly.

    Florida is finished

    1. Florida is finished

      The next year or year in a half is going to lead to a lot of boomer homelessness in Florida. Since a fair number of these boomers were originally from NY/NJ, maybe they can go back there and will be treated at least as nice as the illegals in NYC.

    2. “Florida is finished”

      I knew this two decades ago watching family then in South Florida go through multiple hurricanes and the resulting assessments from HOA’s.

      I will never own a property subject to a HOA.

    3. “Florida is finished”

      For the older condos on prime locations the best solution will likely be to sell the land with the building as a tear-down.

  7. 60% of the U.S. say “the media are the enemy”

    https://joannenova.com.au/

    Ponder how far we have come when more than half of the US sees the media, not just as self-serving, biased hacks, but as The Enemy itself.

    “Fake News” is annoying, but active lies and suppression are a campaign to steal something from you — or everything: your money, your health, your vote and your children. There is no “town square” anymore, no common forum where ideas are batted back and forth until both sides agree. There is only entrenched polarization. A house divided, and no shared meals. Fomenting civil war.

    Rasmussen Reports asked 1,114 likely US voters whether the media are “truly the enemy of the people”, and an amazing 60% agreed.

    By Nicole Wells, NewsMax

    According to the survey, of the 60% majority who agree with Trump’s 2019 assessment that the media are “the enemy of the people,” 30% strongly agree with the presumptive GOP presidential nominee; 36% disagree with the statement, including 21% who strongly disagree.

    It’s much more widespread across the political spectrum than you might think:

    On whether the media are “truly the enemy of the people,” 79% of Republicans, 60% of independents, and 41% of Democrats at least somewhat agree.

    Even half of Democrat voters agree the media runs on Democrat talking points:

    Broken down by political party, 78% of Republicans, 61% of independents, and half of Democrats say it is at least somewhat likely that the news media’s political coverage is driven by Biden campaign talking points.

    Donald Trump not only talked about the Fake News Media, but called the media “the enemy of the people” from as far back as 2017.

    Recently, he talked of a “bloodbath” in the auto industry, which was twisted into false claims he was calling for a political bloodbath if he loses. The Rasmussen poll showed that media bias still has power — 40% of US voters still believe the lie that he was talking about widespread political violence by his supporters. 49% knew the truth, and 11% were unsure. Voters younger than 40 were less likely to have figured out the truth.

    But only 3% of Twitter users still believe the “Bloodbath hoax”.

    Rather surprisingly, Rasmussen ran a similar poll in 2021 with similar results. The 60% are entrenched.

    The Democrats, the Financial House media owners, and Deep State would have to be sweating. Control of the media has been a powerful weapon but that ship is breaking up on the rocks of reality. Another round of “Factcheckers” can’t save it now. All they have left is the USS Censor Ship.

    Thought for the day: How do we reach more of the believer 40%?

    UPDATE: At least one commenter still believes the media care about subscriptions

    The profits from subscribers and advertising are trivial compared to the power that comes from controlling the narrative. Shareholder owners invest a small part of their portfolio in their media-empire so they can then hide their subsidies, pointless industries and crony deals from public outrage and scrutiny.

    The uber billionaires can lose money on the media so the rest of their investment portfolio reaps in the dough from their power to control the narrative, influence elections, and suppress public dissent.

    See: What if the media was just the lobbying agency for bigger profit making ventures?

    This is what mind control looks like…
    Media giant AP News sells out journalism for just $8m from billionaires
    Can anyone still pretend the Media are not a wing of the Democrats?
    What looks, acts and smells like a Global News Cartel and just got hit by an Antitrust lawsuit…
    The Bill Gates Foundation is a $300 million dollar media Octopus

    1. The New York Times (mouthpiece of the Obama state department, i.e. the Deep State) and the Washington Post (mouthpiece of the CIA, i.e. the Deep State) are the enemy of the American people.

      Any publication or media outlet that writes about “protecting” or “saving” democracy is your enemy.

    2. There’s a definite public square going on in X and with the YouTube comment sections. YouTube loosened up when X started allowing video in direct competition with YouTube.

      FoxNews is the only outlet which still has a functioning comment section. Paid Dems troll commenters are trying to take over but they are quickly shouted down.

  8. Pawn shops know something about the US economy that Biden doesn’t: Times are still tough

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/pawn-shops-know-something-us-090014760.html

    [This article is long so the only things that will be offered up are snips.]

    President Joe Biden is trying to persuade Americans that the economy is on the upswing, and he has been touting economic indicators that he says prove it: easing inflation, rising job growth and wages, unemployment near record lows, a surging stock market.

    But the president’s rosy economic picture hasn’t reached everyone.

    Two years of steep inflation has hit working families hard, especially those living paycheck to paycheck.

    It’s an urban metaphor for the U.S. economy’s uneven recovery.

    Some Americans – people with retirement plans, savings and stock holdings – may gripe about inflation and the economy, but they’re doing all right.

    Others are surviving pawn to pawn.

    ‘American households do not have $1,000’
    The pawn shop, for those who don’t have a credit card or a bank account, acts like a sort of rainy day fund.

    Loans typically last 30 to 90 days. But right now, customers are pawning and not coming back to reclaim their rings or belt buckles.

    “Pawn balances have risen across the country in the past two years, said Laura Wasileski, spokeswoman for the National Pawnbrokers Association.

    The reasons, she said, include “cost-of-living increases, the lack of access to credit, short-term emergencies, and the fact that 50% of American households do not have $1,000 in savings to cover those emergencies.”

    Nearly 6 million, or 4.5%, of households in the U.S. had no bank account in 2021, according to the latest survey data available from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the agency that insures the banking system.

    People of color, those with less education, lower incomes, disabilities and single-mother households were more likely to lack bank access, according to the FDIC.

    A fifth of survey respondents said they didn’t keep a bank account because they didn’t have enough money to meet the minimum balance requirements ‒ often $100 to a few hundred dollars.

    Big pawnshop companies see inventory rise
    What Baron sees from the counter of his family-owned store tracks with national trends.

    “When times are good and people have money, there’s going to be more money coming in. People will be buying the stuff,” Baron said. “When people need money, there’s going to be more money going out of the store, which is what’s happening now.”

    Two of the largest, publicly traded pawnshop corporations in the U.S. – which between them own roughly 1,700 pawnshops nationwide – are also reporting growing inventory and increased demand for short-term loans.

    FirstCash Holdings Inc. operates nearly 1,200 pawnshops under the FirstCash and Cash America brands in 29 states and the District of Columbia. The company reported “record pawn receivables” in its most recent year-end earnings report and a 10% increase in inventory at its U.S. stores.

    EZCORP Inc. also owns 530 pawnshops in the U.S. and reported an 8% increase in inventory at U.S. stores in the company’s latest earnings report. The “challenging macro-economic backdrop” continued to fuel demand for short-term cash loans, the company said.

    The price of gold – which investors turn to as a hedge against inflation – has helped drive up pawn inventory, too, as consumers of varying income levels pawn gold items to cash in on the favorable market price. An ounce of gold hit an all-time record – over $2,200 per troy ounce – this week.

    Despite trending downward over the past year, consumer price increases accelerated in January and February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, raising concerns that the inflation fight isn’t over yet.

    Baron, the shop’s owner, tried to pinpoint the moment the economy soured for his customers.

    “Definitely since COVID, but even before COVID,” he said, “I don’t want to get political, but even during the Trump administration beginning, people seemed like they were a little dry.”

    1. It’s bad enough that they deny people are struggling and try to tell us this is some golden era. Then on top of it they give money to illegals as the country’s own citizens are suffering.

  9. The United States’ national debt is increasing by $1+ trillion every 100 days.

    Janet Yellen to make second trip to China next month (3/23/2024):

    “Yellen’s trip in the coming weeks will be a follow-up to her meetings in Beijing in July that resulted in the formation of new Economic and Financial Working Groups designed for “frank and substantive discussions” on contentious issues.

    Yellen’s travel plan reflects the administration’s efforts to sustain a still-fragile stability in bilateral ties battered over the past year by issues including the Chinese spy balloon incident, rising tensions across the Taiwan Strait and Beijing’s increasingly aggressive posture in the South China Sea.

    The administration has tried to cool that rancor in the past nine months with a series of visits by senior administration officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in August. Those high-level in-person contacts aim to keep ties stable in the heat of a U.S. presidential election campaign in which a China threat narrative will loom large in rhetoric on foreign policy.”

    https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/23/janet-yellen-to-make-second-trip-to-china-next-month-00148702

    1. I saw an article about how the IRS has wrestled something like $500M in unpaid taxes from rich people.

      Let’s see … that should cover about a single hour’s worth of the deficit.

      Yay! We’re saved!

  10. US new home sales unexpectedly fall in February

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/us-new-home-sales-unexpectedly-fall-in-february/ar-BB1kv3F5

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sales of new U.S. single-family homes unexpectedly fell in February, but data for the prior month was revised higher, pointing to underlying strength as a shortage of previously owned houses on the market persists.

    New home sales slipped 0.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 662,000 units last month, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau said on Monday. The sales pace for January was revised up to 664,000 units from the previously reported 661,000 units.

    Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new home sales, which account for more than 10% of U.S. home sales, rising to a rate of 675,000 units.

    New home sales are counted at the signing of a contract, making them a leading indicator of the housing market. They, however, can be volatile on a month-to-month basis. Sales advanced 5.9% on a year-on-year basis in February.
    The new homes market has defied 525 basis points worth of interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve since March 2022, bolstered by a dearth of previously owned houses on the market.

    Builders are ramping up construction, while offering price cuts and other incentives as well as reducing floor size to make housing more affordable. The government reported last week that housing completions hit their highest level in 17 years in February. More new home supply is in the pipeline.

  11. Warmists gonna warm.

    Washington Post — Electric cars are the future. Why is the EPA pumping the brakes? (3/25/2024):

    “I am willing to believe that electric cars are the future. In fact, I think they probably are. And that future can’t come too soon: America’s vast fleet of gas-powered vehicles emits noxious combustion byproducts that not only contribute to global warming but also can be hazardous to human health. Especially in cities, it will be better when these pollution machines are replaced by cleaner, quieter electrics.”

    Especially in cities? That’s the 15 minute prison they are creating for you.

    “Naturally, the Biden administration wants to race toward that future. And just as naturally, there are better and worse ways to make that happen. And with its new tailpipe emissions rules, which would require more than half of all new cars to be electric by 2032, the administration has chosen one of the worse ones — the kind that risks delaying the brighter, greener tomorrow officials are trying to bring about.”

    How much fresh water does it take to mine a ton of lithium?


    The only way to reach that tomorrow is in EVs that are undeniably more appealing than the gas guzzlers they’re meant to replace. For one thing, most American drivers are also American voters, who can unelect any politician who foists an unwanted EV on them. More important, most of the drivers who will steer the future aren’t Americans at all: They’re the billions of people living in poorer countries who would like to adopt a more comfortable, higher-carbon lifestyle.

    We are fooling ourselves if we think we can stop them from doing so by cutting back our own consumption to set a good example. They want to emit more carbon not because turnabout is fair play but for the same reasons you live in a home filled with electric lights and appliances, perhaps vacation in far-flung places, and might drive to the grocery store instead of walking.

    We’re rich enough that we’re often willing to pay something extra to make those choices cleaner and greener.”

    Electric vehicles are a virtue signal.

    “But most of us aren’t that willing, which is why even Democratic politicians are frantic to keep gas prices from rising too high, never mind that costlier gas would obviously help reduce our emissions. Poorer people in other countries are likely to be even less willing to make those sorts of sacrifices for the sake of the environment.”

    https://archive.is/aiDKO

    Translation: Communism.

    1. Related article.

      The Federalist — Biden’s Green Policies Will Leave People Freezing This Winter (3/25/2024):

      “Although Biden’s various electric vehicle (EV) mandates and subsidies tend to get more press than his other half-brained attempts to reduce carbon dioxide, the administration’s push for electric heat pumps could prove to be even more of a disaster.

      Heat pumps are a novel innovation for electric heat that are presented as innocuous but are arguably the most ill-advised of consumer products. In addition to concerns about cost, functionality, net pollution, and disposal, the elephant in the heat pump living room is grid dependency. If the electric grid fails even temporarily, homeowners in cold regions reliant solely on electric heat face life-threatening consequences. Consumers may want to hold off disconnecting their woodstoves in blind trust of such a fragile technological reed.

      Electric heat has not historically managed to compete with fossil fuels on cost, but heat pump efficiencies are touted as game-changing. Yet even if all the claimed benefits of these new supposedly salvific gadgets were true, there are glaring hazards that go uncritically challenged. The greatest of these is grid dependency.

      Heat pumps may be terrific for areas of the country that rarely see freezing temperatures. (This is true also for EVs, which in deep freezes pose serious problems not faced by their California Dreamin’ cousins.) An efficient supplemental heat source in a house, barn, or garage in Kentucky or Tennessee, where temperatures do not often dip to sub-zero threats, let alone over sustained periods, may be a wise and efficient upgrade. Most northern U.S. regions, in contrast, annually battle that ancient enemy: Old Man Winter. For centuries, people have chopped and dried wood in anticipation of that often-grueling combat, only recently augmented by oil furnaces or gas heaters.

      But even oil and gas heat can usually be kept running when the grid goes down, for homeowners equipped with a modest (gas-powered) generator. If not, pipes can freeze and cause extensive damage; cold children get sick; and old, sick, and isolated people freeze to death.”

      https://thefederalist.com/2024/03/25/bidens-green-policies-will-have-people-freezing-this-winter/

      Democrat Party wants you to freeze to death.

        1. A simple small battery backup (enough kWH to sustain furnace controls for 3-4 days) is possible.

          1. The circulating fan is a big draw
            Baseboard hot water heating systems do not have a circulating fan. Largest load is oil or gas heater blower which is relatively small.

  12. Left unsaid in the article, is who exactly supported this referendum? Marxists, that’s who.

    The Federalist — Irish Voters Defeat Leftist Referendum To Remove ‘Mother’ From Constitution (3/25/2024):

    “On March 8, Western civilization dodged a bullet. On that day, voters in Ireland went to the polls to vote on a referendum that could ultimately result in worldwide changes for the definition of the family.

    The referendum sought to remove the word “mother” from the Irish Constitution, which for over 80 years has protected the traditional role of women in society, especially regarding their role in the home.

    Voters were asked to approve new constitutional language that replaced the words “women” and “mother” with the following: “[T]he provision of care, by members of a family to one another by reason of the bonds that exist among them” — a vague statement that could practically mean anything.

    As my friends and colleagues John Stonestreet and Glenn Sunshine commented, “The change might seem small, but it would put Ireland in the position of attempting to be the first nation in history to eliminate from its governing language words that describe objective realities about people.”

    https://thefederalist.com/2024/03/25/irish-voters-defeat-leftist-referendum-to-remove-mother-from-constitution/

    Describe objective realities?

    I was working in a building in Downtown Denver last week that has restrooms (code required to enter, because fentanyl and meth) labeled as “stalls and urinals” and “stalls only” because virtue signals.

    Marxists gonna Marx.

    1. Left unsaid in the article, is who exactly supported this referendum? Marxists, that’s who.

      The UK and Ireland are almost 90% white, yet are all ruled, with the exception of Northern Ireland, by non-heritage British, in another words by foreigners. This is especially shocking in the republic of Ireland, which suffered so much and for so long to achieve its independence and is now governed by a non Irish homosexual.

      Remember the previous UK Prime Minister, Liz Truss? She didn’t even last 60 days and was quickly replaced by Sunak, who is the UK’s equivalent of a RINO. And to make things even worse many believe that Labour will win the next election.

      1. It’s hard to feel sorry for a people who voted for it themselves. One would assume at least half the population is content.

  13. [This is long so snips are all you’re gonna get.]

    Starting To Notice That The Energy Transition Is Not Happening

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/03/25/starting-to-notice-that-the-energy-transition-is-not-happening/

    Supposedly, there is a big energy transition going on. Throughout the West, countries have made ambitious pledges to reduce “greenhouse gas” emissions by specific percentages and by specific dates. Many such pledges were notably made in the Paris Climate Agreement of 2016. Some countries — for example, the U.S. and UK — have even gone beyond the Paris Agreement and made still more ambitious pledges in the years since then. But is any of it real?

    No, none of it is real. The failure to make the progress that would be necessary to achieve the alleged pledges and mandates is obvious and easily tracked. But a code of silence has enveloped the progressive media, commanding that no one is allowed to notice.

    A small crack in the wall of silence suddenly happened in the New York Times on March 14. The front page article had the headline “A New Surge in Power Use Is Threatening U.S. Climate Goals.” The gist is that various sources of new electricity demand are rapidly emerging, from data centers to EVs to AI. Demand for electricity is starting to rise, but wind and solar generators can’t be added to the grid fast enough to fulfill this demand. And thus utilities are starting to add large numbers of new natural gas plants.

    [snip]

    To meet spiking demand, utilities in states like Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia are proposing to build dozens of power plants over the next 15 years that would burn natural gas. In Kansas, one utility has postponed the retirement of a coal plant to help power a giant electric-car battery factory.

    So why not just build a bunch of new wind turbines and solar panels?

    Some utilities say they need additional fossil fuel capacity because cleaner alternatives like wind or solar power aren’t growing fast enough and can be bogged down by delayed permits and snarled supply chains. While a data center can be built in just one year, it can take five years or longer to connect renewable energy projects to the grid and a decade to build some of the long-distance power lines they require. Utilities also note that data centers and factories need power 24 hours a day, something wind and solar can’t do alone.

    I like that last line about wind and solar not being able to provide “power 24 hours a day” by themselves. Finally, somebody has noticed.

    [snip]

    The head of the world’s largest energy company on Monday urged the world to accept the “hard realities” that oil and natural gas will be around for a long time to come and consumption of both sources of energy is likely to grow for at least the next decade or two. . . . “We should abandon the fantasy of phasing out oil and gas and instead invest in them adequately reflecting realistic demand assumptions,” he said. . . . “All this strengthens the view that peak oil and gas is unlikely for some time to come, let alone 2030,” he said. “No one is betting the farm on that.”

    “Abandon the fantasy” — I couldn’t have said it better myself.

  14. Bitcoin $69,000.

    Profit takers will regret their meager gains, and will likely end up living in tent cities and Hondas.

    To the moon, Alice!

  15. “Abandon the fantasy.”

    But what are the fraudulent Narratives , that caused the fantasy to begin with.

    The fantasy solutions to the fraudulent global emergencies of Doomsday Climate Change, and Global Pandemics , based on gain of function man made diseases.

    To even suggest that removal of co2 emissions of humans, plants, animals, fossil fuel, etc is solution to alleged Climate Change Doomsday is fantasyland for sure.
    Fake expiermental vaccines, that didn’t stop getting the disease, or transmitting the alleged Covid virus, is fantasyland also in terms of solutions to global threats of disease.
    Let face it , a bunch of Money Entities and their co conspirators infiltrated global Governments and agencies, to take over with a One World Order dictorship, and ultimate enslavement of humans.

    Bottom line is they dreamed up fraudulent stories or narratives and than launched their pre-planned
    take over of world, called Great Reset, 4 th industrial revolution, 2030 UN Sustainable Earth Agenda, Stakeholder Capitalism, Global Facism/Communism, whatever you want to call it.

    Think about the absurd , insane , fraudulent fantasy they want human populations to comply with.
    -A man is a women
    -life giving co2 emissions , should be eliminated, to prevent their fantasy story that Climate Change Doomsday is coming.
    -That Monopoly Corporation and other co conspirators unite in a partnership with global Governments, for a Facism/Communist Dictorship of enslavement of human populations.
    – That this One World Order will control all resources of earth and consumption.
    – That AI and technology will be used by One World Order for their benefit and control, not the benefit of humans.
    – Transgender rights and attack on minor children that supersedes parents rights to protect children.
    – Unsafe dangerous expiermental not effective vaccines forced on public as countermeasure to gain of function man made disease, unleashed or faked global pandemic.
    – Censorship of free speech or any dispute to the narratives of the One World Order.
    – Attack on 2nd amendment to disarm Citizens.
    – Border invasion to replace Citizens.
    – Rights of criminals supersede rights of law abiding citizens, causing massive rise in crime.
    -World wide wars that are deliberate
    -Attack on Respresentive governments and constitutional protections by transfer of power by Treaty to WHO/UN to dictate World policy that supersedes all sovereign countries and rights of humans.
    -Racism promoted to divide and conquer and create division among the different races of world.
    – Economic attack by inflation, money printing, unsustainable debt, and collapse of rigged economic systems.
    -Infiltration of schools and higher learning institutions to brainwash students.
    -Attack on family structure, Religion, capitalism, individual freedoms,
    – Projections of take over by AI, loss of 40% of jobs in 10 years, trans humanism that people will be hacked, altered and merge with the machine.
    I could go on and on.
    But these Entities have exposed their agenda that humans will be forced to own nothing, eat bugs and fake food, mandated vaccines, hacked and surveillance 24/7,
    15 minute city prisons being deprived , no cars, no travel.
    – Its genocide, enslavement, depopulation, deprivation and thievery of humans right to pursue happiness and even live.

  16. The Federalist — Secretaries Of State Won’t Explain ‘Coordinated’ Effort To Fight ‘Common Adversary’ In 2024 (3/21/2024):

    “Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson recently revealed what she described as a mass collaboration between six battleground states.

    “One of the things we saw in 2020 was that particularly in battleground states, we were all battling a common adversary: a really nationally coordinated effort to undermine the will of the people both before, during, and after Election Day,” Benson said during an interview with Meidas Touch.

    “And we learned to semi-coordinate with each other in ’20. Katie Hobbs and I, she was secretary of Arizona at the time, she and I were friends and we would talk regularly. But there was really no way for us to consistently as a team, the six of us in those six battleground states — Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada and Georgia — to constantly both compare notes and also say, OK, how we are going to respond to this nationally coordinated effort with a coordinated response,” Benson said. “So now we have that. We actually spent 2022 working to build that team in these six states.”

    Benson then reiterated the claim that “democracy” is at stake before saying the states “talk to each other” to “develop common strategies and be much more powerful and united as a team.”

    https://thefederalist.com/2024/03/21/secretaries-of-state-wont-explain-coordinated-effort-to-fight-common-adversary-in-2024/

    The 2024 election was stolen.

  17. How did you loser yer airbox Maggie?

    The state legislature is committing budget and resources to ensuring enforcement; avoidance will not be possible. Their monthly association fees will increase as the building works to replenish deficient reserves.

  18. ‘During her senior year, Ellis sought mental-health treatment for a variety of reasons including what she said was the strain of living in a sunless room. She was prescribed antidepressants. The Lark is owned by real-estate firm The Scion Group, one of the biggest student landlords, managing nearly 83,000 beds. The company charges $30 extra a month for a window in a bedroom on top of a $55 monthly amenity fee. ‘While this young lady’s circumstance is unfortunate, those units are the most popular and the fastest to lease,’ said Scion Group President Rob Bronstein. ‘Her peers are voting with their dollars, and they are choosing the least expensive options first’

    Now you’ve got lawsuits on yer hands Rob. And they voted with their dollars.

  19. ‘It’s the small guys that are getting obliterated. It’s the small ones that are going bankrupt, not the big operators’

    Not so Varun. All you greedy bashtards are taking an a$$ pounding.

    ‘Swedish real estate group SBB said on Sunday it would buy back debt at a discount of 60% compared with the debt’s original value’

  20. ‘The worst part though is the fear, and gradual acceptance, that this is not even rock bottom. ‘I thought that China’s upward trajectory and the tighter ties between domestic and global financial markets was a norm – now I realise it might have been just a blip’

    Yeah Dan got that one wrong too Li. The big China illusion was just a blip.

  21. Michigan Offering Citizens $500 Per Month To House Illegal Immigrants

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/michigan-offering-citizens-500-month-house-illegal-immigrants

    The state of Michigan is offering $500 per month to residents who agree to house illegal immigrants in their homes.

    The so called ‘Newcomer Rental Subsidy‘ would provide the payment for up to a year for any homeowner willing to take part, equating to a total of $6000.

    The state those says those eligible for the program include refugees, asylees, special immigration visa holders, victims of human trafficking, Cuban and Haitian entrants, Afghan nationals, and Ukrainian humanitarian parolees.

    The program also states that illegals who have been processed as part of the ‘Family Reunification Parole Process’ from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Colombia, individuals with a pending asylum application, and other immigrant individuals on a case-by-case basis are also eligible.

    Basically anyone who crosses the border then.

    The program is being funded to the tune of $4 million from the Michigan Housing and Community Development Fund.

    In other words, paid for by taxpayers.

    Michigan’s State Housing Development Authority has claimed that the program is designed to help immigrants “build a new life here.”

    Executive director Amy Hovey has stated that “This program is truly a win-win, as it addresses the most pressing barrier to refugee resettlement by meeting housing needs while setting up families for success with increased employment and opportunity.”

    Some wondered whether housing an illegal would make you an accomplice to criminal activity.

    As we previously highlighted, this kind of thing is happening in several cities nationwide.

    And if people don’t invite the illegal immigrants in to their homes, they risk literal invasions via progressive squatting laws.

    1. Once they’ve moved in, you’ll never be able to kick them out. And $500 a month? They can cause more than $500 damage in a single day.

      1. Offering 500 a month is how it starts but probably not how it ends. Elon Musk predicted liberal governments will get more demanding on their middle class taxpayers as the stress of their poor decisions piles up. Maybe 500 a month tax if you have empty rooms ? Who knows ?

        1. Maybe 500 a month tax if you have empty rooms ?

          Exactly. Those with the means can pay the tax and keep the riff-raff out of their homes.

      2. An enterprising individual would think to house the illegals in someone else’s property and collect the cash.

        We could call them Squatlords.

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