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People Were Able To Borrow Way Too Much When Rates Were 2.5 Percent

A report from the Mortgage Research Center. “Critics of the ‘date the rate’ strategy are having their day in the sun. They were right in saying that the strategy could be harder to implement than it sounds. Realtor.com offered solid reminders: Rates may not go down. Rates might fall, but not enough to matter. You may not qualify for a refinance. Refinancing can require outrageous fees. But rubbing it in isn’t helpful for homeowners in a tight spot. Here are practical steps to consider if you’re stuck in a bad relationship with your mortgage rate. While financial gurus like Dave Ramsey tout the benefits of pizza delivery, you still have to commit to a schedule and report to a manager. Uber, Uber Eats, DoorDash, and other flexible side gigs help you work when you can while providing decent income. Your pride might take a hit, but there’s now good money in fast food, especially with establishments where tips are common.”

Yahoo Finance. “Many investors are betting further weakness lies ahead for bonds. ‘Inflation is not coming down like the Fed thought it was,’ said Arthur Laffer, president of Laffer Tengler Investments, who is bearish on longer-dated Treasuries and believes yields could rise as high as 6%. ‘You’re not getting paid to take risk in the bond market right now.'”

Associated Press. “Regulators have closed Republic First Bank, a regional lender operating in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Friday it had seized the Philadelphia-based bank, which did business as Republic Bank and had roughly $6 billion in assets and $4 billion in deposits as of Jan. 31. Fulton Bank, which is based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, agreed to assume substantially all of the failed bank’s deposits and buy essentially all of its assets, the agency said. Rising interest rates and falling commercial real estate values, especially for office buildings grappling with surging vacancy rates following the pandemic, have heightened the financial risks for many regional and community banks. Outstanding loans backed by properties that have lost value make them a challenge to refinance.”

From Reuters. “New York Community Bancorp will have to lure buyers for its commercial real estate (CRE) loans with steep discounts and diversify its revenue as it races to shore up its finances. ‘If you’re a hedge fund or an asset manager, you know NYCB has to sell. So, you’re going to factor that into your pricing,’ said Brian Graham, co-founder of financial services investment firm Klaros Group, adding it will be difficult for the bank to find loans it can sell at a premium.”

The Orange County Register. “Twenty U.S. cities with the highest home-price-to-income ratios are all in California. Ponder the statewide pain like this: A California home costs 8.4 times income ($765,197 vs. $91,551) compared with 4.7 times nationally – $347,716 price vs. 74,755 income. No. 1 Newport Beach: Cost ratio of 25.4 times – $3.2 million price vs. $127,353 income. No. 2 Palo Alto: 19 times – $3.4 million vs. $179,707. No. 3 Glendale: 15.2 times – $1.2 million vs. $77,483. No. 4 Los Angeles: 12.5 times – $953,501 vs. $76,135. No. 5 El Monte: 12.3 times – $733,107 vs. $59,368. No. 6 Costa Mesa: 12.2 times – $1.3 million vs. $103,891. A sobering tidbit, nationally speaking, from the report: ‘On an inflation-adjusted basis, household incomes increased by just 4.5% since 2000, while home prices increased by 59%.'”

The Mercury News. “Not surprisingly, California cities rank high in a new list of places where it is cheaper to rent vs. to own a starter home. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif. ranked number six on the list behind San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, Calif. (4) and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, Calif. (5), according to the Realtor.com study. Austin-Round Rock, TX took the top spot. In the South Bay, the median rent on a starter home was $3,206 in February 2024 compared to the median mortgage cost of $5,986, according to the study. Overall, the study found that it is more affordable to rent than to buy in all the top 50 U.S. metros compared to 45 last year.”

The News Press in Florida. “Across the Sunshine State, older adults are facing a tough decision: pay out five figures or more annually for the privilege of homeowner’s insurance, or go without. Jeff Petersen lives in Charlotte County, which was also pummeled by Ian as it passed by. Five years ago, his insurance ran $2,800 a year. This year, his insurance renewed at five figures, sans flood. Despite the fact that he’s paid off his home, he says his annual insurance bills mean he’s still struggling financially. He’s not sure he can hang on much longer. He’s not in a position to self-insure, but the rates just keep climbing. ‘I don’t have a mortgage and I own my own home but I don’t know if we’re going to be here next year,’ Petersen said. ‘Like a renter, I have no stability.'”

The Sun Sentinel. “While home prices continue to soar, the rental market may be cooling down in South Florida, providing renters much-needed relief. The Miami-metropolitan area, which includes Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, saw the most significant decrease in the median cost of rent from the first part of 2023 to the first part of 2024, according to a report by Forbes Advisor. The region saw a decrease of $400 in the median rental price for Quarter One, which is typically January, February and March, compared to the same time frame last year. The report also found the tri-county area to be among some of the least competitive rental markets in the nation of the 75 metros.”

“‘I’m just seeing that things have gotten back to what they were prior to this just exponential skyrocketing of growth and rental growth,’ said Todd Cohen, a principal with Lee & Associates South Florida, which handles real estate deals across the region. ‘Developers who didn’t have to give any concessions to lease up their properties are now giving maybe a month or two of free rent to get people in because people aren’t moving here every five seconds like they were.'”

The Stamford Advocate in Connecticut. “Several dozen people attended Wednesday’s meeting inside one of the 12 buildings that are part of River Bend Center, a roughly 36-acre property that has access to Hope Street via three different roads. Between Hope Street and the business park is the Springdale train station. The park’s owners have requested a ‘text change’ that would allow some of the buildings to be redeveloped for multifamily housing. But overall, the attendees were skeptical. Democratic city Rep. Christina Strain, whose district includes some of Glenbrook, asked: ‘Instead of building housing here, have you ever considered building something that people need, like another hospital’ or a public school? We don’t need more apartments, more housing,’ Strain said.”

Denver 7 in Colorado. “A former Larimer County real estate agent who stole more than $1 million from investors was sentenced Tuesday to 90 days in jail and 10 years of probation. He must also pay restitution to 14 victims. Bret Lamperes, 54, pleaded guilty in December 2023 to one count of securities fraud — fraud or deceit in connection to a 2021 real estate investment scam, according to the 19th Judicial District Attorney’s Office. In February 2015, Lamperes entered into a business called Investments of Windsor, LLC (IOW). He executed 29 sales contracts related to the IOW project in Windsor, but only eight of the 29 condos were built, according to the district attorney’s office.”

“The DA’s office said Lamperes stole $1,062,500 from people who invested in the project. He then used the money for luxury vacations, sporting events and other personal expenses, according to the district attorney’s office. ‘This man was living a lifestyle only some of us can dream about,’ Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Pirraglia said in a statement. ‘It’s devastating to hear how this has had such a ripple effect on these victims and their families. Some of these victims, who were getting ready to retire, are now having to work several more years, and even having to work multiple jobs to make ends meet. All because of the greed and deceit at the hands of one man.'”

CTV News in Canada. “A years-long fraud investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police’s anti-rackets branch has resulted in fraud and other charges for the former head of BioNorth Technology Group, Frank Benincasa. North Bay OPP received several fraud complaints in July 2018 in relation to a $6 million syndicated mortgage investment into BioNorth Technology Real Estate, also operating as the BioNorth Tech Group. The investigation uncovered 60 alleged victims. Syndicated mortgage investments (SMIs) are a way for companies to raise development money. Several investors pool their money into a single mortgage, using the company’s land as collateral.”

“Benincasa, 59, is also charged with using forged documents to convince the investors to proceed with the SMI. In a related case, mutual fund dealer Leszek Dziadecki was found guilty in 2023 of misconduct for promoting the BioNorth SMIs to Polish investors. According to the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada, Dziadecki ran ads in Poland promoting the BioNorth SMIs as ‘a good, safe investment … describing it as ‘next level Investment,’ a ‘gold egg,’ ‘almost guaranteed’ and having ‘no risk.’ This was confirmed in the affidavits and testimony of the investors. He managed to raise $1,045,900 from investors, even advising some to liquidate existing mutual funds to raise the cash. The investors lost all of their money.”

CP 24 in Canada. “New condo sales in the Toronto region dropped to the lowest quarterly total since the financial crisis in 2009 amid high interest rates and affordability issues, a new report has found. ‘We are showing a decrease in the average sold per square foot. It’s dropped since the beginning of the year by at lease six per cent, if not more,’ said Toronto real estate expert John Lusink, adding that one-bedroom condo listings on his sites, both for sale and rent, are waiting sometimes up to 32 days for potential renters and buyers.”

“The drop in sales is largely due to the high-interest rates making it difficult for people to make new purchases or even close previously-made purchases, Lusink said. ‘We continue to get notices from developers of buyers who are not able to close. These are transactions that some of our salespeople would have done two, three years ago and have now come up to close, but they don’t qualify anymore based on current rates,’ he said. ‘Banks are saying ‘sorry, you know, either put more money down or we won’t advance the loan.’ So those units are having to go back on the market.'”

“Many of the new condo builders are using ‘widespread’ incentives, including reduced or free parking, no development levies, reduced deposits, rental guarantees, and mortgage assistance programs, to encourage people to make condo purchases. Lusink said that a lot of the investor-owned new condos are being pushed into the rental market amid the slowdown. ‘The buildings were already well on their way and they are pushing into completion, and a good chunk are owned by investors and they are putting them up for rent,’ he said. ‘Then there’s a whole group of projects that are simply put on hold and they are going to wait it out.'”

The Globe and Mail. “In Canada’s mortgage market, sentiment can shift on a dime. That’s especially evident these days, as the Bank of Canada prepares to start cutting interest rates. But this shock still lies ahead, and while rate cuts may ease the blow, a higher rate reality awaits most of today’s current fixed-rate mortgage holders. The vast majority of existing mortgage borrowers – roughly 70 per cent – have fixed rates that remain at the record low prices available during the pandemic. (For example, the lowest discounted five-year fixed mortgage rate was 1.39 per cent, compared to 4.79 per cent today.)”

“Consider that there is approximately $2-trillion in outstanding mortgage debt. Only 5 per cent of that came up for renewal in 2023, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., with 13 per cent slated for this year. That spikes to 23 per cent in 2025, a whopping 31 per cent in 2026, and 21 per cent in 2027. The CMHC says that much of the rate pain will be concentrated this year and next, with 2.2 million mortgages – 45 per cent of all outstanding mortgages – poised for ‘interest rate shock.'”

“‘Most of these borrowers contracted their fixed-rate mortgages at record-low interest rates and, most likely, at or near the peak of housing prices around 2020-2021. This holds true for both households who took out a mortgage when buying their new home. It also applies to the numerous existing homeowners that used the increased equity on their property by refinancing and taking cash out for consumption,’ Tania Bourassa-Ochoa, CMHC’s senior specialist of housing research, said in note from November, 2023, adding that the total amount of renewing mortgage loans over this period represents $675-billion – or nearly 40 per cent of the Canadian economy. The bottom line is that even if the Bank of Canada cuts rates, the majority of Canadians will be paying a higher mortgage rate then they are today, when their mortgage renewal comes up over the next few years.”

Radio New Zealand. “The odds are still stacked against property investors, as market conditions continue to favour first-home buyers. Being able to tap into KiwiSaver funds, low deposit loans, and reduced competition from owner occupiers and investors was helping first-home buyers. These lending changes were a win for mum-and-dad borrowers, Auckland mortgage advisor Bruce Patten from Loan Market said. While still ‘tricky,’ the new legislation changes would also help first-home buyers, he said. Measures like loan-to-value and debt-to-income ratios would slow down interest rates from rising. ‘People were able to borrow way too much when rates were 2.5 percent.'”

The Times of India. “China’s economy is battling a barrage of challenges, including a deepening housing slump, fears of a deflationary spiral and high levels of youth unemployment. As China grapples with a myriad of economic challenges, the government is taking significant steps to tighten its belt, particularly among public officials. Amid concerns of an economic slowdown, soaring debt levels, and faltering consumer confidence, China is now enforcing a frugal lifestyle on its public servants in an effort to redirect resources toward more critical areas of need.”

“In response to economic distress, characterized by a $2 trillion loss in stock market value since 2022 and debt levels nearing three times the national economic output, Chinese authorities have initiated widespread budget cuts across provincial governments. For instance, the governor of Guizhou province has pledged to slash his administration’s operating expenses by 15%. Similarly, in Hunan, officials are urged to embody the spirit of ‘red housekeepers,’ a term coined to inspire cost-efficient governance that honors the Communist Party’s revolutionary roots, a Wall Street Journal report said.”

“The campaign for frugality has resulted in various stringent measures aimed at curbing unnecessary spending. In Yunnan, for instance, a directive has been issued to set air conditioning thermostats no lower than 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit) during summer to save on electricity costs. Meanwhile, in Inner Mongolia, authorities are promoting the repair and reuse of office equipment like desks and chairs instead of purchasing new ones.”

“As per the WSJ report, in recent weeks, numerous local governments have rolled out comprehensive guidelines on how to ‘get used to living frugally.’ These directives instruct staff to economize by utilizing public transport, opting for less expensive stationery, and printing documents in black-and-white and on both sides of the paper. Additional measures include directives for bureaucrats to consume all their food, reduce work-related travel, and extend the lifespan of resources by repairing and reusing everything from official vehicles to office furniture.”

“At a state-owned ironworks in Yunnan, party officials have called for a 30% reduction in annual drinking water expenses compared to last year’s expenditure of 270,000 yuan. The plant’s party committee issued a directive saying, ‘Strictly control the consumption of bottled water in each work unit,’ and encouraged employees to use their own cups instead of disposable ones to further cut costs, the WSJ report said. Critics contend that while these frugal measures may yield some savings, they do little to address the underlying structural issues that threaten China’s long-term economic stability, the WSJ report said.”

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This Post Has 66 Comments

  1. ‘I don’t have a mortgage and I own my own home but I don’t know if we’re going to be here next year,’ Petersen said. ‘Like a renter, I have no stability’

    But unlike a renter Jeff, winnahs! can always sell.

  2. ‘numerous local governments have rolled out comprehensive guidelines on how to ‘get used to living frugally.’ These directives instruct staff to economize by utilizing public transport, opting for less expensive stationery, and printing documents in black-and-white and on both sides of the paper’

    Housing bubbles make you poor and then they pop.

  3. ‘If you’re a hedge fund or an asset manager, you know NYCB has to sell. So, you’re going to factor that into your pricing’

    That’s the spirit Brian, low-ball these banker dogs!

  5. “Uber, Uber Eats, DoorDash, and other flexible side gigs help you work when you can while providing decent income. Your pride might take a hit, but there’s now good money in fast food, especially with establishments where tips are common.”

    So rate daters should rely on delivery gigs for the extra cash needed to pay their $7,000 monthly on a $1 million California McMansion mortgage loan at 7% interest, while waiting for rates to recede to 2.5%?

    Good luck with that plan!

    1. Your pride might take a hit, but there’s now good money in fast food, especially with establishments where tips are common.”

      I gotta admit, when discussing how to afford a “house”, this is one of the funniest things I have read.
      No, just rent, or invest in a tent, for god sake.

      1. Counter staff at fast food places are at serious risk of being beaten up or worse thanks to unchecked vibrancy. No thanks.

    2. Yeah, bust your @$$ delivering food at night on top of your day job to hold on to that “asset” that is now dropping in value. You’re the man Dave Ramsey!!! What a d-bag! Here’s some advice; stop making your payments and regroup. You’re likely gonna be able to stay in that house for at least 18 months or longer before the lender does anything. Last time around people got years of no housing expenses doing this. Meanwhile you save that $3500 a month and plan for a fresh start. Worried about a foreclosure on your record? Not to worry. Most of the folks who were foreclosed on last time are now currently homeowners again….and will probably be foreclosed on again. What a world we live in!

      1. i was wondering about this. How long will it take for banks and the financial firms servicing the mortgages to start and then executed through pulling the morgage and getting back the house.

        It might be 2-3 years … if you can find a way to save $s

        1. Were you around last time? So many cases of 5 to 7 years before banks took action. Banks didn’t want to flood the market with foreclosures. That and they didn’t have the resources to move so many foreclosures through the pipeline. 2 to 3 years is a conservative estimate.

  6. No. 1 Newport Beach: Cost ratio of 25.4 times – $3.2 million price vs. $127,353 income. No. 2 Palo Alto: 19 times – $3.4 million vs. $179,707. No. 3 Glendale: 15.2 times – $1.2 million vs. $77,483. No. 4 Los Angeles: 12.5 times – $953,501 vs. $76,135. No. 5 El Monte: 12.3 times – $733,107 vs. $59,368. No. 6 Costa Mesa: 12.2 times – $1.3 million vs. $103,891.”

    California housing is a bubble in search of a pin.

  8. But rubbing it in isn’t helpful for homeowners in a tight spot.

    Au contraire. FBs whose willingness to overpay priced out the prudent and responsible need to be mercilessly mocked as true price discovery promises to lay waste to the Fed’s asset bubbles & Ponzi markets.

  10. Some of these victims, who were getting ready to retire, are now having to work several more years, and even having to work multiple jobs to make ends meet.

    Such “victims” have turned shelter – a basic human need – into a speculative asset bubble. Too bad, so sad if their greed & hubris leads to them getting fleeced by unscrupulous REIC con-men.

    1. I blame Michael Douglas/”Wall Street”. After “greed is good”, they were off to the races.

      Half kidding. Eh, maybe not 🤔.

  11. ‘Like a renter, I have no stability.’”

    I am a renter and I think I have plenty of stability, but more importantly, I have plenty of freedom. And the ability to move without getting “killed” financially is important. See Portland/San Fran/Chicago/…. for examples of why you might want to leave.

    2. Apparently I am a renter with low debt and considerably higher net worth than the average homeowner. Not all renters are broke.

  12. He managed to raise $1,045,900 from investors, even advising some to liquidate existing mutual funds to raise the cash. The investors lost all of their money.”

    Must.not.laugh.

    1. Had a family member get played on this exact same scheme. Lost 200K. That money is gone forever.

  13. “Many of the new condo builders are using ‘widespread’ incentives, including reduced or free parking, no development levies, reduced deposits, rental guarantees, and mortgage assistance programs, to encourage people to make condo purchases.

    Or I could wait until those condos go under the auctioneer’s hammer, and let true price discovery do its thing. Long buttered popcorn.

  14. Democratic city Rep. Christina Strain, whose district includes some of Glenbrook, asked: ‘Instead of building housing here, have you ever considered building something that people need, like another hospital’ or a public school?
    Excuse me genius Christina, but how exactly are the investors going to make any money by putting up a school? Maybe I am missing something but…..

  15. Language Police™ article for the pearl clutchers.

    New York Times — Donald Trump Has Never Sounded Like This (4/27/2024):

    “Trump’s critics were right in 2016 to observe the grim novelty of his politics: their ideology of national pessimism, their open demagoguery and clear affinities with the far right, their blunt division of the country into us and them in a way that no major party’s presidential nominee had dared for decades. But Trump’s great accomplishment, one that was less visible from a distance but immediately apparent at his rallies, was the us that he conjured there: the way his supporters saw not only him but one another, and saw in themselves a movement.

    That us is still there in Trump’s 2024 speeches. But it is not really the main character anymore. These speeches, and the events that surround them, are about them — what they have done to Trump, and what Trump intends to do in return.

    They build to a rhetorical climax that is echoed from one speech to the next. In Claremont, N.H., in November, he said:

    2024 is our final battle.

    With you at my side — and you’ve been at my side from the beginning — we will demolish the deep state. We’ll expel, we’re going to expel, those horrible, horrible warmongers from our government. They want to fight everybody. They want to kill people all over the place. Places we’ve never heard about before. Places that want to be left alone.

    We will drive out the globalists. We will cast out the communists, Marxists, fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake-news media until they become real. We will evict Joe Biden from the White House, and we will finish the job that we started better than anybody has ever started a job before.”

    https://archive.ph/AptCE

    The New York Times supports warmongers, globalists, communists, Marxists, and fascists, got it.

    1. The pearl-clutching by the globalist scum media is beautiful to behold. They’ve lost their monopoly on news and information, and are stagnating into irrelevance as no one under 30 trusts, or gets their news from, these garbage legacy media DNC shills and globalist narrative-purveyors.

  17. The largest deal in Canadian history. That’s how Premier Doug Ford has described a recently inked agreement between Ontario, Ottawa and auto giant Honda, officially announced Thursday.

    Under the terms of the agreement, Honda will pump billions into building an electric vehicle assembly plant. For the automaker, the plant would be the first of its kind in Ontario; for the province, the third after automakers Stellantis and Volkswagen inked similar agreements last year. In touting the virtues of the agreement with Honda, the Premier said, “everyone’s going to benefit.”

    But that’s not true. Not everyone. The move saddles Canadians with a product for which enthusiasm is tepid at best.

    Down the line, when a lack of return forces these automakers to rethink their investments, we may ask ourselves: what were the billions given to these companies actually for?

    Consumers are are – politicians keeps emphasizing – keen on going electric. “There is clearly demand for EVs in Canada,” proclaimed Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault late last year. Naysayers, he continued, “should get on board.”

    That last comment was admittedly directed toward provincial lawmakers. But it might as well be directed toward voters.

    One might argue that there is justification for all these EV plants, given that the Prime Minister has promised that new gas-powered autos will be unavailable for sale by 2035. And by 2026, just two years from now, automakers must commit to ensuring that at least 20 per cent of vehicles sold here are electric. For good measure, Ottawa has promised to fine manufacturers who don’t comply. Across the world, similar policies have popped up.

    I suppose that’s one way to do it. Consumers may be reticent about EVs but give them less (and eventually no) choice and – voila.

    But consider what such EV mandates are enforcing: it’s on automakers to sell people cars they don’t want, can’t afford and barely meet the performance expectations (think range) they have grown accustomed to.

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-honda-deal-is-good-publicity-for-liberals-but-who-will-buy-all-those/

  18. A federal judge Wednesday sentenced a longtime U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent to four years in prison for leaking DEA intelligence to defense lawyers in a $100,000 bribery scheme that prosecutors said jeopardized drug cases and the lives of confidential informants.

    John Costanzo Jr. was found guilty last year of bribery and honest-services wire fraud, joining a growing list of DEA agents convicted of federal crimes. Another former DEA supervisor, Manny Recio, is scheduled to be sentenced next month in the same case.

    U.S. District Court Judge Paul Oetken, in handing down his sentence, noted that the 49-year-old Costanzo was “especially culpable” as a supervisor because he “knew what he was doing was wrong.”

    “Costanzo acted purely out of greed,” prosecutors wrote in court papers. “He used his network, connections and skills to hold himself above the law and make money for leaking law enforcement secrets, undermining everything he purported to stand for.”

    The DEA did not respond to a request for comment. Costanzo’s sentencing came less than two weeks after a federal jury in Buffalo, New York, convicted another veteran DEA agent of obstruction of justice and lying to federal agents in a sprawling corruption case.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/veteran-dea-agent-sentenced-to-4-years-for-leaking-intelligence-in-miami-bribery-conspiracy/ar-AA1nB8Hc

  19. In recent months, the price of buying fentanyl on the street in the Twin Cities metro fell to $1-$2 a pill, a longtime narcotics investigator for the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office confirmed.

    That’s down from a roughly $20 price point a couple of years ago, Hennepin County Sheriff’s Major Rick Palaia said, adding that’s still about the cost far outside the metro.

    Often, a single pill is more than one dose, meaning a dollar purchase could end in multiple overdoses. The “dangerously cheap” price, Maj. Palaia believes, is exacerbating what has already been a crisis. Although it’s tough to quantify such an impact, he added.

    Fentanyl is a narcotic that was first created and remains in legal distribution as an intravenous anesthetic used to treat severe pain during or after surgery. In recent years, it’s become increasingly popular on the black market and is often manufactured at the street level, too.

    Speaking to the sharp price drop and asked if there’s a similar phenomenon with another illicit opioid to compare it to, Maj. Palaia said, “I’ve never seen anything like this. And I’ve been in this line of work for well over 25 years.”

    Fentanyl has consistently been comparatively cheap, likely because it’s easier and cheaper to make than heroin, and because of its potency, fentanyl can be sold in incredibly small, yet deadly quantities, he explained.

    “If you get up to northern Minnesota, you’re still looking at like $20 a pill,” Palaia said, chalking that up to supply and demand.

    “Our metropolitan area here has become kind of a hub. The cartels feel very comfortable working in this area,” he continued.

    https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/price-of-illicit-fentanyl-drops-to-dangerously-cheap-in-twin-cities-metro/

    2. A drug fix for $1? Why do I doubt that? Even if you need 5 a day multiplied by all the US junkies, it’s just not enough money. Color me skeptical.

  20. The quantum calculation becomes: What’s in the box?

    One person opens the box, and Shasta County is the wonderful place most of us know it to be, with its cities and towns and boroughs where most people are just trying to get by before the inevitable.

    Another person opens it up, and Shasta County District 1 Supervisor Kevin Crye’s head pops out like a Jack-in-the-Box to the tune of Smash Mouth’s greatest hits.

    “The asylum seekers are coming! The asylum seekers are coming!” Jack-in-the-Crye exclaims. “Just ask our Constitutional Sheriff Michael Johnson.”

    Crye and Johnson have rigged today’s Board of Supervisors meeting against asylum seekers from our war-torn hemisphere. This especially includes asylum seekers from South America, fleeing whatever government the United States has destabilized lately.

    Johnson has been touting his November trip to the California/Mexico border, echoing the Trump campaign’s claim of a border in crisis with drug-dealing sex offenders spreading meth, fentanyl and violence up and down I-5 from San Diego to Seattle.

    They’re not here yet, Johnson claims, but they’re coming.

    Wrong. The drugs are already here, no matter who brought them; just check the bodies dropping like flies in our cramped county jail. Who the hell drives around with four pounds of fentanyl anyway? People from the Bay Area, that’s who. And Shingletown!

    https://anewscafe.com/2024/04/23/redding/shasta-county-district-1-supervisor-kevin-crye-to-south-american-asylum-seekers-drop-dead/

    1. The drugs are already here, no matter who brought them;
      A friend of mine is in jail for a probation violation and they had a total lockdown last week due to a Fentanyl “problem” in the jail. WTF???

  21. It’s been among the most volatile and untouchable third rails in Canadian politics: The adoption, at any level, of a private health-care system.

    But a new Ipsos report shows that “two tier health care” is not the threat it once was.

    Among respondents, 52 per cent wanted “increased access to health care provided by independent health entrepreneurs,” against just 29 per cent who didn’t.

    Perhaps most shocking of all, almost everyone agreed that private health care would be more efficient. Seven in 10 respondents agreed that “private entrepreneurs can deliver health care services faster than hospitals managed by the government” – against a mere 15 per cent who disagreed.

    “People understand that the endless waiting lists that characterize our government-run health systems will not be solved by yet another bureaucratic reform,” was the conclusion of the Montreal Economic Institute, which commissioned the poll.

    As Canada reels from simultaneous crises of crime, affordability, productivity, health-care access and others, it’s prompting a political realignment unlike anything seen in a generation. But it’s not just a trend that can be seen in the millions of disaffected voters stampeding to a new party. As Canadians shift rightwards, they are freely discarding sacred cows that have held for decades.

    If Canadians are suddenly open to health-care reform, it helps that they’ve never been more dissatisfied with the status quo. The past calendar year even brought the once-unthinkable sight of the U.S. being officially called in to bail out failures in the Canadian system.

    Last May, B.C. began outsourcing radiation treatment to hospitals in Washington State, arguing it was the only way to reduce skyrocketing wait times for the procedure.

    Last August, an Angus Reid Institute survey found an incredible 66 per cent saying the health system’s problems were well beyond a lack of funding. There were “bigger challenges in the health-care system that money can’t fix.”

    Canada’s famous openness to immigration is following much the same route. Amid record-high migrant intake, a poll last month by Leger found that 50 per cent of Canadians now thought immigration was too high. Just one year prior, not even a quarter of respondents were worried about immigration rates.

    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came to power in 2015 at a time when climate change was regularly topping surveys of Canadians’ top political concern. Nine years later, a clear majority of respondents to an Angus Reid Institute poll said that they believed their government needed to cool it on the environmental policy, particularly the carbon tax. Sixty-three per cent agreed with the statement “cost of living concerns should come first, even if it damages policies to fight climate change.”

    It’s common for federal governments to steamroll provincial jurisdiction wherever they can, but the Trudeau government has turned provincial encroachment into an art. Virtually all of their signature policies – from the carbon tax to childcare to housing to even their proposed school lunch program – have involved some form of federal imposition on provincial matters. So it’s perhaps to be expected that Trudeau on Friday issued one of the more “screw the provinces” statements ever uttered by a Canadian prime minister. “I’d always rather work with provinces, but if we have to I will go around them and be there for Canadians,” he said.

    https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/first-reading-canadians-are-so-fed-up-they-re-abandoning-political-sacred-cows/ar-AA1nrvFY

  23. The Canadian economy is mostly a housing bubble on slick ice, so a lot of them took “Cash outs”, on paid for houses , so they can live better ,well, that piper will need to be paid soon…..hard to feel sorry for that kind of thinking …

  24. Another pearl clutching article.

    HuffPaint — At Columbia, Pro-Israel Crowd Yells ‘Go Back To Gaza!’ At Pro-Palestinian Students (4/26/2024):

    “A crowd of pro-Israel protesters gathered just outside the Columbia University campus on Thursday evening, chanting through the gates at a group of pro-Palestinian students inside to “go to Gaza!”

    “Go home, terrorists!” the pro-Israel crowd screamed at the students. “Go back to Gaza!” they yelled. “Stop wasting mommy and daddy’s money!” one man said through a megaphone. “You want to camp? Go camp in Gaza!”

    Last week Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, took the shocking step of summoning the New York Police Department to quash the encampment, with cops removing the tents and arresting over 100 students. The university suspended some students and evicted them from campus housing. But the encampment returned shortly thereafter, inspiring dozens of other pro-Palestinian occupations at universities across the country.”

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/columbia-go-back-to-gaza-pro-israel-protest-sean-feucht-christian-nationalist_n_662be69fe4b0bd041d779f73

    Summer Of Love 2024.

    Paid for by George Soros.

    1. All wars are bankers’ wars.

      Linked from Antiwar dot com (4/25/2024):

      “The Nasser Medical Complex has become a sprawling mass grave, where the Israeli army buried evidence of a hideous massacre.

      At least 13,000 people have been missing in the Gaza Strip since the war began in October, and people are arriving looking for missing loved ones. Even if they are found dead, it will at least put an end to their story.

      Among the dismembered bodies, scattered limbs, and decapitated heads are a large number of people searching for family or just there to observe. Some cannot bear it and stand far away, unable to fathom the carnage.

      Ayman, 51, his wife Jamila, 44, and their son Abdul Karim, 22, insisted on going to Nasser Medical Complex after the Civil Defense announced that over two hundred bodies had been recovered in one day. The family was there to look for Abdul Karim’s younger brother, who had been missing in Khan Younis for over two months.

      Once at the gates to the compound, Jamila could not bear the sight and smell of death, so she stayed outside with her son Abdul Karim, while Ayman went in to inspect the bodies.

      “I could not bear to take a single step in there,” Jamila tells Mondoweiss at the door to the complex. “It is a scene that a person cannot bear: a great massacre, a large basin of blood, a pit of bodies buried, cut up.”

      The Civil Defense teams at Nasser Hospital say that the mass graves they uncovered here contain more than 400 martyrs. The bodies had been buried with bulldozers, which dismembered some of them. Body parts were mixed together with garbage.

      Colonel Yamen Abu Suleiman, the Director of Civil Defense in Khan Younis, has been working at the scene over the past four days. He says that he and his colleagues have recovered over 300 bodies so far, confirming that a large number of them showed signs of torture and executions.

      Abu Suleiman told Mondoweiss that Israeli forces deliberately carried out indiscriminate killings at Nasser Hospital and tried to hide them in mass graves after collecting them in bags placed on top of each other. Many of the bodies were cut up in pieces, some even torn in half, showing signs of tank treads and bulldozer tracks.

      He points out that the collection of body parts has not yet been completed and that the Ministry of Health will hold a conference in the coming days to reveal further details.

      He also asserts that there are dozens of mass graves all over Gaza. “We are still counting and discovering graves in various places based on the presence of bodies in those areas, which leads us to begin searching and excavating in the vicinity until we find mass graves and extract the bodies from them in the dozens,” he tells Mondoweiss.

      https://mondoweiss.net/2024/04/i-felt-like-pulling-my-heart-out-of-the-earth-testimonies-from-the-mass-grave-at-nasser-hospital/

      U.S. taxpayers are told that this is a “jobs program.”

      It actually doesn’t matter which “side” is getting killed as long as the U.S. taxpayer money continues flowing to the defense contractors who own Congress.

      Keep paying those federal income taxes, cattle tax slaves.

  25. “At a state-owned ironworks in Yunnan, party officials have called for a 30% reduction in annual drinking water expenses compared to last year’s expenditure of 270,000 yuan. The plant’s party committee issued a directive saying, ‘Strictly control the consumption of bottled water in each work unit,’ and encouraged employees to use their own cups instead of disposable ones to further cut costs, the WSJ report said.”

    Quit drinking so much water! If your kidneys fail in a few decades, that will be your problem.

  26. The Joe Biden Economy.

    PBS — About 1 in 4 U.S. adults over 50 say they expect to never retire, an AARP study finds:

    “About one-quarter of U.S. adults over age 50 who are not yet retired say they expect to never retire and 70% are concerned about prices rising faster than their income, an AARP survey finds.

    About 1 in 4 have no retirement savings, according to research released Wednesday by the organization that shows how a graying America is worrying more and more about how to make ends meet even as economists and policymakers say the U.S. economy has all but achieved a soft landing after two years of record inflation.

    Everyday expenses and housing costs, including rent and mortgage payments, are the biggest reasons why people are unable to save for retirement.

    The AARP’s study, based on interviews completed with more than 8,000 people in coordination with the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, finds that one-third of older adults with credit card debt carry a balance of more than $10,000 and 12% have a balance of $20,000 or more. Additionally, 37% are worried about meeting basic living costs such as food and housing.

    A looming issue that will affect Americans’ ability to retire is the financial health of Social Security and Medicare.

    The latest annual report from the program’s trustees says the financial safety nets for millions of older Americans will run short of money to pay full benefits within the next decade.

    Medicare, the government-sponsored health insurance that covers 65 million older and disabled people, will be unable to pay full benefits for inpatient hospital visits and nursing home stays by 2031, the report forecast. And just two years later, Social Security will not have enough cash on hand to pay out full benefits to its 66 million retirees.”

    https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/about-1-in-4-us-adults-over-50-say-they-expect-to-never-retire-an-aarp-study-finds

    There will ALWAYS be money for endless wars.

    You will be eating cat food and cutting your pills in half, but the bankers, the money lenders, the money counters, the money fondlers, the merchants of death, will ALWAYS get paid. They can’t not get paid.

    Watch your sportsball, eat your goyslop, and pass out on the couch, cattle tax slaves. But just make sure you’re back at work on Monday generating federal income taxes.

    1. And what happens to those numbers when the equity in their homes evaporates? Was it was here in a “reader” snippet that’s 78% of retirement is wrapped up in home equity? I’ll have to go digging. But one thing is certain is that other 75% is banking on that home equity funding a large part of their retirement. Thats going to end badly.

  28. The demoralization will continue.

    Russia Today — Much of Ukraine aid stolen – French party leader (4/27/2024):

    “A large part of Western aid to Kiev is being embezzled by Ukrainian officials, despite President Vladimir Zelensky’s assurances that it is being used in the fight against Russia, a top French politician has said.

    In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday, Florian Philippot, leader of the Patriots (Les Patriotes) party and a long-time vocal critic of Western assistance to Ukraine, alleged that Zelensky was lying when he claimed that all US aid to his country “goes to the battlefield.”

    “In reality a large part is diverted and goes into corruption!” Philippot wrote. He noted Kiev’s admission last month that it had not received €16 billion ($17.1 billion) in aid collected by Poland and the European Commission. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmigal claimed he had “no idea” what happened to the funds.

    Philippot also pointed to a recent corruption scandal involving Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Nikolay Solsky, who is accused of illegally appropriating state land worth nearly €6.9 million ($7.4 million). “Yet another case of corruption in this country, which is one of the most corrupt on the planet!” the French politician remarked.

    “Every euro sent to Ukraine prolongs the war and therefore causes unnecessary deaths, impoverishes us here, and has a strong chance of enriching the corrupt!” he added, calling for the conflict to be resolved as soon as possible.

    Ukraine has been plagued by widespread graft for years, and a 2015 Guardian article described it as “the most corrupt nation in Europe.”

    https://www.rt.com/news/596679-ukraine-aid-corruption/

    “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” — Johnny Rotten at the Sex Pistols’ final show, 1978

  29. How is the rate dating working out for the debt donkeys who bought at peak Housing Bubble 2.0 prices?

    1. May Fed Meeting Preview: Sticky Inflation Likely Delays FOMC Pivot
      Wayne Duggan
      Investing Expert Writer
      Lisa Dammeyer
      Deputy Editor, Investing & Retirement
      Updated: Apr 22, 2024, 8:53am
      Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect our editors’ opinions or evaluations.

      Investors are anticipating that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will maintain its current federal funds interest rate target at its upcoming meeting that concludes on May 1.

      The FOMC will likely opt to extend its rate hike pause and continue its current strategy of allowing assets to roll off of its more than $7.4 trillion balance sheet as it fights to get inflation under control without sending the U.S. economy into a recession. The Fed has raised interest rates 11 times since March 2022, but it has kept them steady at 22-year highs since July 2023.
      …
      https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/fed-meeting-preview/

  30. Does home ownership help you get rich? Or is it just that being rich makes it easier to afford the luxury of becoming a homeowner?

    On a related matter, which came first: the chicken or the egg?

    1. “…
      The average homeowner has a net worth 40 times higher ($396,200) than that of the average renter ($10,400), according to Federal Reserve data.

      However, it takes tens of thousands of dollars to buy a home, between the down payment, closing costs and cash reserves. That puts homeownership out of reach for many lower-income Americans — and with it, a major avenue to building wealth.
      …”

      https://finance.yahoo.com/news/6-reasons-why-poor-stay-170030897.html

      1. What about people who rent their primary residence but own real estate (in my case a buildable lot with existing utilities)?

  31. You can safely back up the truck today, as my sources offer their assurances there will be no stock market crash until 2026.

  34. First they came for the January 6th protesters, and I did not speak out—
    Because I was not a January 6th protester.

      1. “You were, you just didn’t travel.”

        When you put it like that, I still am.

        Although you had to travel to be locked up for years.

  35. Russia Today — Another $30 million US drone destroyed off Yemen’s coast (4/27/2024):

    “The US has lost yet another $30 million MQ-9 Reaper drone off the coast of Yemen, CBS News reported on Friday, citing Pentagon officials. While an investigation into the crash is still being conducted, Houthi rebels have taken responsibility for shooting down the aircraft.

    Previously, the US had lost another two Reapers to the Iranian-linked militants; one was downed in November and another was destroyed in February.

    Yahya Saree, a spokesman for the Iran-linked group, also claimed on Saturday that the militants had targeted the “British oil ship Andromeda Star” in the Red Sea with naval missiles and landed a direct hit.”

    https://www.rt.com/news/596681-us-drone-downed-yemen/

    $90 million is that a lot?

    That’s just a “rounding error” to the Uniparty War Machine…

  36. ‘Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, saw the most significant decrease in the median cost of rent from the first part of 2023 to the first part of 2024, according to a report by Forbes Advisor. The region saw a decrease of $400 in the median rental price for Quarter One’

    These guys were counting on rents going up year after year. And their lenders were too.

  37. ‘We are showing a decrease in the average sold per square foot. It’s dropped since the beginning of the year by at lease six per cent, if not more’…one-bedroom condo listings on his sites, both for sale and rent, are waiting sometimes up to 32 days for potential renters and buyers’

    30 days is a red hotcakes sellers market John.

  38. ‘Consider that there is approximately $2-trillion in outstanding mortgage debt. Only 5 per cent of that came up for renewal in 2023, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., with 13 per cent slated for this year. That spikes to 23 per cent in 2025, a whopping 31 per cent in 2026, and 21 per cent in 2027’

    So it’s gonna get worser.

  40. Exclusive – Brody Mullins: ‘Another Branch of Government’ Has ‘More Power than the Presidency’

    ELIZABETH WEIBEL
    27 Apr 2024

    While voters in America argue about which political party is the “problem” in Washington, D.C., there is another branch of government that nobody talks about, which “sometimes holds more power than the presidency,” Brody Mullins, a veteran investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal and the co-author of the upcoming book, The Wolves of K Street, said during an appearance on Breitbart News Saturday.

    Mullins discussed his book, which is set to be released on May 7, and explained that the “Wolves of K Street” refers to the “corporate lobbyists” in America who really run the show behind the scenes.

    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/04/27/exclusive-brody-mullins-another-branch-of-government-has-more-power-than-the-presidency/

  41. Do you stay up nights worrying about the Chinese bond market precipitation a Silicon Valley Bank style meltdown?

  42. Having a mortgage snow considered having a relationship? A date? I thought AI was out of control. Talk about demeaning.

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