We Did Not Receive A Single Peso, We Feel Like Dogs Being Shooed Away From Our Own Investments

1. ‘Heading into this weekend’s open houses on Thursday and Friday morning, more than 200 houses hit the market or carried the ‘coming soon’ tag otherwise, ranging from a $7.3 million spread in Washington Depot; to a colonial-era saltbox in Torrington priced at a 15 percent discount off what its owner paid in 2008’

   That’s some saltbox red hotcakes right there.

2. ‘I just shake my head in disbelief. It’s just an incredible lack of accounting controls,’ said bank analyst Bert Ely, who reviewed the 154-page lawsuit for The Times. ‘I’m almost at a loss for words because this is such basic stuff. There’s nothing sophisticated about what was going on’

   Senator running deer heap angry Bert.

   1. Wut? Is the Fed once again failing to execute its banking oversight responsibilities as dangerous systemic risks multiply in debt, fraud, and mark-to-fantasy accounting threaten a financial crisis that will dwarf what happened in 2008? This is my look of stunned disbelief.

   2. As usual, ZERO accountability for the Fed’s failure in its banking system oversight role.

      https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-28/fed-watchdog-faults-central-bank-officials-on-oversight-of-svb?

   3. The pitch: Horwitz told investors that he had “strategic partnerships” to license the foreign distribution rights to dozens of films, including the 2012 horror movie “The Lords of Salem” and the 1989 action film “Kickboxer,” starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. The investors were promised returns as high as 45% within a year.

      [“The investors were promised returns as high as 45% within a year.” No red flags here. Not a one.]

      In fact, the licensing deals were fictitious, authorities said. Horwitz had forged contracts to dupe investors and used their money to pay for a six-bedroom home in Beverlywood, expensive trips to Vegas and other personal benefits, according to the FBI and court filings.

   4. The new batch of college grads whose student loans will be forgiven using your tax dollars so they can get mortgages to buy houses that will go into foreclosure so you can bail out the banks that loaned them the money:
      https://rumble.com/v4xz87l-nyu-graduates-hilariously-reveal-the-results-of-years-of-leftist-brainwashi.html

      1. Sofi Lopez – “Queering and Decolonizing Theater Practice.”

         Talk about a morbidly obese, toxic feminist. Loser!

3. ‘Justine Searle never imagined selling her home in Darwin would prove to be a challenge that lost her $100,000…she and her partner felt they were ‘throwing good money after bad’ trying to pay off the mortgage, despite it nearly always having tenants. Late last year, Ms Searle and her partner put it on the market for just under $400,000. ‘There were no takers at all, the agent didn’t even get a phone call’

   I know Justine, it’s almost like these media stories about over asking, multiple offers are kinda made up. If it’s any consolation, I can make a call. Collect of course.

4. Sonya’s townhouse, right next to a parking garage….how lucky is that?

   https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7643233,-73.9653877,3a,31.4y,241.02h,86.85t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s5y2ysjfOcsUApU5pgz_cEw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu

   1. Oh crap, thats funny

   2. And it’s a dump, yeah I watched the Housewives of NYC. Woman never did any maintenance, plumbing didn’t work, trim and stairs falling apart and her dog wasn’t house trained. Those were the things you could see in just a few minutes filmed at her townhouse. Good luck selling to anyone.

      1. $4.25 mill. 830 pm

         Buyer’s Premium. 12%

         Buyer shall pay to Concierge a “Buyer’s Premium” in addition to the Purchase Price for the Property

         https://www.conciergeauctions.com/auctions/162-east-63rd-street-new-york-new-york

5. “Now, after years of listing and delisting the property, she has opted to auction it with a starting bid of $1.75 million, far below its reported purchase price of $9.1 million in 1997, according to Curbed’s Bridget Read.”

   It’s hard to fathom a loss that large in the red hot New York City apartment market. It almost seems like a bubble has collapsed in that one particular location.

   1. I’m surprised at the $1.7M starting bid, considering that the house was last sold 27 years ago. I’m curious what the final bid will be.

      1. maybe she just made millions in the stock market or another house sale, and needs a tax loss.

6. Cracker – Turn On Tune In Drop Out

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5woFxnekqo8

7. Heading into this weekend’s open houses on Thursday and Friday morning, more than 200 houses hit the market or carried the ‘coming soon’ tag otherwise, ranging from a $7.3 million spread in Washington Depot; to a colonial-era saltbox in Torrington priced at a 15 percent discount off what its owner paid in 2008.”

   Real Journalists can’t be expected to elaborate on this point, but 2008 was when the Fed took its fiat currency debasement to a whole new level. In real terms, the loss of value on the Torrington salt box was far more than 15 percent, as the distraught FB owner is doubtless aware.

8. “… [Sonja] Morgan’s townhouse carries estimated monthly property taxes of $6,003, per the StreetEasy listing. This figure doesn’t include additional expenses that come with owning a townhouse such as insurance, repairs, upgrades, landscaping, and more….”

   Another Tuesday, another REIConplex holding costs story.

   “…Despite Sonja Morgan’s socialite status…”

   On the other hand, Sonja certainly must of had some great parties….

   1. Sonja’s galactic sense of entitlement is no match for market forces.

9. His wife has gone back to work, and he flipped a house with a buddy to help pay the bills. The hefty mortgage payment is a painful reminder of a $200,000 investment he made in 2019 in a business recommended by a friend.

   Die, speculator scum.

   1. Yeah, it’s hard to feel sympathy for this guy. “Acquiring film rights and selling them to Netflix and other platforms in Latin America” ? And they convinced people to pitch in a billion pesos for this?

      I realize people are hard up, but someone who was able to save up $200K to should know enough to at least not risk ALL of it.

      1. should know

         Ironically, the country is full of people who have risked multiples of that to speculate on a house. Money they don’t even have!

      2. but but but
         guaranteed 45% returns in a year!!!!!!11

         it’s a sure thing he guarantees it

         Seriously, these people are so easy to take. The con men barely have to work at all nowadays.

10. You will own nothing.

11. A song dedication for all the FBs trapped in underwater mortgages.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUOtCLOXgm8

12. As the Fed escalates its fiat currency fraud against the 99 percent, Red State representatives need to act in defense of their residents by eliminating taxes on buying or selling physical precious metals.

    https://mises.org/power-market/us-representative-introduces-bill-end-federal-taxation-gold-and-silver

13. Hoping everyone had a safe and happy holiday weekend…..I’ve never understood the allure of lake property, why it’s often more expensive,maybe my fear of water plays into that.

    Anyways , a Darwin award needs to go to a group of young people in Lake Greenwood SC , who on Sat. Rented a boat, sat through a mandatory Safety Vidio , signed off on legal aspects , then roared off, breaking almost all legal and common sense aspects of boating they could think of…..At one point ,a local southern Boater ,pulls in beside them ,implores them to “Put on the life jackets while on the tube”, and was cussed out good for his advice …That is so Southern, speaking up if you see something, that needs saying …. Besides, that’s law in SC.
    within minutes ,of that encounter, a girl slipped off that tube ,and is still missing ,3 days later.A Dive team , several members whom I know ,has been working almost all weekend on this.

    Thinking Rules don’t apply to you is a national sickness, there’s a whole segment of population goes for that..
    As for me ,staying away from water is fine……

14. NVDA market cap is $2.7 trillion now.

    What could possibly go wrong?

15. ** “That is so Southern, speaking up if you see something, that needs saying …. ”

    “it’ll buff-out”

    1. And don’t forget- Hold my beer, hey yall, snatch this! Lol

       1. Not snatch, watch! I screwed this funny up

16. Bay Area cities and counties are holding off on enforcing natural gas bans in new buildings following a recent federal ruling, a controversial move environmental groups worry will delay achieving key climate goals.

    The Sunnyvale City Council recently temporarily suspended its ban on natural gas in new buildings, which was first adopted in 2022 to help cut Sunnyvale’s greenhouse emissions in half by the end of the decade.

    Recently, Cupertino announced the city will suspend its gas ban until this fall. In the East Bay, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors earlier this month agreed to pause their all-electric building requirement and gas ban in unincorporated areas of the county. San Mateo County and San Luis Obispo also recently suspended their bans.

    The pauses come in the wake of the Ninth Court declining in January to rehear Berkeley’s ban on natural gas in new buildings, which was first struck down by the court in April 2023. A panel of judges ruled that Berkeley cannot prohibit natural gas due to a pre-existing federal energy law.

    Berkeley has since agreed to repeal the ban. The Ninth Court’s ruling doesn’t affect cities that have taken a building code-based approach to adopting natural gas bans — like Sunnyvale, Palo Alto and Mountain View — but those cities are also choosing to suspend bans to avoid possible litigation or other legal issues in the future.

    In 2019, the California Restaurant Association (CRA) sued Berkeley for implementing the gas ban claiming it was “passed with a disregard for available cooking technologies and ultimately for small businesses in the community that rely on gas-burning equipment for their cuisines.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/bay-area-cities-suspend-natural-gas-bans-on-new-buildings/ar-BB1n992P

    1. Too liberal for the Ninth Court? Wow, that’s a first.

       1. I guess the Justices were afraid their favorite restaurants would close.

          1. LMFAO!!

17. About a decade ago, Xi Jinping, China’s president, had a dream: to turn the country into a global soccer powerhouse. That ambition was quickly backed by action and money. Chinese conglomerates poured money into the country’s domestic league, even attracting soccer stars based in Europe. Some firms splurged on buying up stakes in European clubs in order to raise the standards of Chinese soccer.

    But China’s ambitions never took off—and could be on the verge of unravelling entirely.

    On Wednesday, the U.S.-based asset management firm Oaktree Capital took over the Italian soccer club Inter Milan after its Chinese owner, Suning Holding Group, failed to repay a 395 million euro ($429 million) debt in time. Suning had offered its stake in Inter Milan as collateral.

    Suning losing its ownership of Inter Milan is part of a broader exodus of Chinese companies exiting European soccer. As many as 20 European clubs were owned by major Chinese investors in 2017; that had fallen to just 10 by 2021.

    Suning’s forced exit from European soccer caps a decade-long experiment as to whether flashy multi-billion dollar deals targeting elite sports could trickle down to build a true soccer-playing giant.

    “Looking back, there haven’t been many great examples of success,” says John Duerden, a long-time Asia soccer reporter. Chinese ownership of these European clubs did not result in massive investments or significant victories on the field. Several Chinese owners sold their stakes in professional European clubs within years of buying them.

    Nor did these big foreign investments into elite professional soccer translate to gains at home. China’s national team has not taken part in the FIFA World Cup for over two decades.

    China’s entry level is “broken,” says Tom Byer, a Tokyo, Japan-based soccer youth development consultant with experience in China’s soccer system. “The biggest driver in football is culture, and there’s no culture in China. Most Chinese families look at football as a distraction to education, and they don’t want their kids to play.”

    Suning’s loss of Inter Milan last week has erased the net worth of company founder Zhang Jindong. The one-time billionaire was worth about $6 billion when his company bought Inter Milan in 2016, according to Bloomberg calculations. It’s now close to zero.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/fifa_world_cup/a-chinese-conglomerate-loses-control-of-its-elite-european-soccer-team-as-beijing-fails-to-dominate-the-world-s-favorite-sport/ar-BB1n9ERP

    1. Most Chinese families look at football as a distraction to education, and they don’t want their kids to play.

       They understand that to become pros their kids will have to outperform vibrants from all over the world, who are taller, stronger, bigger and faster.

18. Canada’s standard of living is in decline, both in absolute terms and compared to our southern neighbour and other wealthy countries. A Fraser Institute analysis shows that real GDP per capita was lower during the pre-recession period 2016-19 than in any similar period since 1985. As of the last quarter of 2023 it was below its value for 2019:Q2. It’s no surprise that 44 per cent of Canadians now say money is their leading source of stress.

    What explains Canada’s dreadful performance? As set out by Arthur Laffer, of Laffer Curve fame, prosperity has five pillars: restrained government spending, low taxes, minimal regulation, sound money and free trade. The Liberal government has rejected, undermined or neglected each of the five. Our weak record and disheartening prospects have not been caused by external forces but by dysfunctional government policies.

    Canada is blessed by enviable geology and geography — immense natural resources and a friendly superpower next door — which Canadians too frequently take for granted. Because our border is safe and our population well off by world and historical standards, progressive politicians feel free to obsess about issues irrelevant or actually harmful to economic growth, jobs, affordability, a sound currency, security and national unity.

    Let’s review the litany of debilitating missteps, starting with the size and role of government. The federal public service reached over 274,000 employees in 2023, an increase of 40.4 per cent since 2015. A bloated bureaucracy drains resources from the private sector, reducing economic efficiency. In the last eight years, the depletion has been rapid. Federal spending swelled from 12.8 per cent of GDP in 2015 to 16.1 per cent in 2023. Federal debt more than doubled, from $612 billion to a staggering $1.4 trillion — over $143,000 for a family of four. Interest now costs Ottawa $47.2 billion a year, rising to $64.3 billion by 2028-29. This is fiscal profligacy writ large.

    Tax increases discourage economic growth. The Laffer curve demonstrates that taxes set too high can actually reduce tax revenue. Out of 61 US jurisdictions and Canadian provinces, the top three personal marginal income tax rates are imposed by Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Ontario. Nine Canadian provinces rank in the top 10, all are in the top 15, and Canada ranks fifth out of 38 OECD countries. Corporate income tax rates are also higher here than in the U.S., the U.K. and the OECD on average. High taxes damage affordability, reduce competitiveness, discourage innovation and entrepreneurship, accelerate capital flight and weaken productivity. The proposed increase in the capital gains inclusion rate for both individuals and companies and the phase-out of accelerated capital depreciation will seriously exacerbate those negatives.

    Since 2015, intrusive regulations have proliferated across the economy, imposing burdensome compliance costs that are particularly harmful to small and medium- sized enterprises. The resource industry, which accounts for 19.2 per cent of GDP and 58 per cent of merchandise exports, has been targeted by draconian regulation deliberately designed to block energy projects. The result is an opportunity loss in the hundreds of billions of dollars and mounting.

    A stable money supply is critical for economic stability. To cope with out-of- control government spending, the Bank of Canada expanded the money supply dramatically, pushing it to $3.6 trillion, 83 per cent more than when the Liberals took office. As a result, in 2022 inflation hit a 40-year peak of 6.8 per cent. Consumer prices are now 27 per cent higher than in 2015. Rising prices disproportionately affect low- and middle-income Canadians, who are also vulnerable to hikes in interest rates, including mortgage rates up 50 per cent from 2015. In aggregate, total mortgage payments could rise by as much as $4 billion this year.

    The government’s score for supporting the mainstays of prosperity is zero for five. Rather than correcting course, Justin Trudeau seems increasingly disconnected from reality and fixated on maintaining a perfect losing streak. Doubling down on big government, high taxes and hostility to resource development will do the trick.

    https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topstories/joe-oliver-the-trudeau-liberals-have-eroded-all-five-pillars-of-prosperity/ar-BB1nbsNV

    1. Next year can’t come soon enough for the Canucks. Of course there is always the possibility of a steal over there, and 4 more years of Trudeau.

    2. over $143,000 for a family

       That family also owes over $210,000 in personal debt.

       Things add up.

    3. “The federal public service reached over 274,000 employees in 2023, an increase of 40.4 per cent since 2015. A bloated bureaucracy drains resources from the private sector, reducing economic efficiency.”

       That’s a voting block. 🙂

19. Just brutal’: Why America’s hottest city is seeing a surge in deaths
    Climbing temperatures are colliding with a lack of planning in Phoenix. Hundreds have died.

    Just wondering they are all on the sidewalk wouldn’t it be a lot safer and cooler if they opened the gates and sleep on dirt?

    https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/28/americas-hottest-city-phoenix-00158243

    1. The idea of living in that blast furnace has always seemed odd to me.

       1. No cure for stupid.

       2. Mexico has endured a heat dome for a week or two, and it’s headed north already.

    2. sleep on dirt

       That’s where the black widow spiders live. Scorpions?

    3. Hundreds have died.

       Government: How would you like to die?

       Homeless: Well done.

20. Does it seem like risk assets can only go higher from here?

    1. NVDA market cap can go to $5 trillion $10 trillion $20 trillion.

       AI is magical.

    2. Fox Business
       Housing
       Published May 28, 2024 10:27am EDT
       Housing prices soar to a new all-time high in March
       US housing prices hit a fresh record in March as affordability crisis deepens
       By Megan Henney FOXBusiness
       Housing affordability is at worst level in four decades: Expert
       ResiClub co-founder and editor-in-chief Lance Lambert discusses the U.S. housing affordability crisis on ‘Making Money.’

       Home prices reached a new record in March amid an ongoing housing shortage, even as high mortgage rates pushed affordability out of reach for more Americans.

       Prices increased 6.5% nationally in March when compared with the previous year, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index showed on Tuesday, the same as the previous month. It marks the fastest pace of growth since November 2022.

       On a monthly basis, prices climbed 0.3%, according to the index.

       “This month’s report boasts another all-time high,” said Brian Luke, head of commodities, real and digital assets at S&P DJI, in a release. “We’ve witnessed records repeatedly break in both stock and housing markets over the past year.”
       …
       https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/housing-prices-soar-new-all-time-high-march

21. A reader sent these in:

    There are presently 6100, $2m+ homes for sale in Ontario. Half of these are $3m+, and half of those are $4m+.

    It takes a $500k salary to finance a $2m mortgage in 2024 @ $12k/month.

    https://x.com/TdLeaker/status/1795119910365938056

    New car inventory is up 51% year/year in the United States, the highest since low rates and stimulus monies took the auto market by storm in 2020.

    https://x.com/MacroEdgeRes/status/1795107919643516941

    OMFG. They just tried to erase the entire history of new home price declines. Never forget.

    https://x.com/TravisREMindset/status/1794731008048476195

    The US govt just pulled a major data scam with the housing data to “revise” away 25% of the housing inflation from the past 4 years.

    This is an example of why CPI data is completely fake and should be entirely ridiculed whenever they release it.

    (from Wolfstreet)
    The Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly produce the data on new single-family houses: permits, construction starts and completions, inventories at all stages of construction, sales at all stages of construction, median and average contract sales prices, and related data.

    Whatever happened during the pandemic in collecting and processing the data, the Census Bureau and HUD decided that the pricing data was totally screwed up and needed to be fixed, and they dramatically revised the sales prices that had been collected during the pandemic.

    And today, as part of this, they announced huge revisions to the pricing data going back through 2020. For example, they chopped off $36,000 from the median price at the peak in October 2022, taking it from the old $496,800 to the new-and-improved $460,300. Link to the full article below…

    https://x.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1794876683935187239

    A reminder fraud is a marker of a bubble

    https://x.com/Will_DeCotiis/status/1795163613604262369

    retailers are going bankrupt everywhere while poor spend online and on temu

    the normalisation

    https://x.com/AlessioUrban/status/1795011195889447271

    4 years (only to 2020 🤔) of sale price adjustments. Not units, sales, or permits. Just prices. A 🧵on how ridiculous this is and it’s implications.

    https://x.com/MrAwsumb/status/1794433875390714258

    This is a trend that will continue accelerate in the developed world. Housing prices/cost of living vs median wage is playing a big role in this as well.

    In the specialist based economy of today – if you can start a company or work remote – you can live almost anywhere.

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1795175350546092525

    Homebuyer conditions for US consumers plummeted to their lowest level in history this month.

    The index of buying conditions for houses fell to ~30 points which is below the previous low of ~40 points in the early 1980s.

    In just 4 years, conditions for buying a house have dropped by 110 points, a massive 73% decline.

    Meanwhile, buying conditions for vehicles and large household durables are down for 3 straight months.

    Affordability in the US is somehow still getting worse.

    https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1795111781620175118

    Friendly reminder that markets are always wrong about future fed funds rate. What are the odds that now they are correct for the first time?

    https://x.com/MichaelAArouet/status/1794988821987082421

    I understand what you’re talking about, but let’s think of this clearly:

    You have an entire government full of 75+ year old people who are spending $1 trillion of debt every 100 days for every pet project they want (including literal bribes to small subgroups of voters with things like student loan “forgiveness”), are willing to send your kid to die in a foreign land in multiple wars, simply to do one last battle with the “Evil Empire” and to enrich themselves personally, who shut down the entire world economy so that they felt safer walking down the aisle of their local Kroger due to their decades of poor health decisions, who exempt themselves from insider trading rules that you’d go to prison for…

    https://x.com/his_eminence_j/status/1795134578304352285

    Update, it was actually sent to auction. I was told it sold WAY less than they expected. This is in a premier-ish neighborhood in Phoenix. Wild sh$t here

    https://x.com/GRomePow/status/1795246277107830887

    I think people would be surprised how many boomers need to downsize in the next 5 years because:

    – can’t do stairs anymore
    – can’t do yard work anymore
    – need cash to help kids buy a house
    – have their entire net worth in the house and so need to downsize to pocket the difference or reverse mortgage it

    Just because they’re not all going to pass away imminently doesn’t mean they won’t need to sell.

    There’s so many of them, it’s not going to take that many to create inventory.

    Look at Florida as a preview of what’s coming in the next 5 years

    https://x.com/NipseyHoussle/status/1795214500745937329

    The US housing market is so tight that new home inventories are at their highest level since the pre-GFC bubble period.

    Remember, it is new home construction that directly adds to GDP, not sales of existing homes.

    https://x.com/PeterBerezinBCA/status/1795196324419178965

    “Pandemonium in Paradise 🏡⚖️

    📍Brampton, ON 🇨🇦

    Paradise Homes drops another mega lawsuit on pre-con buyers who walked away. 🚶‍♂️🚶‍♀️

    In April of 2022, buyers agreed to purchase a Brampton pre-con for $2.6M that would close in May of 2024.

    After paying more than $350k in deposits, they just advised that they are unable to close.

    Paradise then dropped a massive $1.1M suit for the deposit, damages, interest, and costs. 💼💥

    https://x.com/ShaziGoalie/status/1795137969734517192

    1. New car inventory is up 51% year/year in the United States, the highest since low rates and stimulus monies took the auto market by storm in 2020.

       They ain’t seen nothing yet. Unsold $90K+ pickups that no one can afford, as far as the eye can see.

       1. OMG this. just futzing around, i built a new jeep pickup online.

          I figured brand new it would e around 50k (which is still ridiculous)

          came out to 72,000

          Yeah………………….. Same thing with the new “affordable” Toyota land cruiser. like 75 grand.

          Yeah, i think i’ll invest a few grand in my 2010 to keep it a few more years. Ain’t nobody buying at that price and current low rates (cuz they going higher).

          1. I don’t know who they think is supposed to buy these things

             1. Lotsa proud peacocks out there!

22. [Brought to you from …

    (drum roll) ..

    The Atlantic.]

    Is America Ready for ‘Degrowth Communism’?

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/ar-BB1ncevi

    [snip snip snip snip snip]

    Kohei Saito knows he sounds like a madman. That’s kind of the point, the Japanese philosopher told me during a recent visit to New York City. “Maybe, then, people get shocked,” he said. “What’s this crazy guy saying?”

    The crazy idea is “degrowth communism,” a combination of two concepts that are contentious on their own. Degrowth holds that there will always be a correlation between economic output and carbon emissions, so the best way to fight climate change is for wealthy nations to cut back on consumption and reduce the “material throughput” that creates demand for energy and drives GDP.

    The degrowth movement has swelled in recent years, particularly in Europe and in academic circles. The theory has dramatic implications. Instead of finding carbon-neutral ways to power our luxurious modern lifestyles, degrowth would require us to surrender some material comforts. One leading proponent suggests imposing a hard cap on total national energy use, which would ratchet down every year. Energy-intensive activities might be banned outright or taxed to near oblivion. (Say goodbye, perhaps, to hamburgers, SUVs, and your annual cross-country flight home for the holidays.) You’d probably be prohibited from setting the thermostat too cold in summer or too warm in winter. To keep frivolous spending down, the government might decide which products are “wasteful” and ban advertising for them. Slower growth would require less labor, so the government would shorten the workweek and guarantee a job for every person.

    Saito did not invent degrowth, but he has put his own spin on it by adding the C word.

    As for what kind of “communism” we’re talking about, Saito tends to emphasize workers’ cooperatives and generous social-welfare policies rather than top-down Leninist state control of the economy. He says he wants democratic change rather than revolution—though he’s fuzzy on how exactly you get people to vote for shrinkage.

    This message has found an enthusiastic audience. Saito’s 2020 book, Capital in the Anthropocene, sold half a million copies. He took a job at the prestigious University of Tokyo and became a regular commentator on Japanese TV—one of the few far-left talking heads in that country’s conservative media sphere. When we met up in April, he was touring the northeastern U.S. to promote the new English translation of the book, titled Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto, and planning to appear on a series of panels at Georgetown University to discuss his ideas. One day during his New York stint, we visited the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, where a young protester named Tianle Zhang spotted him and waved him over, telling Saito he’s the reason he’s applying to graduate school. They took a selfie together, and Saito posted it on X.

    Saito’s haters are just as passionate as his admirers. The right-wing podcaster James Lindsay recently dedicated a three-hour episode to what he called Saito’s “death cult.” Liberals who favor renewable energy and other technologies say Saito’s ideas would lead to stagnation. On the pro-labor left, Jacobin magazine published multiple articles criticizing degrowth in general and Saito in particular, calling his vision a “political disaster” that would hurt the working class. And don’t get the Marxist textualists started; they accuse Saito of distorting the great man’s words in order to portray Marx as the OG degrowth communist.

    It’s understandable that Saito provokes so much ire: He rejects the mainstream political consensus that the best way to fight climate change is through innovation, which requires growth. But no matter how many times opponents swat it down, the idea of degrowth refuses to die. Perhaps it survives these detailed, technical refutations because its very implausibility is central to its appeal.

    Economic growth, the French economist Daniel Cohen has written, is the religion of the modern world. Growth is the closest thing to an unalloyed good that exists in politics or economics. It’s good for the rich, and it’s good for the poor. It’s good if you believe inequality is too high, and if you think inequality doesn’t matter. Deciding how to distribute wealth is complicated, but in theory it gets easier when there’s more wealth to distribute. Growth is the source of legitimacy for governments across the political spectrum: Keep us in power, and we’ll make your life better.

    Japan has worshipped as devoutly as anyone. After the country’s defeat in World War II, GDP replaced military might as a source of national pride. Japan’s economy grew at a rate of nearly 10 percent annually until the 1970s and remained strong through the ’80s as its automotive and electronics industries boomed. So when the Asian financial bubble burst and the Japanese economy collapsed in the early ’90s, the country faced not just an economic crisis, but a crisis of meaning. If Japan wasn’t growing, what was it?

    [Blah blah blah. Go to the link to read the rest.]

    1. If this comes to pass there will be plenty of terror, horror and death. But the empty promises of no work and joining the free sh!t army are an irresistible siren’s song to many.

    2. “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs” — Karl Marx

       Reality is, people with no abilities far outnumber those with any.

       Boxer the horse works himself to death, and the pigs move into the farm house.

    3. The Atlantic

       Brought to you by Steve Jobs’ widow.

23. ‘First listed for sale in late 2021, the owner has pruned nearly $1 million off the asking price since to bring it to just under $1.5 million’

    That may be but 50% off is unreasonable.

24. ‘his agents are having to reeducate both buyers and sellers to the current realities of the market. ‘During that crazy time, sellers were told … ‘I can get above list price. I can have everyone waive everything. I don’t have to give up concessions,’ and I think that mindset is still in people’s minds today’

    I’d bet 5 pesos yer agents were doing the same thing George.

    ‘For sellers, that means putting their best foot forward when listing their house. ‘The homes that are ready to show will sell in a competitive nature,’ he said. ‘You can’t overprice anything these days’
    .
    That’s the spirit George! You got yer commission on the suckers, reel in the knife catchers!

25. ‘The initial hit is going to be painful,’ he said. ‘Everyone is going to see a significant increase in HOA fees year over year as well as that initial assessment to repair the building. It’s going to put a lot of people in a tight position and with a very significant adjustment in their monthly budget’

    Yer right Greg, they have to roll with it. Most of them are still eating so that has to go.

26. ‘Blake Whitmore pays his mortgage every month on his Marin County home, he winces. The elevator mechanic and father of two young children can barely afford the $3,400 he must pay his lender. His wife has gone back to work, and he flipped a house with a buddy to help pay the bills. The hefty mortgage payment is a painful reminder of a $200,000 investment he made in 2019…Whitmore lost all of his money, forcing him to refinance his home to pay off the debt. ‘I tried to get my money back any way I could’

    That’s what you tell the creditors when they call every day Blake.

    ‘Whitmore says he is among the casualties of a Ponzi scheme allegedly involving one of L.A.’s best-known local financial institutions: City National Bank. A recent federal lawsuit alleges that the bank helped to bankroll convicted felon Zachary Horwitz, 37, who perpetrated a scheme that fleeced hundreds of investors’

    I’ve been saying for a while now, why doesn’t the sec regulate ponzi schemes? Just make them register! It’s getting ridiculous.

27. ‘With months of inventory at nearly a 15-year high and prices down year-over-year…there are plenty of opportunities for those looking to buy a new home’

    Yes there are Ed, thousands and thousands of one bedroom, 500 square feet identical airboxes. And thousands more on the way. But hey, they were popular with investors!

28. ‘Off-plan sales are the foundation of most housebuilders’ businesses – selling fewer homes before they’re built is bad news for their bottom line,’ he said. ‘With off-plan sales harder to come by, housebuilders have responded by slowing build rates to preserve capital and ensure they’re not left with large numbers of unsold finished homes’

    We all know builders never screw up so bad they are left with unfinished shacks Dave.

29. ‘Ni piso, wala mi nadawat nga compensation, pero ang pinakasakit, hantud karon ginapabayad gihapon mi og monthly dues, asay hustiya aning gihimo sa DMCI sa amoa, mura mig mga iro nga gitaboy mi sa kaugalingon namong investment’

    Have you tried stamping yer little feet Catalina? Lot’s of people do it.

30. Not In My Backyard! (Toronto Real Estate Market Update)
    Team Sessa Real Estate

    35 minutes ago

    In this episode we take a look at the current Toronto Real Estate Market specifically the detached home prices and market trends for week ending May 22, 2024. We also discuss why some of our housing solution issues sound great on paper but in practice are much harder to adapt.

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

    16:21.

31. Are you spooked by the Hindenburg Omen? 📉⛈️⚡

    1. Jim Miekka, Creator of ‘Hindenburg Omen,’ Dies in Accident
       By Steven Russolillo
       Aug. 21, 2014 2:30 pm ET

       Jim Miekka, creator of the ominous-sounding “Hindenburg Omen”—a technical indicator used to predict stock-market crashes—died earlier this week near his home in Surry, Maine. He was 54 years old.

       Mr. Miekka, who was blind, was walking on the side of a road Tuesday morning with his guide dog, Zoey, when he was struck by an SUV. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to his father, Richard.

       A mathematician and a former high-school physics teacher, Mr. Miekka never worked on Wall Street and didn’t hold any financial degrees. But four years ago, he developed a cult-like following among investors for his Hindenburg Omen. The technical indicator, named after the 1937 disaster of a German passenger airship, uses a confluence of metrics to predict steep market downturns.

       While the Omen foreshadowed significant drops in 1987 and prior to the 2008 financial crisis, it also proved to be a false alarm more often than not. Significant stock-market declines followed the triggering of the Hindenburg just 25% of the time. “Not every tropical storm turns into a hurricane,” he told the Journal in 2011.

       Though he was blind, Mr. Miekka was an avid target shooter. He created artificial-vision technology that used sounds to help him identify targets better than many sighted shooters. Mr. Miekka, who said he could hit 80% of his targets and was able to nail ones 200 yards away, was known by his friends as the “Midnight Gunslinger.”
       …
       https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-MBB-25943

    2. Market crash indicator with spotty track record ‘Hindenburg Omen’ triggered last week
       Published Tue, May 28 2024 1:07 PM EDT
       Updated Tue, May 28 2024 2:47 PM EDT
       Sarah Min
       Trending Now
       …
       https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/28/market-crash-indicator-with-spotty-track-record-hindenburg-omen-triggered-last-week.html

32. Yahoo Finance
    The Hill
    Dimon says hard landing still possible
    Lauren Irwin
    Thu, 23 May 2024 at 1:23 pm GMT-7·1-min read
    Jamie Dimon, chair and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, said a hard landing is still possible for the United States economy.

    In an interview at the JPMorgan Global China Summit in Shanghai, Dimon was asked by CNBC’s Sri Jegarajah about the possibility of an economic hard landing and said “of course” the U.S. could see one, “how could anyone … who reads history say there’s no chance?”

    He said the worst outcome for the U.S. economy would be a “stagflation” scenario, where inflation still rises, but growth slows due to high unemployment.

    “I look at the range of outcomes and again, the worst outcome for all of us is what you call stagflation, higher rates, recession. That means corporate profits will go down and we’ll get through all of that,” Dimon said. “I mean, the world has survived that, but I just think the odds have been higher than other people think.”

    Dimon pointed to Americans’ weary attitudes about inflation. He said that even if the country were to go into a recession, most people would be “in pretty good shape.”

    “However, their confidence levels are low. And that seems to be mostly because of inflation … So, they seem to be okay,” he said, noting that relief money from the COVID-19 pandemic may have helped.

    “That does not mean that you won’t have issues next year,” he admitted. “It just means like right now, it looks pretty good.”
    …
    https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/dimon-says-hard-landing-still-202324217.html?guccounter=1

33. World South & North America
    9:00 – May 28, 2024
    California Continues to Lead in US Unemployment Rate

    TEHRAN (ANA)- The state of California continues to lead the United States in the number of job losses since the start of this year, said California’s Employment Development Department in a report.

    The unemployment rate in California, home to around 40 million residents, remained unchanged at 5.3 percent in April for the third consecutive month, maintaining the highest level in the country.

    The report showed that the number of unemployed Californians was 1,027,000 in April, down by 5,900 from the previous month and up 164,700 year on year. This is the second time in five months the total number of the unemployed has declined.

    It comes amidst sluggish job growth, with statewide employers adding just 5,200 nonfarm payroll jobs in April, a significant drop from the 18,200 jobs added in March.
    …
    https://ana.ir/en/news/6065/california-continues-to-lead-in-us-unemployment-rate

    1. “…home to around 40 million residents,…”

       How far below 40 million still counts as ‘around’?

       1. California’s population drain

          Key Takeaways

          – California is losing population to Arizona and Texas at higher levels than ever before, including a greater share of college graduates and residents at all income levels.

          – Two-thirds of those who moved said that politics was not a factor in their decision, but the population loss has political consequences: California lost a congressional seat after the 2020 census.

          – California’s high cost of living has spurred many businesses and residents to leave the state, posing serious consequences for the state’s job market and fiscal outlook.

          – California’s environmental policies and mandates could fuel the economic and political exodus to more lenient states like Arizona and Texas.
          …
          https://siepr.stanford.edu/publications/policy-brief/californias-population-drain

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