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A Ponzi Scheme That Falls Apart When Prices Aren’t Increasing Rapidly

A report from the Panama City News Herald in Florida. “According to Kaydee Albritton, CEO of the Central Panhandle Association of Realtors, the changes stem from a class-action lawsuit filed in 2019 by a group of Missouri home sellers who argued it is not fair for them to ‘have to pay the full amount of compensation.’ Albritton also said that if buyers are responsible, they might not be able to lump the money they owe their agents into a mortgage, meaning they would need to have additional cash on hand. For example, if a first-time home buyer is looking to purchase a property using an FHA loan, they are required to make a minimum down payment of 3.5%. So if they are eyeing a $300,000 house, that means they would need to put down $10,500. If they also are required to pay their agent, and that agent charges a 3% commission, they would need another $9,000.”

‘”The goal isn’t to get the buyer to pay out of pocket,’ Albritton said. ‘When they’re working with a realtor, their first goal is to try and seek compensation from the listing office, and if not the listing office, they would seek compensation from the seller directly. And then, at the very end of the day, if they can’t accomplish that, then the buyer would be held accountable for whatever compensation they are charging. This isn’t really about artificially inflating home prices to pay for realtors, so much as it is (knowing) exactly what the realtors are getting paid, and at the end of the day, it’s who is paying them.'”

WTSB in Florida. “The region continues to see the residual effects of Hurricane Debby despite the rainfall having ended several days ago. It is an issue some of the neighbors admit they were not expecting to deal with in the location where they purchased their homes. ‘These bags are basically to line the outside of our house what we’re going to try and engineer is like a water pump to pump water out of the house,’ Dr. Daniele Mion-Bet said. ‘As of two months ago, we were in a non-flood zone. Probably 90 to 95% of our neighbors have no flood insurance so you know we’re kind of left to our own.'”

From KING 5. “Homeowner Regge Egger in Plain, Washington, said he feels hopeless. He has spent decades and tens of thousands of dollars meticulously ensuring his home could withstand a wildfire. That’s why he was shocked in May when Farmers Insurance dropped him as a customer. The reason? ‘Wildfire risk.’ ‘I’m not the only one. I hope more people will yell and holler and say, ‘This is wrong,’ said Egger. This is the reality of someone on a fixed income with a home the insurance industry decided is a wildfire risk, no matter what. ‘If they only want to insure the sure things, that’s not insurance. To me if they want to insure in Washington, they should insure everyone,’ said Egger.”

Mansion Global. “Luxury home buyers generally have access to insurers who specialize in high-value homes, as part of their larger portfolio of assets, but that doesn’t mean they’re immune to the troubles roiling the insurance markets. ‘There’s not a part of the U.S. where the winds don’t blow, the rains don’t come, the fires don’t rage,’ said Cindy Zobian, a managing director at Alliant Private Client, an insurance brokerage based in New York. ‘This is hands down the worst market we have ever seen.’ While insurance has gotten more expensive everywhere, areas that are prone to wildfires, hurricanes and floods, particularly in California and Florida have been especially hard hit. ‘We’ve experienced increases as high as 800%,’ Zobian said. ‘Those are not the norm, but if you live in a riskier area, you’re going to see, at minimum, double-digit increases.'”

“In Los Angeles, it took three separate policies to cover a $28.5 million home, at an annual cost of $300,000, said the Will Berlin of Jules Berlin Agency, who brokered the deal. That was unheard of several years ago, Berlin said. ‘Seven, eight years ago, the way to insure a very large home did not substantially differ from insuring a smaller home,’ Berlin said. But not anymore. ‘No one company wants to be exposed to all of the risk of a $40 million house,’ Berlin said. ‘What we have to do is get multiple companies to agree to take a certain portion of the risk.'”

The New Haven Register in Connecticut. “Built in the 1980s, Pine Rock Condos contains a total of 17 units within two separate buildings. Vanessa Brown said she began noticing problems with her home around 2013 – about two decades after she made a ‘generational investment’ in the unit, which was in ‘wonderful’ condition. As her home fell into further disrepair, Brown stopped paying her dues to the condo association, which is responsible for maintaining the property’s exterior. She currently owes more than $22,000 in unpaid condo fees, for which the association has taken her to court. After a years-long battle to save her home, which the town recently condemned, Brown is now facing foreclosure because she stopped paying dues to the Pine Rock Place Condominium Association. Officials said her situation highlights a gap in the insurance industry and shows the need for policies to cover foundation repairs to prevent people like Brown from losing their investments. The condo association’s insurance plan didn’t include coverage for the foundation’s long-term failure, both sides said and Brown doesn’t have insurance. ‘When it rains, everything comes falling down,’ Brown said. ‘It’s like being a homeless person in a house. None of this is my fault, but I feel like I’m being punished.'”

The Dallas Observer in Texas. “Soraya Santos’ house was alive. It spoke in creaks and rumbles; it wore honeysuckle all over its fences. There was a ‘massive’ pecan tree, too, and Santos, then a young girl and a big fan of Shel Silverstein, dubbed it ‘the Giving Tree. ‘I was convinced it would provide for me in the same way,’ she told the Observer, ‘until I was an old lady sitting on its stump.’ But in 2006, fast-rising home insurance and property taxes forced Santos’ mother to sell the house on Belmont Avenue. Santos, now 50 and a community organizer, says the move was so painful that she’s never ventured near her old block. She now lives in Pleasant Grove (which she says hasn’t been gentrified ‘yet’) and, in some ways, she faces a similar situation. Her home, bought for less than $70,000, is now worth more than $200,000 — and in the last year alone, the cost of her home insurance has tripled. ‘I feel guilty even talking to you, because my situation is so much better than what some of my homeowner friends are dealing with,’ she said. ‘But having your insurance and tax triple is still a shock. It kind of makes you wonder what this is gonna look like in five years.'”

The Dallas Business Journal in Texas. “The housing market in Dallas-Fort Worth is shifting toward balance after years of sellers having the upper hand. Home prices have fallen in most North Texas counties from where they were a year ago and inventory was up by double-digit percentages in June, according to M&D Real Estate. The median home sale price in Dallas County was $367,500 in June, a 3.9% decrease from $382,250 in June 2023. Collin County’s median price was $506,528 in June, a drop of 6.2% from $540,000 a year ago, according to NTREIS data. Median prices fell 3.9% in Rockwall County, 5.1% in Kaufman County and 2.7% in Hunt County compared with June 2023. Overall, inventory across DFW was nearly 3.8 months in June. The last time it was that high was November 2012.”

“However, sellers can still attract multiple offers by properly pricing homes and strategically offering incentives, said Danny Perez, founder and managing director at M&D Real Estate. ‘Sellers are still trying to get that premium pricing, but they’re getting seller fatigue and buyers are starting to get wiser and making better offers that are affordable because ultimately the problem with DFW is not demand but affordability,’ Perez said. Buyers are making offers of $50,000 or even $100,000 below the asking price and getting deals done, causing the decline in prices from May to June, Perez said. ‘I think we really need to get into double-digit [drops in prices] before affordability and transactions begin to pick up to a more normalized pace for DFW,’ Perez said.’ What that means is that prices are going to have to come down.'”

From KLVY. “New homeowners in North Dakota say it has been nothing but trouble since they closed on their Oxbow house last year. From a quick glance, Tom and Katie Webster’s newly built home looks pristine, but upon closer look, a different picture is seen. ‘From the day we signed, it’s been one thing after another … after another … after another,’ Katie Webster said. The Websters say they closed on their house in March 2023, but the home that sits on a corner lot still has 37 projects that either need to be finished or completely redone. Heavy rain caused their home to flood, creating a domino effect of issues they had to focus on, something they both called a ‘dream come true turned into a nightmare.'”

“As a veteran, Tom Webster received a VA home loan for the house but says he is now at risk of losing some of his federal backing, because of his mortgage company learning these projects are not getting completed. Over a year and a half later, they’re left fixing a lot of these issues themselves, and putting extra money into repairs that shouldn’t have happened in the first place. ‘The quality of work is what really saddens me because we’ve put our entire life savings into this home, expecting this to be our forever home, and right now, we just don’t believe that’s the case anymore. We can’t keep putting more money into this,’ Katie Webster said. The $1.1 million house was built through Spire Custom Homes, which the couple says has little to no communication when it comes to their complaints.”

Durham Region in Canada. “Recently, I saw a post on one of my social sites about a home on Verdun Street in Oshawa that was sold for $300,000 less than the homeowners paid for it, so I thought I would do some digging and determine what possibly happened. A numbered company purchased the home for $406,000, and it was completely renovated. The next entry was in January 2021, when the house was sold to another numbered company for $640,000. Then, it was sold again to a different numbered company in December 2021 for $750,000. The home was ultimately sold to a buyer in January 2022 for $830,000.”

“The next time we noticed the property was when the owners placed it for sale in October 2023. The property did not sell and was placed back on the market in May 2024. However, the owner at this time was a trust company and was under ‘power of sale.’ What this means is that the owner had defaulted (the most common way of default is by no payment of mortgage payments), and the lender who had the mortgage sold the home to recover their loan. The values peaked in February 2022 in Oshawa at $1,218,000 for a detached home. In late March 2022, the Bank of Canada started what would end up being 10 mortgage rate hikes. I have only seen the market drop this dramatically twice in my four decades of selling real estate, and now that this correction is behind us, I am forecasting that we will see values grow over the next decade.”

The Globe and Mail in Canada. “Real estate investment is a way of life in Vancouver, with investors – people who don’t reside in the homes they own – representing close to half of the condo market. In recent years, Toronto has pretty much caught up, with a 28 per cent increase in all investor-owned condos from 2019 to 2022. Investors aren’t only active in the condo market. Andy Yan, director of Simon Fraser University’s City Program found that the University of B.C. area had an unusually high rate of investor ownership of detached houses, at 54 per cent. UBC is within the wealthy Point Grey district known as Metro Vancouver A. That compares to investor ownership of 19 per cent of detached houses for Vancouver overall.”

“There are problems with an investor-fuelled housing market. Such homes can sit empty for long periods or be used for lucrative short-term rental. Both issues have added to the housing affordability crisis. There is also the problem of investors driving up prices and creating instability for the entire housing market, a dark side to investment buying that is playing out in Toronto right now, say industry experts. John Pasalis, president of Toronto’s Realosophy Realty, a brokerage that does data analysis, says there was a major acceleration of preconstruction condo investors in Toronto, with buyers willing to pay 30 to 40 per cent more for a preconstruction unit than a resale. That’s because, he says, a preconstruction unit requires less of a down payment and staggered payments, and then buyers can either flip the unit or rent it out and sit on it for a few years. But once those buyers stopped buying in the last several months, the system started to crack, he says. Investors are now trying to unload units that have put them in a negative cash flow, with costs higher than the rents they can charge.”

“‘When you have an investor-driven market, prices end up getting ahead of where they should be, right? And this is what we’ve seen across the world during the financial crisis when it’s driven by investors. It’s the exuberance that drives prices higher than what they otherwise should be and what they rationally should be,’ he says. ‘There’s the expectation that prices are just going to keep going up forever. And now that prices have been relatively flat for the past three or four years in Toronto, no one wants to buy preconstruction condos any more, and many people with existing units are actually trying to sell them. So, we have a record number of condos on the market right now, and this is largely what’s driving it.So, in some ways, it kind of is a Ponzi scheme that falls apart when prices aren’t increasing rapidly. And we’re starting to see the negative side of that.'”

Wales Online in the UK. “A second home owner fears losing her dream retirement if council tax premiums rise. Sandra King, a Leicestershire retiree who has enjoyed holidays in Wales for 16 years and bought a property in Llandudno in 2009, says she would have a difficult decision if council taxes are increased on second homes. At 70, Sandra worries that her retirement dream could be dashed by proposals to hike council tax premiums further in Conwy. ‘Our plans for retirement risk being shattered by the proposed increase in council tax premiums,’ Sandra stated. ‘We’re waiting to see what happens but it could become too expensive for us to keep the property. If we have to sell up we will do so reluctantly as we love the area so much. What’s happening now is making us feel like we’re being booted out.'”

“Sandra also mentioned her recent canvassing of three local estate agents last month. All reported a downturn in overall demand coupled with an increase in second homes coming onto the market. ‘This is materialising in a glut of circa £225,000-plus properties for sale,’ she claimed. ‘Second homeowners are now trying to sell up and if that was the council’s intention, it’s working. But owners are struggling to off-load their homes as no one wants them. At least that’s the feedback I’ve had. Even if values fall 10%, this glut of second homes is not going to benefit first-time buyers.'”

ABC News in Australia. “That’s the thing with silver linings. They’re usually attached to dark clouds. After salivating for months about the prospect of interest rate cuts and blithely ignoring reality, financial markets suddenly are in a mad panic about the fundamentals driving the push for cuts. This time last week, our stock market surged to a new record, buoyed by the idea that we may exit the inflation danger zone without the usual after-effects; the self-induced slowdown that leads to recession. But no sooner had the champagne corks hit the ceiling, Wall Street encountered a dose of the jitters which has since turned into a full-scale rout as investors make a mad rush for the exits.”

“The fear of a global slowdown has quickly permeated global markets. And even though Australian stocks have lagged the incredible boom on Wall Street, the strong gains since last November have pushed local companies well beyond their long-term value measures. Why? Because investors were lulled into a false sense of security that as interest rates eased, markets would remain buoyant and few, if any, believed the economy would slow enough to tip into recession.”

“The reaction across the developed world in the past week will no doubt be a sobering influence on today’s Reserve Bank of Australia board meeting. After centuries of missteps, governments and, these days, central banks try to smooth out the cycles by slowing activity in booms and speeding it up during busts. We’ve just emerged from a boom caused by over-stimulating during the pandemic bust. After three decades of ever-slowing inflation, the world’s biggest central banks, including America’s and the RBA, refused to believe the sudden shift to soaring prices was anything but a temporary affair. Eventually, they were goaded into action by money markets that abandoned any guidance from the US Federal Reserve. Embarrassingly, it was forced to follow the markets rather than guide them to the future. As a result, it was late to the party when it came to rate hikes.”

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This Post Has 98 Comments

  1. ‘first-time home buyer is looking to purchase a property using an FHA loan, they are required to make a minimum down payment of 3.5%. So if they are eyeing a $300,000 house, that means they would need to put down $10,500. If they also are required to pay their agent, and that agent charges a 3% commission, they would need another $9,000…’The goal isn’t to get the buyer to pay out of pocket,’ Albritton said. ‘When they’re working with a realtor, their first goal is to try and seek compensation from the listing office, and if not the listing office, they would seek compensation from the seller directly. And then, at the very end of the day, if they can’t accomplish that, then the buyer would be held accountable for whatever compensation they are charging. This isn’t really about artificially inflating home prices to pay for realtors’

    Kaydee isn’t just talking about her commission being rolled into the loan, it’s the closing costs too. So a way over 100% loan. Sound lending!

    1. Nowhere did she mention reducing her commission. Hmmmm maybe it would help the buyers close the deal if their agent wasn’t extorting them for three percent?

      As a side note, my wife watches Million Dollar Home L.A. or some such nonsense. I enjoy watching the high end, overpaid sales people whine about having to throw a $10,000 open house when their potential commission is $400,000. They’re so fake that I can’t muster one ounce of sympathy for them. Especially when one realtor chides another realtor for driving a Rolls Royce that’s over five years old.

    2. What nobody mentions is that homebuyers pay dearly for that 3.5% down payment. FHA charges PMI for 5 years. Even if you pay enough extra on principle to reach that 20% down payment before 5 years, you still can’t take off PMI. On top of that, you have to pay a fee on every mortgage payment for the life of the loan.

      At least that’s how they calculated it for me in 2012. IIRC it added up to a ballpark ~$250/month. That’s a pretty good chunk of change on top of taxes and insurance. I opted to put 10% down.

      So when I read the media articles about housing costs being so much more than just principle_ interest, that’s one of the factors.

      1. Even if you pay enough extra on principle to reach that 20% down payment before 5 years, you still can’t take off PMI.

        I thought PNB lost a lawsuit about this about 20 years ago.

        1. This is very strange:
          https://www.freedommortgage.com/learning-center/articles/fha-loans-pmi

          “FHA loans have a one-time upfront fee you need to pay at closing (called “UFMIP”) as well as monthly insurance payments (called “MIP”).

          This means if you borrow $250,000 to finance a home with an FHA loan, your upfront premium would cost $4,375. This is a one-time fee you pay at closing or add to your loan amount.

          As you pay down your mortgage principal, the cost of your monthly mortgage insurance premiums may go down too.

          For recent FHA loans, you will need to pay insurance premiums for at least 11 years, and you may need to pay them for the life of the loan. Some FHA homeowners refinance into a Conventional loan to stop paying for mortgage insurance.”
          ———

          They must have changed things around in the past 12+ years. Because these terms seem even worse!

  2. ‘She now lives in Pleasant Grove (which she says hasn’t been gentrified ‘yet’) and, in some ways, she faces a similar situation. Her home, bought for less than $70,000, is now worth more than $200,000 — and in the last year alone, the cost of her home insurance has tripled. ‘I feel guilty even talking to you, because my situation is so much better than what some of my homeowner friends are dealing with,’ she said. ‘But having your insurance and tax triple is still a shock’

    Yer shack triples and yer serprised the insurance triples? The huge counties in north Texas with the 500,000 peso shacks used to be just cows 20 years ago, or less. Insurance has to cover that, and this is tornado/hail alley.

  4. DeSantis Launches New Volley of Walz Attacks: His ‘Snitch Hotline’ for ‘Draconian’ Covid Laws (8/8/2024):

    “After slamming Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for “letting Minneapolis burn” during the 2020 George Floyd protests, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is traveling down a new avenue to bludgeon the Democrat pick for Vice President: his “snitch hotline” for Covid outlaws and his christening of Minnesota as a “sanctuary state” for transgender minors.

    “[Walz] has this line in the stump speech saying, you know, our neighbors can do what they want, mind your own damn business. Fine. Then why did you set up a snitch hotline for neighbors to report their neighbors for violating your draconian Covid restrictions?” DeSantis questioned at a Fort Lauderdale press conference, twisting the Minnesota Governor’s viral line into a swipe at Walz’s pandemic hotline, which was used to report on the flagrant flouters of social distancing guidelines.

    He turned to one of his biggest talking points, parents’ rights, as he drew a stark contrast between Florida and Minnesota in terms of transgender minors. He blasted Walz for signing a 2023 law granting legal protection to children who come to Minnesota seeking transgender surgeries, therapies, or medications, when that same year, Florida passed a law banning the practices for minors.

    “They actually have a policy where they’re a sanctuary state for gender surgery for minors, so you can have a kid go with no parent consent to Minnesota and get this stuff done. And I’m just thinking like, how is that standing for parents’ rights?” DeSantis questioned.

    https://floridianpress.com/2024/08/desantis-launches-new-volley-of-walz-attacks-his-snitch-hotline-for-draconian-covid-laws/

    1. Related article.

      HuffPaint — Here’s The Thing They Won’t Tell You About Giving Your Trans Kid Hormone Shots (8/10/2024):

      “I admit, I was naive at the outset. I assumed that finding a doctor for George would be like looking for any other specialized care.”

      No additional excerpt needed.

      https://www.huffpost.com/entry/parent-transgender-child-hormones_n_6695ab11e4b05fc968757513

      The author of this piece, Stephanie Manes, is emblematic of a civilization in terminal decline.

      Stephanie Manes, you are a child mutilator, and you have failed as a mother.

    2. This is kind of important.

      Here is some text that was changed in one of the laws that Tim Walz signed (from X):

      ——–
      Subd. 44. Sexual orientation. “Sexual orientation” means having or being perceived as having an emotional, physical, or sexual attachment to another person without regard to the sex of that person or having or being perceived as having an orientation for such attachment, or having or being perceived as having a self-image or identity not traditionally associated with one’s biological maleness or femaleness. “Sexual orientation” does not include a physical or sexual attachment to children by and adult to whom someone is, or is perceived as being, emotionally, physically or sexually attracted to based on sex of gender identity. A person may be attracted to men, women, both, neither, or to people who are genderqueer, androgynous, or have other gender identities.
      ——-

      I apologize if I didn’t get the formatting correct, but notice the sentence that “Sexual orientation” does not include a physical or sexual attachment to children by an adult.”

      So, this sentence prevented a pedo from claiming that his behavior is due to sexual orientation. This prevention text has been STRUCK. That is, now the regulations are “silent.”

      If the law or regulation is silent, that means that it is allowed, by default, because there’s nothing specific to stop it. So, by taking out that text, a pedo can now claim sexual orientation as a defense. The law does not specifically bless it, but the law doesn’t prevent it either.

      With a couple creative lawyers and a lefty judge, a pedo can now legally chase after kids. My guess is that the robe-wearing group in MN will use this to legally arrange marriages with minor girls (among other things).

      https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1822247751284908132

      1. “The 10-Year Treasury Yield Jumps – What it Means”

        Hurry up and buy / refi now, before mortgage rates jump back up above 7%!

  6. 41% is what low investment parenting and the taxpayer funded public education system creates.

    CNBC — Harris erases Trump’s lead on economy among younger Americans, CNBC/Generation Lab survey finds (8/9/2024):

    “Younger Americans do not appear to hold Vice President Kamala Harris responsible for what many of them believe is a worsening U.S. economy under the Biden-Harris administration, according to a new survey from CNBC and Generation Lab.

    The latest quarterly Youth & Money Survey, taken after Biden dropped out of the race in July, reveals that 69% of Americans between 18 and 34 years old believe the economy is getting worse under President Joe Biden.

    But they also think the candidate best able to improve the economy is the de facto Democratic nominee Harris, not Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump.

    Harris was viewed as the best candidate for the economy by 41% of poll respondents, while 40% chose Trump, while 19% said the economy would do better under someone else, like third party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.”

    https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/09/harris-erases-trumps-lead-economy-new-cnbc-generation-lab-survey.html

    To this 41% “the economy” means a taxpayer funded student loan bailout, food stamps, and universal basic income.

    These people are a net drain on the actual economy, have never built or produced anything of value, and should not be allowed to vote.

  7. ‘I’m not the only one. I hope more people will yell and holler and say, ‘This is wrong,’ said Egger.

    Stamping your little feet will be equally futile, as will writing outraged letter to your Congress Critter who is bought & paid for by the FIRE sector, but go for it!

  8. So if they are eyeing a $300,000 house, that means they would need to put down $10,500. If they also are required to pay their agent, and that agent charges a 3% commission, they would need another $9,000.”

    Gosh, I fear that price sensitive buyers might balk at paying such exorbitant fees for “services” that should be a fraction of the cost.

  9. Do these people have. a non recourse loan and what if they just walked away and rented elsewhere, Why waste your life fixing them up?

    ‘As of two months ago, we were in a non-flood zone. Probably 90 to 95% of our neighbors have no flood insurance so you know we’re kind of left to our own.’”

  10. This isn’t really about artificially inflating home prices to pay for realtors, so much as it is (knowing) exactly what the realtors are getting paid, and at the end of the day, it’s who is paying them.’”

    Stop lying, realtor. Artificially inflating shack prices to ensure parasitic realtors get their unearned commissions is exactly the racket the NAR has imposed on homebuyers for decades. But now that the “cost of living crisis” is destroying buyers’ purchasing power, more will start questioning what realtors have done to earn thousands of dollars on relatively straightforward transactions.

  11. None of this is my fault, but I feel like I’m being punished.’”

    None of this is my fault either, Ms. Brown. As a taxpaying renter, I should be under no obligation to come to your financial rescue because you “invested” in a condo that has structural defects.

  12. The median home sale price in Dallas County was $367,500 in June, a 3.9% decrease from $382,250 in June 2023.

    Not to sound like a one-note drum, but these median sale price decreases don’t factor in the year-over-year loss of purchasing power due to the Fed’s debasement of the currency. So in real terms, the loss of “generational wealth” is even greater.

  13. ‘The quality of work is what really saddens me because we’ve put our entire life savings into this home, expecting this to be our forever home, and right now, we just don’t believe that’s the case anymore.

    My assumption is that any shack built during the pandemic is going to be riddled with defects, corner cutting, and shoddy workmanship. I’m also assuming most inspectors are either incompetent or are working with builders to sign off on substandard construction.

    1. Any shack built later than ~2001 is probably that same. That’s about the time that homebuilders started hanging out in the parking lots at Home Depot.

      That said, I’ve still had good luck with contractors coming to repair/maintain my house.

  14. Joe Biden’s America.

    New York Post — I was robbed at knifepoint in Central Park by a gang of kids — it felt dystopian (8/10/2024):

    “Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that there was a group of people coming. I didn’t notice that they were all in one group because tons of people were walking around, so I didn’t pay them much attention.

    The small kid with them — he could have been 8, maybe 9 at the most — came and beelined right up to us. When he got to our bench, he kind of mean mugged us and flexed on us. I was like “Oh, can I help you?”

    At that point, all of the kids in this group surrounded us and started grabbing at our bags.

    At that point, I realized, “Oh, they’re trying to take our stuff.” They were trying to grab our cell phones out of our pockets and stuff like that.

    As I tried to push their hands out of my pockets, one of the smaller ones, maybe a 10-year-old kid, came up from behind and grabbed my wallet out of my back pocket.

    I started running after him, but the other kids ran up to me and a few of them pulled knives.

    I put my hands up and I was like, “Oh, okay, it’s yours – you can take it.” I definitely wasn’t going to put up a fight while knives were drawn.”

    https://nypost.com/2024/08/10/us-news/i-was-robbed-at-knifepoint-in-central-park-by-a-gang-of-kids-it-felt-dystopian/

    When there is no incentive for fathers to be in the home, because they have been replaced by government, this is what you get.

    1. These Amish Rumspringa hijinks are getting out of hand. Amish elders need to have a come-to-Jesus meeting with notorious ringleaders Mervin & Elmer.

    2. In case you’re wondering how America became great, it was because our population was largely self-policing. We didn’t commit crime because we knew it was wrong. We didn’t steal or skip out on rent or bills because we knew that we were paying for a good or service that we had received. Nobody stopped us from committing crime; we stopped ourselves.

      In the past 15 years, everything has changed. This is the first time in 10+ years that I haven’t been to a you-pick farm for berries or apples. The cheating clientele was eating and stealing vegetables and berries, so now the farms are all fenced in, or charge admission, require reservations in advance, or demand pre-payment. In other aspects of life, people no longer feel obligated to pay rent even if they have the money; instead they spit in your face and dare you to evict them. People buy cars and never make a payment, daring you to repo it. People steal stuff from stores, daring you to stop them. At first they claimed some kind of privilege or repara**, but now they just openly do it. Don’t get me started on how kids act up in public schools, daring somebody to punish them. This does not even include our new arrivals.

      And now they are using children to prey on the nicer people’s sense of politeness and kindness. Hell, they even have a “be kind” mantra going around. Oh hi little kid, how are you? And then the kids take your stuff with no guilt or self-stoppage, because they are trained from birth that you stole their stuff first and they’re just taking back what is theirs, (or something). What am I supposed to do? Mace them? Then I would assaulting a little kid and I’d be the one hauled off.

      The default used to be honesty, and now the default is being defensive with risk of being labeled “unkind.” They say that a Republican is a Democrat who just got mugged. That might literally be the only way to solve this.

  15. “A second home owner fears losing her dream retirement if council tax premiums rise. Sandra King, a Leicestershire retiree who has enjoyed holidays in Wales for 16 years and bought a property in Llandudno in 2009, says she would have a difficult decision if council taxes are increased on second homes.

    Die, speculator scum. Houses are for living in, not funding the retirements of greedy Boomers.

  16. And this is what we’ve seen across the world during the financial crisis when it’s driven by investors. It’s the exuberance that drives prices higher than what they otherwise should be and what they rationally should be,’ he says.

    Blame the Keynesian fraudsters at the central banks who turned shelter – a basic human need – into a speculative housing bubble while destroying the purchasing power & standard of living of the 99 percent.

  17. Joe Biden’s America.

    Someone is throwing rocks at cars in Jefferson County again, putting deputies on alert (8/9/2024):

    “A series of rock-throwing incidents in Jefferson County is putting deputies on alert, more than a year after similar incidents in the county left seven drivers injured and a 20-year-old woman dead.

    “You are playing a game that could cost someone their life,” said Mark Techmeyer with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

    The sheriff’s office said Friday it is investigating a series of six incidents in which rocks were thrown at moving vehicles from another car traveling in the opposite direction. The incidents took place between July 19 and Aug. 4, primarily in the late evening or early morning hours in southern unincorporated Jefferson County.

    While all six vehicles were damaged, no injuries have been reported so far, deputies said.”

    https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/someone-is-throwing-rocks-at-cars-in-jefferson-county-again-putting-deputies-on-alert

    57.9% of the vote in 2020.

      1. I gotta admit, I’m kinda fed up. It’s pretty obvious that being nice does not work. I’m all in favor of having a Papers Please country. And why not? I carry a ton of ID anyway; ask away. We no longer have a choice.

  18. But owners are struggling to off-load their homes as no one wants them. At least that’s the feedback I’ve had. Even if values fall 10%, this glut of second homes is not going to benefit first-time buyers.’”

    Get to sawin’ and slashin’ like you mean it, Greedhead Sarah, because this is as good as it gets. Shack prices need to fall at least 50% to retrace the scamdemic-era bubble prices created by the central bankers’ tsunami of created-out-of-thin-air “stimulus.”

  19. Investors are now trying to unload units that have put them in a negative cash flow, with costs higher than the rents they can charge.”

    It’s getting chilly in here. Someone throw another speculator on the fire.

  20. Matt Taibbi
    @mtaibbi

    American Stasi: Tulsi Gabbard Confirms “Quiet Skies” Nightmare
    Placed on a terror list, the former Hawaii congresswoman and her husband were tailed by Air Marshals and bomb dogs. “Unconstitutional on every level,” she says. “And I’m not the only one.”

    https://racket.news/p/american-stasi-tulsi-gabbard-confirms?r=5mz1&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

    3:11 PM · Aug 7, 2024
    ·
    https://x.com/mtaibbi/status/1821262976739090633

    Tulsi Gabbard: This is an ‘act of political retaliation’

    Aug 10, 2024

    https://youtu.be/09eVb2eomKo?si=wxkW27W5Dei-mxEs

    2. I’m just hoping the Dems are confident enough to keep this same ticket past the convention, no more switcharoos.

      Especially Walz — he needs to stay in. The military vets and their families will not buy the Dem version of the Stolen Valor story. They’ll suss it out for themselves and decide what’s true. And there are over a million vets+family in Pennsylvania alone.

  22. Voting machine firm Smartmatic alleges Newsmax has deleted evidence in lawsuit over false vote-rigging claims

    Smartmatic is suing Fox News, Newsmax, Rudy Giuliani and others over false claims of vote-rigging and fraud in the 2020 election.

    May 21, 2024, 5:15 PM EDT
    By Sarah Fitzpatrick

    Smartmatic alleges that Newsmax has destroyed evidence in the voting machine company’s lawsuit against the right-wing news channel over false claims that Smartmatic helped “rig” the 2020 election, according to court documents made public this week.

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/smartmatic-alleges-newsmax-deleted-evidence-lawsuit-vote-rig-claims-rcna153231

    1. “The 2020 election was stolen.”

      Smartmatic executives charged in alleged Philippine bribery, money laundering scheme

      By David Rutz Fox News
      Published August 9, 2024 4:43pm EDT

      Federal prosecutors have indicted a co-founder of the Smartmatic voting machine company, saying he and other executives took part in a bribery and money laundering scheme in the Philippines.

      “The co-conspirators allegedly funded the bribes through a slush fund that was created by over-invoicing the cost per voting machine for the 2016 Philippine elections,” the statement continues. “To conceal and disguise the nature and purpose of the corrupt payments, the co-conspirators used coded language to refer to the slush fund and caused the creation of fraudulent contracts and sham loan agreements to justify transfers.”

      According to this indictment, the Philippine government signed contracts totaling $182 million for services in the sale or lease of about 90,000 electronic voting machines, Fox News senior national correspondent William La Jeunesse reported on Friday.

      “The co-conspirators allegedly funded the bribes through a slush fund that was created by over-invoicing the cost per voting machine for the 2016 Philippine elections,” the statement continues. “To conceal and disguise the nature and purpose of the corrupt payments, the co-conspirators used coded language to refer to the slush fund and caused the creation of fraudulent contracts and sham loan agreements to justify transfers.”

      https://www.foxnews.com/media/smartmatic-executives-charged-alleged-overseas-bribery-money-laundering-scheme

    2. “False claims” is a conclusion. That it appears in both the headline and subheadline tells you that the article is propaganda.

  24. Riley Gaines
    @Riley_Gaines_

    🚨BREAKING: Imane Khelif (XY) dominated World Champion Lang Liu (XX) to win an Olympic gold medal.

    Let me repeat that: a MALE has taken a WOMAN’S Olympic gold.

    This is what they call this “progress.” It’s the ultimate betrayal of fairness, safety, and women by
    @iocmedia
    .
    5:14 PM · Aug 9, 2024
    ·
    2.1M
    Views

    https://x.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/1822018729334730885

      2. “No-car Games: Los Angeles Olympic venues will only be accessible by public transportation”

        “Bass and Casey Wasserman, chairman of the LA 2028 organizing committee, highlighted some of the planning already completed …

        “We’re already working to create jobs by expanding our public transportation system in order for us to have a no-car Games,” she said. “And that’s a feat for Los Angeles, as we’ve always been in love with our cars. We’re working to ensure that we can build a greener Los Angeles.”

        https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/los-angeles-2028-olympic-venues-accessible-by-public-transportation/3484866/

        1. That’s adorable, they actually think LA will still be functional enough to host the games in four years,

    2. Harley Davidson is giving American bikers the middle finger
      And from what I have read, American bikers have given Harley Davidson the middle finger at Sturgis.

  28. A reader sent these in:

    90% or real estate investors report losing money on a property, per BI.

    https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1821913574152847550

    Would these be the same folks who claimed there was a supply shortage and demanded rates be lowered

    https://x.com/Will_DeCotiis/status/1821947402787401918

    Foreign buyers are fleeing the U.S. housing market, with sales at a record low, per MW.

    https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1821872050425765968

    The average American household is spending a lot more on housing and healthcare today and less on entertainment, clothing, and education than years ago.

    https://x.com/BobEUnlimited/status/1821595477990641709

    Chrysler-parent Stellantis is laying off 2,450 factory workers from its Warren Truck assembly plant outside of Detroit

    https://x.com/MacroEdgeRes/status/1821975839053119567

    Remind me the last time we had an August with tens of thousands of job cuts announced in the first week?

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1821976638185419161

    🖥️ March 20, 2024 : Intel Receives $8.5 Billion in “Handouts” Grants to Build Chip Plant
    🤷‍♂️ August 1 , 2024: Intel is laying off over 15,000 employees

    https://x.com/dailyjobcuts/status/1821965238771634554

    Paul Krugman has said he sees a case for an emergency rate cut, pointing to the panicked selloff in stocks.

    https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1821932448491462953

    Making $150,000 is considered ‘lower middle class’ in in CA, VA, WA, AZ, per GoBankingRates.

    https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1821879600516841510

    Tesla, $TSLA, launches the Cybertruck in Canada, starts at $137,990 CAD.

    https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1821864501068673313

    They pulled 30 yrs of demand forward, outsourced our manufacturing to china, invited tens of millions of immigrants to come do the jobs that couldn’t be outsourced. Ran up $35 trillion in debt to pay for their entitlements, bankrupted Social Security, and scrapped pensions.

    https://x.com/OverhaulUSA/status/1822035295857946901

    0 new jobs

    1.2M new immigrants to Canada

    Welcome to 2024.

    https://x.com/Tablesalt13/status/1821901955762929778

    Texas currently more homes for sale than any time in last 14 years.

    Austin Round Rock Metro is one of the top 5 large markets, leading the nation in list home price decreases. 50% of listed homes lower their list price.

    https://x.com/atxREpodcast/status/1821951199291027486

    On Wednesday, Wall Street punished Airbnb with its worst day in the market since it went public in December 2020,

    Cities are banning Airbnb all over the world

    In Barcelona, Airbnb has been blamed for skyrocketing rents, and a looming ban will soon prevent short-term stays there. (Locals have also been blasting tourists with water guns.) Berlin has tightly restricted them since 2018. Paris, too, has made it far harder to rent on the platform. (Airbnb’s advertising blitz during the Olympics is, in part, about winning back the local government.) Even San Francisco has limited rentals and made short-term rentals more expensive.

    https://x.com/VladTheInflator/status/1821966098612548041

  29. What Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘The Conversation’ tried to tell us

    You are being watched.

    How much you are being watched may depend on where you go and what websites you visit and perhaps your personal level of paranoia. But you are being watched, by closed-circuit cameras on highways, in stores and on city streets; by internet browsers that funnel every click into a database of consumer algorithms; and by digital assistants in your phone and on your kitchen counter that essentially function as consensual wiretaps.

    In “The Conversation,” Hackman’s Harry is hired by the head of a nameless corporation to eavesdrop on the man’s wife (Cindy Williams, post-“American Graffiti” but pre-“Laverne & Shirley”) as she’s talking in a park with the employee (Frederic Forrest) with whom she’s having an affair. Still guilty over a long-ago assignment that resulted in the death of innocent people, Harry comes to believe the couple is being set up for murder, and his fear rubs up against his pathological need to stay unseen in the background — an invisible private ear with no human attachments of his own. (There’s an assistant played by the late, great John Cazale, and a mistress played by a young Teri Garr, but Harry keeps them both firmly at arm’s length.)

    Neither “Blow-Up” nor “The Conversation” is explicitly political, but you could argue that in paranoid times everything is political, and Coppola’s vision of a monolithic corporation run by stone-faced men (including an unbilled Robert Duvall and some kid named Harrison Ford) echoes with the dread of people we never see making decisions that affect our lives. Perhaps the most blandly terrifying scene is the mid-movie visit to a surveillance convention, with Harry, Cazale’s Stan, and a rival bugger played by Allen Garfield touring booths touting the latest in spy equipment: rotating security cameras, car tracking devices, the “Spectre Eavesdropper Wall Sound Detector.” To an extent even Coppola didn’t understand, we’re seeing our own future.

    There have been attempts to dramatize the essential vacuity of broadcasting one’s life — “The Circle” (2017), with Emma Watson and Tom Hanks, was a lecture-heavy warning about where Google and other tech behemoths were taking us. But the rare films about the secret listeners, whether they do it for money like Harry Caul in “The Conversation” or political ideals like the East German surveillance expert played by Ulrich Mühe in “The Lives of Others” (2006), catch the gnawing unease of a world in which we never know who’s watching or even if they’re watching, through the appliances of our smart homes, the cameras and mics in our phones, through our doorbells and security systems, the keystrokes of our computers, or the paparazzi lineup of videocams on every street corner and in every shop.

    Fifty years on, “The Conversation” reveals its only flaw: It wasn’t paranoid enough.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/what-francis-ford-coppola-s-the-conversation-tried-to-tell-us/ar-AA1ovJ6M

  30. Illegal Alien Crimes
    @ImmigrantCrimes

    🚨 Montgomery County, AL: “Police arrested Alberto Martinez-Fidel in connection to a shooting that took place Sunday morning”

    “A spokesperson for…ICE..reported Martinez is a Mexican national illegally present in the United States.”

    https://breitbart.com/border/2024/08/07/border-town-usa-mexican-national-charged-in-alabama-shooting-illegally-in-u-s-says-ice/

    11:08 PM · Aug 7, 2024
    ·
    https://x.com/ImmigrantCrimes/status/1821382950950498451

    1. The left out the most important clip, that “Kids age 18-24 are stupid, that’s why we keep them in dormitories.”

      FTY, you might hear the chant “We’re not going back.” Originally it was a RoevWade chant that they weren’t going to go back to back-alley abortions. And they’re calling it RoeVember.

      1. Ok sorry, wrong ad. I’ve seen another ad of K’s stupidest hits, like that eternal classic, The Passage of Time.

  33. Nancy Pelosi Dances on Biden’s Grave in Raw Display of Power

    Pelosi said people were calling her saying there was a “challenge there.” She added, “So there had to be a change in the leadership of the campaign, or what would come next.”

    Now that the dust has settled, Pelosi said she has not talked to Biden since his withdrawal on July 21. Pelosi said, “I lose sleep on it,” referring to her tattered relationship with Biden.

    “I hope so,” she replied when asked whether her relationship with Biden would continue. “I pray so. I cry so.”

    https://news.yahoo.com/news/nancy-pelosi-reveals-she-got-152327714.html

  34. [Here is an absolutely non-housing related article. At the end of the link the reader will be presented with a key take-away.]

    [First the headline of the article …]

    Climate Fear-Mongering Fail: Great Barrier Reef Sees Third Record Year Of Coral Growth

    [Now I present you with the link …]

    https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/climate-fear-mongering-fail-great-barrier-reef-sees-third-record-year-coral-growth

    [And finally, (ta da) is the take-away …]

    Not everyone goes along with the coral fear-mongering. The distinguished scientist Dr. Peter Ridd has studied the GBR for 40 years and notes that coral numbers have “exploded” in recent years. He says that all 3,000 reefs in the world’s largest system have excellent coral. “Not a single reef or even a single species of reef life has been lost since British settlement,” he reports. The impact of bleaching is “routinely exaggerated by the media and some scientific organisations”. In his view, the public is being deceived about the reef. “How this occurred is a serious issue for the reef-science community which has embraced emotion, ideology and raw self-interest to maintain funding,” he observes.

  35. [Another non-housing related post. This one is about Ted Turner predicting that we humans will be turning to cannibilism by 2038. Enjoy.]

    Earth 14 years away from Ted Turner’s 2038 Countdown to Cannibalism: 2008 Flashback: ‘Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals’

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/08/09/earth-14-years-away-from-ted-turners-2038-countdown-to-cannibalism-2008-flashback-most-of-the-people-will-have-died-and-the-rest-of-us-will-be-cannibals/

    [Here is a snip:]

    Apr 2, 2008 – From the Charlie Rose Show:

    TED TURNER: Not doing it will be catastrophic. We’ll be eight degrees hotter in ten, not ten but 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals. Civilization will have broken down. The few people left will be living in a failed state — like Somalia or Sudan — and living conditions will be intolerable. The droughts will be so bad there’ll be no more corn grown. Not doing it is suicide. Just like dropping bombs on each other, nuclear weapons is suicide. We’ve got to stop doing the suicidal two things, which are hanging on to our nuclear weapons and after that we’ve got to stabilize the population. When I was born-

    CHARLIE ROSE: So what’s wrong with the population?

    TURNER: We’re too many people. That’s why we have global warming. We have global warming because too many people are using too much stuff. If there were less people, they’d be using less stuff.

    2. Investing
      Bitcoin
      Cannabis
      Cryptocurrency
      ETFs
      Earnings
      Fixed Income
      Funds
      Futures
      Options
      Rating
      REITs
      Stocks
      INVESTING
      Six Flags, Cedar Fair merge in $8 billion amusement park dealSix Flags, Cedar Fair merge in $8 billion amusement park deal
      Cathie Wood buys $59 million of pummeled tech stocks
      Her flagship Ark Innovation ETF has sunk 21% year to date.
      Dan WeilAug 10, 2024 7:37 AM EDT
      …
      https://www.thestreet.com/investing/cathie-wood-battered-tech-stocks

    3. The latest stock market crash wasn’t a fluke, and it signals more trouble coming for the economy, investor Mark Mobius says
      Jennifer Sor
      Aug 10, 2024, 6:31 AM MDT

      – The recent sell-off in stocks could be a warning sign for what’s coming for the economy, Mark Mobius said.

      – The billionaire investor flagged the risk of recession in an interview with The Economic Times.

      – Mobius said it was a good time for investors to hold around 20% of their portfolio in cash.
      …
      https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-market-crash-recession-outlook-us-economy-fed-mark-mobius-2024-8

  38. ‘As of two months ago, we were in a non-flood zone. Probably 90 to 95% of our neighbors have no flood insurance so you know we’re kind of left to our own’

    Don’t worry Daniele, the lending was sound.

  39. ‘I’m not the only one. I hope more people will yell and holler and say, ‘This is wrong,’ said Egger. This is the reality of someone on a fixed income with a home the insurance industry decided is a wildfire risk, no matter what. ‘If they only want to insure the sure things, that’s not insurance. To me if they want to insure in Washington, they should insure everyone’

    You clearly don’t understand how insurance works Regge. The money goes to them, not to you.

  40. ‘Sellers are still trying to get that premium pricing, but they’re getting seller fatigue and buyers are starting to get wiser and making better offers that are affordable because ultimately the problem with DFW is not demand but affordability,’ Perez said… ‘I think we really need to get into double-digit [drops in prices] before affordability and transactions begin to pick up to a more normalized pace for DFW’

    Sacré bleu! Zut alors! Mon Dieu Danny!

    ‘Buyers are making offers of $50,000 or even $100,000 below the asking price and getting deals done, causing the decline in prices from May to June’

    They are giving it away in DFW.

  41. ‘In Los Angeles, it took three separate policies to cover a $28.5 million home, at an annual cost of $300,000, said the Will Berlin of Jules Berlin Agency, who brokered the deal. That was unheard of several years ago, Berlin said. ‘Seven, eight years ago, the way to insure a very large home did not substantially differ from insuring a smaller home’

    That wasn’t sustainable Will.

  42. ‘Vanessa Brown said she began noticing problems with her home around 2013 – about two decades after she made a ‘generational investment’ in the unit, which was in ‘wonderful’ condition. As her home fell into further disrepair, Brown stopped paying her dues to the condo association, which is responsible for maintaining the property’s exterior. She currently owes more than $22,000 in unpaid condo fees, for which the association has taken her to court. After a years-long battle to save her home, which the town recently condemned, Brown is now facing foreclosure because she stopped paying dues to the Pine Rock Place Condominium Association. Officials said her situation highlights a gap in the insurance industry and shows the need for policies to cover foundation repairs to prevent people like Brown from losing their investments. The condo association’s insurance plan didn’t include coverage for the foundation’s long-term failure, both sides said and Brown doesn’t have insurance. ‘When it rains, everything comes falling down,’ Brown said. ‘It’s like being a homeless person in a house. None of this is my fault, but I feel like I’m being punished’

    On the bright side Vanessa, yer tales of woe add greatly to the cautionary winds blowing from the great commie urban living debacle. The downside, you fooked!

  43. ‘The quality of work is what really saddens me because we’ve put our entire life savings into this home, expecting this to be our forever home, and right now, we just don’t believe that’s the case anymore…Katie Webster said. The $1.1 million house was built through Spire Custom Homes, which the couple says has little to no communication’

    The phones go first Katie, I’ve documented that well. Is this shack gold plated? 1.1M pesos in Oxbow?

    ‘We can’t keep putting more money into this’

    At least you don’t have to move and it was cheaper than renting!

  44. ‘The next time we noticed the property was when the owners placed it for sale in October 2023. The property did not sell and was placed back on the market in May 2024. However, the owner at this time was a trust company and was under ‘power of sale.’ What this means is that the owner had defaulted (the most common way of default is by no payment of mortgage payments), and the lender who had the mortgage sold the home to recover their loan. The values peaked in February 2022 in Oshawa at $1,218,000 for a detached home. In late March 2022, the Bank of Canada started what would end up being 10 mortgage rate hikes’

    Tiff broke it off in his a$$.

  45. ‘There are problems with an investor-fuelled housing market. Such homes can sit empty for long periods or be used for lucrative short-term rental. Both issues have added to the housing affordability crisis. There is also the problem of investors driving up prices and creating instability for the entire housing market, a dark side to investment buying that is playing out in Toronto right now, say industry experts’

    No mention of the the money laundering.

  46. ‘So, in some ways, it kind of is a Ponzi scheme that falls apart when prices aren’t increasing rapidly’

    Bubbles just need to stop going up to collapse. That’s what we are seeing in Toronto.

  47. ‘This is materialising in a glut of circa £225,000-plus properties for sale,’ she claimed. ‘Second homeowners are now trying to sell up and if that was the council’s intention, it’s working. But owners are struggling to off-load their homes as no one wants them’

    You got schlonged Sandra, but thanks for playing!

  50. ‘That’s the thing with silver linings. They’re usually attached to dark clouds’

    A great beginning.

    ‘After salivating for months about the prospect of interest rate cuts and blithely ignoring reality, financial markets suddenly are in a mad panic about the fundamentals driving the push for cuts. This time last week, our stock market surged to a new record, buoyed by the idea that we may exit the inflation danger zone without the usual after-effects; the self-induced slowdown that leads to recession. But no sooner had the champagne corks hit the ceiling, Wall Street encountered a dose of the jitters which has since turned into a full-scale rout as investors make a mad rush for the exits’

    ‘The fear of a global slowdown has quickly permeated global markets. And even though Australian stocks have lagged the incredible boom on Wall Street, the strong gains since last November have pushed local companies well beyond their long-term value measures. Why? Because investors were lulled into a false sense of security that as interest rates eased, markets would remain buoyant and few, if any, believed the economy would slow enough to tip into recession’

    ‘The reaction across the developed world in the past week will no doubt be a sobering influence on today’s Reserve Bank of Australia board meeting. After centuries of missteps, governments and, these days, central banks try to smooth out the cycles by slowing activity in booms and speeding it up during busts. We’ve just emerged from a boom caused by over-stimulating during the pandemic bust. After three decades of ever-slowing inflation, the world’s biggest central banks, including America’s and the RBA, refused to believe the sudden shift to soaring prices was anything but a temporary affair’

    I don’t think there is evidence that central banks produce any benefit to the country in their endeavors, and actually harm free market capitalism every hour of every day. Capitalism gave us everything we have.

    Mad Juan: Old Fury Road (Mad Max Parody) | David Lopez

    Mad Jaun finds himself in the middle of nowhere with the War Boys. How will he get out of this Juan?

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

    6:25.

  52. A report from the Panama City News Herald in Florida. “So if they are eyeing a $300,000 house,…If they also are required to pay their agent, and that agent charges a 3% commission, they would need another $9,000.”

    – In my view, the days of wine and roses, aka 6% RE sales commissions are over, independent of what happens to seller’s commissions after Aug. 17th. The fee is proportional to the house price and has always been too damned high!
    – With sales in the toilet and HB 2.0 deflating, there will be a lot fewer Realtors going forward. Cue tiny violin…
    – The easy $ is over, as is the case in all of the other asset bubbles due to the punch bowl being taken away. Time to get a real job again, but that’s going to be challenging as unemployment is rising. “Do you want fries with that?” might be a good option here.
    – IF I were crazy enough to buy a house after Aug. 17th, I would NOT sign a contract with a buyer’s agent. I would bypass the whole REIC 💩 🎪 and retain an attorney to do the paperwork for a fixed fee. Some savvy buyers my be able to do the paperwork themselves.

    The listings are there for everyone to see. Just go directly to the seller and make an offer and bypass the REIC cartel completely. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. It’s long overdue. No offense, but who needs ’em anyway? Just another middle-man/woman taking their cut. No value prop. I have nothing good to say about the REIC, or any other cartel (e.g. banks, .edu, etc.) either.
    – One important question: What’s America to do without the inflating asset bubbles? What’s going to drive our eCONomy? AI? 😂 That bubble’s also bursting. Will people have to start actually working for a living again? Oh dear!
    – Have a nice weekend to all HBB bloggers! 🙂

    1. Used Rex Realty last time when we sold in 2017. 2% for listing agent and then negotiated for a fee to pay the agent as a buyer. Very much like what is going to be the way it will go next.
      Don’t need a contract with a buyer’s agent as one can just represent yourself and negotiate the commission with the seller.
      I have done that several times in the past. In California the escrow companies facilitate the process very well.
      Rex did not list on the M.L.S. which makes total sense as the M.L.S. is not relevant when one can put ads out on the net.
      The times are a changing!

  53. Bob Dylan – Maggie’s Farm (Live At Newport Folk Festival – 1965) – 4K Restoration

    Levi Weiss

    1 year ago

    Bob Dylan going electric and performing ‘Maggie’s Farm’ at the Newport Folk Festival in Newport Rhode Island – July 25th 1965

    From ‘The Other Side of the Mirror’ 2007 Documentary

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

    5 minutes.

    1. The Long-Inverted Yield Curve Just “Uninverted,” but That’s Not Necessarily a Good Thing
      By James Brumley – Aug 11, 2024 at 3:31AM

      Key Points

      – The yield curve on U.S. government bonds has been upside down since the middle of 2022.

      – The underlying circumstances of the yield curve’s inversion, however, have changed dramatically in just the past few days.

      – This is actually the situation investors should fear, as the unwinding of an inverted yield curve usually points to trouble on the horizon.
      .,.
      https://www.fool.com/investing/2024/08/11/the-long-inverted-yield-curve-just-uninverted-but/

    2. This figure confirms what the Motley Fools say:

      – Gray bars are recessions

      – Each one is preceded by a yield curve inversion

      – Recessions have historically begun shortly after the yield curve uninverted

      It doesn’t seem like rocket science. 🧪 More like clockwork. ⌚

      https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/T10Y2Y

Comments are closed.