We Are Seeing An Unraveling Of That Bubble

1. ‘We’ll see how this goes,’ Tricia Turner with Tricia Turner Properties said. ‘Right now, buyers don’t have extra money. They have to come up with their closing costs and downpayment. To stick another fee on top of that is definitely going to change things. I will tell you, homeowners already are saying, ‘No. I don’t want to pay that buyer agent’s compensation’

   Tricia is in Houston.

   ‘We previously broke down the basics of the settlement and how it will impact the Houston housing market. Here are answers to common questions. Can homebuyers finance their real estate agent commissions? A buyer cannot finance agent commissions through a mortgage, but a buyer could ask a seller to pay the commission of agents on both sides of the deal and raise the sale price appropriately’

   So they are financing the commission through loan fraud, which I have been pointing out for years. And way worse than that is it’s often also the closing costs. So you have 7 or 8% over the agreed to price – 108%- sound lending!

   To pull this off you have to have two UHS colluding to defraud the lender, an appraiser who hits the exact agreed upon fraud, and a lender who turns a blind eye because they are going to sell it to a guberment loan guarantor.

   We’ll see if anything changes but this lawsuit dragged the whole sordid system into the light.

   1. So they are financing the commission

      Realtors really are stupid.

   2. a buyer could ask a seller to pay the commission of agents on both sides of the deal and raise the sale price appropriately’

      Brilliant, you’ll be paying taxes on that for eternity.

      1. It’s comical that most people really believe that the seller actually pays for anything. The buyer ultimately pays for everything. If not out of pocket, it’s in the buyer’s loan.

2. ‘A band of local residents, seizing on small details, concocted a bizarre theory: The real-estate spree was part of a covert plan to infiltrate the liberal area with Christian nationalists’

   This whole thing is pretty funny.

3. ‘I just had no idea what the costs would be,’ Dumas said. She downgraded to the cheapest TV package she could find. She canceled her subscription to the daily Los Angeles Times.

   Yer better off without that globalist scum rag Diann.

   ‘The insurance spike is forcing her into a bleak reality. ‘It’s the first time I started thinking, well, I might not be able to afford to live here,’ she said. ‘I’d have to move. I mean, really move. Somewhere that I don’t want to’

   You could join the cross burners in Sonoma.

   1. Yer better off without that globalist scum rag Diann.

      My thought as well.

4. ‘Construction jobs are way down, a trend that started late last year. That could be due to the end of Denver’s multiyear apartment building boom, Wonhof said. Denver’s lackluster employment statistics have persisted for several months, which implies it’s more than a temporary blip. ‘I’m definitely monitoring Denver. It’ll continue to be a point of interest,’ Wonhoff said. ‘If you look at it compared to pre-pandemic, it’s not really the same place’

   Just one of the many sh$tholes that sank their own economy cuz minor respiratory illness Tim.

   1. Denver is a dump.

5. Wouldn’t wish this on anyone

   Florida Department of Health investigation into claims that he wasn’t wearing his hearing aids and couldn’t hear the screams of a patient who woke up during a procedure.

   https://www.yahoo.com/news/tampa-doctor-couldnt-hear-colonoscopy-025207471.html

   1. Where is the anesthesiologist in this story?

      1. Or the surgical nurse/assistant?

         1. The anesthesiologist is responsible for sedation.

            1. Agreed, but the nurse or assistant would hear the patient crying out in pain. But yeah, the anesthesiologist should be on top of that.

            2. I had one of these procedures earlier this year. Had surgeon, anesthesiologist and nurse. I was awake the whole time. I suspect the story is a psychodrama.

   2. Oh for heavens sake, my first colonoscopy was sedation free. I was able to watch the whole thing, she even sent me home with pictures.
      A little cramping from the air but nothing to scream about. Since then my last few I’ve had sedation, doctors preference, not mine, and I have to admit it’s a real good nap.

6. Hoping for unicorns, 1 in 5 young men are NEETs—not in employment, education, or training.

   https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careersandeducation/ar-AA1oUBnr

   There’s a growing cohort of Gen-Zers who are rejecting life’s major milestones and becoming NEETs—that is, “not in employment, education, or training”. Many of them are college-educated men.

   One in five young people around the world are currently NEETs, according to the International Labour Organization. In the U.S., this jumps to about 11.2% of young adults. Meanwhile in the U.K., almost 3 million Gen-Zers are now classed as economically inactive.

   Now, new research has shown that male Gen Z grads are more likely than women to be among those opting not to work or get some form of qualification.

   Despite having just graduated, 1 in 5 men under the age of 25 are unemployed, Bloomberg’s analysis shows. And they’re not actively looking for work, either.

   While the share of Gen Z female college grads participating in the workforce has steadily increased, the participation rate for their male counterparts has nose-dived.

   Why aren’t male Gen Z grads working?
   The class of 2023 and 2024 are confronting a tougher job market than those who graduated during The Great Resignation when hiring rates and wages hit a record high.

   It’s a trend that Lewis Maleh, CEO of the global recruitment agency, Bentley Lewis has witnessed too. While young college-educated women are making do by widening their job search, Maleh has seen their male counterparts try to wait it out.

   “Women tend to be more flexible in accepting job offers, even if they’re not perfectly aligned with their career goals or are part-time or they are overqualified for,” he says.

   “Men, on the other hand, often hold out for roles that align more closely with their ideal career path or offer what they perceive as adequate compensation and status.”

   Some male candidates have been airing their frustrations that the few jobs available right now don’t match their expectations, he says.

   “Whereas, female candidates often discuss strategies for making the best of available opportunities, focusing on skill development and networking even in less than ideal roles.”

   Essentially, it’s not that young men don’t want to work—it’s that they want the right type of work.

   Men have lost the upper hand
   Another factor that comes into play, Maleh adds, is that men no longer have the upper hand in certain sectors that they once dominated.

   For years, male students have enjoyed more lucrative roles straight out of university thanks to their majors: A Bankrate study published in September 2023 found that men accounted for almost 4 out of every 5 graduates with bachelor’s degrees in the 20 highest-paying fields.

   However, male-dominated industries like technology and finance are currently experiencing mass layoffs and grad program slowdowns, as they correct for over-hiring during the pandemic and the economic uncertainty that followed.

   ‘Holding out for that unicorn role’
   It perhaps explains why men have “sky-high expectations,” Conor Hughes a HR consultant echoes.

   “They want that dream job title, the perfect culture fit, and a supreme compensation package right out of the gate,” he explains. “Instead of being open to decent opportunities as stepping stones, a lot of them would rather ride the unemployment wave while holding out for that unicorn role.”

   Afterall, that’s what they’ve seen their predecessors enjoy.

   “This shift might make men more selective or hesitant, waiting for roles that match their expectations or past norms, which could lead to longer periods of unemployment,” Maleh agrees.

   “There’s an underlying narrative, often unspoken, about what constitutes ‘acceptable’ work for men,” Maleh concludes, adding that societal pressure for men to be breadwinners deters them from taking what they might view as ‘lesser’ jobs—even temporarily.

   1. How do they finance their leisurely life?

      1. How do they finance their leisurely life?

         Who says they are living leisurely and well? Maybe they are poor and down on their luck. Lots of people in western countries have low living standards.

         Fact is, most of the west is a dump for people under 40. No amount of cold war nostalgia changes reality.

         Hard work means nothing when the government is socialist.

         1. The guy in the picture is sitting in some pretty fancy digs, playing an expensive video game. Not rally a picture of dire straits. Money coming from somewhere.

   2. Weed, porn, and video games, that’s exactly where the globalists want White young men. Or better yet, on fentanyl.

      Demoralize them, get them to kill themselves, and save the effort to kill them off.

      Replace them. Replace them with any non White population, preferably ones that are hostile to White people.

      This is what the globalists want, and it doesn’t take much #Noticing to pick up on pattern recognition, specifically the religion / ethnicity of who the strongest advocates of this White genocide are.

   3. Prison?
      Looters?

   4. Maleh concludes, adding that societal pressure for men to be breadwinners

      I think that has flown out the window. Would be brides might have expectations, but a large part of society would be fine if underachieving men simply disappeared.

      1. Would be brides might have expectations, but a large part of society would be fine if underachieving men simply disappeared.

         Great. Replacement.

7. Manifesting a New House is Easy When You Follow These Simple Steps.

   https://www.spiritualsuccessrx.com/manifesting-a-new-house.html

   Manifesting a new house in Florida had been a dream of mine for many years. I frequently talked about it with friends, but I never really thought it was a possibility. Then something changed.

   My son and daughter-in-law told me that they were going to move to Florida in a few months – with my grandkids.

   I couldn’t believe it! The idea of not seeing my grandchildren was too painful to think about. I told my husband that I was serious about selling our New Jersey home and finding a new place in Florida. He agreed and we put our house on the market and sold it shortly afterward.

   That was the easy part. The challenging part was deciding where to live.

   I had no idea about Florida other than visiting some tourist spots on vacations. I didn’t know which were good areas and which we should avoid. The only thing I did know was that I wanted to be less than 45 minutes away from my grandchildren and that the house had to be in an active adult community. Other than that, I was open to any good ideas.

   Partnering with the Divine

   I am a firm believer that if I am going to be doing anything important, I am not going to do it alone. I decided to partner with the Divine during the entire process of finding the perfect place to live.

   I might have a lot of good ideas but any ideas I could come up with would never match the wisdom and intelligence of the Universe. I was committed to engaging in spiritual practices during every step of my journey so I would know that my husband and I were making the right decision for us.

   Process for Manifesting a New House

   These are the steps I followed to manifest our dream house. They helped me move out of fear, anxiety, and overwhelm into our beautiful new home.

   1. Ask For Guidance – I asked the Universe to guide me to those areas which would be good possibilities. I spent a lot of time researching different areas in Florida that might be a good fit for us. At first, I felt like I wasn’t making much progress especially because I had no idea what these areas were really like. But I kept on asking for guidance and I discovered an area that I had never heard of before – Port St. Lucie.

   Manifesting steps

   2. Be Specific – Once I found the location that we wanted to live in, I created a list of important features of the house and community that would fit us. I outlined everything I wanted to manifest in our new house including how much I wanted it to cost, the number and types of rooms, the HOA fee, the mortgage rate, types of friends we wanted. I put down everything important to me. I wanted the Universe to have a very clear idea of what type of house I wanted it to manifest for me.

   3. Visualize – Once I knew what type of house I wanted to live in, I got the floor plan of a model that I thought would work for us. Every day I imagined that we were living in this new home and spending time with family and friends here. In my mind, I would walk through every room in this house and feel a sense of joy and gratitude that this house was ours.

   4. Speak it into the Universe – Before we even moved out of New Jersey, I used to tell people that my husband and I were going to move to a beautiful new active, adult community in Port St. Lucie. I know that the Universe is always listening to the words that we speak and it is using those words to get information about what it is going to create for us. So I spoke as if it was already a done deal.

   5. Be Realistic (but not too much) – When I created my outline of what I wanted in our house, I included some items that were important to me but didn’t seem to be likely to happen. One of the items that I included on my list was the very low rate that I wanted on our mortgage. It didn’t seem like a possibility, but it was the rate I wanted, so I imagined that it was already true. It manifested!

   6. Be flexible –When you are starting the process of manifesting a new house you will be dealing with limited information. As more information becomes available you need to be willing to change course if necessary.

   When I first began visualizing the house I wanted, I choose the floor plan of a builder’s model that I thought would work for us. As things kept changing in the housing market, I realized that that model house wouldn’t be a good fit. So I started visualizing a different model with another builder. That turned out to be the one that we bought and moved into.

   7. Be consistent – I faithfully did my spiritual practices every day. Consistency is a key ingredient in manifesting a new house. The Universe responds to our habitual thoughts and feelings. Whatever we think about, the Universe brings about.

   I needed to keep my thoughts and feelings focused on what I wanted. Every day I set an intention for the Universe to manifest my dream home. I never let one day go by without directing the Universe. This consistency gave clear direction to the Universe and it delivered everything I asked for!

   8. Keep the faith – Manifesting a new house doesn’t happen in a minute. (In my case, it took a year and a half from the time we decided to relocate until the day we moved into our dream home.) During that time many things seemed like they were going to interfere with our plans. This is where keeping the faith comes in.

   You must see what you want to see regardless of what is showing up in front of you. I kept the faith by continually setting my intention and visualizing my house. It wasn’t easy but I did it. And now I am enjoying the results of all my good spiritual work.

   Manifesting a New House (Or Anything Else)
   Manifesting a new house is easy when you follow these steps. And you can use the same process for anything else you would like to create in your life. Here is a review of the steps –

   1. Ask For Guidance

   2. Be Specific

   3. Visualize

   4. Speak it into the Universe

   5. Be Realistic (but not too much)

   6. Be Flexible

   7. Be Consistent

   8. Keep the Faith

   You are a powerful spiritual being and you are here to enjoy your life. You have the right and the ability to direct the Universe to create whatever you want. Follow these simple steps and watch the blessings that manifest in your life.

   1. New Age horsesh*t. Obedience to God’s will means sacrifice and doing the right thing even when it costs you. Living your life in accordance with the immutable laws of God & nature is the key to a spiritually fulfilled life – not making yourself and your galactic sense of entitlement the center of the universe.

8. ‘The financial cost to all of us – it’s amazing,’ she said. ‘Yes, we’re going to have a safer building, but we might not be able to eat for the next 10 years.’”

   You winnahs need to get your priorities in order.

9. Across the state, the number of condos and townhomes on the market has shot up 92% since last year, according to the most recent data from Florida Realtors.

   Is that a lot?

10. I will tell you, homeowners already are saying, ‘No. I don’t want to pay that buyer agent’s compensation’

    The whole concept of a buyer’s agent is inherently fraudulent. Both UHSs in the transaction have exactly the same objective: to “earn” the maximum commission by extracting the highest possible price from their “clients.”

11. ‘I just had no idea what the costs would be,’ Dumas said. She downgraded to the cheapest TV package she could find. She canceled her subscription to the daily Los Angeles Times newspaper.

    Anyone still subscribing to the globalist scum media in 2024 just self-identified as a dunce. Reality, when it finally imposes itself on such sheeple, is going to be a rude awakening.

12. But the local activists uncorked a flood of scrutiny into the business dealings of LeFever Mattson. Their wine-country empire is now collapsing, besieged by lawsuits from angry investors, who are alleging ‘a massive investment fraud.’”

    Nothing goes with Saturday morning coffee like a good “fleeced housing speculator scum” story. Squeal it out, schlonged “investors”!

13. ‘It’s starting to look like my understanding of a Ponzi scheme,’ said Scott Walker, a dentist-turned-investor. ‘The newer investors, their cash is going to the older investors until the house of cards collapses.’

    Scott, it could be that your primary purpose in life is to serve as a warning to the greedy & gullible.

14. “Blair Ballin has been a real estate agent in the Valley for 25 years. He says if you are looking to buy a home, you now have to sign a contract with an agent before even seeing a listing.

    “I think, therefore I am.” — Descartes

    “I lie, therefore I sell real estate.” — Every NAR dissembler

15. ‘Experienced knowledgeable agents will get the full contracted amount per a buyer-agent agreement.

    Dream on. As buyers tighten their belts and the “cost of living crisis” caused by the Fed’s deranged money printing pauperizes the middle and working classes, no industry will be more vulnerable to radical disruption than the REIC. In the internet era, it’s ludicrous that realtors can “earn” 2.5% commissions from showing a few houses and doing some basic marketing that could be handled by talented interns.

16. “Investors, Myers, said were buying in the new condo market for capital appreciation, but there was no more capital appreciation: ‘And so they stopped buying.

    Gosh, what happens when capital appreciation – due solely to central banks pumping trillions in funny money “stimulus” into the financial system – turns to wholesale wealth destruction and a panicked stampede for the exits? This is my “gravely concerned” face.

17. ‘We’re starting to see some bank repossession sales,’ Chen said. ‘Some people just can’t afford their renewals at a much higher interest rate. It’s alarming for me.’”

    No, Chen, it’s sanity reasserting itself and a banquet of consequences for the greedy & stupid who financially overextended themselves to buy into an insane housing bubble predicated on an endless gusher of central bank funny money.

18. The study, from data tracking firm Bullpen Research & Consulting Inc. indicates that in June of this year, the asking price for either was $1.7 million, a stunning 31 per cent decline from the market peak level of $2.47 million recorded in July 2022.

    But…but…muh generational wealth!

19. “‘The market is frozen right now,’ said Windsor-Essex County Association of Realtors’ president Maggie Chen. ‘Not a lot of movement right now.

    I’m no economics major like AOC, but what this suggests to me is that the current impasse between FBs facing massive unrealized losses once they sell, and increasingly spooked buyers who can read the writing on the wall, means that when the greedheads & FBs finally crack, the new set of comps is going to reveal massive wealth destruction as fake “value” created by fake money is vaporized on a Biblical scale. Got popcorn?

20. The Green New Deal

    zerohedge
    @zerohedge

    China Coal Production Hits New All Time High For July

    From zerohedge.com
    8:30 PM · Aug 16, 2024

    https://x.com/zerohedge/status/1824604590504919438

    1. Not a peep from St. Greta & the eco-terrorist highway-blockers.

       1. Global Warmism and Muh Climate only applies to White people.

21. While the greedheads of Colorado Springs cling to their delusional wish prices, inventory keeps creeping higher, along with “price reduced” listings. Meanwhile, the corporate-owned rental house up the street has sat empty for two months, after the single mom & her kids living there – who made good neighbors – got the heave-ho from the new owners.

    https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Colorado-Springs_CO/sby-6

22. The NAR’s long run of consequence-free racketeering may be drawing to a close.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/property-and-mortgages/article-13735925/Biggest-shakeup-buying-selling-home-century-starts-today.html

23. Party’s over, realtors & greedheads.

    https://x.com/SebastiaNosrati/status/1824460890332152037

24. I am shocked, shocked! to learn that regulators and inspectors in Australia (and Canada, and New Zealand, and ‘Murica) don’t give a damn about the people they’re supposed to be serving.

    https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/qbcc-whistleblower-reveals-dire-state-of-queenslands-building-regulator/news-story/a67e71fca04c5be0804e15f040dd355e

25. Remember when the Democrats said $5B for a wall was too expensive?

    https://x.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1824475958230818923

    1. “United States taxpayers pay $451 billion per year for housing and care of
       illegal migrants”

       Jonathan Greenblatt hand rubbing intensifies…

26. Elon Musk is enormously influential, and now he’s posting truths that have the globalist scum media & our malevolent “elites” clutching their pearls & hyperventilating. But even Elon knows better than to name the root cause of inflation: the criminal private banking cartel called the Federal Reserve.

    https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1824410315422871867

    1. Don’t forget our friends in Congress that support deficit spending.

       1. support

          Fund! 🤬 Kevin McCarthy and Mike Johnson.

27. A reader sent these in:

    Still on the market…
    3rd realtor
    Won’t budge on price

    https://x.com/jojoeb16/status/1823841180833968396

    this owner is extremely motivated to sell 😅

    listed for $11,500,000 back in 2022, now down to $5,995,000.

    why so motivated? he’s going to prison for a year for a medicare testing fraud scheme & owes the federal government (aka us) nearly $18,000,000.

    https://x.com/kristinbjornsen/status/1824111805267874233

    That’s a *CROCODILE* that made its way into a Fort Lauderdale pool recently. Good reminder to always check before you jump into a Florida pool! Credit: Pesky Critters 🐊😳

    https://x.com/MattDevittWX/status/1823834696973000963

    I can’t get away with anything nowadays.

    https://x.com/RudyHavenstein/status/1824127045691117887

    Couple That Earns $250,000 A Year Says They Can’t Find A House In Their Budget

    https://x.com/zerohedge/status/1824204453290856615

    I know couples making more than this who have the same problem

    If you’re trying to stay within traditional guidelines of how much of your net worth/income to spend on housing, it’s increasingly hard to find options that fit your budget in a growing number of markets

    https://x.com/menlobear/status/1824206588665795033

    🤣

    https://x.com/SallyMayweather/status/1824262367791690114

    Your enemy is the political class.

    Stay focused.

    Do not let them distract you.

    https://x.com/SallyMayweather/status/1823904452329304122

    He’s right you know 👇

    https://x.com/SallyMayweather/status/1824136405838152149

    Did you know that on Nov.1 the Biden Harris administration imposes a new rule forcing states to fund health care for illegal aliens. This will bankrupt NY which has already spent $5 billion on free housing etc… Missouri @AGAndrewBailey Files Suit

    https://x.com/mirandadevine/status/1824082639311032415

    New single family home inventory the highest since *don’t say the line*

    February 2008.

    Keep in mind demand is at 1995 levels.

    The sunbelt freeze over continues.

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1824443016632832006

    Inventory is up 40% y/y nationally. There is no housing shortage. Just an affordability one.

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1824444035248845293

    The 2010-2022 residential real estate construction boom is over:

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1780223841400217993

    The employment data continuing to worsen is obviously the thing to freeze over this faux narrative, alongside a policy error on the backside leading to a potential second inflation wave.

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1824230433074155801

    Of the roughly 1.8 million HELOCs originated since 2023, about 57% percent have gone to borrowers aged 50 or over, with about 24% going to those in their 40s.

    They are overwhelmingly only available to those with high credit scores, per Reuters.

    https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1824442739200524767

    Burning Man festival fails to sell out for first time in a decade

    https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1824397441078378804

    Kamala Harris campaign gives job applicants the option to select 9 different pronouns including; Hu/Hu and Fae/Faer.

    https://x.com/OliLondonTV/status/1824427450752962785

    There are now 476,000 new homes for sale in the US, the highest inventory since February 2008.

    https://x.com/charliebilello/status/1824284897684398443

    “The highest since February 2008.”

    Bear Stearns went tits-up a month later.

    Within 6 months, the economy was in shambles and we had banks failing left and right, including Lehman and Merrill.

    https://x.com/his_eminence_j/status/1824429784820330716

    Housing permits: DOWN
    Housing starts: DOWN
    Housing completions: DOWN
    Another lousy residential construction report in Jul w/ no relief in sight; we haven’t seen numbers this bad since the covid lockdowns:

    https://x.com/RealEJAntoni/status/1824427115346801001

    Housing is a total Armageddon level disaster. The #Fed made this bed and now homedebtors will have to sleep in it. Once 6% unemployment and -10% home prices, millions will be upside-down and facing foreclosure. Buy now and become a generational “bag holder”.

    https://x.com/soldatthetop/status/1824427398525296854

    The US housing market is the most overvalued since the Great Financial Crisis of 07-09 when the housing market crash triggered world havoc.

    Home prices relative to rents and interest rates are overvalued by 20-25%. 👇

    https://x.com/GlobalMktObserv/status/1824407503053930843

    So many layers of bullshit in this tweet, it takes a saint to want to address it on a Friday evening. Let me just say the following:
    1- it’s utter bullshit to attribute inflation to a pandemic. Pandemics are neither inflationary nor deflationary, the response to them is
    2- inflation post COVID was not a supply side inflation like his initial tweets implied. One can actually do a statistical analysis to isolate supply and demand inflation and both were drivers
    3- demand inflation was a direct result of governments unbridled spending, and while supply side inflation normalized quite quickly, demand inflation raged on for much longer
    4- it wasn’t COVID that created a bankruptcy risk but the government – the whole debacle should have been managed differently
    5- It shows that this guy is totally out of scope when he talks about the « people ». You can’t aggregate but need to analyze per income bracket
    6- all inflation is not equal, one needs to isolate necessities inflation from general inflation
    7- lower income brackets got fucked on their necessities inflation and their incomes did not increase enough so they lost quite a bit of purchasing power
    8- it’s easy to know that this propagandist is lying by looking at how consumers’ confidence collapsed

    https://x.com/INArteCarloDoss/status/1824524766327243189

    Despite the climb in household net worth as a % of disposable personal income (white), consumers are saying that their household finances relative to 5 years ago (blue) are the worst since April 2013 per UMich

    https://x.com/KevRGordon/status/1824453750271918541

    There’s something very ironic about the District of Columbia now having the highest unemployment rate of all 50 states & US territories.

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1824558035093635102

    China’s residential real estate “gulley”. 👇🏼

    https://x.com/MauiBoyMacro/status/1824461407750099070

    Condos aren’t as cheap as you think.

    https://x.com/ShaziGoalie/status/1824488011024724004

    We do not have a housing shortage. We have an AFFORDABLE housing shortage because our economy is being run by morons!

    https://x.com/teameffujoe/status/1824551513831747865

    Entirety of America circa 2035

    https://x.com/VladTheInflator/status/1824549742292111402

    Grocery stores have razor-thin profit margins and people are talking about them price gouging. 🤷‍♀️

    https://x.com/LynAldenContact/status/1824498761894134072

    🇺🇸 plans to give homeowners $25k for a downpayment. 🤣

    … and just like that, the price of a home just got credit leverage to rise $100k & the 🇺🇸 dollar became less attractive.

    https://x.com/StephenPunwasi/status/1824601698234503678

    Want to know why buying a condo is a bad idea?

    Imagine the same people who elected your government, now voting on the maintenance of your home.

    https://x.com/StephenPunwasi/status/1824175738217771468

    ero chance I would live anywhere near Toronto if I had kids rn.

    My parents came to 🇨🇦 40+ year ago so they could raise kids in a city where armed criminals don’t break into your home to murder & rob you.

    Toronto is now that place they tried to avoid.

    https://x.com/StephenPunwasi/status/1823772005520257531

    This is less than 20 min from the Attorney General of Canada, and today he’s literally bragging about a soft on crime approach & having a circle jerk with academic buddy.

    https://x.com/StephenPunwasi/status/1823775615322906988

    People used to think condos last forever because steel reinforced concrete was thought to last 1,000+ years.

    … just like they thought the Titanic was unsinkable.

    In reality, buildings can show signs of deterioration after just 10 years.

    https://x.com/StephenPunwasi/status/1823544168683012114

    A hero takes a stand.

    https://x.com/SteveInmanUIC/status/1824324737540964552

    Kamala probably next week: “If you vote for me, every American will get a free home.”🥴

    https://x.com/ClownWorld_/status/1824622985657061389

    1. There are now 476,000 new homes for sale in the US, the highest inventory since February 2008.

       B…b…but I don’t understand. The NAR & REIC “experts” quoted in the globalist scum media assured us that low inventory was the only thing keeping buyers on the sidelines. So where is that mythical “pent-up demand” that would fuel the Spring Miracle Revival?

       1. Click on the link to see the graph – it is amazing.

          Granted we have more people in the US and a higher baseline of houses – but wow!

    2. “A reader sent these in:”

       – Great posts! Thank you!
       – It’s always a good time to buy (?)

    3. “on Nov.1 the Biden Harris administration imposes a new rule forcing states to fund health care for illegal aliens”

       Keep paying those taxes, Shabbos Goyim.

       You are being replaced. Who is replacing you, White man? Why do they all have similar last names?

       #Noticing
       #Naming

28. KTRK in Texas. “Realtors are bracing for the biggest shakeup to their business in decades. ‘We’ll see how this goes,’ Tricia Turner with Tricia Turner Properties said. ‘Right now, buyers don’t have extra money. They have to come up with their closing costs and downpayment. To stick another fee on top of that is definitely going to change things. I will tell you, homeowners already are saying, ‘No. I don’t want to pay that buyer agent’s compensation.’” 😮

    “Can homebuyers finance their real estate agent commissions? A buyer cannot finance agent commissions through a mortgage, but a buyer could ask a seller to pay the commission of agents on both sides of the deal and raise the sale price appropriately.” 😂

    – I don’t think many will agree to pay a sales commission to a buyer’s agent.
    – I would negotiate directly with the seller. Cut out the middle-man / woman completely. Everything’s online. Use an attorney for the docs. Pay them a flat fee, say $1-3k max.
    – House prices are local of course, but Housing Bubble 2.0 is deflating and prices are going down, not up. No one’s going to inflate the sale price by 2.5-3.0% with a buyer’s agent commission. Delusional thinking here.
    – The seller’s agent commissions are clearly in the crosshairs as well.
    – No mention of the worst house buyer conditions in 50 years. Saying buyers are on strike is an understatement.
    – Sales are way down and the number of Realtors will follow.

    CHART 41: BUYING CONDITIONS FOR HOUSES
    https://data.sca.isr.umich.edu/get-chart.php?y=2024&m=6&n=41h&d=ylch&f=pdf&k=53f00df1da1f7e78219a83a04e2e97900648821efb4bba6bd3245fc262ae2e96

    CHART 42A: PRICE REASONS FOR BUYING CONDITIONS FOR HOUSES
    (%LOW PRICES – %HIGH PRICES
    https://data.sca.isr.umich.edu/get-chart.php?y=2024&m=6&n=42ah&d=ylch&f=pdf&k=2c64432be62efc5a8fb82c7e80297e0489227cc34c6f2ca27e8b742f8548b57a

    – Excessive RE commissions are and and have always been horse hockey directly from the posterior of the REIC cartel, and it’s now changing. Better late than never.

29. Colorado Springs has five military bases, including Fort Carson and the Peterson Space Force Base. Rampant vibrancy at the doomed Citadel Mall has forced military commanders to add the mall to the list of off-limits establishments for military personnel, as Youth for Kamala cavort with impunity in the Mall and target shoppers for harassment and robbery.

    https://www.kktv.com/2024/08/01/colorado-springs-mall-responds-after-military-personnel-were-banned-going-there/

    1. wow, that’s wild. I have been telling people that Colorado is now Eastern California and that’s not a compliment for a while now, but that’s wild.

       1. And Springs is supposed to be the “conservative military town”. I do recall that the city council and mayor told migrants to not come because Springs was not a sanctuary city and there would be no city freebies. My little burg has done the same.

30. Matthew Perry’s shocking last month on ketamine: ‘I wonder how much this moron will pay’

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/matthew-perrys-shocking-last-month-on-ketamine-i-wonder-how-much-this-moron-will-pay/ar-AA1oVck4

31. The German arrest warrant for the Ukrainian diver suspected of the Nord Stream pipeline explosions far from clears up the attack mystery

    The Ukrainians blew up the pipelines. Case closed. Let’s move on.

    That at least is what German prosecutors who issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian citizen, and subsequent media reports this week, would have us believe about one of the most sensational and daring acts of industrial sabotage since the Second World War: the explosions in September, 2022, seven months after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, that destroyed the Nord Stream 1 and 2 natural gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea.

    Before the war, Nord Steam 1 was Germany’s main source of Russian gas, a vital – and cheap – energy supply that kept the country’s mighty industrial machine rolling. In an apparent effort to punish Germany for its support of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin greatly reduced, then halted, gas deliveries through Nord Stream 1 a few months after the start of the war (Russia in part blamed Canada for the halted deliveries, accusing it of seizing a piece of equipment needed to repair a pipeline turbine). The newer Nord Stream 2 was completed, but German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stopped its certification process just before the invasion.

    The explosions ensured that the pipelines will almost certainly never operate again. They wrecked three of the four Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipes.

    At first, the speculation centred on Russia. The Kremlin denied the allegations, which made little sense anyway. Why would Russia destroy a costly piece of infrastructure that was majority owned by state-owned Gazprom? Doing so would also eliminate any chance that Russia could resume gas exports after a Ukraine-Russia peace treaty.

    Then the focus shifted to the Americans. Pulitzer Prize-winning, veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh published a Substack piece in February, 2023, that concluded that U.S. President Joe Biden made the secret decision to wreck the Nord Stream pipelines. He noted that, three weeks before the start of the invasion, Mr. Biden said: “If Russia invades … there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”

    Mr. Hersh said the CIA was the mastermind behind the plan and argued that the spy agency, with the help of the U.S. Navy and NATO ally Norway, certainly had the technical means to blow up pipelines 80 metres below the surface. The motivation? The White House wanted to end permanently the Kremlin’s ability to buy influence in Berlin and other European countries dependent on Russian energy, according to Mr. Hersh.

    Almost no reporter pursued Mr. Hersh’s story, which cited anonymous sources. The White House denied his claims. And why would the Norwegians get involved in what could be considered an act of war against a NATO ally?

    Last year, The New York Times suggested a “pro-Ukrainian group” was behind the Nord Stream attack. A breakthrough came a few days ago – sort of. A Swedish newspaper reported that in June Germany issued a warrant for the arrest of one “Volodymyr Z,” later identified as Volodymyr Zhuravlov, a Ukrainian diving instructor suspected of involvement in the attack.

    On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal supported the story, insisting that a Ukrainian team of saboteurs used a rented 15-metre sailboat to plant explosives on the Nord Stream pipelines. The article said the sabotage was at first approved by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who then called it off when the CIA learned about it. By then it was too late. The operation went ahead anyway and was overseen by the then-commander-in-chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who is now Ukraine’s ambassador to Britain, the Journal said. Mr. Zaluzhnyi denied the allegations.

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-the-german-arrest-warrant-for-the-ukrainian-diver-suspected-of-the/

32. New research from Gartner has claimed around a third (30%) of generative AI projects will be abandoned by 2025.

    The firm predicted such projects will be ditched after proof-of-concept phase due to challenges such as poor data quality, inadequate risk management, escalating costs and unclear business value.

    Gartner’s research also indicates that companies could be slow to see tangible returns from their AI investments, which could be fuelling dwindling interest in projects.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/businesses-won-t-get-to-see-big-returns-on-ai-for-at-least-a-few-more-years-but-many-projects-will-just-be-abandoned/ar-AA1oVj4r

33. Fisker Inc. has received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission, indicating the bankrupt Southern California electric vehicle maker could be under investigation by Wall Street’s top cop, according to a court filing.

    SEC subpoenas, which typically seek either records or testimony, are confidential, but a mention of the agency’s demand for information was included in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court filing this week in Delaware, where the troubled automaker filed for Chapter 11 protection on June 18 under a heavy debt load. The subpoena was included in a list of ongoing legal proceedings against Fisker; the filing did not provide any details about why the agency issued the subpoena.

    If wrongdoing is found, SEC investigations can lead to civil allegations or referrals to the Department of Justice for potential criminal investigation and possible charges.

    The allegations generally stem from a series of events that began with a news release issued in August 2023 that stated Fisker would produce up to 23,000 Oceans that year. However, it disclosed in November that in the third quarter it had built only 4,725 of the vehicles, with 1,097 delivered to customers.

    The company also announced in November that its third-quarter results would be delayed due to the departure of its chief accounting officer, whose replacement resigned within days. When it released the results, Fisker said it had to make “material adjustments” to its financials and had identified a “material weakness in internal controls.” The company’s share price fell that month by more than half, to less than $2.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/sec-has-issued-a-subpoena-to-bankrupt-carmaker-fisker-indicating-possible-probe/ar-AA1oWqEy

34. As part of the Safer California Plan, what is described as “the most significant bipartisan legislation to crack down on property crime in modern California history,” Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the “locked door loophole” bill on Friday.

    The bill, authored by Sen. Scott Wiener, no longer requires California car owners to prove their car was locked when it was broken into.

    Previously, “The mere fact that a window was broken into is insufficient– prosecutors must prove that the door was locked, which requires that victims must physically come out to court to testify as such,” Wiener said.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/gov-newsom-signs-locked-door-loophole-bill-to-combat-car-break-ins/ar-AA1oWrkz

35. Nine GOP-led attorneys general sue Biden administration over voter registration efforts

    The states conclude the lawsuit by saying that the plans in the executive order weren’t motivated to help resident register to vote, rather they are part of a Democrat plan.

    “(The executive order) was motivated by a partisan desire to unfairly increase the Democrat vote as shown by the fact that the order came from left-wing, progressive groups,” the suit claims. “The purpose is to promote left-wing politicians and policies at elections.”

    https://news.yahoo.com/news/nine-gop-led-attorneys-general-143226919.html

36. We wrote Friday that Kamala Harris was likely to continue President Biden’s unfinished Build Back Better agenda, but it turns out we were far too optimistic. The policy priorities the Vice President laid out Friday are much worse, including a plan to impose national price controls on food and groceries.

    Ms. Harris’s political problem is that the Biden-Harris economic policies have delivered inflation and declining real incomes. The high price of food is a particular sore point, and the Vice President’s response is to make it worse by resorting to Venezuelan-style left-wing populism. That’s no exaggeration.

    On Friday she floated a “first-ever federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries,” including “new authority” for the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to punish companies for charging too much.

    This sounds like legislation introduced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren that would ban “grossly excessive prices” as determined by the Federal Trade Commission. Business violations would carry a penalty of up to 5% of annual revenue. This would effectively let the FTC set prices. But what is an excessive price? Is $4 too much for a gallon of milk in Omaha? Is it a different price in Miami? FTC Chair Lina Khan and her army of bureaucrats would presumably decide.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/opinion-kamala-harris-endorses-nixonomics/ar-AA1oWc7P

37. Kamala Harris claims she has a plan to solve the crisis she helped cause: inflation.

    Under former President Trump, the inflation rate averaged 1.9%. It skyrocketed to 9.1% in 18 months under Joe Biden and Harris, fueled by a $5 trillion spending binge paid for by debt and printing money.

    The centerpiece of the Harris plan is the imposition of federal price controls on “greedy corporations” she says are “price gouging” consumers. Landlords would be prohibited from raising rents more than 5% a year.

    Even the Washington Post has trashed the plan, advising Kamala that “when your opponent calls you a ‘communist,’ maybe don’t propose price controls.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/kamala-harris-can-t-even-fathom-basic-economics/ar-AA1oWekd

    1. As even the dullest of the sheeple belatedly figure out that we are living under a de facto Communist regime, I expect we are going to see precious metals soar as the smart money converts its soon-to-be-worthless Yellen Bux into God’s money.

38. It was strange and surprising when Mexico’s most-wanted drug lord landed at an airfield near El Paso, Texas in July, but the story of how he got there is now growing into a scandal that threatens top figures in Mexico’s ruling party.

    At issue is whether Rubén Rocha — the governor of the cartel-dominated state of Sinaloa and a close ally of the president — may have held meetings with top leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, the main producer of deadly fentanyl that kills 70,000 Americans per year.

    The saga involves skullduggery worthy of a 1940s film noir, but it threatens to undermine President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s central assertion that, while he refuses to confront Mexico’s drug cartels, he also makes no deals with them.

    On Thursday, federal prosecutors said Sinaloa state officials mishandled evidence in an apparent attempt to cover up the July 25 murder of Héctor Cuén, a politician who allegedly helped lure drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada to a meeting where he expected to find Gov. Rocha. Instead, Zambada was abducted by another drug lord and flown to the United States, where he was arrested.

    Zambada said in a letter released by his lawyer that Cuén was murdered at the house where the abduction took place. Gov. Rocha has maintained Cuén was killed by gunmen in a botched robbery at a gasoline station later that day, and he even provided security camera footage of the alleged attack.

    But federal prosecutors quickly noted something was wrong: post-mortem records showed Cuén’s body had four gunshot wounds, while only one gunshot can be heard on the security camera footage, and gas station employees said they didn’t hear any.

    And the feds said Sinaloa officials violated all murder investigation rules by allowing Cuén’s body to be cremated. Gov. Rocha denies planning any meeting with Zambada, but in the rest of the dispute over the events of that day, the drug lord’s version now appears more credible. The Sinaloa state chief prosecutor resigned on Friday.

    “It appears that what they did in Sinaloa was, as they do frequently, to cover up the crime,” said Mexican security analyst David Saucedo.

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/us/a-gunshot-a-murdered-rival-and-a-kidnapped-drug-lord-mexicos-ruling-party-faces-growing-scandal/ar-AA1oVYk8

    1. Maybe this should stay on Mexico’s side of the border.

       https://www.borderlandbeat.com/2024/08/the-incendiary-letter-from-mayo-zambada.html

       1. In the document, Zambada Garcia rejects the version of Sinaloa state authorities that Cuen Ojeda was shot the night of July 25 at a gas station by two men on a motorcycle, who wanted to steal his truck.

          “That is not what happened. They killed him at the same time and in the same place where they kidnapped me. Hector Cuen was an old friend of mine and I deeply regret his death, as well as the disappearance of Jose Rosario Heras Lopez and Rodolfo Chaidez, whom no one has seen or heard from since,” he charged.

          “I think it’s important that the truth comes out. This is what happened, not the false stories that are circulating. I call on the governments of Mexico and the United States to be transparent and provide the truth about my kidnapping to the United States and about the deaths of Hector Cuen, Rosario Heras, Rodolfo Chaidez and all the people who lost their lives that day”.

          The text ends with a call from the 76-year-old drug lord to the people of Sinaloa to “have moderation and maintain peace in our state. Nothing can be solved with violence. We have been down that road before and everyone loses.”

          Ruben Rocha’s response

          Following the release of the letter, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told the media that he would wait for more information and Rubén Rocha’s statement.

          Later, during the inauguration of the General Hospital in Culiacán, attended by López Obrador and Claudia Sheinbaum, Governor Rubén Rocha Moya denied having been summoned to the meeting with El Mayo Zambada and that he had no ties to any organized crime group.

          “What it says there (letter) is that Rubén Rocha Moya, governor of the state, was summoned to that event, among others, and that was the reason, perhaps the hook for Mr. Ismael Zambada to go to that event. I want to tell you one thing without any strings attached, first of all, I was not in Sinaloa that day…, two, nobody from organized crime has to summon me to a meeting to solve a problem, we are talking about the problem of the university, there is no need, there is no reason. The problems that concern the government are solved by the government institutions,” he said.

          “We do not have complicity with anyone and that is precisely professing the president’s policy, there is no complicity. Therefore, if they said that I was going to be there, they lied to them and if you believed them, you fell into the trap, you did not have to, I do not have to. I already said, those problems that are of the government we solve them in the institutions.”

          Without referring directly to the death of Cuen Ojeda, Rocha Moya said that it has nothing to do with the violence of the night of July 25, and asked the president to intervene so that the crime is taken over by the Attorney General’s Office.

          López Obrador gave his support to Rocha Moya and said that Mayo’s letter is no coincidence after the day before he requested information on the issue from the U.S. government.

          “We have all the confidence in Mr. Rocha, all the confidence in Governor Rubén Rocha Moya…. and I congratulate him because he shows his face, he did not leave any day, because it is no coincidence, we, yesterday morning we were asking for information, at noon the ambassador gave the version that they have of these events here in Sinaloa and today this letter appears and it turns out that we are here today in Culiacán, and at once we are going to talk about the subject, and how good that you have clarified what the situation is, where you were and that you were never summoned to any event, clear as water”.

          1. 1095 people were “assassinated” in the first half of August in Mexico. THe Mexican article I saw used the word assassinated as opposed to homicide, so I’m guessing those deaths don’t include robberies or crimes of passion.

39. Image file for Jeff — Dogs Climbing Mountains Edition:

    https://ibb.co/L88YdfV

    I am on the summit of Mt Yale right now, where this picture was taken, elevation 14,200 feet.

    The dog walked up here. Many dogs walked up here today.

    1. Colorado is such a beautiful state. My fervent hope is that the 10 northern counties will break free from the Communists in Denver & join with the free state of Wyoming.

       1. I fully support that, though Larimer county (Fort Collins) might choose to stay commie/

    2. “The dog walked up here. Many dogs walked up here today.”

       None with the style of our beloved HBB Dog Beau.

       Stunning photo.

40. Did the stock market storm pass over without damage?

    1. Markets
       A 32-year market vet shares 4 employment indicators that show the labor market is falling apart — and warns a recession will sink stocks by as much as 70%
       William Edwards
       Aug 17, 2024, 3:00 AM MDT
       …
       https://www.businessinsider.com/stock-market-crash-recession-signals-sp500-outlook-unemployment-rate-wolfenbarger-2024-8

       1. “…a recession will sink stocks by as much as 70%…”

          This scenario strikes me as implausibly pessimistic. Is there even a historic precedent for a 70% drop in stock prices?

          1. The 1929 Stock Market Crash
             Harold Bierman, Jr., Cornell University

             Overview

             The 1929 stock market crash is conventionally said to have occurred on Thursday the 24th and Tuesday the 29th of October. These two dates have been dubbed “Black Thursday” and “Black Tuesday,” respectively. On September 3, 1929, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a record high of 381.2. At the end of the market day on Thursday, October 24, the market was at 299.5 — a 21 percent decline from the high. On this day the market fell 33 points — a drop of 9 percent — on trading that was approximately three times the normal daily volume for the first nine months of the year. By all accounts, there was a selling panic. By November 13, 1929, the market had fallen to 199. By the time the crash was completed in 1932, following an unprecedentedly large economic depression, stocks had lost nearly 90 percent of their value.
             …
             https://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-1929-stock-market-crash/

             1. “By the time the crash was completed in 1932, following an unprecedentedly large economic depression, stocks had lost nearly 90 percent of their value.”

                So if you bought the dip in late 1929, you had a chance to ride the falling knife all the eay down to the floor.
                🗡️🔪

    2. As long as the Fed keeps expanding the money supply – stealing value from every honestly earned dollar in existence – the Fed’s Ponzi markets and asset bubbles will remain artificially levitated.

       https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2SL

    3. The Motley Fool
       Investing > Stock Market > Basics > Crashes
       A History of U.S. Stock Market Crashes
       By Matthew DiLallo – Updated Jun 20, 2024 at 3:53PM

       Key Points

       – Stock market crashes often follow debt-fueled economic booms.

       – Using margin debt to buy stocks can exacerbate market downturns.

       – Recoveries from crashes can vary, taking from months to years.

       Key findings are powered by ChatGPT and based solely off the content from this article. Findings are reviewed by our editorial team. The author and editors take ultimate responsibility for the content.

       Jump to:

       A stock market crash occurs when there is a significant decline in stock prices. There’s no specific definition of a stock market crash, but the term usually applies to occasions when the major stock market indexes lose more than 10% of their value very quickly.
       Historic Stock Market Crashes
       A stock market crash occurs when there is a significant decline in stock prices. Market crashes typically happen without warning, often on the heels of a long bull market run during which stock prices steadily rise.

       Market crashes typically happen without warning, often on the heels of a long bull market run during which stock prices steadily rise. The hallmark of a stock market crash is panic-selling by investors who attempt to quickly liquidate their positions to either curb their losses or satisfy a margin call.

       Although a stock market crash can occur quickly, many of the market’s biggest crashes have had effects that were long-lasting and deep. Here’s a brief look at some of the stock market’s most notable crashes.
       Visual timeline of the biggest crashes in stock market history: 1929, 1987, 1999, 2008, 2020.
       Image source: The Motley Fool.
       1929 stock market crash

       The worst stock market crash in history started in 1929 and was one of the catalysts of the Great Depression. The crash abruptly ended a period known as the Roaring Twenties, during which the economy expanded significantly and the stock market boomed.

       The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose from 63 points in August 1921 to 381 points by September 1929 — a sixfold increase. It started to descend from its peak on Sept. 3 before accelerating during a two-day crash on Oct. 28-29. On Black Monday, the Dow tumbled almost 13% and declined almost 12% more on Black Tuesday.

       By mid-November 1929, the Dow had lost about half its value. The stock market was bearish, meaning its value had declined by more than 20%. The Dow continued to lose value until the summer of 1932, when it bottomed out at 41 points, a stomach-churning 89% below its peak. The Dow didn’t regain its pre-crash value until 1954.

       The primary cause of the 1929 stock market crash was excessive leverage.
       …
       https://www.fool.com/investing/stock-market/basics/crashes/#toc_1929-stock-market-crash

       1. “The primary cause of the 1929 stock market crash was excessive leverage.”

          Does excessive leverage itself cause crashes, or is it more the widely held belief that you cannot possibly lose buying stocks leading to excessive leverage.which in turn drives prices to unsustainable heights?

          Of course excessive leverage can trigger a very nasty unwinding process on the way back down to earth… what’s the saying?

          “Escalator up, elevator down.”

          https://www.vectorwealth.com/posts/escalator-up-elevator-down

    4. Investors Borrowed Like Crazy During the Rally. Now They’re Paying the Price.

       Behind the market tumult of the past month: the rapid unwind of several popular trades and the heavy use of leverage

       Illustration: Johnny Simon/WSJ, Getty Images, Reuters, Zuma Press
       By Gregory Zuckerman, Jack Pitcher, Vicky Ge Huang and David Uberti
       Updated Aug. 12, 2024 12:53 am ET

       They built over months: big bets on the Japanese yen. Complex cryptocurrency wagers. Investments in hot tech companies.

       Common to all the trades were heavy doses of leverage, or borrowed money, which investors used to amplify expected gains. As markets rose through the first half of 2024, the investments generated windfall profits, inspiring copycat traders to get on board and pushing prices higher.

       Now the tide has turned. Unrest has returned to global markets over the past month, and investors are now in retreat from these once-unstoppable trades. While the market has calmed in recent days and the Dow industrials remain within 5% of their record high, traders caution that there is reason to brace for more upheaval.

       What’s behind the tumult? Recent losses were caused in large part by a “deleveraging,” said Andy Constan, chief executive of Damped Spring Advisors, a consultant for macro hedge funds.

       Changes in economic or financial conditions can force investors to sell one piece of their portfolios, such as U.S. or Japanese equity holdings, to deal with losses from another, such as leveraged bets on a weak yen. The messy process to reduce risk takes time before traders can reload.

       “The deleveraging first has to get the people that are long and getting margin-called before it can be recycled into new longs, into new leverages,” Constan said.

       July was one of the largest deleveraging episodes for hedge-fund clients of Goldman Sachs’s prime brokerage in the past 10 years, the bank said.

       The summer doldrums

       This deleveraging came at perhaps the worst time for markets—smack in the middle of summer months in which many traders and investors are vacationing. While more trading than ever is automated, decisions made by individuals still matter. Fewer pros in the office mean a shortage of seasoned individuals on trading desks, and fewer investors around to step in to buy as prices plunge.

       It is a reason August has seen examples of panic in the past, such as the August 1998 collapse of the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management and August 2007’s “quant quake.”

       During the tumult of the past week, “The liquidity was worse or equal than during the Covid market crash,” said Patrick Heusser, head of crypto lending at Trident Digital.

       It’s difficult to identify the exact causes of market tumbles, of course, and the accurate explanations are likely many. Evidence of a slowing U.S. economy certainly contributed to the volatility.

       Still, much of the whiplash investors feel from a market that fell so quickly, and then snapped back abruptly, can be attributed to a rush by investors to pull back on leverage quickly, either on their own or after receiving calls from brokers.

       Betting big on Japan

       When highly leveraged bets turn the wrong way, sharp reversals can ensue. Brokers require more collateral to be posted against borrowed money, and hedge funds can become forced sellers to cut risk and meet those requirements.

       How much leverage had investors piled up? In July, net bets against the yen by hedge funds and other speculators that usually rely on leverage reached their highest levels since 2017, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The net figures reflect short positions, betting on declines, minus long positions, anticipating gains.

       Funds that make macroeconomic bets and others had been shorting the yen or otherwise taking advantage of near-zero benchmark interest rates in Japan to borrow the currency, sell it, and invest the proceeds elsewhere. Pros call it the yen carry trade.

       Some swapped yen for dollars, for instance, to buy higher-yielding Treasury bills. At a July peak, hedge funds and other speculators’ short bets on the yen were worth a collective $14 billion, according to the CFTC.

       Another sign of the building leverage: Japanese banks’ foreign lending reached $1 trillion in March, according to an ING analysis of Bank for International Settlements data, a 21% jump since 2021.

       The trade unraveled over the past month as the gap between U.S. and Japanese government bond yields narrowed ahead of expected rate cuts in the U.S. It came under new pressure when the Bank of Japan raised interest rates, driving up the yen and forcing these traders to unwind their leveraged bets.

       By Tuesday, the day after the recent market rout, those bets against the yen had plunged more than 80% from the peak, to a more modest net short position.

       “There are leveraged investors blowing up because they borrowed immense amounts of low-yielding yen to buy everything else,” Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, wrote to clients last week.

       Tech turns into a wreck

       Other popular leveraged trades have turned painful. For more than a year, hedge funds, computer-driven quantitative funds and others piled into big U.S. technology stocks by using borrowed money, often while betting against small-cap stocks, according to investors and analysts.

       The trade flipped on its head in July, thanks to lackluster earnings that hurt tech shares and unleashed a long-awaited rally in small-cap shares, partly on the expectation that they would benefit from lower borrowing costs. Over the past month, longtime investor favorites such as Tesla, Amazon.com and Nvidia have dropped by 15% or more.

       In the crypto market, the first five days of this month saw more than $3 billion of “forced liquidations,” or involuntary sales of positions by traders relying on borrowed money, after their margin accounts proved insufficient to handle recent losses, according to the data company CoinGlass. Bitcoin prices dropped over 18% during those five days, while Ethereum fell 24%.

       Crypto investors spent much of the period since the collapse of the FTX exchange in late 2022 paring their leverage. That ended this year. The launch of U.S. exchange-traded funds holding bitcoin and Ethereum, the two largest cryptocurrencies, boosted investor optimism that major token prices would rise.

       Many expressed a bullish view by buying bitcoin derivative products that investors say have “inherent leverage,” meaning that by putting a little money down investors can score big gains. These include options and so-called perpetual futures, futures contracts with no expiration date that allow traders to bet on the price of a token continuously with as much as 100 times leverage.

       The dollar sum of outstanding bitcoin derivative contracts on centralized exchanges reached $37 billion at the start of August, tripling from a year earlier, according to CCData. The market mayhem on Aug. 5 pushed that total down to $28 billion.

       Pros are bracing for more volatility.
       …
       https://www.wsj.com/finance/investors-borrowed-like-crazy-during-the-rally-now-theyre-paying-the-price-608115e7

       1. ‘Many expressed a bullish view by buying bitcoin derivative products that investors say have “inherent leverage,” meaning that by putting a little money down investors can score big gains.’

          Highly leveraged speculative gambles on imaginary currency…what could possibly go wrong?

          1. News
             Bitcoin Price Prediction
             Bloomberg’s Expert Issues Bearish Bitcoin Warning as BTC Reclaims $60K
             Is Bitcoin leading bearish reversal of risk assets?
             News
             Sun, 18/08/2024 – 9:37
             Bloomberg’s Expert Issues Bearish Bitcoin Warning as BTC Reclaims $60K
             Cover image via http://www.youtube.com
             Read U.TODAY on
             Google News

             In a recent post, Mike McGlone, senior commodity strategist at Bloomberg, warned that Bitcoin, the flagship cryptocurrency, could be leading the reversion of risk assets.

             Its underwhelming performance since March has been gaining companions from the stock market as well as the commodities sector.

             Earlier this year, McGlone predicted that gold could end up outperforming Bitcoin due to macroeconomic factors.

             While this was not the case, gold recently managed to hit a new all-time high.

             Meanwhile, Bitcoin is struggling to recover after its recent price plunge.

             Earlier this month, McGlone stated that the Bitcoin hangover might be “enduring” due to the unique combination of U.S. ETF launches and a supply cut in the first quarter that pushed the cryptocurrency to record highs.

             On Sunday, the leading cryptocurrency reclaimed the $60,000 level. However, it is still far from regaining its current record high that was achieved in March.

             “Born of the financial crisis and quantitative easing, Bitcoin has led most risk assets to this year’s highs and may be doing the same on the way back down,” he said in another recent post.
             …
             https://u.today/bloombergs-expert-issues-bearish-bitcoin-warning-as-btc-reclaims-60k

    5. Markets
       The Stock Market’s Bears Are in Hibernation. What Happens When They Wake Up.
       By Ian Salisbury
       June 24, 2024, 1:00 am EDT

       Short sellers are supposed to keep the market’s sunny optimism in check. Lately, these bears have all but disappeared. When they finally return, it could give complacent investors a case of whiplash.

       So far, it is shaping up to be a great year for stocks. The S&P 500 has returned 15% so far, exceeding all but the rosiest expectations. In the face of giant gains, short sellers, or investors who bet against the market, are throwing up their hands.

       Short interest in two of the biggest exchange-traded funds, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust and the tech-focused Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1—both commonly used as market proxies—is at six-year lows, according to a recent note from J.P. Morgan. As recently as 2023, the value of short bets amounted to as much as 15% of the funds’ total values, according to JPMorgan. Today, both are below 9%.

       Amid a sustained bull market some bears may be simply giving up. More onerous regulatory rules and the recent meme stock craze that burned some short sellers also play roles, according to J.P. Morgan.

       Either way, the retreat of short sellers has probably helped inflate stock prices and dampen recent market volatility. Bears have become steady stock market buyers as they move to close out their positions. Think of it as a kind of marketwide, slow-motion short squeeze.

       The dynamic, notes J.P. Morgan, poses a potential problem for investors. Once market sentiment starts to sour, those short sellers could rush to re-establish bearish bets, giving an already vulnerable market a gut punch.
       …
       https://www.barrons.com/articles/stock-market-bears-short-sellers-979f539c

    6. Market Extra
       Don’t let the stock market’s best week of 2024 fool you — there’s a new game in town
       A ‘bad news is bad news’ environment means there’s less room for error when it comes to economic growth
       By William Watts
       Aug. 17, 2024 at 7:00 a.m. ET
       …
       https://www.marketwatch.com/story/dont-let-the-stock-markets-best-week-of-2024-fool-you-theres-a-new-game-in-town-3b345391

41. New tales of woe for the Victim Chronicles.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/17/mom-who-co-signed-student-loan-for-daughter-fears-losing-her-home.html

42. The globalists want productive farmland and grazing pastures, but not the Heritage American farming and ranching families that currently occupy this coveted property. FedGov under the Harris regime will drop all restraint in attempting to drive such kulaks off the land.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13752965/american-ranchers-south-dakota-couple-jail-armed-feds.html

43. Despite more PBOC stimulus, the cratering of China’s real estate bubble actually accelerated in July. At what point will the stamping of little feet turn to something more dangerous for the CCP central planners who enabled and encouraged such insane speculative asset bubbles?

    https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/chinas-home-price-slump-deepens-july-new-9-year-low-2024-08-15/

44. Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) is perhaps our leading mental health issue.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziAzDuHMQN8

45. You will own nothing.

    https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/renting-lifestyle-economy-cars-furniture-clothes-b7329a4a

46. Globalist imports and unhinged Red Guards that were supposed to be weaponized against Heritage America have slipped their leash and turned on the AIPAC stooges of the entrenched crony capitalist wing of the Democrat Party. The Democrat Convention is going to be lit – got popcorn?

    https://nypost.com/2024/08/17/us-news/roughly-100k-anti-israel-protesters-expected-to-descend-on-chicago-to-steal-spotlight-from-dnc-harris-walz-ticket/

47. “There’s never been a better time to buy real estate in Lebanon.” — Lebanon NAR

    https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-815107

48. Globalist scum media: “Truth gets in the way of getting things done.”

    https://x.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1824543873986859365

49. ‘It’s been 14 years since Thereza Teixeira purchased her condo in Aventura. In addition to her mortgage, she pays $1,390 in monthly fees. Those monthly fees include $967.70 in maintenance dues and two assessments – one imposed just last year. ‘We still needed more money to bring us up to the 40-year,’ she said. ‘That’s what hit us.’ That assessment was for over $81,000 spread out over 20 years, breaking down to about $338 a month. ‘The financial cost to all of us – it’s amazing,’ she said. ‘Yes, we’re going to have a safer building, but we might not be able to eat for the next 10 years’

    I’m going to stop you right there Thereza. You have been stuffing yer pie hole for 14 years instead of fixing yer airbox. You’ve failed the test of a winnah!

50. ‘says first-time home buyers and those with less cash on them will likely be affected the most. ‘And it’s sad because they should be able to not have to come out of pocket more already with everything else: rising insurance costs, housing, inflation of everything, cost of living, it’s sad’

    I think it’s Blair who is a sad panda.

51. ‘If a buyer wants to see just one or two homes are they going to pay 2.5 percent or 1.5 percent or offer a flat fee? That remains to be seen, but will a buyer pay $15,000 or more to see and write an offer on one or two homes the buyer is interested in?’

    That’s a good point Steve, because before this lawsuit everybody just signed and it all got rolled into the loan. So now I could just walk into the sellers agents office and say look, I got no UHS. Take 3% more off, we’ll make it a deal and I’ll have a lawyer look the papers over.

    1. That’s what I did 11 years ago.

52. ‘Right now, buyers don’t have extra money. They have to come up with their closing costs and downpayment. To stick another fee on top of that is definitely going to change things. I will tell you, homeowners already are saying, ‘No. I don’t want to pay that buyer agent’s compensation’

    I’ve been watching this unfold. There was some passed gas a month ago about FHA financing buyers commissions but not one peep about it since. We got another showdown!

53. ‘in June of this year, the asking price for either was $1.7 million, a stunning 31 per cent decline from the market peak level of $2.47 million recorded in July 2022. Condominium apartments, meanwhile, have declined 28 per cent from the market high of $1.58 million two years ago to $1.2 million, while new townhouses have declined ‘by 23 per cent from a 2022-high of $1.4 million to $1.08 million in June 2024’

    At times like these yer glad guberment made everybody put 35% down.

54. ‘The market is frozen right now…Not a lot of movement right now. We’ve had two interest rate cuts by the Bank of Canada, but that’s just not enough to make a difference yet’ Chen also expressed a growing concern the Windsor area may soon see an increasing number of bank repossessions as mortgage renewals at higher rates potentially add hundreds of dollars to monthly payments. ‘We’re starting to see some bank repossession sales,’ Chen said. ‘Some people just can’t afford their renewals at a much higher interest rate. It’s alarming for me’

    Tiff broke it off in their a$$ Maggie.

55. ‘Tracey is ‘gobsmacked’ by the valuation, saying the couple aren’t being given a reasonable answer about why it is so low. Instead, it’s been a take-it-or-leave-it situation, she said. ‘We have no voice and no power, and we’re just told what to do’ …While house prices have dropped since the CVs were done three years ago, Pilgrim says her home’s value shouldn’t have dropped so much. That’s especially the case when she talked to three direct neighbours who she said were offered buyout values only $10,000-to-$30,000 below CV. Yet unlike those homes, the Pilgrim’s property had also been damaged by an earlier flood in August 2021 that took place a month after the CV valuation date. Following the flood, the family’s insurer made a settlement payout, but the bank used it to pay down the property’s mortgage’

    Insurance you pay is there to protect the bank Pilgrim, remember that!

    ‘Working hard at night and at weekends over the next year and a half, the couple renovated their home at their own expense. In total, Pilgrim estimated the couple had spent $250,000 on improvements but these hadn’t been taken into account by council’s buyout offer…The Pilgrims feel the process has added to a nightmare roller-coaster they’ve been on for years. Still stuck in temporary housing, there was ‘little to no joy’ in their day-to-day lives and the council’s offer added to the weight on their shoulders’

    Despite all that Tracey and Mike, it’s still way cheaper than renting.

56. Here’s a thought: If the Dems get the price controls they want, how long until rationing begins? And who will get extra rations? Wil retirees flee the country? Will they be allowed to take their dollars with them?

    1. “…how long until rationing begins?…”

       Along with the start of rationing, so will black markets.

       Will we all be checking off our grocery lists under dim flashlights, in some alleyway?

    2. “…And who will get extra rations?…”

       In SoCal, EBT card holders will step the the front of the line.

       1. What about the 20M illegals they need to eat too

57. Françoise Hardy – Mon amie la rose (1965)
    Les archives de la RTS

    11 years ago

    Invitée de l’émission Carrefour le 27 mars 1965, la chanteuse yéyé Françoise Hardy interprète une chanson écrite par Cécile Caulier, mise en musique sur un boléro de Jacques Lacome d’Estalenx, extraite de son album “Mon amie la rose”. Délicieux…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ICFtXx546A

    2:13.

58. Los Angeles Teens Smash-and-Grab Three 7-Elevens Hours After Gavin Newsom Signed Crime Bill

    Olivia Rondeau
    17 Aug 2024

    Dozens of teens and young adults targeted multiple Los Angeles 7-Eleven stores in a series of brazen robberies on Friday, just hours after California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a package of bills to combat smash-and-grab theft around the crime-ridden state.

    Approximately 20 to 30 youths stormed into three 7-Eleven locations within a two-mile radius of each other, grabbed whatever merchandise they could get their hands on, and fled on bicycles, NBC Los Angeles reported.

    The string of smash-and-grabs began just after 8:00 p.m. Friday at the location at 7040 West Sunset Boulevard before the teens moved to a store near Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, where a worker was assaulted, according to Fox News.

    The group hit the third store, on Santa Monica Boulevard, around 8:22 p.m., breaking the front window and taking over $2,000 worth of merchandise.

    A similar crime took place last Friday, when a group on bikes broke into the 7-Eleven on Olympic Boulevard to steal food and cigarettes, ABC7 reported.

    Security footage obtained by Fox 11 Los Angeles shows dozens of young men completely ransacking the store, damaging equipment, and even throwing items at employees:

    Matthew Seedorff
    @MattSeedorff

    NEW: Video shows dozens of young people ransack a 7-Eleven in Los Angeles Friday night. The employees stand there helplessly as the vandals overtake the store, throwing items at them, causing thousands of dollars in damage. #LosAngeles #California

    4:25 PM · Aug 10, 2024

    https://x.com/MattSeedorff/status/1822368694926020855

    The recent crime spree came after Newsom touted the bipartisan package of 10 bills as “the real deal” to tackle California’s lawlessness.

    “This goes to the heart of the issue, and it does it in a thoughtful and judicious way,” Newsom said, according to Fox News. “This is the real deal.”

    https://www.breitbart.com/crime/2024/08/17/los-angeles-teens-smash-grab-three-7-elevens-hours-after-newsom-signed-crime-bill/

59. ‘Pot Is Empty’ — Germany to End New Ukraine Military Aid Amid Berlin’s Budget Crunch: Report

    Kurt Zindulka
    17 Aug 2024

    According to the FAZ report, all future requests from the Ministry of Defence for Ukraine aid will not be approved by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as his leftist government seeks to cut costs to address the 12 billion euro budget shortfall.

    The paper said, however, that most of the money and physical aid already allocated to be sent to Ukraine will continue to be sent. This year, some 8 billion euros have been earmarked for Kyiv, while next year an additional 4 billion has already been approved after aid was slashed in half for budgetary reasons.

    Past that, a government source told FAZ that “the pot is empty.” Government communications obtained by the paper said that “new measures” will only be approved if fresh “financing is secured” for upcoming federal budgets.

    With Germany representing Ukraine’s largest single financier in Europe, the cessation of further aid payments could represent a significant hurdle for Kyiv to continue the war against the much larger and richer Russia.

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2024/08/17/germany-to-cut-off-additional-ukraine-military-aid-amid-budget-crunch-report/

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