thehousingbubble@gmail.com
Blog

Speculators Frequently Lose Money, As Do Banks Careless Enough To Loan It To Them

A report from the Star Tribune in Minnesota. “Jordan Maetche and Alyssa Budion bought a townhouse in Plymouth two years ago — when mortgage rates were at record lows, and sellers called the shots — making their offer quickly and paying the full price of $230,000. By this spring when they decided to upgrade to a bigger house, momentum in the housing market had begun to shift: Mortgage rates had doubled, and several other homes just like theirs were also for sale. When they listed their townhouse, they had several showings and even garnered some offers, but they were all too far below their asking price. ‘Everybody said, ‘It’s going to sell so fast,’ Budion said. ‘It couldn’t have been more opposite.'”

“After several weeks, they finally managed an acceptable offer, but they still ended up selling for a couple thousand less than they were asking. On the flip side, their new house in Otsego, originally listed for $430,000, dropped in price to $374,990, enabling them to swiftly make an offer. And in addition to the price reduction, they were able to swing a discounted mortgage rate, which saved them several hundred dollars a month. ‘It was a roller-coaster ride,’ Budion said. ‘We weren’t mentally prepared for all the obstacles along the way.’ For prospective buyers, any movement away from the days of offers well above asking price or concessions like waived inspections is welcome news. ‘People who want to sell are still selling, but it might take a little longer or take more prep work to get ready for the market,’ said Andy Sopher, the agent who worked with Budion and Maetche. ‘But buyers are not throwing caution to the wind like they did in 2020.'”

Delaware Online. “Are home prices in Delaware actually falling? In June and July they did, and the county with the highest prices saw the largest drop. July marked the second straight monthly decline in the Delaware median home sales price since the record high of $393,267 in May. That’s for existing homes, not new construction. In June, the price dipped to $389,833, and then in July it fell again to $374,000, according to the Delaware Association of Realtors. More significantly, the median home sales price in July dropped compared to the same month a year ago when it was $378,333, a decrease of 1.15%. That’s the first time in six years there has been a decrease in the year-over-year price, since July 2018. Inventory of homes for sale jumped 30.01% to 3,496 in July, from 2,689 one year ago. Sussex County’s median sold price was the highest in Delaware at $425,000 in July. But the county also saw the largest drop, down 5.56% from $450,000 one year ago.”

From Vail Daily. “Eagle County’s residential real estate market continues to improve and shift toward a more balanced market, with inventory approximately 21% higher than the same time in 2023. ‘Sellers who price their properties right are still seeing multiple offers in the under $850,000 price range,’ said Scooter Slaughter, broker associate with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Colorado Properties’ Gypsum office. ‘Conversely, sellers who list outside of market value are seeing little to no offers, losing important initial listing momentum. This ultimately leads to having to lower their price if they are serious about selling.'”

WWSB in Florida. “More than two weeks after Hurricane Debby flooded parts of Sarasota, residents off Bahia Vista Street continue gutting homes and drying out. Street after street, lined with mountains of destroyed personal belongings. ‘The neighborhood has been decimated. I mean, all life is gone,’ said Dana Burnell, a resident on Courtland St. According to Burnell, most of the residents in the area don’t have flood insurance and that’s only making the situation worse. ‘It’s just awful and when I drive through here, I’m just, you know, I feel like crying and that’s what I’ve seen a lot of my neighbors do. Everybody’s just crying, what else can you do,’ said Burnell. Burnell said the area has turned into a ghost town, especially at night.”

WFAE in North Carolina. “A plan for 113 permanent supportive housing units at the former Ramada Inn drew criticism at Tuesday’s Housing and Community Development Committee meeting. A new California developer hopes to do what another California developer failed to do over a three-year span: convert the run-down hotel into housing for the city’s unhoused population and veterans. But committee members questioned whether the new proposal from Friendship For Affordable Housing (FFAH), a for-profit firm based in Los Angeles, could be successful. Brian Methvin, CoC funding committee chair, called the proposal ‘a really big disappointment.’ Methvin cited concerns over property management of the site and an uncertainty over what would happen to the site should the developer have ‘extremely long periods of negative cash flow.'”

“This summer, the Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care, the region’s homelessness planning body, was charged with vetting the project on behalf of the City of Asheville. Nonetheless, the CoC’s board ended up narrowly voicing its support for the project in a 7-6 vote. ‘This is crazy,’ council member Antanette Mosley said of the proposal, which bears similarities to the 2021 version that failed. ‘I just feel like I’m in a moment of déjà vu all over again.'”

The Los Angeles Times in California. “San Francisco and Humboldt County officials are trading jabs over Mayor London Breed’s plans to more aggressively promote a city program that pays to relocate homeless people to other communities where they have family or other ties. During their Tuesday meeting, Humboldt County supervisors debated sending a draft letter, addressed to Breed, questioning whether San Francisco was making sure the homeless people it’s busing out actually land housing and jobs. The supervisors were responding to a recent report in the San Francisco Standard that found the counties of Sacramento, Los Angeles and Humboldt were the top three destinations for homeless people bused out of San Francisco since September 2023.”

“‘We don’t need to be a dumping ground,’ Humboldt County Supervisor Rex Bohn said at the meeting. ‘Our cost for taking care of a homeless person that has nothing up here … it’s expensive.’ Bohn claimed, San Francisco hasn’t tracked people who relocated to Humboldt County to make sure they landed on their feet and have found employment and stable housing. ‘All you have to do is ask, ‘I want to go here,’ and you get a bus ticket, and you get to go. No follow-up, no everything else,’ Bohn said. In addition, he said, San Francisco is essentially giving homeless people a choice between leaving town and legal action. ‘I don’t want to hurt San Francisco’s feelings,’ he said. ‘But on the other hand, I don’t care.'”

WGGB in Massachusetts. “The former owner of a luxury home building business in West Springfield was sentenced on Tuesday for conspiring to defraud the United States and creating false documents to help one of his clients get a mortgage. 66-year-old Kent Pecoy who previously lived in Wilbraham was sentenced to one day in prison and two years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay a 24-thousand dollar fine and almost 36-thousand dollars in restitution.”

Bisnow Washington DC. “A downtown D.C. office building that Korean investor Mirae Asset Global Investments acquired as part of a 2015 real estate fund has been taken over by its lender. Bridge Investment Group, which provided Mirae with a $68.5M refinancing loan in 2020 on 1750 K St. NW, has gained control of the asset through a statutory warranty deed, according to documents filed with the D.C. Recorder of Deeds. The asset’s valuation decline has been previously disclosed. In May 2023, the property’s value had fallen to 25% of its purchase price, The Korea Economic Daily reported at the time. That contributed to the overall fund posting losses of more than 70.2% at the time.”

The Globe and Mail in Canada. “The companies responsible for building housing are raising alarm bells that all is not well with B.C.’s real estate industry – responsible for about 20 per cent of B.C.’s GDP, including rental and leasing, according to Statistics Canada. It’s routine for developers to complain about regulations getting in the way, but the tenor of complaint is more frantic these days. They’re watching Toronto’s capsizing preconstruction condo market – taking on the burden of high costs – with a wary eye. They say profit margins are shrinking in B.C. as well, and many projects are either stalled or disappearing.”

“‘When we’re seeing housing starts decline, fall off a cliff like we’ve seen particularly in Toronto, and here as well – just not to the extreme extent that we’ve seen it back east – you have to wonder,’ says Brad Jones, senior vice-president of development for Wesgroup Properties. ‘You would think with such a housing supply shortage, it would be really easy to build a lot of housing. And it’s really, really hard to build housing.’ Mr. Jones counts 62 residential projects by other developers in Metro Vancouver that are in financial distress – and more than 10,000 housing units that won’t get built as a result.”

From Victoria News. “A recent news article reports the B.C.’s Residential Tenancy Branch allowed two landlords to hike rent by 23.5%. According to the article, one of the big five banks issued to two speculators (referred to in the article as ‘landlords’) variable rate mortgages for which the bank accepted as collateral properties these two ‘investors’ foolishly assumed – as did the bank – that tenants would pay rents sufficient to meet their mortgage payments. There are several problems here, none of which are the responsibility of the tenants and all of which illuminate the corruption and assumed impunity at the heart of the financialization of housing in Canada.”

“Most glaringly, the bank in question ignored in assessing the creditworthiness of these would-be ‘landlords’ that they were borrowing to speculate. This should be a giant red flag for any loan officer, whose sole purpose in life is to perform due diligence to establish that it will be repaid before approving any loan. These speculators and this bank both knew that the rate of increase in the rents they could demand per the Rental Tenancy Act is less than the rate at which their mortgage payments could (or would depending on the terms of the loan) increase. The loan is a bad loan. The correct solution is for the bank to write it down. Investments are not magic money machines that always make a profit. Speculators frequently lose money, as do banks careless enough to loan it to them.”

The Financial Times. “First it was the ‘green lairds,’ billionaire investors such as Danish retailer Anders Povlsen, who were buying up stretches of the Scottish Highlands to rewild grouse-shooting moors. And the wealthy rewilders have more recently been joined by fund managers investing in commercial forestry and peatland restoration, eyeing incentivised schemes for voluntary carbon credits that can be bought to offset UK-based emissions. But the latest rush for the Scottish landscape has topped out, deflating a bubble not seen for decades. The slump is indicative of a market that, despite its potential, has yet to mature, say institutional investors. Questions over the validity of carbon credits, weaker economic conditions and delays in forestry scheme approvals have blown the froth off an overheated market.”

“UK and Scottish government funding is available to plant trees and restore peatland. Between 2021 and 2022 applications for natural capital schemes to the Woodland Carbon Code, a UK-government backed body that oversees woodland creation projects, accelerated, contributing to a spike in land prices. The value of hill land quadrupled and that of estates trebled from 2018 to 2021. Natural capital investors, having paid increasingly large sums for land, were caught on the wrong side of inflationary pressures, rising interest rates and lower timber prices. The retreat of institutional investors has facilitated a resurgence of ‘lifestyle’ buyers looking for a sporting estate or family property, said Patrick Porteus of sales agency Landfor. Valuations of land have dipped by 20-25 per cent in the past two years, he added.”

The Daily Telegraph in Australia. “Home prices in a variety of Sydney suburbs have been pulled level – or lower – than they were a decade ago. And plenty more areas have seen only marginal price rises of less than 5 per cent over 10 years due to a high volume of newly constructed homes easing pressure on buyers to pay more. This is according to bombshell analysis provided exclusively to The Saturday Telegraph, revealing runaway rises in prices – while the norm in most areas – were not ubiquitous across Sydney. The bulk of the 10-year price freezes or falls were in new development hot spots in the northwest, Parramatta region and St George area, the analysis of PropTrack data showed.”

“Properties were most frequently selling for lower than in 2014 in Sydney Olympic Park, according to the PropTrack figures. Units in the area currently cost an average of about $685,000, lower than the $700,000 reported 10 years ago. In Austral, in Sydney’s southwest, where acreages were subdivided to make way for smaller houses, resulting in the median house price dropping $517,000 over 10 years. ‘There has been a high volume of new apartments over the last decade and the volume of stock has kept a lid on prices,’ said PropTrack director of research Cameron Kusher. High profile building disasters such as the Opal Tower cracking in Sydney may have also encouraged some buyers to be more cautious with new apartment purchases, Mr Kusher added.”

The Sydney Morning Herald. “The chairman of the world’s largest steel producer, Baowu Steel, had a grim warning for staff when they gathered for the company’s half-yearly meeting this month, one that would reverberate around the world, rattling markets and investors. The Australian government was also taking note. The Chinese steel industry was facing a ‘harsh winter,’ one that would be ‘longer, colder and more difficult to endure than we expected,’ chairman Hu Wangming told staff. What’s more, the challenge would be worse than previous major downturns in 2008 and 2015.”

“The price of iron ore, the key steelmaking ingredient, collapsed to its lowest level since 2022 this month, having plunged more than 30 per cent this year, as a crisis has rippled through China’s domestic steel industry. The main culprit is the floundering Chinese property market and the millions of homes left unfinished, unsold or vacant across the country – and no sign that President Xi Jinping will mount a large-scale rescue effort. Instead, a key plank of Xi’s economic plan is to shift China away from a property-heavy growth model to one powered by high-tech industries and advanced manufacturing in areas like EVs, solar panels, semiconductors, and AI.”

“On Monday, BlueScope Steel reported full-year earnings of $860.7 million, down 22 per cent, citing falling steel prices and rising costs. Chief executive Mark Vassella said Chinese companies were flooding Asian markets with cheap steel as they tried to offload excess supply due to dried up domestic demand in China’s property sector. ‘And what that’s done is that’s driven pressure on price, which then comes back to our domestic market here in Australia,’ he told ABC TV’s The Business program last week.”

Related Posts
This Post Has 93 Comments

  1. ‘The main culprit is the floundering Chinese property market and the millions of homes left unfinished, unsold or vacant across the country – and no sign that President Xi Jinping will mount a large-scale rescue effort. Instead, a key plank of Xi’s economic plan is to shift China away from a property-heavy growth model to one powered by high-tech industries and advanced manufacturing’

    It is different this time.

  3. ‘When we’re seeing housing starts decline, fall off a cliff like we’ve seen particularly in Toronto, and here as well – just not to the extreme extent that we’ve seen it back east – you have to wonder…You would think with such a housing supply shortage, it would be really easy to build a lot of housing. And it’s really, really hard to build housing’

    You paid too much for the land Brad.

  4. ‘Everybody said, ‘It’s going to sell so fast,’ Budion said. ‘It couldn’t have been more opposite.’”

    Typical sheeple who blindly swallow whatever Narrative the REIC shills and globalist scum media feed them.

  5. More significantly, the median home sales price in July dropped compared to the same month a year ago when it was $378,333, a decrease of 1.15%.

    Not to sound like a one-note drum, but these nominal price drops are even greater when one considers year-over-year inflation that is far in excess of the 2.9% our lying CPI stats say it is. When you factor in the Fed’s debasement of the currency, the real decrease in median shack values is more like 10-13%.

    1. Never forget… during CCP Flu they closed down all the gyms (including the exercise room in the building I was then living in).

      But ALL of the McFood drive thrus stayed open. And the liquor stores. And the weed dispensaries.

      It was never about public health.

    2. I was so pleasantly stunned when I heard that Trump and RFK Jr were both being advised by Calley Means. He and his sister Casey are fighting the good fight against ultra-processed food and Big Pharma.

      But they have a tough road ahead, especially against ultra-processed food. Even without interference from Big Ag and Big Pharma, the foods themselves are actually addictive drugs. I remember that Michelle Obama tried to make healthy school lunches and the kids threw it in the trash and bought junk food on the way home. Hell even I’m addicted to carbohydrates, although I’ve managed to avoid HFCS and seed oils.

      TBH, nutrition doesn’t really appear to be Trump’s wheelhouse. If he wins, I think he can do a lot of divide and conquer. Trump can handle the foreign policy, RFK Jr can handle the health, and JD Vance can be the real border czar. As for the economy, even the mighty Fight Fight Fight can’t save that. Prepare accordingly.

  7. Everybody’s just crying, what else can you do,’ said Burnell. Burnell said the area has turned into a ghost town, especially at night.”

    If it’s any consolation, you weren’t throwing away money on rent.

  8. The Chinese steel industry was facing a ‘harsh winter,’ one that would be ‘longer, colder and more difficult to endure than we expected,’ chairman Hu Wangming told staff.

    I wish to congratulate the small, hardy band of The Unvaccinated who against all odds survived the winter of severe illness and death that the Biden regime and its medical “experts” assured us would be our fate for refusing The Jab.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10329217/Ron-Klain-defends-message-unvaccinated-looking-winter-severe-illness-death.html

  14. “When they listed their townhouse, they had several showings and even garnered some offers, but they were all too far below their asking price. ‘Everybody said, ‘It’s going to sell so fast,’ Budion said. ‘It couldn’t have been more opposite.’”

    If you aren’t willing to reduce the asking price to current market value, then you shouldn’t expect to sell.

    1. Gosh, what if current market value – as determined by Mr. Market, not greedhead sellers – is accelerating to the downside?

    1. Markets
      A famed economist who called the 2008 recession warns the Fed is behind on rate cuts — and that a downturn is coming despite ‘off the charts’ investor sentiment
      William Edwards
      Aug 24, 2024, 2:00 AM PDT
      stock trader panics
      REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

      – David Rosenberg warns of recession as labor-market revisions show 818,000 fewer jobs.

      – The Federal Reserve’s rate hikes were based on overestimated job numbers, Rosenberg says.

      – Despite recession risks, stocks are elevated as investors anticipate future rate cuts.
      …
      https://www.businessinsider.com/stock-market-crash-recession-labor-market-revisions-rate-cuts-rosenberg-2024-8

    3. A booming stock market isn’t stopping bears from sounding the alarm on a potential crash. Here’s what they’re worried about.
      Matthew Fox
      Aug 25, 2024, 5:31 AM PDT
      A bear with a downward stock arrow behind it
      Adobe Firefly, Tyler Le/BI

      – Bearish strategists are warning of a potential stock market plunge as the economy cools down.

      – Indicators like the Sahm Rule and job market weakness suggest a looming recession, the bears say.

      – One strategist predicts that a recession could cause a 70% stock market decline amid lofty valuations.
      …
      https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-market-crash-predictions-recession-warning-bears-roundup-jobs-decline-2024-8

    4. The Fed
      U.S. recession fears exaggerated, economists at Jackson Hole say
      Fed seen cutting interest rates two or three times this year and then pausing
      By Greg Robb
      Published: Aug. 25, 2024 at 12:47 p.m. ET
      A television on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange showing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaking in Jackson Hole, Wyoming
      Photo: Getty Images

      The U.S. economy is not expected to fall into recession, experts attending the Federal Reserve’s summer retreat at the base of the Grand Teton Mountains in Wyoming say.

      “The underpinnings of the economy look good. Broadly speaking, things look pretty solid,” said Karen Dynan, an economics professor at Harvard University.
      …
      https://www.marketwatch.com/story/u-s-recession-fears-exaggerated-economists-at-jackson-hole-say-44b18859

    5. The Real Story Behind The Fed’s ‘Soft Landing’ Narrative – Analysis
      June 14, 2024
      By MISES
      By Ryan McMaken

      The Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) Wednesday left the target policy interest rate (the federal funds rate) unchanged at 5.5 percent. The target rate has now been flat at 5.5 percent since July of 2023—as the Fed waits and hopes that everything will turn out fine. In his prepared remarks at Wednesday’s FOMC press conference, Powell continued with the soothing message he has generally employed at these press conferences over the past year. The general message has been one of moderate but sustained growth, and an economy marked by “strong” employment trends and moderating inflation.

      Powell then combined this view of the economy with a general narrative on Fed policy in which the FOMC will hold steady until the committee believes that inflation is returning to the “long-run target of two-percent inflation.” Once the Fed is “confident” that the target inflation level has been secured, then the Fed will begin cutting the target interest rate, and this will then send the economy back into another expansion phase.

      Through it all, Powell and the FOMC insist that there will be no significant bumps in the road and a “soft landing” will be achieved. That is, Powell and the Fed repeatedly tell the public that the Fed will thread the needle of pulling down price inflation while also ensuring that the economy continues to grow at solid rates while employment remains strong.

      But there are two problems with this narrative: The first is that the Fed has never actually managed to pull this off—at least not at any time in the last 45 years. In actual experience, this is what happens: the Fed denies there is a recession approaching well until after the recession has begun. Then, the Fed cuts interest rates after unemployment has already begun to march upward.
      …
      https://www.eurasiareview.com/14062024-the-real-story-behind-the-feds-soft-landing-narrative-analysis/

  16. When Kitchener, Ont., content creator Karishma Porwal wanted to create a video to explain the relationship between Canada’s big banks and fossil fuel investments, she drew in her social media audience using an unlikely reference: Netflix’s Perfect Match reality dating series.

    Content creators like Porwal are using tactics like pop culture references in unique ways, to keep people’s focus on climate change.

    “It’s all about, how can I shift the cultural zeitgeist of the conversation — whatever it is — to climate? How can I shove climate into this conversation?” Porwal told What on Earth host Laura Lynch.

    https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other/how-do-you-get-people-to-care-about-climate-change-start-with-the-new-fad-dating-show/ar-AA1pofo0

    1. How can I shove climate into this conversation

      Someone is on the receiving end of brown envelopes.

  17. Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on a visit to Taiwan Saturday that an isolationist policy isn’t “healthy” and called on the Republican Party to stand with her country’s allies, while still putting in good words for the party’s nominee, Donald Trump.

    Haley, who ran against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, told reporters in the capital, Taipei, that supporting U.S. allies, including Ukraine and Israel, is vital. She underscored the importance of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory, to be brought under control by force if necessary.

    Trump has claimed that if elected, he would end the conflict in Ukraine before Inauguration Day in January. But Russia’s United Nations ambassador said he can’t. Trump’s public comments have varied between criticizing U.S. backing for Ukraine’s defense and supporting it, while his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, has been a leader of Republican efforts to block what have been billions in U.S. military and financial assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022.

    https://www.abc4.com/news/top-stories/ap-top-headlines/ap-nikki-haley-in-taiwan-says-an-isolationist-policy-is-not-healthy-while-expressing-support-for-trump/

  19. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will kick off a three-day cabinet retreat in Halifax on Sunday, where the themes are fairness and Canada-U.S. relations, but the feelings are all about déjà vu.

    A year ago in Charlottetown the cabinet hoped its annual post-summer retreat and the massive cabinet shuffle that preceded it would give new life to the Liberal government.

    Spoiler alert: They did not.

    Trudeau and his team are so far behind the Conservatives in the polls that if they were on a running track they’d have been lapped by now, and with the next election at most a year away, the runway to recover is growing shorter by the day.

    https://cfjctoday.com/2024/08/24/storm-clouds-still-heavy-around-liberals-as-cabinet-meets-for-retreat-in-halifax/

  20. Price controls, higher taxes, government intervention, and subsidies paid for by printing a constantly devalued currency.

    These are the essential pillars of “21st century socialism” and the radical left Peronism that obliterated Argentina. These are also the main elements of the economic plan presented by Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party. Undoubtedly, this is the most radical socialist economic plan ever announced by the Democrats.

    According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), Harris’s proposals will cost $1.95 trillion over 10 years. However, it emphasizes that if certain measures become permanent, this figure could increase to $2.25 trillion.

    The Harris campaign has stated that these costs will be offset by a classic excuse of socialism in any election: “higher taxes on corporations and high earners.” This is, obviously, ludicrous, because there is no revenue measure that will cover the already bloated $2 trillion annual deficit and an added $2 trillion. The mantra of “higher taxes for the rich” always means higher taxes and more inflation, a hidden tax, for you.

    Following the Harris plan, the United States public debt will likely increase by $24 trillion in a decade. As I have explained, there is no set of revenue measures that can bring $2 trillion per year in additional tax receipts, and tax hikes will harm both investment and growth.

    An economy that generates an annual deficit of 6 percent of GDP to achieve a mere 2 percent annual growth is already on a dangerous path, and Harris’ plan would make it even worse.

    Kamala Harris promises to cut inflation by spending and printing more money, reducing competition, and attacking businesses. It has never worked and never will because it is upside-down economics. Welcome to the U.S. “Peronism.”.

    https://mises.org/mises-wire/american-peronism-kamalas-plan-ruin-americas-economy

    2. And evidently Schumer is itching to remove the filibuster again. There won’t be a Manchin or Sinema to save us this time. We need a red Senate.

  21. Sweden must curb immigration to fight drug gangs, says minister

    Sweden must drive down immigration and improve integration to tackle its drug gangs problem, the minister responsible for cutting asylum seeker numbers to the lowest since 1997 has said.

    The country now has more emigrants than immigrants for the first time in 50 years after toughening asylum rules since a conservative-led coalition took power in 2022.

    Maria Malmer Stenergard, the minister for migration, blamed large-scale immigration and poor integration for a string of social issues, including the violent crime epidemic that has tarnished the Scandinavian country’s once peaceful image.

    “Large-scale immigration, combined with a lack of efficient integration, has led to widespread social exclusion, with many people suffering as a result. This includes overcrowded housing, poor educational outcomes, honour-related oppression, and crime,” said Ms Malmer Stenergard.

    This year, police warned that 62,000 people are linked to gangs in Sweden, which now has the highest gun-crime death rate in the EU and has witnessed bombings and shootings spread to the suburbs from its cities.

    Ms Malmer Stenergard said: “Unfortunately, we observe higher crime rates among those born abroad and second-generation immigrants. We want to take responsibility for the shortcomings in integration. However, we cannot do so if high levels of immigration continue.”

    She added: “We do not have a specific numerical target, but asylum immigration must remain at low levels for an extended period if we are to reverse the trend of widespread social exclusion.”

    Ms Malmer Stenergard is a member of the centre-Right Moderate Party, which has led a coalition government since 2022, when the 43-year-old was named migration minister.

    Her department said this month that while asylum applications in other EU countries had “stabilised at a high level”, they had continued to decline in Sweden.

    By July 28 this year, 5,600 asylum claims were made, a drop of 27 per cent compared to the same period last year. This means Sweden is on track for its lowest number of claims in about 26 years.

    Ms Malmer Stenergard said: “From day one, we have been clear that those who come to Sweden with the intention of staying must learn the language as quickly as possible, become self-sufficient, and respect Swedish values.”

    “We have tightened regulations regarding family reunification and citizenship, instructed authorities to prioritise returns and revocations, and are currently reviewing our entire legislation.”

    Ms Malmer Stenergard said Sweden’s asylum offer was too generous in the past.

    “We have a humane and legally sound policy, but our goal is to align ourselves with other countries. In the past, we have stood out, which has resulted in a disproportionately high number of people seeking asylum in Sweden specifically,” she added.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/sweden-only-fight-drug-gangs-131214068.html

  22. Suspect in deadly knife attack at festival in Germany is Syrian who had claimed asylum, say police

    The 26-year-old handed himself in and his involvement is currently being “intensively investigated”.

    A 56-year-old woman and two men, aged 56 and 67, died following the attack in the city of Solingen on Friday. Eight people were injured, four seriously, while “many other people have suffered mental stress”.

    Police said the attacker appeared to have deliberately aimed for his victims’ throats.

    Police also made another arrest in connection with the attack.

    They said the arrest followed an operation to access a building housing asylum seekers in Solingen as part of their investigation.

    Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack but offered no immediate evidence to support its claim.

    A security source told the IS-affiliated media arm Amaq Agency that the suspect “was a soldier from the Islamic State, and he carried it out as revenge against Muslims in Palestine and everywhere”.

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/suspect-in-deadly-knife-attack-at-festival-in-germany-is-syrian-who-had-claimed-asylum-say-police/ar-AA1pnenz

  23. Federal Reserve holdings of mortgage bonds play a “central” role in how monetary policy affects the economy’s momentum, academics wrote in a paper to be presented at a central bank research conference Saturday.

    The paper takes stock of how the Fed uses increases and contractions in its holdings of Treasury and mortgage bonds to augment the changes it does with its interest rate target, actions collectively aimed to influence the economy’s momentum.

    Known as quantitative easing, or QE, Fed purchases of Treasury and mortgage bonds starting in earnest in the spring of 2020 caused central bank holdings to more than double to a peak of around $9 trillion by the summer of 2022. Fed holdings of mortgage bonds went from around $1.4 trillion in March 2022 to a peak of $2.7 trillion.

    “We find that banks and the Fed were each responsible for about a 40-bps reduction in the mortgage spread during 2020/21,” the paper’s authors wrote. “This led to a cumulative increase in mortgage originations of about $3 trillion, and net [mortgage bond] issuance of about $1 trillion, with banks responsible for about half of this increase.”

    “These effects had a large impact on consumer spending and residential investment,” the paper said.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/fed-mortgage-bond-holdings-play-central-policy-rule-paper-says/ar-AA1pmETN

    1. “Known as quantitative easing, or QE, Fed purchases of Treasury and mortgage bonds starting in earnest in the spring of 2020 caused central bank holdings to more than double to a peak of around $9 trillion by the summer of 2022.”

      That seems very misleading, as the Fed started Quantitative Easing in late 2008, and has never subsequently unwound the program. There have been several different points at which it ramped up, however. Once Pandora’s Box was opened, it proved very difficult to close it.

      https://americandeposits.com/history-quantitative-easing-united-states/

  24. Abundance of timber, slower housing market forecast keeps prices soft, cuts margins for loggers

    A nearly twofold increase in standing timber in Arkansas, coupled with a decline in housing demand, is keeping prices soft and tightening margins for loggers, according to economists at the Arkansas Center for Forest Business.

    FreddieMac noted in its June outlook that the housing market slowed in April due to the return of higher mortgage rates, hovering near 7%. Total home sales for April fell 2.3% from March and were down 2.7% from a year ago.

    Existing home inventory rose 16% year-over-year to 1.21 million units and new home inventory is at its highest level since January 2008, FreddieMac said.

    Last month’s report said that “net timber growth continues to exceed harvests by 25 million tons annually” with total standing timber in the state nearly doubling since 1978.

    “The predicted housing starts decrease contributes to a relatively decreased demand in timber, so combined with a downward trend in both demand and market price, the timber supply is very strong,” she said. Tian provides analysis and conducts research for the Arkansas Forest Resources Center, part of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station. The experiment station is the research arm for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

    This “wall of wood” is exerting downward pressure on timber prices.

    Typical prices for pine pulpwood in Southeast Arkansas are less than $2 per ton. Prices often dip below $1 per ton as delivery prices tighten and logging costs are affected by inflation and unpredictable limits on mills accepting timber, according to the Arkansas Center for Forest Business report.

    “Compared to the last decade, that price has decreased,” Tian said.

    With decreased demand, capacity at Arkansas sawmills has fallen to about 85%. The report said that “the outlook for 2024 is at best, stable.”

    https://arkadelphian.com/2024/08/24/abundance-of-timber-slower-housing-market-forecast-keeps-prices-soft-cuts-margins-for-loggers/

  25. New homes in the Nashville area are selling for $7.10 less per square foot than old ones, according to a recent Zillow report.

    People typically pay a premium for brand-new houses, but in this brutal home market, some are finding deals in new construction.

    This is part of a national trend. Nationwide, new homes are $3.50 cheaper per square foot. That’s the widest gap in at least six years, Zillow reported.

    The Nashville area is one of 21 major U.S. metros driving that dynamic. Other cities where new homes are less expensive than existing ones include San Diego, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/in-the-nashville-area-new-houses-are-cheaper-per-square-foot-than-old-ones/ar-AA1oME4M

    1. Older homes were built by skilled American carpenters and craftsmen who mostly took pride in their work. Newbuild shacks are defect-ridden, shoddily-constructed edifices thrown up by cowboy contractors and Central American work gangs. Choose wisely.

      1. I’ve been doing a little work on a house built in 1919. Masonry built Tudor Revival. Lots of things are overbuilt compared to today, like the beams. Which are old growth forest hardwood. All the wood is actually, except the pine floors in the non-fancy rooms. By 1919 I’ve found that most windows, doors and doorways, moldings, etc, were mass produced. They got them out of catalogs that you can find for sale today. Same with cabinets. But it is quality stuff.

        All that changed starting around the 1940’s and has gotten progressively worse every decade since.

      2. 100% why anyone would pay a “premium” for a new production built house is beyond me. Most of it is trash builder grade stuff. Of course old houses have issues, but the big ones have (probably) been solved and the little ones are more updates/modernization rather than problems.

        Plus you get landscaping in an old house.

        1. The mature trees providing shade on the western side of my burnt out hole in the ground are what make the lot worth owning and rebuilding on. Transplanting two mature rose bushes out of the demo path sometime this fall…

  26. Wasatch Front renters have some good news and some not so good news, according to a new report from Wadsworth Multifamily, an apartment brokerage firm in Salt Lake City.

    To no one’s surprise, the report found it’s still cheaper to rent instead of buy property in Salt Lake, Davis, Weber and Utah counties, driven by stubbornly high home prices and interest rates that have only recently fallen after reaching the highest level in over two decades.

    Downtown continues to have the highest vacancy rates in the city. The Wadsworth Multifamily report says an average of 11 percent of units downtown are vacant, and new tenants average about a month of concessions when they sign a lease — and possibly up to 10 weeks of free rent at some properties.

    https://buildingsaltlake.com/rent-inched-up-in-salt-lake-weber-and-davis-counties-and-fell-in-utah-county-concessions-are-booming/

  27. Quebec Premier François Legault has just made the radical decision to put a pause on hiring temporary foreign workers (TFWs) for low-wage jobs in the province’s largest city, and people in Toronto are calling for the same measure to be implemented here.

    The freeze on TFW applications in the Montreal area, which will start September 3 and last six months, was announced Tuesday, with Legault saying that “over the past two years, the number of temporary immigrants in Quebec has doubled from 300,000 to 600,000.”

    In Ontario, many have taken issue with the surge in the number of businesses utilizing Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs) to hire employees from abroad for entry-level, non-specialized positions like food service, retail, and administrative roles.

    These are jobs people say could be filled by local candidates, while those hired from overseas are potentially being exploited for low pay and worse, while companies reap the benefits of paying less, plus subsidies like the employer training grant.

    One person took to Ontario Reddit on the day of the Quebec news to argue that the precedent is now set for other provinces to do the same, advocating for our leaders to take the same step for Toronto.

    “Non-stop daily posts of people applying to thousands of jobs with no answers while companies use TFWs to suppress wages and promote slavery. Do we have any shot of getting this going here?” they asked.

    https://www.blogto.com/city/2024/08/montreal-pause-foreign-workers-toronto/

    1. “over the past two years, the number of temporary immigrants in Quebec has doubled from 300,000 to 600,000.”

      Which is 7% of Quebec’s total population. How long until Hindi becomes the province’s new official second language?

  28. A caravan company has suddenly collapsed, leaving dozens of customers out of pocket and at least one without a home.

    On Wednesday afternoon, Victorian-based Tango Caravans Pty Ltd plunged into liquidation.

    The business manufactured customised caravans and was headquartered in Somerton, Melbourne.

    Tyler Edmunds, a father-of-two, had been fearing the worst for months after being promised his caravan would be completed by February – but still with no sign of it

    The Albury resident had made the three-hour trek to Tango’s Melbourne head office several times demanding he get what he paid for, but each time he left empty-handed.

    The young dad had been asked to make the full payment – $73,000 – for his caravan, and he is now facing the prospect of losing it all.

    Mr Edmunds told news.com.au that everyone feels “ripped off”.

    News.com.au understands at least 30 separate customers have been impacted, according to a poll posted on a private Facebook group about Tango Caravans.

    One woman had forked out $100,000, with plans to travel the country and use the caravan as her home for the foreseeable future.

    In April, the company asked Mr Edmunds for the final payment, but he says that when he asked for photographic proof it was completed, they couldn’t provide him with any.

    At the end of May, the company asked again, and they were able to show him a photo of a nearly-completed caravan. It was the same colours Mr Edmunds had chosen, so understanding it was his, and made the bank transfer.

    But since then, the project went nowhere. Tango Caravans told him their manufacturer was delayed.

    But when he visited the manufacturing factory, they said the caravan was done – but they were still waiting for Tango Caravans to pay them.

    “That was when my heart sunk,” Mr Edmunds said. “I was angry. I knew it (the money) was gone.”

    He said he would give the company until August 9 and then he would make a complaint to Consumer Affairs Victoria.

    It went bust a few days later. This is the second Melbourne-based caravan company to collapse sensationally this year.

    Earlier this year, in May, news.com.au reported that Highline Caravans Pty Ltd had gone into liquidation with debts of $1.14 million to 58 creditors.

    https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/other-industries/tango-caravans-collapses-into-liquidation-days-after-temporary-closure/news-story/dd5abbb842ffbb763df53c1e7652dd90

    1. The young dad had been asked to make the full payment – $73,000 – for his caravan, and he is now facing the prospect of losing it all.

      What an idiot. In a time of universal fraud, aided and abetted by gub’mint, if you don’t hold it, you don’t own it.

    2. One woman had forked out $100,000, with plans to travel the country and use the caravan as her home for the foreseeable future.

      What kind of trailer costs that much? The guy next door has a huge RV trailer and he paid ~$30K, and took it home with him the day he bought it.

      And what was she going to tow it with? A 4 cylinder Toyota Hi-Lux? I don’t know what Aussie caravans are like, but the ones I saw in the UK were small enough to tow with a hatchback/

          2. Those are cute! And: “We are delighted to announce that our partners nuCampRV, a highly regarded travel trailer manufacturer in Ohio, have now launched Barefoot in North America.”

          4. Landing page message from another teardrop trailer manufacturer (emphasis added):

            Little Guy Family & Friends,

            We are aware of the rumors that are currently surrounding our company. We are still committed to providing high quality trailers and want to keep you updated.

            We have paused production due to supplier shortages. We are also moving our manufacturing headquarters to a smaller, more efficient facility.

            There has been a major downturn in the recreational vehicle industry and we are exploring options to help us through this period.

            Customer service will be affected during this transition. Please work with your local dealer for any parts or technical questions.

            – Little Guy Staff

          6. There has been a major downturn in the recreational vehicle industry

            When people are broke, such luxuries get scratched off the list. I expect it’s also tough times for the recreational boat industry

          7. There’s a financial analyst who uses the RV industry as an economic indicator. I can’t remember his name off the top of my head, but Adam Taggart has had him on.

          8. I expect it’s also tough times for the recreational boat industry

            https:// nitter.poast.org/ MacroEdgeRes/ status/ 1793325837879546291#m:

            Tommy’s Boats, a a large boat dealership chain with locations around the country, has filed for bankruptcy with >$500mm in liabilities and a Michigan court has ordered the company into receivership leaving customers with deposits in limbo.

  29. Nobody posted about it yet today, the CEO of the app Telegram was arrested in France yesterday.

    Elon Musk stay out of Europe.

    1. I posted this yesterday.

      jeff the Denier
      August 24, 2024 at 4:49 pm

      Breaking: Telegram Founder Durov Arrested by French Police
      by RT

      August 24th 2024, 4:48 pm

      Along with

      Tucker Carlson
      @TuckerCarlson
      ·
      Apr 16

      Ep. 94 The social media app Telegram has over 900 million users around the world. Its founder Pavel Durov sat down with us at his offices in Dubai for his first on-camera interview in almost a decade.

      5:37 PM · Aug 24, 2024

      https://x.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1827460234887008277

    2. ‘Darkness descending’: Tucker Carlson reacts to reports of Durov’s arrest

      25 Aug, 2024 03:41

      “Pavel Durov left Russia when the government tried to control his social media company, Telegram. But in the end, it wasn’t Putin who arrested him for allowing the public to exercise free speech,” Carlson wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday. “It was a Western country, a Biden administration ally and enthusiastic NATO member, that locked him away.”

      Durov’s arrest is “a living warning to any platform owner who refuses to censor the truth at the behest of governments and intel agencies,” Carlson argued. “Darkness is descending fast on the formerly free world.”

      https://www.rt.com/news/603036-darkness-descending-tucker-carlson-reacts/

    4. All I know of Telegram is that’s where the crypto scammers hang out. A couple years ago they swarmed any popular YouTube channel with spam comments and Telegram numbers — you’ve probably seen them. It took years for Google to figure out how to get around the fancy fonts to filter them out. I can’t say I’m impressed with Telegram.

  32. When we were kids playing baseball on the street or basketball behind a school and the ball would get away while there was a passerby we would yell…

    Little help!

    And most times they would save us the extra steps and throw it back which would receive a thank you from the rag tag group of kids playing.
    Of course once in a great while someone would think it was beneath them and just keep walking, which as you can imagine would call for some under the breath muttering of an insult and some very audible opinions on what kind of a human being we thought they were.

    Enough background on the question I am about to ask.

    I believe I understand the reason to give children of slaves a birthright to this country but that ship has clearly sailed.

    The Fourteenth Amendment (Amendment XIV) to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments

    The main object of the opening sentence of the Fourteenth Amendment was to settle the question, upon which there had been a difference of opinion throughout the country and in this Court, as to the citizenship of free negroes (Scott v. Sandford, 19 How. 393), and to put it beyond doubt that all persons, white or black, and whether formerly slaves or not, born or naturalized in the United States, and owing no allegiance to any alien power, should be citizens of the United States and of the state in which they reside.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

    So now apart from creating new tax payers, why in the world does the United States of America still have an Anchor Baby Law?

    Little help please.

    1. why in the world does the United States of America still have an Anchor Baby Law?

      Because we are being replaced?

      I saw a breakfast cereal ad the other day, which featured several children. Not a single one was white.

      1. “Not a single one was white.”

        Believe it or not I do not care about white I care about legal. I have good friends who are Hispanic and black (sorry Asian people although I knew some of you from school and my neighborhood back home those of you that I knew were much too goal oriented with high GPAs to hang around with my crowd). Not only that but most of the people I dislike in this world are white, now I don’t want His[anic, black and Asian people to be insulted because if I knew more of them I am sure I would dislike more of them too.

        But the industry of flying pregnant women in from China and the what millions who cross our Southern Border with kids that were conceived in Mexico, Honduras, Venezuela etc. and pop out food stamp and free healthcare recipients when they get here is my problem with the Anchor Baby thing.

        Seems like it should be an easy fix if someone in power wasn’t benefiting from it.

        1. PS

          I do have a problem with the illegal murderers and rapists but luckily I don’t personally know any of them.

        2. Believe it or not I do not care about white

          If you are one, then you should care, because no one else does.

  33. After several weeks, they finally managed an acceptable offer, but they still ended up selling for a couple thousand less than they were asking. On the flip side, their new house in Otsego, originally listed for $430,000, dropped in price to $374,990, enabling them to swiftly make an offer.

    They have no idea of how lucky they were to sell it. Unfortunately they also caught a falling knife. Their new shanty might drop a lot more in the next few years.

  34. ‘By this spring when they decided to upgrade to a bigger house, momentum in the housing market had begun to shift: Mortgage rates had doubled, and several other homes just like theirs were also for sale. When they listed their townhouse, they had several showings and even garnered some offers, but they were all too far below their asking price. ‘Everybody said, ‘It’s going to sell so fast,’ Budion said. ‘It couldn’t have been more opposite’

    They were a lion Alyssa.

    ‘After several weeks, they finally managed an acceptable offer, but they still ended up selling for a couple thousand less than they were asking. On the flip side, their new house in Otsego, originally listed for $430,000, dropped in price to $374,990, enabling them to swiftly make an offer’

    They are giving it away left and right. Wa happened to my winnahs!?

    ‘But buyers are not throwing caution to the wind like they did in 2020’

    Let’s be clear here Andy. The lending was sound in 2020 and it’s still rock solid today.

  35. ‘Conversely, sellers who list outside of market value are seeing little to no offers, losing important initial listing momentum. This ultimately leads to having to lower their price if they are serious about selling’

    Talk em down outta that tree Scooter. Think about having to keep yer shack clean all the time and be ready to hit the road at a moments notice.

  36. ‘called the proposal ‘a really big disappointment.’ Methvin cited concerns over property management of the site and an uncertainty over what would happen to the site should the developer have ‘extremely long periods of negative cash flow’

    I can see yer point Brian. It’s not really a business is it? With paying customers and bells ringing. Has there ever been a happy ending to one of these situations since the US took this dive into insanity?

    ‘This summer, the Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care, the region’s homelessness planning body, was charged with vetting the project on behalf of the City of Asheville. Nonetheless, the CoC’s board ended up narrowly voicing its support for the project in a 7-6 vote. ‘This is crazy,’ council member Antanette Mosley said of the proposal, which bears similarities to the 2021 version that failed. ‘I just feel like I’m in a moment of déjà vu all over again’

    This bum housing crap is doomed Antanette.

  37. ‘We don’t need to be a dumping ground,’ Humboldt County Supervisor Rex Bohn said at the meeting. ‘Our cost for taking care of a homeless person that has nothing up here … it’s expensive.’ Bohn claimed, San Francisco hasn’t tracked people who relocated to Humboldt County to make sure they landed on their feet and have found employment and stable housing. ‘All you have to do is ask, ‘I want to go here,’ and you get a bus ticket, and you get to go. No follow-up, no everything else,’ Bohn said. In addition, he said, San Francisco is essentially giving homeless people a choice between leaving town and legal action. ‘I don’t want to hurt San Francisco’s feelings,’ he said. ‘But on the other hand, I don’t care’

    It’s another clown world day for the California bum herding experiment. Too many things that could be said.

  38. ‘The former owner of a luxury home building business in West Springfield was sentenced on Tuesday for conspiring to defraud the United States and creating false documents to help one of his clients get a mortgage. 66-year-old Kent Pecoy who previously lived in Wilbraham was sentenced to one day in prison and two years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay a 24-thousand dollar fine and almost 36-thousand dollars in restitution’

    You live in senator running deer’s state Kent. She heap angry!

  39. ‘A downtown D.C. office building that Korean investor Mirae Asset Global Investments acquired as part of a 2015 real estate fund has been taken over by its lender. Bridge Investment Group, which provided Mirae with a $68.5M refinancing loan in 2020 on 1750 K St. NW, has gained control of the asset through a statutory warranty deed, according to documents filed with the D.C. Recorder of Deeds. The asset’s valuation decline has been previously disclosed. In May 2023, the property’s value had fallen to 25% of its purchase price’

    These Koreans have plenty of money. It was good money after bad and here are the keys.

    1. K street is where all the law firms are, so that building is probably in some demand. If they’re buying it for 75% off the 2015 price, they’ll be able to charge cheap rent. That building will likely survive

      Some time ago I think you posted an article about a smaller office building in foreclosure near Dupont Circle. Probably no one will want that one.

  40. ‘allowed two landlords to hike rent by 23.5%. According to the article, one of the big five banks issued to two speculators (referred to in the article as ‘landlords’) variable rate mortgages for which the bank accepted as collateral properties these two ‘investors’ foolishly assumed – as did the bank – that tenants would pay rents sufficient to meet their mortgage payments. There are several problems here, none of which are the responsibility of the tenants and all of which illuminate the corruption and assumed impunity at the heart of the financialization of housing in Canada’

    ‘Most glaringly, the bank in question ignored in assessing the creditworthiness of these would-be ‘landlords’ that they were borrowing to speculate. This should be a giant red flag for any loan officer, whose sole purpose in life is to perform due diligence to establish that it will be repaid before approving any loan. These speculators and this bank both knew that the rate of increase in the rents they could demand per the Rental Tenancy Act is less than the rate at which their mortgage payments could (or would depending on the terms of the loan) increase. The loan is a bad loan’

    This was a fairly high profile issue in K-da recently and this person took the time to dig into the terms of the loan. How many are out there like this?

  41. ‘The Chinese steel industry was facing a ‘harsh winter,’ one that would be ‘longer, colder and more difficult to endure than we expected,’ chairman Hu Wangming told staff. What’s more, the challenge would be worse than previous major downturns in 2008 and 2015’

    I believe I have heard this story before Hu.

    ‘said Chinese companies were flooding Asian markets with cheap steel as they tried to offload excess supply due to dried up domestic demand in China’s property sector. ‘And what that’s done is that’s driven pressure on price, which then comes back to our domestic market here in Australia’

    You guys hitched yer wagon to the chi-coms Mark. Good luck with that.

  42. Bill Melugin
    @BillMelugin_

    NEW: ICE deportation officers based in DC have arrested a Bolivian illegal alien who was caught and released at the TX border in 2023 and later convicted of sexually assaulting a child in Virginia. He was also charged this month with seven counts of possession of child porn, and possession of obscene material with a minor. ICE says the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center ignored their detainer request three separate times, and repeatedly released him from custody despite his prior child sexual assault conviction and current child sex crimes charges, and DUI charges.

    ICE DC found and arrested him in Annandale on Monday.

    This is yet another example of a local sanctuary jurisdiction shielding an illegal alien convicted child sex predator and refusing to cooperate with ICE by repeatedly releasing him into the community without notification.

    “Jose Fabricio Veizaga-Vargas is a convicted sex offender who victimized a minor in Northern Virginia,” said ICE Washington, D.C. Field Office Director Liana Castano. “We cannot allow such an obvious danger to threaten the children of our community. ICE Washington, D.C. will continue to prioritize public safety by arresting and removing egregious noncitizen offenders from our Washington, D.C. and Virginia neighborhoods.”

    Full ICE statement: https://ice.gov/news/releases/ero-washington-dc-arrests-bolivian-national-convicted-sex-crimes-against-virginia

    5:36 PM · Aug 23, 2024

    https://x.com/BillMelugin_/status/1827097719443521602

    1. Kamala Harris promoted fundraisers by abolish ICE activists

      Gabe Kaminsky,
      Washington Examiner
      Aug 21, 2024

      As California’s junior senator, Kamala Harris promoted fundraisers for groups that support defunding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, records show.

      In 2018 and 2019, Harris urged the public to pledge donations to at least two fundraisers spearheaded by left-wing immigration groups that have demanded ICE and CBP be abolished in recent years, social media posts show. The campaigns are still active on ActBlue, the top Democratic fundraising platform, the Washington Examiner confirmed.

      Harris’s willingness to boost the anti-police activists could come back to haunt the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee on the campaign trail. President Joe Biden tapped Harris in 2021 to address the “root causes” of migration at the southern border. Harris and her allies sought to distance the vice president from her “border czar” moniker as illegal crossings surged to historic levels during the Biden-Harris administration.

      https://gazette.com/news/wex/kamala-harris-promoted-fundraisers-by-abolish-ice-activists/article_fbdeea48-5526-5f7c-af29-d0c1da8cdaf9.html

Comments are closed.