For Sellers, If They Don’t Price It Right, They Will Get Shredded In This Market
A report from the World Property Journal.”According to Redfin, condo prices are falling in major Florida and Texas metros as inventory piles up and buyers back off. This comes as high HOA fees and insurance costs make condos a tough sell. In Tampa, for instance, the number of condo units for sale soared 57.2% from a year earlier in July, pending sales dropped 18.9% and the median sale price fell 4.9%. In Houston, condo inventory is up 35.9%, pending sales are down 35.3% and prices are down 6.5%. ‘The condo market isn’t moving,’ said Steven Weiss, a Redfin Premier agent in Tampa. ‘Most of today’s buyers want move-in ready single-family homes. It’s much more difficult to sell a condo. Buyers are aware we’re at somewhat of a tipping point for condos, and that their value may continue to decline as HOA fees rise and people grow more wary of buying in a waterfront building.'”
A press release. “Home shoppers are looking at more options to choose from this fall as the number of homes for sale sits at the highest level since May 2020. The number of homes actively for sale grew by 35.8% in August, the 10th straight month of growth, according to the Realtor.com®. ‘This August, as the number of homes on the market continues to climb, price cuts are more common, asking prices are moderating, and homes are taking longer to sell. The widely anticipated Fed rate cut has already ushered in lower mortgage rates, but it seems that some buyers and sellers are waiting for additional declines,’ said Danielle Hale, Chief Economist at Realtor.com®. Of the 50 largest metro areas, just 11 had higher levels of inventory in August compared with pre-pandemic levels, including Austin,Texas (+36.6%), Memphis, Tenn. (+28.7%) and San Antonio (+25.2%).”
Lodi News in California. “The party’s over. The days of over-sized operating surpluses for the city are quickly becoming a distant memory. During COVID years the city realized record operating surpluses, thanks to federal and state money that filled the coffers. Now, those halcyon days are gone and it’s back to the future. Another shoe to drop could be the soon-to-be-built homeless access center and to what extent the city’s general fund has to pay for operating costs. The local housing market is softening, according to online real-estate company Zillow. The number of homes currently for sale is growing as well, says Zillow, approximately double what it was last year.”
NBC Bay Area in California. “Antioch Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe is telling other Bay Area cities that his city ‘will not be a dumping ground.’ He is pointing the finger at San Francisco and Oakland, specifically.’We shouldn’t have encampments on our trails and waterways because that poses a public threat that’s not right. Don’t push people into our communities and expect us to be the dumpsite for all your problems. That’s not fair and that’s not right.’ Contra Costa County Resident Dolores Brown said the rise in homeless encampments in the city of Antioch has her feeling frustrated and scared. ‘If you’re out walking, you’re afraid to go down the trails cause you don’t know if one of them are gonna attack you or whatever,’ she said.”
The Wall Street Journal. “Faun James was at work in a Pennsylvania hospital last month when a storm flooded her town. Unable to drive in the surging water, she watched the devastation unfold from her home’s security cameras. Her possessions—and others’—were floating down her driveway. ‘We were told we don’t live in the flood plain, so why would we need insurance?’ said James. ‘My husband’s lived here for 60 years and never had any flooding.’ The total number of homeowners with flood insurance has declined. One explanation is higher costs for federal coverage layered on top of higher premiums for regular homeowners insurance.”
“In Florida, which has more policies than any other state, only 12% of properties have federal policies, according to insurer Neptune Flood. In four counties—Gadsden, Hamilton, Liberty and Jackson—less than 1% of homes had NFIP policies at the end of July. ‘If your driver’s license says Florida, you live in a flood zone and you’d better buy flood insurance,’ said Lisa Miller, an insurance adviser based in the state and former regulator. ‘It’s tragic that so many people aren’t covered.’ In Westfield, Pa., James said cost was a big reason so many people in the town lacked coverage. ‘It’s so expensive and our income here’s not that great,’ she said. ‘So now we’re praying that FEMA helps us.'”
The Daily Voice. “A Toms River man was accused of leading a multimillion-dollar scheme to commit mortgage fraud and steal federal COVID-19 loans, authorities said. Arthur Spitzer, 37, was indicted on 25 counts, New Jersey’s U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger said in a news release on Tuesday, Sept. 3. A grand jury also indicted 38-year-old Mendel Deutsch of Toms River and 42-year-old Joshua Feldberger of Howell Township in the case. According to the indictment, Spitzer got mortgage loans for real estate properties that he didn’t own in New Jersey and Brooklyn, New York. He chose properties that had no mortgages or ones significantly below market value.”
“Spitzer received the loans six times by lying that he had the authority to obtain them despite not owning the properties. Prosecutors said he used documents with forged signatures of property owners, fraudulently transferring control to him. The mortgage loans were deposited into Spitzer’s bank accounts and he used the money to pay off his debts. ‘Spitzer then caused the mortgage loans to default by not making the required payments, leaving the true property owners subject to foreclosure and eviction,’ Sellinger said. According to prosecutors, Feldberger owned the settlement company that handled the fraudulent transaction.”
From Bisnow. “Fire sales of office buildings are becoming more common. In the first half of 2024, eight office properties sold at discounts greater than $100M from their prior sale price, more than in 2022 and 2023 combined, according to Moody’s data provided to Bisnow. In New York City, where some of the first marks of distress began showing up a couple of years ago, the pain has become more acute in recent months. In March, GFP Real Estate and TPG entered into contract to buy 222 Broadway at a 70% discount — shaving off more than $300M from what Deutsche Bank’s asset management arm paid for it in 2014. In July, UBS Realty Investors sold the 20-story office building at 135 W. 50th St. at an auction for a 97.5% discount to its prior price. Menashe Properties is betting that it can succeed where others have failed. Last month, Menashe did it again, buying Montgomerly Park, a historic building in Portland recognizable by its distinctive U-shape, for an 87% discount, $222M less than it had sold for before the pandemic. Menashe said the price amounted to ‘significantly less than land value.'”
From Reuters. “Global property markets, rattled by the steepest rise in interest rates in a generation, will get little relief from the gradual easing of borrowing costs, with scant hope of a return to the free money that fuelled a boom. Industry executives and bankers see no quick fix for an industry built as rock bottom rates sent trillions flowing into property, money the sector is now hemorrhaging as bonds and ordinary savings accounts regain their appeal. The past two years of rate hikes have claimed scores of victims, including property group Signa, which owned trophy buildings in Germany, leaving behind a trail of half-built homes and empty skyscrapers. Britain’s construction sector has seen the most insolvencies of any industry for two years running, with roughly 4,300 over the 12 months to June 2024.”
“‘I’ve never worked so hard in my life and feel like I have nothing to show for it,’ said Brian Walker, president of the Pittsburgh-based property company NAI Burns Scalo. ‘Some will say … we’re probably at the bottom of where the office market is, but I don’t know how you can say that,” said Walker. ‘You’re starting to see a lot of office buildings keys just go back to the bank.’ Earlier this year, a company liquidator knocked around 160 million pounds ($209.89 million), or 60%, off the previous purchase price of an office tower in London’s Canary Wharf, a source familiar with the matter said, but the sale foundered regardless. In Los Angeles, the Century City commercial district surrounding Fox Studios is doing well, while large swathes of downtown are a ‘total train wreck,’ with many buildings going bust and much space unoccupied, said Jeffrey Williams, a New York-based investor at Schroders Capital.”
CBC News in Canada. “With three upstairs windows blown out, a once beautiful neo-Victorian home in Greater Napanee, Ont., now stands charred and empty as a reminder of a deadly tragedy that several neighbours called ‘inevitable’ due to the chaos inside. Last month, 67-year-old Walter Lasher died in a suspicious fire at the multi-unit building. He was one of many tenants who once called the house on John Street home — and not the first to struggle with poverty and housing insecurity, with a friend telling CBC it was the only place he could afford. Following his death, Andrew James Thompson, a 31-year-old man from Picton, Ont., was charged with first-degree murder, criminal harassment and multiple counts of arson.”
“‘The house was a dump,’ said one person familiar with the property who knew both the victim and the suspect. ‘It was terrible in there.’ Around 14 people lived in the house altogether, according to multiple people. ‘It was just like a drug house — needles, everything,’ said the one confidential source. Drugs would be lying around the house in the open, they said. Sometimes, people overdosed. ‘Walter feared [for] his life all the time,’ they said, noting that people in the house would also fight using knives, shovels and baseball bats. ‘Who approved that living condition? That’s what I’d really like to know,’ said Karen Donaldson, who lives a few doors down.”
Cottage Life in Canada. “When it comes to cottage real estate, it’s safe to say that buyers have the upper hand right now. To get properties moving again, real estate experts say that sellers must shed their pandemic-era revenue dreams and list their properties at market value. ‘For sellers, if they don’t price it right, they will get shredded in this market,’ says John Fincham, a real estate broker at Re/Max in Parry Sound, Ont. There are also the cottagers who bought properties during the pandemic and are having ‘buyer’s remorse,’ says Fincham. Plus, there’s the sellers who couldn’t adjust with interest rate changes, he adds. ‘A lot of sellers still have the Covid market mindset,’ says Fincham. ‘And the buyers, of which there are very few, are far more savvy and on top of the market.'”
The Courier Mail in Australia. “RBA Governor Michele Bullock warned her ‘message on interest rates is not what many borrowers want to hear’ especially ‘as labour market conditions ease, more households will experience a strain on their finances from unemployment or reduced working hours.’ Ms Bullock said RBA estimates around 5 per cent of owner-occupiers were ‘in a particularly challenging situation, where the combined total of their essential spending and scheduled mortgage repayments is more than their income.’ ‘Some may ultimately make the difficult decision to sell their homes,’ she warned, with lower income borrowers ‘over-represented in the group of people who are really struggling.'”
“Millions of dollars worth of Aussie homes have already been seized for mortgagee sales from McMansions to townhouses and inner city apartments, with S & P Global Ratings naming the 10 hardest hit postcodes which contain 100 suburbs in trouble.”
From Real Estate Asia. “Four homes on the Peak were sold for more than 40% lower than other nearby sites. In a recent report, Knight Frank said Hong Kong’s home prices fell to the lowest level in nearly eight years. This is due to pressure from first-hand price reductions, high interest rates, economic uncertainty and the negative impact of deteriorating wealth effect in the investment market. ‘Home prices decreased by 1.2% MoM and 13.1% year on year (YoY) in June, according to the Rating and Valuation Department. This marks two consecutive months of decline after a temporary uptick following the government’s removal of property curbs,’ the report said.”
“The trend of secondary luxury stock selling at significant reductions persisted. Notable transactions included four homes with a total of GFA 16,986 sq ft at 46 Plantation Road on the Peak, which were sold for HK$ 1.1 billion, or HK$64,759 per sq ft. The price was discounted more than 40% compared to a nearby luxury property transaction in 2017. Another example includes a 6,493-sq-ft house with a 6,000-sq-ft garden at 8 Purves Road, Jardine’s Lookout, which was sold for HK$360 million, or HK$55,444 per sq ft. This represented a reduction of over 60% compared to the asking price three years ago.”
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‘A Toms River man was accused of leading a multimillion-dollar scheme to commit mortgage fraud and steal federal COVID-19 loans’
Senator running deer heap angry Arthur!
‘said RBA estimates around 5 per cent of owner-occupiers were ‘in a particularly challenging situation, where the combined total of their essential spending and scheduled mortgage repayments is more than their income’
That’s some sound lending Michele.
You will own nothing.
[These people are stupid. The land is going to move no matter what proclamation the Governor decides to evoke. It is what it is.]
Gov. Newsom proclaims state of emergency in Rancho Palos Verdes
https://www.yahoo.com/news/gov-newsom-proclaims-state-emergency-195023587.html
California Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency on Tuesday for the city of Rancho Palos Verdes amid the ongoing land movement threatening hundreds of homes.
The proclamation, issued early Tuesday afternoon, comes as the city works frantically to mitigate the damage from the slow-motion natural disaster, which has displaced many residents and caused officials to shut off electricity indefinitely to hundreds of homes in the community.
That shutoff began on Sunday.
Electricity to be shut off for homes affected by Rancho Palos Verdes landslide
To make things worse, Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor John Cruikshank noted that the city’s sewage system runs on electricity, so water sewage cannot be ejected from some homes safely and properly, creating significant sanitation and health concerns.
“The city is located on four out of five sub-slides that comprise the Greater Portuguese Landslide Complex,” the governor’s office said Tuesday. “Land movement at that part of the complex has significantly accelerated following severe storms in 2023 and 2024.”
Newsom’s Office of Emergency Services has been coordinating with city and county officials for nearly a year to support them in responding to the land movement.
[“responding to the land movement”. The logical response to the land movement is to leave.]
This includes providing technical assistance, facilitating a federal mitigation grant and helping officials with initial damage estimates.
[Lol. These people are delusional.]
To use an x-ism, a slow- motion landslide was not on my 2024 bingo card.
[Lol. These people are delusional.]
I smell grift.
The El Niño rainy season is just a month or two away. The earth fissures and land subsidence will allow the precipitation to saturate the underlying soil and accelerating the landslide movement. Newsom isn’t going to accomplish anything other than stealing more federal funds.
I read that this landslide has been going on since 1956.
Would you buy property below that bluff?
https://tinyurl.com/RPV-shaded-relief
Thanks for the pic! I don’t know which piece of land is moving. It’s either Three Sisters Reserve, or that smaller but steeper bluff between Hawthorne Boulevard and Palos Verdes drive.
Which houses are in danger? The houses on top of the bluffs, or the tiny village on the coast? it all looks unsafe.
“Thanks for the pic!”
That’s Google Maps. Switch to satellite view and zoom in on the area(s) below the bluff.
Look up Sunken City at Point Fermin, San Pedro, it’s about 7 miles from RPV. My playground when I was a little one. It slid in 1929. we used to drive out Paseo Del Mar most Sundays for fresh strawberries and back then there were still houses on the cliff side of the road that had been condemned because of instability. Nothing as big and expensive as the homes in RPV. Back then folks just moved, no other choice.
[A snip from Wikipedia’s description of “Sunken City”:]
Landslides tend to be more common in places where rocks are weak and slopes are steep, which is how most of the coastal areas in Southern California are structured. The Paseo Del Mar neighbourhood was a perfect example of this geographical issue. Waves undercutting the cliff caused water to seep into the bentonite layer of the cliff. Bentonite is a form of absorbent clay formed by the breakdown of volcanic ash. The ash layer became waterlogged, destabilising the cliff.
After the landslide disaster, geologists looked into the Fermin Point land structure and found very little record of geotechnical inspection or investigation. There were no geologic or soil reports regarding instabilities within the site, which means that no proper research was done to determine whether it was safe to build a community on the grounds.
Paul Krugman muh best economy ever:
“Layoffs soared in August, hitting their highest total for the month in 15 years, while year-to-date hiring reached a historic low, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported Thursday.
Announced job cuts totaled 75,891 for the month, lurching 193% higher than July. Though the total was just 1% higher than the same month in 2023, it was the highest number for August going back to 2009, as the economy was still escaping the worst of the global financial crisis.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/05/layoffs-jump-in-august-while-hiring-in-2024-is-at-a-historic-low-challenger-reports-shows.html
Paul Krugman muh best economy ever:
“Eviction filings in Denver are at an all-time high. A new report shows 1,641 eviction filings in August 2024, the second highest since 2019.
The highest number of eviction filings was earlier this year, in April 2024, with a total of 1,670.
That is something Zach Neumann, co-founder of the Community Economic Defense Project, works to fight every single day.
“I mean, the numbers are appalling,” Neumann said. “This year is literally the worst year we have ever had in terms of eviction filings. This problem just keeps getting worse and worse and worse, and there don’t seem to be any answers.”
https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/eviction-filings-in-denver-continue-increasing-worrying-organizations-trying-to-help
Giving free apartments to 40,000 Venezuelans isn’t helping, Zach.
Dallas Police Confirm Venezuelan Gang That Took Over Aurora, CO Apartment Complex is Now Wreaking Havoc in Texas (9/5/2024):
“We have had gang activity in the north Dallas area linked to the Tren de Aragua gang from Venezuela,” Jennifer Pryor, the spokeswoman for the Dallas Police Department told the DailyMail in an interview. ‘Our department is collaborating with other agencies to address possible crimes linked to this and other gangs in our city,” she added.
As these Venezuelan gangs continue to embed themselves deeper into American society, it serves as a stark reminder that our government has betrayed the American people by not only allowing, but encouraging the mass invasion of illegal aliens at the southern border.
The escalating violence in our cities, directly attributed to illegal aliens, underscores the disastrous consequences of Biden and Kamala’s open border policies. These policies have not only compromised the safety of our communities but have effectively weaponized alien criminals against law abiding citizens.
Armed gangs taking over properties and entering neighborhoods without a care for the law are a direct result of corrupt leadership that prioritizes illegal votes over public security. It is an unfortunate reality check that our leaders are actively working against the public who they are supposed to represent.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/09/dallas-police-confirm-venezuelan-gang-that-took-aurora/
If you’re interested in what those apartments in Aurora are like, Nick Shirley goes inside and gives a close up look of the whole situation. He has some really informative videos and he speaks spanish so he is able to talk directly with the invaders. His partner who is usually behind the camera deserves a lot of credit too. They have travelled thousands and thousands of miles to report on all aspects of the invasion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVcRmoN39xs
From January 1, 2025 the Dutch government will end payments to failed asylum seekers, with all national government funding of the National Aliens Facility (LVV) to cease next year.
Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber announced:
‘From January 1, 2025, the state contribution to the accommodation of people who should have left the country long ago will be stopped.’
The decision followed consultation with the five major cities which offer emergency accommodation. The spiralling expense of the so-called bed-bad-en-brood (bed, bath, and bread) scheme for rejected asylum seekers has influenced the change of policy, with costs estimated at €30 million a year, according to Netherlands public broadcaster NOS.
Under previous governments, the policy was treated as a temporary measure until its beneficiaries return home or move on to another country, preventing their homelessness in the Netherlands. To its critics, it risked creating permanent dependents and exercising a pull factor on future asylum seekers.
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/netherlands-halts-financial-support-to-rejected-asylum-seekers/
Back in 2006-2007, I was at a conference talking to some Scandinavians. They said they were working on a project to develop some kind of migrant passport to facilitate these migrations. I said that such an idea would *not* go over very well in the United States.
They scoffed at me and said, Oh you silly American, we should be welcoming these newcomers. Don’t be nasty and arrogant. We should help these people who look for a better life.
Yeah, how’s that working out for you, Sweden and the Netherlands?
The winners of such policy are always the wealthy gated community types. Consuela folding socks and washing down baseboards and Hector trimming the boxwoods for a few bucks per day then it’s OUT and close the gate behind you
“And the buyers, of which there are very few, are far more savvy and on top of the market.”
well gOOOooolly Sgt. Carter: whatever happened to those scolding schoolmarms of “BUYERS are insulting the sellers / BUYERS won’t get off the fence / BUYERS won’t pull the trigger . . . ad nauseam ?
say anything. do anything. be anything for that almighty commission
DR Horton. skrewup…Neighborhood in California faces delays in power supply due to private land rights. 4 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOL1esv0pAA
A reader sent these in:
🪵LL Flooring, ( Lumber Liquidators ) is liquidating after failing to find a buyer. LL / Lumber Liquidators will close all of its nearly 400 stores and lay off its nearly 2,000 employees
https://x.com/dailyjobcuts/status/1831534735983612293
Construction payrolls should cool, possibly sharply, about…imminently. Our leading indicator leads by 7 months. It is about that time.
https://x.com/AnnaEconomist/status/1831180440985546938
Landlord special
https://x.com/ClownWorld_/status/1831078330462003631
In the Navy we had a phrase we liked to use when painting the ship.
“Once over dust, twice over rust.”
https://x.com/DiscretePatriot/status/1831079213044318347
Canada cut the number of international study permits by 35%
Suddenly, there are a lot of units available for rent
Converting 🏡 to illegal rooming houses isn’t as profitable
We didn’t have to wait 15 years to triple the supply of homes for this result
https://x.com/JohnPasalis/status/1831137552574673124
Only in Oklahoma.
https://x.com/ClownWorld_/status/1831184536614613041
AI = Aloft Idiocy
https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1831426854320066648
💵 First Dollar General, Now Dollar Tree Shares Plunge As Both Discount Retailers Warn Of Core Customer Under Pressure
https://x.com/dailyjobcuts/status/1831341786406732269
Jeep’s parent company is pressing pause on making two of its top-selling U.S. models – namely the Grand Cherokee and the Wrangler
https://x.com/MacroEdgeRes/status/1831488171974258929
The longest yield curve inversion in history has ended w/ the 10-yr Treasury yield (3.77%) now 1 bps above the 2-Yr yield (3.76%). Historically, the flip back to positive after a long inversion has occurred near the start of recessions.
https://x.com/charliebilello/status/1831467141465293049
2024 Total Returns…
Walmart $WMT: +48%
Dollar General $DG: -40%
Dollar Tree $DLTR: -55%
Five Below $FIVE: -65%
Big Lots $BIG: -93%
https://x.com/charliebilello/status/1831442831581519909
So whatever jobs number we get now, do we just discount it down 80-100,000??
https://x.com/commbankerguy/status/1831442647829115044
While everyone is talking about the decline in #JOLTS and the silly ratio of openings to unemployed, it’s important to remember that millions of these “job openings” don’t even exist.
https://x.com/JG_Nuke/status/1831339548569391317
Gen Z is starting to graduate college and get their big boy jobs. It’s going well.
https://x.com/Shouse34/status/1831108334629306412
another one for this borrower, who is up to ~$11.1M in delinquent mortgage debt. tax bills are piling up.
do you also get a warm, fuzzy feeling when you see an annuity company as plaintiff on this one?
https://x.com/kristinbjornsen/status/1831404675213742303
Always a good sign
https://x.com/GayBearRes/status/1831377200282751069
Let the price cuts hit the floor
https://x.com/NipseyHoussle/status/1831358357804118121
Job openings are declining rapidly
Such sharp drops have only occurred 3 times since 2000:
– Dot Com bubble
– Financial Crisis
– Pandemic
All of them ended with a sharp economic downturn
The worst part: This is happening when the consumer has run out of excess savings
And is holding record levels of credit card debt
https://x.com/GameofTrades_/status/1831364118558974255
U.S. Steel 📉 in 1929 due to rampant speculation, overvaluation, 📉 demand. Despite economic 🚨 signs its stock price remained inflated until the October crash. Panic selling ensued, with U.S. Steel’s stock 📉, contributing to the broader market collapse
Oh wait this is today 👀
https://x.com/GregCrennan/status/1831404584918774198
‘Office vacancies keep rising.’
https://x.com/jessefelder/status/1831335918084776005
“79 percent of all multifamily rental units in LA County are being listed using collusion software.”
https://x.com/RudyHavenstein/status/1831386201426948134
Psst… interest rate cuts are signs of a weak economy… not a “strong signal that we’re going in the right direction” 🤦♂️
https://x.com/mortimer_1/status/1831485662639591763
“We need to see some easing in shelter price inflation… it’s running over 8%”
“It’s gonna be very hard to get to 2% inflation when a quarter of your basket, a necessity, is running that high”
So ya, he needs prices to go down to finish the job.
https://x.com/igetredpilled/status/1831500984318919136
Young enough to remember ppl telling me Burlington homes such as this would never go for under a million.
Here we are.
Peak pricing was 1.6Mish.
Silent depression. 🤫🇨🇦
https://x.com/ManyBeenRinsed/status/1831403647546388520
-25bps from the Bank of Canada
Payment on the average Canadian variable-rate mortgage:
Yesterday: $2,207.38
Tomorrow: $2,156.87
https://x.com/daniel_foch/status/1831369229641351199
Seniors just living in their house isn’t causing a SFD shortage. 🙄
Many ARE aware there’s “funding options” They DON’T WANT CONDOS. Got it? Developers and investors had a race to the bottom building trash unpleasant to live in. Perhaps look there.
https://x.com/PastelPonylady/status/1831109145522852158
Classic
Boy vs. Shovel
https://x.com/SteveInmanUIC/status/1831109618732355766
Payment on the average Canadian variable-rate mortgage:
Yesterday: $2,207.38
Tomorrow: $2,156.87
That should pay for a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter and a jug of milk in Canada
Boy vs. Shovel
FAFO
He was doing well at first.
‘Gen Z is starting to graduate college and get their big boy jobs. It’s going well’
This one blew me away. Gets a job, they give her a computer and she doesn’t know how to use it. So I guess no word processing skills, nor spread sheets.
I’m guessing that she was brought up on Apple and Macs. She should be able to transfer to the PC interfaces pretty easily.
God knows that we GenXers were fortunate to live through the Golden Age of Incompatability.
I remember writing papers on our IBM XT.
“So I guess no word processing skills, nor spread sheets.”
These were new technologies when I started out, but I learned them pretty quickly on the job with no formal training.
“So I guess no word processing skills, nor spread sheets.”
At a junior college these skills and several others are acquired in an “Office Automation” degree program.
Volvo Cars abandons its near-term EV-only ambitions
Swedish automaker Volvo Cars scrapped its target of going all electric by 2030 on Wednesday, saying it now expected to still be offering some hybrid models in its lineup at that time.
Major automakers have seen slowing demand for EVs partly due to a lack of affordable models and the slow rollout of charging points, while also bracing for the effects of European tariffs on electric cars made in China.
Shares in the company were down 7.5 per cent at 1416 GMT, after hovering around 4 per cent lower ahead of the announcement of scaled-back targets.
Volvo Cars said in the statement that by 2030 it now aimed for between 90 per cent and 100 per cent of cars sold to be fully electric or plug-in hybrid models, while up to 10 per cent would be so-called mild hybrids, where electric power only supplements the combustion engine.
Volvo Cars said in a separate statement that plug-in hybrids would be a critical part of its future profit growth, and that it would revamp its hybrid XC90, with first customers receiving the SUV by the end of the year.
Volvo Cars sells a mix of electric and hybrid cars, and had until now remained steadfastly committed to its plans to only sell fully electric cars by 2030 even as its rivals began scaling back their ambitions. Some of Volvo’s flagship fully electric cars are the EX90 and the EX30, both SUVs.
Drivers’ concerns about EVs driving ranges are among the reasons buyers have gravitated toward the often more affordable and convenient hybrids.
Volvo Cars, which is majority-owned by China’s Geely, said it was responding to changing market conditions and customer demands.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/international-business/article-volvo-cars-abandons-its-near-term-ev-only-ambitions/
For more than a decade, connected cars have won over new car buyers with their streamlined, smartphone-like software updates and convenience features. But this convenience comes at a price: What happens when connected cars become disconnected cars? Like that scene at the end of The Phantom Menace, they’re losing function en masse as the Chinese auto industry consolidates, leaving many connected cars unsupported. And if we’re not careful, the same thing could easily happen to American car owners, too.
The phenomenon was chronicled in Rest of World, which spoke to multiple owners of EVs produced by financially troubled Chinese automakers. China kickstarted its EV industry with aggressive subsidies that lured dozens, if not hundreds of companies to produce cars. When those subsidies ceased, an automotive extinction event unfolded, with a reported 20-plus brands calling it quits. As you can imagine, that poses an enormous problem for people who bought connected cars from said brands.
The largest Chinese automaker to fail yet has been WM Motor, which reportedly sold around 100,000 cars between 2019 and 2022. It filed for bankruptcy in October 2023, and in doing so ceased offering software support for customers’ cars. With company servers offline, widespread failures were reported, affecting cars’ stereos, charging status indicators, odometers, and app-controlled remote functions such as air conditioning and locking.
Though WM Motor is said to have brought servers back online so that these vehicles can fully function again, it doesn’t seem to have delivered any software updates since its bankruptcy filing almost a year ago. Its app also remains unavailable on smartphone app stores, locking potential buyers of used WM Motors vehicles out of some features. It seemingly hasn’t flown afoul of China’s consumer protection laws, which mandate 10 years of parts and service support—but apparently not software. As many as 160,000 Chinese car owners are estimated to be in a similar boat, as an increasing number of automakers encounter financial trouble.
Here in the United States, we’ve seen similar situations unfold like with Tesla’s 2021 outage, which locked some owners out of their cars and disabled charging. More recently, the bankruptcy of Fisker left owners of its Ocean SUV with abundant software issues and no certainty that they’d be fixed. It’s a far larger problem in China, where tech is a major selling point for cars, and where there are more brands at risk. But it’s better we heed this warning than kick the can down the road—an ounce of preventative versus a pound of cure, and all that jazz.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/chinas-connected-car-collapse-is-a-warning-for-the-american-market
Mayor Francis Suarez’s hopes of making Miami the Silicon Valley of the South and the country’s cryptocurrency capital have been dealt another setback.
Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley’s most high-profile venture capital firms, has shuttered its office in Miami Beach.
The firm, also known as a16z, left its roughly 8,300 SF office at 2340 Collins Ave., a boutique office building that is owned by and hosts the headquarters of Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group.
The venture capital firm left the property in May because its South Florida employees weren’t using the space often enough, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources.
A spokesperson for the company told Bloomberg that a16z no longer had a Miami office but declined to comment further. The firm didn’t respond to Bisnow’s request for comment.
California-based a16z manages $7.6B in crypto-related assets, per Bloomberg, and has a 100-person strong staff helping deploy capital in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and fintech while funding disruptive tech in industries like healthcare and infrastructure.
The firm had signed a five-year lease and opened its office at the Starwood headquarters in July 2022, a move Suarez at the time touted on social media as ”enormous news” for Miami in a post that included a rocket ship emoji.
But Miami’s crypto fortunes have largely failed to materialize, despite Bitcoin doubling in value over the last 12 months. Miami-Dade County winning back the naming rights last January for the Miami Heat arena after the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX was just the most highly publicized in a string of fintech flops over the last few years.
https://www.bisnow.com/south-florida/news/office/andreessen-horowitz-exits-miami-as-traditional-finance-fills-in-for-crypto-dreams-125760
Seems like a lot of crypto dreams are turning into nightmares these daze.
Seller’s conundrum:
– Price to market, give it away.
– Hold out for wishing price, never sell.
Plenty of choices between $2-3M near me.
I’m also noticing a lot of tree trimming at the worst time of year for it. I’m guessing insurance companies are requiring it.
Creditor files for liquidation of Evergrande NEV’s unit
A creditor filed a petition for the bankruptcy of a unit of China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group, a subsidiary of China Evergrande Group, in a Shanghai court, the third such petition against the embattled car company.
Trading in NEV shares was suspended at 0152 GMT on Thursday, after the price dropped 5.4%.
A new bankruptcy proceeding could add pressure on the liquidators of China Evergrande Group, the world’s most indebted property developer, to recover debt for creditors and a potential investor in the electric vehicle company.
Evergrande NEV last week announced a net loss of 20.3 billion yuan ($2.9 billion) in the first half, widening from a 6.9 billion net loss a year ago.
Its total liabilities rose 2.5% from end-December to 74.4 billion yuan, while total assets decreased 53% to 16.4 billion yuan and total cash plunged 69% to 39 million yuan.
The company’s auditor said the material uncertainties from the financial results may have significant impact on the group’s ability to continue as a going concern.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/creditor-files-for-liquidation-of-evergrande-nev-s-unit/ar-AA1q1UL4
A $3.5 million mansion on Long Island. A $2.1 million “ocean view condominium” in Honolulu. A brand new 2024 Ferrari.
And more than a dozen Nanjing-style salted ducks, personally prepared by the private chef of a Chinese government official.
Those were just some of the luxuries that Linda Sun, a former top aide to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, and her husband, Chris Hu, received for allegedly betraying their country to China, prosecutors claimed in court papers Tuesday.
Sun and Hu launched their spending spree in 2021. They bought both the mansion in a gated community in Manhasset, Long Island, which is now worth about $4.05 million, and the Honolulu condo, which is “currently valued at approximately $2.1 million,” the indictment states.
“There were no mortgage loans taken in connection with these acquisitions,” prosecutors charged in the court papers.
The couple purchased the properties after Hu received a series of wire transfers totaling more than $2.1 million from a PRC-based account, prosecutors said. And Sun “did not report the real estate acquisitions on her financial disclosure statements, as she was obligated to do.”
In 2020, while Sun was house-shopping on Long Island, a worried — and unnamed relative — expressed concern “that people would wonder” how she could afford to buy an expensive property, according to the indictment.
“Mortgage,” Sun allegedly replied.
In fact, according to the indictment, while the couple was buying real estate and fast cars, “their personal and business tax returns reflected little to no income earned.”
Hu operated a Queens-based seafood company and wine store that did not generate much in the way of income.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/lavish-life-ex-top-aide-ny-gov-accused-secret-chinese-agent-rcna169430
Are you worried that stocks may CR8R in the runup to the election?
The Tell
The stock market often falls in the 2 months leading to Election Day. Here’s what history says.
S&P 500 has declined in every 2-month countdown since 2008
By William Watts
Published: Sept. 5, 2024 at 7:14 a.m. ET
Election Day is fast approaching. Photo: MarketWatch photo illustration/iStockphoto
The two-month countdown to the Nov. 5 presidential election begins Thursday, a period that’s often marked a rough patch for the U.S. stock market.
According to Dow Jones Market Data, the S&P 500 has turned in a negative performance over that two-month stretch in every election year since 2008, with an average fall of 5.8%.
…
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-stock-market-often-falls-in-the-2-months-leading-to-election-day-heres-what-history-says-764ad7a5
Market Extra
A new recession warning is about to flash as investors await August unemployment report
The 2-year Treasury yield was on the doorstep of closing below its 10-year counterpart for the first time since 2022
By Joy Wiltermuth
Last Updated: Sept. 4, 2024 at 3:47 p.m. ET
First Published: Sept. 4, 2024 at 2:29 p.m. ET
The U.S. Treasury yield curve is on the cusp of un-inverting, which typically isn’t great for stocks in the short-run Photo: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
Referenced Symbols
TMUBMUSD02Y
3.756%
TMUBMUSD10Y
3.734%
DJIA
-0.63%
An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the month of Friday’s U.S. jobs report. The error has been corrected.
The U.S. bond market was about to flash another recession signal on Wednesday, with a closely followed plot along the Treasury yield curve on the doorstep of closing in positive territory for the first time since 2022.
…
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/a-new-recession-warning-is-about-to-flash-as-investors-await-july-unemployment-report-098015df
“…with a closely followed plot along the Treasury yield curve on the doorstep of closing in positive territory for the first time since 2022.”
Important, rarely-mentioned details:
– The market is not uninverting on its own, as the Fed’s announcement that they are soon going to reduce interest rates matters.
– In a flight-to-quality move, market forces recently drove down long-term Treasury yields in anticipation of a US slowdown, depite the BRICS’ coordinated effort to ditch the dollar.
– The Fed is chasing down falling long-term Treasury yields, which is the proximate reason the yield curve is uninverting.
– Historically the period when the Fed is chasing down long-term yields has not been a good time to HODL stocks.
Federal Reserve
The Fed
Fed’s Goolsbee says trend of economic data justifies multiple rate cuts, starting soon
In exclusive interview, Goolsbee sees mounting warning signs about outlook of labor market
By Greg Robb
Last Updated: Sept. 5, 2024 at 8:46 p.m. ET
First Published: Sept. 5, 2024 at 8:04 p.m. ET
Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee.
Photo: U.S. Federal Reserve
The longer-run trend of labor-market and inflation data justify the Federal Reserve easing interest-rate policy soon, and then steadily over the next year, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said Thursday, in an exclusive interview with MarketWatch.
“The long arc shows inflation is coming down very significantly, and the unemployment rate is rising faster” than Fed officials had expected in June, Goolsbee said.
…
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/feds-goolsbee-says-trend-of-economic-data-justifies-multiple-fed-rate-cuts-starting-soon-6d330860
Financial Times
11 hours ago
Zehra Munir in New York
US Treasury yield curve normalises after soft labour market data
Further evidence of softness in the US labour market pushed short-term borrowing costs below longer-term ones, prompting another swing this week in a closely watched recession indicator.
Data on Thursday that showed the private sector in August added the fewest number of jobs in three and a half years, sent the yield on the 2-year Treasury yield below that of the 10-year note. That move was reinforced several minutes later by the release of soft unemployment aid figures.
The “yield curve”, which tracks the difference between those yields, has been in “inversion” territory for the past two years, as shorter-term borrowing costs exceeded longer-term ones. An inverted yield curve is often regarded as a predictor of an economic slowdown, but some analysts are of the view recessions only begin when the curve “uninverts”.
The yield curve briefly normalised earlier this week following other soft economic data releases.
Kamala Harris’s corporate-tax plan could cut S&P 500 earnings by 5%: Goldman Sachs
But new tax revenue is needed to avoid cuts to Social Security and Medicare, analysts say
By Chris Matthews
Published: Sept. 5, 2024 at 1:55 p.m. ET
Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event at the Throwback Brewery in North Hampton, N.H., on Wednesday. Photo: AFP via Getty Images
Referenced Symbols
SPX
-0.30%
The candidates in the 2024 presidential election have presented starkly different visions for corporate taxation — and if implemented, they could have a major impact on the stock market.
That’s according to a new report from Goldman Sachs analysts, led by Ben Snider.
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Currencies
The Japanese yen still poses ‘a very big risk’ to global markets. Here’s why.
The yen carry trade is still alive, setting the stage for the possibility of a further unwind that may rattle U.S. stocks
By Vivien Lou Chen
Last Updated: Sept. 5, 2024 at 4:09 p.m. ET
First Published: Sept. 5, 2024 at 2:59 p.m. ET
An electronic quotation board displays the exchange rate for the Japanese yen against the U.S. dollar in Tokyo on Wednesday. Japan’s Nikkei index dived more than 4% on Wednesday, weighed down in part by a stronger yen.
Photo: Kazuhiro Nogi/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
There’s one big factor behind early August’s scare in the U.S. stock market which hasn’t gone away and has little to do with a U.S. economic slowdown. It’s the popular currency approach known as the carry trade.
A month ago, the carry trade was blamed in part for a 12.4% plunge in Japan’s Nikkei index and a cascading global stock-market selloff as investors rushed to exit from the strategy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
(DJIA -0.54%) and S&P 500 (SPX -0.30%)
finished on Aug. 5 with their worst performances since Sept. 13, 2022, with the former plunging 1,033.99 points or 2.6%.
At the heart of investors’ concerns is the fear that much of the U.S. stock rally seen in recent years was the result of easy borrowing via carry trades. The carry trade is a strategy based on borrowing at a low interest rate and using the proceeds to buy higher-yielding currencies or assets. With the Bank of Japan maintaining ultralow interest rates for years, investors loaded up on stocks and other assets from other countries via trades funded by the Japanese yen.
…
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-japanese-yen-still-poses-a-very-big-risk-to-global-markets-heres-why-f0e949b5
The Tell
Markets are uneasy as a U.S. recession looks more likely
The U.S. economy might not be out of the woods yet, on the way to that soft landing
By Gordon Gottsegen
Published: Sept. 5, 2024 at 5:10 p.m. ET
Soft economic data has been reviving recession fears. Photo: MarketWatch photo illustration/iStockphoto
…
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/markets-are-uneasy-as-a-u-s-recession-looks-more-likely-3cecca30
Conversation
The Kobeissi Letter
BREAKING: Prediction market expectations for tomorrow’s August jobs report just tanked by 26,000 jobs in 24 hours.
Exactly 24 hours ago, prediction markets expected 174,000 jobs added in August.
Now expectations are down to 159,000 jobd, according to @Kalshi
This comes after private payrolls posted their smallest gain since 2021 this morning.
The previous month’s data was also revised LOWER by 11,000 jobs.
What is happening with the labor market?
…
https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1831725479998435642
Kamala Harris’s running mate Tim Walz has been drawn into a feud with members of his extended family after they posed in Trump T-shirts on social media.
The image of eight relatives of the Minnesota Governor finds them wearing grammatically-incorrect “Walz’s for Trump” shirts and standing in front of a “Trump 2024” flag that also reads: “Take America back.”
The image was shared by a family friend and posted on X by Charles Herbster, a former Republican candidate for governor in Nebraska, where the Democratic vice presidential nominee grew up.
“Tim Walz’s family back in Nebraska wants you to know something,” Herbster wrote on X.
Trump duly shared it on his Truth Social profile and gloated about the feud on Fox last night.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/trump-insists-he-and-vance-are-not-weird-but-solid-rocks-as-harris-proposes-billionaire-minimum-tax-live/ar-AA1p2Jk5
grammatically-incorrect
It’s been A LONG time since I’ve seen a grammatically-correct last name. I also see A LOT of incorrect object pronouns being used as subjects.
New York Times columnist David Brooks detailed in a column published Wednesday how former President Trump could win the 2024 election and how the Democratic Party and Vice President Kamala Harris could lose.
Brooks listed five reasons and ways Trump could be victorious. One way, he wrote, was if voters choose the red model, which he wrote, “gives you low housing costs, lower taxes and business vitality” over the blue model, which “gives you high housing costs, high taxes and high inequality.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/nyt-columnist-details-scenario-trump-220009899.html
‘…“gives you low housing costs, lower taxes and business vitality” over the blue model, which “gives you high housing costs, high taxes and high inequality.”…’
It is true that our housing costs never went fully insane until after the Democrats took control in 2020. And their affordable housing programs have been a complete joke and a ticket to impossibly unaffordable housing costs and rampant homelessness in coastal California.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has careened from one crisis to the next — and her mounting problems are stirring talk among fellow Democrats of a potential primary.
The Tuesday arrest of Linda Sun, a former deputy chief of staff to the governor, on charges that she acted as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government is the latest in a string of political headaches to plague Hochul, who took over as governor in 2021.
It has also stirred fresh concerns among Democrats about Hochul’s electoral viability.
Even before the sweeping indictment alleged an agent of the Chinese Communist Party infiltrated state government, Hochul’s political baggage was multiplying.
Her vulnerabilities include basement-level approval and favorability ratings that have not budged much this year, despite her championing a range of popular measures to address crime and cost of living. Democrats are mindful of her relatively narrow victory over Republican Lee Zeldin two years ago too — a showing that party eminences like former Speaker Nancy Pelosi blamed for down-ballot losses.
Democratic operatives and committee members have privately discussed what the world will look like when — and if — Hochul runs for reelection in 2026, and whether a replacement is needed at the top of the party’s ticket, said four people granted anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks.
“There was very real conversation at the DNC about a primary challenge to Hochul to prevent a Republican from taking over New York state government,” said Transport Workers Union International President John Samuelsen, a Hochul critic, in an interview.
Given the institutional power a governor can wield, hardly any Democrats were willing to speak on the record about a potential primary against Hochul, who holds a 39 percent favorable rating, according to a Siena College poll released last month.
But it’s a scenario some of them have compared to the one President Joe Biden faced in July, one in which an incumbent — beset by low poll numbers who down-ballot candidates feared would be a millstone for them in November — is prodded off the ticket.
Her nominee to lead the state’s top court was voted down by the state Senate — a nomination she insisted go forward despite concerns Democratic lawmakers raised publicly over the pick.
Her first lieutenant governor, Brian Benjamin, resigned after he was arrested on federal bribery charges.
The pile up of miscues has alarmed fellow Democrats, who believe the Sun indictment is the latest in a parade of needless blunders.
“She seems to keep veering away from the better decision that’s placed in front of her,” Democratic consultant Alexis Grenell said. “It’s completely unnecessary, self-inflicted damage that she could change tomorrow, and I wish she would.”
Pelosi has repeatedly blamed Hochul for the 2022 House results, most recently in an interview with POLITICO last month.
In response, Hochul pointed to losses in House races in Pelosi’s home state of California.
“The same year we lost five seats in California, so I think a broader analysis would be justified,” she said Wednesday at an event hosted by Semafor.
Rep. Mike Lawler, a Hudson Valley battleground Republican, added that it is not just Republicans who have been critical.
“A leopard can’t change its spots. The reality is Kathy Hochul is way over her head,” he said. “She’s viewed by Democrats, not just Republicans, as feckless and inept.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/foreign-agent-indictment-latest-woe-among-many-for-hochul/ar-AA1q2dus
Ukraine’s Hail Mary Pass: Drag the U.S. Into the War
The temporary gains in Kursk may turn into a liability—unless they entice the Americans into the fray.
Ukraine recently accepted the delivery of a half-dozen F-16s, and already one has crashed. Whatever the cause—ironically, the American plane might have been the victim of an American Patriot missile—the shootdown further undermines Kyiv’s claim that Wunderwaffe offer salvation in its war against Russia.
No doubt allied arms have helped sustain Ukraine’s spirited defense against its much larger neighbor. Now Ukrainian officials are pointing to Kiev’s seizure of the Kursk region in Russia as a reason for Washington to end range limits on the use of U.S. weapons. Reported POLITICO: “Ukraine’s invasion of Russia has flipped the gloomy narrative on the war, and Kyiv is using its battlefield success to launch a new pressure campaign on the U.S. to lift the last restrictions.” Indeed, Ukrainian officials reportedly are presenting a long list of potential ATACMS (long-range missile) targets, which probably number in the hundreds, to the Biden administration.
While the ability to hit farther and harder in Russia may raise Ukrainian morale, the ground battle will determine the conflict’s outcome, and there Kiev is losing. The Zelensky government risks permanent strategic failure in the east in return for temporary tactical success around Kursk. Moscow continues to gain land in Donbas, leaving it close to acquiring that territory in toto as well as securing Crimea. Kiev possesses neither the manpower nor the materiel necessary to regain the lost lands and retain the Kursk salient. Indeed, Ukraine’s troops in the latter are in danger of capture if not reinforced, yet there are few units to send when the Ukrainian military is retreating elsewhere.
While additional Western weapons wouldn’t deliver victory for Kyiv, they could expand or intensify the war, and that is not in America’s interest. The allies’ sympathies are understandably with Ukraine, despite NATO’s reckless push to Russia’s border. Yet their first responsibility is to their own nations, which is why they never fulfilled their infamous 2008 promise to bring Ukraine and Georgian into the transatlantic alliance. No one was prepared to go to war with Russia over either country. They shouldn’t do so today.
At the same time, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to do his best to drag the US into the war. In fall 2022, he approved a plan to destroy Germany’s Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline while blaming Russia and insisting the incident be treated as a casus belli by NATO. After that he charged Russia with a deadly strike on Poland by an errant Ukrainian missile, demanding that the allies enter the war. A couple weeks ago he again pushed Washington to drop restrictions on the use of US weapons, declaring: “The whole naive, illusory concept of so-called red lines regarding Russia, which dominated the assessment of the war by some partners, has crumbled these days.”
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/ukraines-hail-mary-pass-drag-the-u-s-into-the-war/
Zelensky, need you be reminded, is not a Christian and is not even ethnic Ukrainian.
All wars are bankers’ wars. Follow the Shekels…
The Mexican Mafia Tapes: How an informant nearly brokered a cartel alliance
From a federal penitentiary in Virginia, Jose Landa-Rodriguez reconnected with an old friend in California.
“Long time no hear, you know?” he told Hugo Montes in Spanish in a recorded call.
Pleasantries gave way to business when Montes pitched Landa-Rodriguez on a deal.
“This is something that is going to interest you for the rest of your life,” he promised
Both men were from Michoacán, a state in western Mexico where a drug cartel called La Familia was producing enormous amounts of methamphetamine.
Montes distributed the cartel’s product in Los Angeles. Landa-Rodriguez, nicknamed “Fox,” was a member of the Mexican Mafia, a syndicate of Latino gang members held in American prisons that “taxed” drug dealers but did not operate as wholesalers themselves.
The deal Montes wanted to make with Landa-Rodriguez was unprecedented.
La Familia wanted protection for its members in American prisons, a seat on the inmate councils that run day-to-day affairs on prison yards and help collecting debts and committing murders on U.S. streets. In exchange, the Mexican Mafia would get an endless supply of meth at a price low enough to corner the Southern California drug market.
The deal offered a different kind of benefit to the man who ultimately took charge of the negotiations: Ralph “Perico” Rocha.
A 20-year member of the Mexican Mafia, Rocha had the authority to represent his side of the table, and, unlike Landa-Rodriguez, he could negotiate with the cartel outside of prison.
Rocha was free because he was an informant for the U.S. government. Facing life in prison for extortion, he had made a deal to wear a wire and testify. In exchange, authorities reduced his sentence to time served and paid him nearly half a million in taxpayer dollars.
Flipping Rocha was supposed to have been an investigative coup for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. But by the time Landa-Rodriguez spoke with Montes a year later in 2011, Rocha hadn’t delivered. His criminal associates had all been arrested by other law enforcement agencies that either didn’t need or didn’t want Rocha’s help.
And so it was a stroke of luck for Rocha — and the investigators counting on him — when he got wind of the would-be alliance with La Familia.
It was the kind of case that could make an agent’s career. What none of them knew was that their star informant was making tapes of his own, memorializing his dim view of how they did their jobs.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/the-mexican-mafia-tapes-how-an-informant-nearly-brokered-a-cartel-alliance/ar-AA1q2CRZ
“an endless supply of meth”
I’ve never met a tweaker who didn’t LIE or STEAL.
Who’s open borders? Globalists’ open borders. Democrat Party and voted out of office clowns like Liz Cheney.
Globalists gonna globe.
Who’s
Whose
🙂
It’s a thankless job policing spelling.
Reading Reddit is depressing. Idiocracy on full display.
San Diego Reader writer should have her head examined
The cover story this week has got to be THE WORST article you’ve ever published (“Less Lonely Out Here”, Cover Story, August 29). There’s nothing cute or funny about all the strung-out junkies on our streets and public transit. I’ve stopped using public transit mainly because the trolley has turned into a rolling homeless shelter, and the buses are no better.
The Reader probably supports increased use of public transit, but you’re not going to get most people to use it if it’s perceived as filthy and unsafe which is what we’ve got today. The current state of affairs is miserable, and this stupid article only celebrates it. The “standing/sitting zombies” are disgusting and need to be off our streets and trolleys and in a hospital. The writer should have her head examined, and you should stop printing dumb stories like this one.
Alex Green
La Mesa
https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2024/sep/04/letters-our-worst-ever/
I haven’t read an issue of The Reader in decades. It was a worthless rag, full of leftist cr@p back then. From the example above I see it has become even worse.
They knew …
https://denvergazette.com/news/crime/attorneys-warned-venezuelan-gang-takes-control-apartment-complex/article_ac717bac-6a40-11ef-b2f1-7fa7e70fcb10.html
I posted this above but it seems relevant here too because he actually talks to an invader outside of this complex you’re referencing who describes some of the things that occurred. He then gives a tour of apartments and bullet holes at the other more recent complex. I’ve been watching his stuff for a while but this one is over the top, he goes right in with his trusty camera gal and talks to everyone. These two have been everywhere and do real up close reports on the whole invasion. The MSM is such trash.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVcRmoN39xs
Build the wall, deport them ALL.
Things that make you go Hmmm…
AF 🇺🇸
@iAnonPatriot
HOLY SHT
CNN has completely turned on Kamala Harris!
🔥🔥🔥
0:38 / 3:28
From
Trump War Room
1:12 PM · Sep 5, 2024
·
https://x.com/iAnonPatriot/status/1831742281600090537
Steven Crowder
@scrowder
BREAKING: DOJ Chief of Public Affairs Admits Trump Indictments Are a Politically Motivated “Perversion of Justice”; Reveals Lawfare Involved in Making Former President a “Convicted Felon” Backfired on Democrats; Claims His Former Colleague Alvin Bragg’s Case is “Nonsense” And Alleges He Was “Stacking Charges”
“He [Alvin Bragg] was just stacking charges and rearranging things just to make it fit a case.”
“I think the case is nonsense.”
“It’s a perversion of justice.”
“It’s a travesty of justice.”
“It’s a mockery of justice.”
“The whole thing is disgusting.”
“That’s why he’s [Trump] surging in the polls.”
2:33 / 13:18
10:10 AM · Sep 5, 2024
https://x.com/scrowder/status/1831696327782052110
“Stacking Charges”
What is Charge Stacking?
Charge stacking is referred to when prosecutors charge overlapping and duplicative offenses against one defendant.
For example, a person charged with theft of a motor vehicle, may also face stacked or “piled on” charges such as “unauthorized use of a vehicle” and “possession of stolen property.” Charge stacking is not a new phenomenon—there are examples dating back to the 1800s. Unfortunately, charge stacking can happen to any defendant, as the government can, “divide crime and multiply punishment.”
‘The party’s over. The days of over-sized operating surpluses for the city are quickly becoming a distant memory. During COVID years the city realized record operating surpluses, thanks to federal and state money that filled the coffers. Now, those halcyon days are gone and it’s back to the future. Another shoe to drop could be the soon-to-be-built homeless access center and to what extent the city’s general fund has to pay for operating costs’
This whole explosion of bums and hard drugs was planned by and financed by federal guberment. Now everybody is looking around and realizing they are fooked.
‘If you’re out walking, you’re afraid to go down the trails cause you don’t know if one of them are gonna attack you or whatever’
Yer criminalizing poverty Dolores.
‘In Florida, which has more policies than any other state, only 12% of properties have federal policies…In four counties—Gadsden, Hamilton, Liberty and Jackson—less than 1% of homes had NFIP policies at the end of July. ‘If your driver’s license says Florida, you live in a flood zone and you’d better buy flood insurance’…James said cost was a big reason so many people in the town lacked coverage. ‘It’s so expensive and our income here’s not that great,’ she said. ‘So now we’re praying that FEMA helps us’
That’s more sound lending right there.
cost was a big reason so many people in the town lacked coverage. ‘It’s so expensive and our income here’s not that great,’ she said. ‘So now we’re praying that FEMA helps us’
The federal
Govt subsidies Flood Insurance, but, apparently those subsidies were not enough so now they want the Federal Government to bail them out because the earlier Subsidies were not enough.
Again, socialism must be the answer because everyone wants more of it for their special cause.
Engineers with rational arguments against rebuilding in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina were shouted-down often invoking racial overtones.
‘Last month, Menashe did it again, buying Montgomerly Park, a historic building in Portland recognizable by its distinctive U-shape, for an 87% discount, $222M less than it had sold for before the pandemic. Menashe said the price amounted to ‘significantly less than land value’
Many a knife catcher have said that.
“…for an 87% discount…”
That should help lower property taxes downtown.
‘For sellers, if they don’t price it right, they will get shredded in this market…There are also the cottagers who bought properties during the pandemic and are having ‘buyer’s remorse,’ says Fincham. Plus, there’s the sellers who couldn’t adjust with interest rate changes, he adds. ‘A lot of sellers still have the Covid market mindset,’ says Fincham. ‘And the buyers, of which there are very few, are far more savvy and on top of the market’
That’s the spirit John, keep up the good work!
‘Four homes on the Peak were sold for more than 40% lower than other nearby sites. In a recent report, Knight Frank said Hong Kong’s home prices fell to the lowest level in nearly eight years. This is due to pressure from first-hand price reductions, high interest rates, economic uncertainty and the negative impact of deteriorating wealth effect in the investment market’
More cheerleaders on the bus home.
It Makes No Sense To Buy This Right Now (York Region Real Estate Market Update)
Team Sessa Real Estate
7 minutes ago VAUGHAN
In this episode we take a look at the current Vaughan Home Prices, Richmond Hill Home Prices & Markham Home Prices and real estate market trends for week ending Aug 28, 2024. We also discuss an exercise we ran with one of our clients interested in buying a pre-construction detached home now. Our analysis showed that the resale market could get you a similar home, with many additional upgrades that could end up saving you hundreds of thousands.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0Ka5Oa-fpw
12 minutes.
Covid vaccines are poison.
The Atlantic — It Matters If It’s COVID (9/4/2024):
“You might have already guessed this from the coughs and sniffles around you, but a lot of people are sick right now, and a lot of them have COVID. According to the CDC’s latest data, levels of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater are “very high” in every region of the country; national levels have been “very high” for about a month. Test positivity is higher now than it was during the most recent winter surge: Many people who seem like they might have COVID and who are curious or sick enough to get a test that’s recorded in these official statistics are turning out to, indeed, have COVID.
Why, at this point, should anyone bother to figure out what they’re sick with? One answer is treatment. Getting a prescription for the antiviral Paxlovid requires confirming a COVID infection within the first five days of sickness. But there’s an extra reason for every American to test this second if they’re feeling under the weather: Our current COVID wave is crashing right into vaccine season, and knowing when your most recent infection was is crucial for planning your autumn shot.”
Vaccine season? This sponsored content article provided by Pfizer, the CEO of which, need you be reminded, is not a Christian.
“This is why knowing whether you have COVID right now is worthwhile. Pharmacies around the country are currently giving out Moderna’s and Pfizer’s 2024 vaccines; last week, Novavax received FDA authorization for its updated formula, which should be available soon. But if you’ve just had COVID, now is exactly when you don’t want a shot. (There are some exceptions to the three-month rule: For people who are immunocompromised, older, or otherwise high-risk, the short-term protection against infection that vaccination offers can outweigh any drawbacks.) When you do want the shot is another question. Ideally, you would get the vaccine a couple of weeks before you’re most likely to be exposed, whether because you’re gathering in large groups for the holidays or because the virus is surging in your community. If, say, you come down with COVID today, you might want to wait until as close to Thanksgiving as possible before getting an updated shot.”
https://archive.ph/bs8V8
The author of this piece, an alleged “Rachel Gutman-Wei” with the hyphenated last name. Always the double names, always the shape shifting…
If I Were on the Debate Stage
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
I explain to Jesse Watters the issues I would have focused on if I were on the debate stage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=223ez5KxBtE
2:19.
So Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is describing a debate with Kamala Harris being a target rich environment.
For her or for her opponent?
RFKj is smart. KH isn’t.
What part of ‘Heels Up’ Harris do you not understand? She whored her way to the top. Literally.
“For her or for her opponent?”
“For her or for her opponent?”
Listening to Ben’s posted Youtube video it would clearly be for her opponent.
Listening to ANY video.
Government: There’s no food left, the best we can give you are these tubes of bug paste. You’ve made it past the initial checkpoint of the Walmart / FEMA Camp “food administration center” so take your free bug paste and go home.
“the best we can give you are these tubes of bug paste”
Scape the peanut butter off the sides of your last jar, grab a piece of moldy bread and make yourself a Bugernutter.
Stay with Me · Faces
https://youtu.be/f514cAZucCg?si=57KLy0IEwHnP_mT3
Roadhouse Blues · The Doors
https://youtu.be/yV9DJwJKWMw?si=3YXiIplDIVka9ihA
Will Fed rate cuts be soon enough to fend off a potential recession?
Macro Matters
US market selloff stokes recession fears, trounces rate cut cheer
By Naomi Rovnick
September 4, 20245:47 AM PDT
Updated a day ago
A trader works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., August 28, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Summary
– Renewed recession risks batter stocks
– Volatility gauges on the rise
– Aggressive Fed rate cut forecasts no longer seen as good news
LONDON, Sept 4 (Reuters) – Mounting unease over the U.S. economic outlook and a seasonally weak month for stocks have created another perfect storm of global market volatility, leaving investors scrambling for protection and fearing another round of currency chaos.
Following a rapid recovery for risky assets such as stocks and high yield bonds from a chaotic early August selloff, traders have lost their short-lived optimism that U.S. interest rate cuts would support growth.
…
“Markets were dealing with uncertain inflation but growth was resilient,” said Florian Ielpo, head of macro at Lombard Odier. “That situation seems to be changing, the new uncertainty is how deep will the slowdown be.”
…
https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/recession-fears-trounce-rate-cut-cheer-latest-market-selloff-2024-09-04/
The Fed won’t save stocks, sell the first rate cut, says Stifel
Published Thu, Sep 5 2024 3:06 PM EDT
Updated Thu, Sep 5 2024 3:33 PM EDT
Yun Li
– We haven’t even reached the worst part of September for markets
…
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/05/the-fed-wont-save-stocks-sell-the-first-rate-cut-says-stifel.html
Financial Times
Pinned Post 9/6/2024, 7:29:09 AM
Philip Stafford in London
Market update: European stocks weaken ahead of US jobs data
European stock markets and the dollar softened on Friday as traders awaited US payrolls data later in the day which will help determine the size of US interest rate cut this month.
The Stoxx Europe 600 opened 0.2 per cent lower while Germany’s Dax fell 0.5 per cent. London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.2 per cent.
The dollar index, which tracks the US currency against a basket of others, fell 0.2 per cent. US Treasuries rose, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury down 0.03 percentage points to 3.669 per cent. US payroll data is due to be published ahead of the market open in New York.
…