The Crisis Offered Life-Saving Lessons, Including That Arrogance Always Kills
A weekend topic starting with the Globe and Mail. “Jerome Powell and his colleagues at the U.S. Federal Reserve placed their bets this week with an oversized half-point cut to interest rates. Amid considerable uncertainty about the direction of the economy, they put their faith in a Goldilocks scenario of continued growth but tame inflation. The Fed’s stated position is that inflation is under control and it now wants to ensure the economy doesn’t slide into recession. Yet while the economy is clearly slowing and inflation has come down, it’s still not clear either that inflation is definitively beaten or that a recession is imminent. On the face of it, a half-point cut suggested it judged the risks to the economy greater than those to inflation. Yet in his remarks at the news conference that followed the meeting, Mr. Powell insisted the labour market was looking pretty healthy and the economy was ‘in a good place.’ Which raised the question of why they cut so aggressively. After all, other central banks are moving with caution. For now, with U.S. asset classes in full-on rally mode, investors seem to have concluded that the Fed is back on their side and sees its role as keeping them happy.”
Consumer Affairs. “A study by Lane Surety Bonds asked over 1,000 homeowners about their perspectives about homeownership and found many say they have to make sacrifices each month so they can pay their mortgage. The survey found that: Nearly one in three homeowners consider themselves ‘house poor.’ One in eight homeowners pays over 50% of their income toward their mortgage. 27% of homeowners live paycheck to paycheck, due to housing expenses, and 40% rely on side jobs to make ends meet. 22% of homeowners have skipped paying other bills to cover home expenses, and more than one in eight (14%) have had to forgo medical care. 46% of homeowners can’t afford necessary home repairs and upgrades. Nearly one in five homeowners (18%) can’t afford groceries after covering home expenses.”
North Dakota Monitor. “There were 21 states where a majority of tenant households spent 30% or more of their incomes on rent and utilities last year, compared with just seven states in 2019. ‘You’ve got people across the state kind of pulling their hair out, saying ‘I thought Arizona was supposed to be the affordable state,’ Alison Cook-Davis, associate director for research at Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy. Rents in Arizona have shot up 40% to 60% in the last two years, she said. The Las Vegas area had the highest percentage of cost-burdened renters in the state, at 58.3%, more even than the New York City metro area (52.6%) or San Francisco metro area (48.9%).”
“The states with the highest jumps in the share of cost-burdened renters were Florida, which increased to 61.7% from 55.9%, and Maine, at 49.1% from 44%. That jump left Florida as the state with the highest rate of cost-burdened renters. It was followed by Nevada (57.4%), Hawaii (56.7%), Louisiana (56.2%) and California (56.1%). ‘Florida isn’t the deal it used to be,’ said Christopher McCarty, director of the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research. ‘Florida still has disproportionately lower-paying jobs compared to other states, and rents are increasing compared to other states as well.'”
Committee For The Abolition of Illegitimate Debt. “Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell started to give clear signals that the central bank will cut its interest rate at its September meeting. Powell then went on to claim that inflation had come down without a recession in the US economy because of the Fed’s monetary policy. Powell continued to push the narrative that it was the central banks’ ‘restrictive monetary policy’ that did the trick by ‘moderating aggregate demand.’ Powell also reiterated the myth that central bank monetary policy helps to ‘anchor inflation expectations’ which, it is claimed is key to controlling inflation. But again this is nonsense, as recent studies have clearly shown that ‘expectations’ have little or no effect on inflation.”
“As Federal Reserve economist Rudd recently concluded: ‘Economists and economic policymakers believe that households’ and firms’ expectations of future inflation are a key determinant of actual inflation. A review of the relevant theoretical and empirical literature suggests that this belief rests on extremely shaky foundations, and a case can be made that adhering to it uncritically could easily lead to serious policy errors.'”
From Mises.org. “Can you understand how it can be that the Federal Reserve, the world’s greatest and by far most important central bank, has now lost the astounding sum of $193 billion?1 If not, you are surely not alone. Since September 2022, the Fed has lost money every month. These unprecedented losses continue, and this fall they will in the aggregate pass $200 billion. We can accurately say that the Fed prints power by printing money. The Fed does not want little things like $200 billion in losses to shake your belief—like the Wizard of Oz, it tells you, ‘Pay no attention to that man, or those losses, behind the curtain!’ It puts its losses behind an accounting curtain that pretends that losses are an asset.”
The New York Times. “The nearly 800 beds at Atlanta Mission’s network of homeless shelters have long been filled to capacity. Since the pandemic, Tensley Almand, the organization’s CEO, has noticed a clear shift in who is using them. Instead of going to chronically homeless individuals, the spots are increasingly being taken up by people who have lost their housing for the first time. Many have jobs but are simply failing to make ends meet. ‘The stories that we hear from our clients: ‘Rent went up. I couldn’t make it,’ he said . ‘The number of people underemployed right now, we hear that over and over. They’re just not employed at a level that keeps up with their costs. We’re seeing people who, there’s more month than there is money.'”
“In Houston, Edison Lamsal, 32, has been waiting for years to buy. But he and his wife held off as rates and prices marched up. Now, it feels like the time. Lamsal, an engineer by training, has been doing well financially. He and his wife are under contract to buy a new construction house for $455,000. That’s far more than the $290,000 that the same house was selling for at the end of 2020, Lamsal said, but more moderate borrowing costs made him willing to stomach the amount. ‘It’s slightly coming down, so I decided it was time to buy,’ he said.”
The Wall Street Journal. “In Florida, lower rates already have benefited homeowners such as Curtis Sponsler, 61, who has hit a rough patch in his work as a freelance animator. With rising costs for property insurance and groceries pressuring his finances, Sponsler and his wife, whose children recently left for college, have been looking to leave Miami and downsize to a smaller home. ‘We just can’t afford it,’ he said of his current house, which the couple bought with a 3.25% mortgage. ‘Every month we look at our spreadsheet and ask: ‘Where does all the money go?’”
“In recent weeks, however, they entered a contract to sell for almost double the price they paid in 2017. The couple are using the profit to put 80% down on a less expensive house in Orlando. They plan to finance the rest through a mortgage with 5.5% interest—far lower than the market rate just months ago. ‘We’re really lucky,’ said Sponsler, who added that his monthly payment should fall by more than half. ‘But I do know so many people for whom the interest rates are killing them.'”
From CBS News. “Evelyn Lueker, sales associate at Auker Group in San Diego, California, told us she recently helped a family save $150,000 on a home purchase. In this instance, she found the perfect home for her buyer — but it was overpriced. So, she built a strong relationship with the listing agent by conveying the value of working with her. After establishing the relationship, Lueker learned about a pending price drop before anyone else. As a result, she was able to get her client’s offer accepted within 24 hours of the price reduction — beating out other potential buyers.”
“Many homebuyers are waiting for lower interest rates because they think that’s the right move. But this waiting game could backfire. ‘As rates come down, so will supply. Prices and demand will inevitably go up,’ says Lueker. That’s why she advises against counting on a rate drop — it’s better to buy a home you love now, even if the interest rate isn’t ideal. Remember: You can refinance later if rates drop, but you can’t go back in time to buy a home you missed out on.”
The New York Post on California. “Jim Carrey’s Los Angeles home has just taken another punch in the gut. The Hollywood funnyman, 62, slashed the price of his property there for the fifth time, now seeking $19.75 million as of this week — down from its original $28.9 million, The Post has learned. That’s a $9.15 million cut over the course of nearly two years. So what’s holding buyers back? Many point to LA’s new mansion tax — a 5.5% levy on homes over $10 million. ‘The market’s tanked ever since that tax went into effect,’ one broker told The Post. ‘These multimillion-dollar homes are just sitting there, and sellers are scrambling to cut their losses.'”
From Vail Daily. “A stagnant Colorado housing market could benefit from what is expected to be a series of ongoing cuts to the federal interest rate. In mountain resort communities that see high demand for vacation homes, the average number of days on market for a listing has increased from last year, according to county-level reports from the Realtors association. Listed properties in the state’s 2nd Congressional District — home to resort communities like Summit and Eagle counties — have seen an average increase of nearly 19%, for example. ‘In some neighborhoods we have homes that have been on the market for 10 months,’ said Dana Cottrell, a mountain area Realtor and president-elect for the Colorado Association of Realtors.”
The Washington Post. “In August, Jonathan and Shannon P. became homeowners for the first time, closing on an updated Colonial with a spacious backyard and finished basement in Fredericksburg, Va., an hour from D.C. without traffic. The couple, who had been renting in Woodbridge, about 40 minutes closer to the District, had been saving and waiting for a promising window to enter the housing market. And while they perceived many buyers were waiting for interest rates to fall in September, as is widely anticipated, they wanted to avoid bidding wars that might drive prices up. As it happened, the dream home they bought was the second one they looked at. It had spent 12 days on the market without an offer, and they were able to negotiate down from the list price, securing a house they loved on their own terms. ‘I’m willing to make the commute,’ Jonathan said. ‘I didn’t want to sacrifice having a home that we absolutely love for a job.'”
“There are actually more condos on the market now than there were in 2019,’ Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist for Bright MLS, said. ‘Buyers should really make sure they are making the right choice for them and not jumping in because they think they have to get in,’ said. ‘Rates are going to come down next year, and inventory is going to increase. There’s always going to be homes for sale out there. So don’t feel like, ‘the market’s finally changing, I have to get in now.'”
“David Howell, executive vice president at McEnearne cautioned that while a number of regions around D.C. were building new condos to meet housing demand, the District itself was an outlier, with a large proportion of aging and less desirable condo inventory. While the supply of condos in D.C. appeared healthy, at around five months of inventory compared with four months for all homes, those numbers are misleading, he said. ‘Some things age like wine; condos in D.C. age like milk,’ Howell said. ‘Those values are not going to increase.’ In the real estate ‘frenzy’ of the pandemic-recovery era, he said, listed homes in the region would sometimes get 30 or 40 offers. ‘We’re not seeing that today,’ Howell said. ‘And so there’s opportunities for buyers with some patience to look at some of that aging inventory that has been sitting on the market.'”
The Dallas Morning News. “Home prices in Dallas-Fort Worth were flat last month, and sales fell slightly compared to last August despite big supply increases. However, recent mortgage rate drops and projected future interest rate cuts could make 2025 an exciting year for the housing market. Active listings hit 29,865 in North Texas, up 45% year over year. Months of housing inventory hit 4 months, the most since October 2012. The median price of a D-FW home did not move. It was almost $400,000. This figure includes existing single-family homes, condos, townhomes and other similar properties sold on the MLS last month.”
“Todd Luong, an agent with RE/MAX DFW Associates, said lower sales numbers in August could be the result of buyers waiting for interest rates to drop further. Affordability remains a concern. While buyers are staying on the sidelines, those who have decided to purchase are starting to see some friendlier terms. ‘I helped my buyer secure a property in Bent Tree, a popular neighborhood off the tollway. They’re offering $15,000 below asking price, and the seller has no choice but to take it. Buyers have a lot more bargaining power,’ he said.”
Insauga in Canada. “A detached house in Mississauga’s Port Credit neighbourhood that sold for $2 million in November 2021 just sold for significantly less than its pandemic-era purchase price. According to a listing on HouseSigma, a detached house with five bedrooms (two below-grade), two bathrooms, and a garage sold for $1,650,000 this month after initially being listed for $1,799,900. While the 97 Wanita Rd. house sold for quite a bit under asking–almost $150,000–the difference in sale price in just three years is significant. The house sold for $350,000 less than what it sold for about three years ago.”
Sydney Morning Herald. “The cost of home ownership took off – that is, began rising faster than household incomes – about the time I became a journo 50 years ago, and is still going. Even the (unlikely) achievement of Anthony Albanese’s target of building 1.2 million new homes by 2029 probably wouldn’t do more than slow the rate of worsening affordability for a while. Small problem: we end up with a country divided between those born into the wealthy, home-owning class and those born into the class where generation after generation has never been able to afford to own the home they live in. Is that the Australia we want to live in? How on earth did we allow housing prices to rise faster than household incomes for the past five decades, with little reason to hope this gap won’t get ever wider?”
From Morningstar. “Basic economics taught at school and revisited in first year economics at university, is overlooked when explaining the failure of Australia’s housing market to work effectively for Australians. The current difficulties confronting both monetary and housing policy partially stem from the explosion of mortgage debt. Therefore, what follows is my view on one of the least discussed but fundamental causes of the housing price bubble in Australia – and it flows from an understanding the basics of market price theory. Supply and demand obviously dictate the price of housing, but housing policy aimed at addressing affordability, needs to consider the perverse impact of debt. In particular, the availability and the cost of debt (mortgages) has fuelled a house price bubble.”
“Low interest rates, low deposit requirements and therefore the provision of excessive levels of mortgage debt have, over time, added to driving housing prices higher. Today, Australia has the most expensive houses in the world when measured against income. House prices have become unaffordable for many—particularly young families. I am not suggesting that debt and its cost is the sole cause of our great housing price bubble, but there is a lack of acknowledgement of their role. The lack of regulatory intervention in the mortgage market exposes the failures of the RBA, APRA, and Treasury.”
“Indeed, have any of these bodies acknowledged that our housing price bubble poses a serious risk to long term financial stability, social cohesion and if unchecked condemns future generations to a declining standard of living?”
From Fortune. “Sixteen years after Lehman Brothers’ collapse, Jefferies CEO Richard Handler has shared the email he sent to the bank’s former CEO, Richard ‘Dick’ Fuld, on the day the firm filed for the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. In a series of Instagram posts over the weekend, Handler revealed the exchange with Fuld, which occurred just before Lehman’s fall sent the global economy into a tailspin. On September 15, 2008, when Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy with more than $600 billion in debt, Handler sent a final email to Fuld: ‘I am so very sorry for you and the special company that you built.’ Lehman Brothers, the 158-year-old bank that had survived the 1929 Wall Street crash, was deemed ‘too big to fail.’ At the time, Jefferies Group was a rising investment bank, with Handler having recently taken the helm. Reflecting on the collapse, Handler said the crisis offered ‘life-saving lessons,’ including that ‘arrogance always kills’ and ‘life will go on.'”
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You will own nothing.
“One in eight homeowners pays over 50% of their income toward their mortgage. 27% of homeowners live paycheck to paycheck, due to housing expenses, and 40% rely on side jobs to make ends meet. 22% of homeowners have skipped paying other bills to cover home expenses, and more than one in eight (14%) have had to forgo medical care. 46% of homeowners can’t afford necessary home repairs and upgrades. Nearly one in five homeowners (18%) can’t afford groceries after covering home expenses.”
At least it was cheaper than renting.
If a homeowner starves to death their shack doubles as a mausoleum.
Special K just offered another debate: October 23 on CNN; it’s on her X which I won’t link. My pipe dream would be for DJT to arrange the logistics to hold his rally in Butler on that same night. That would be a (literal) shot across the bow.
Also I hear the Special K is trying to get on Rogan and Theo Von podcasts, bascially copying DJT again. Although, I think watching Special K trying to converse with Theo Von would be entertaining to say the least.
The Committee For The Abolition of Illegitimate Debt piece is interesting.
“The Jackson Hole symposium celebrated success but what it really revealed is that central bank monetary policy played little role in getting inflation down from its peaks in 2022; that it has played little role in achieving output or investment growth; and it has little power to stop unemployment rising or any slump in production ahead. All high interest rates have done is to drive many small businesses into bankruptcy or more debt; and drive mortgage rates and rents to peaks in housing. And cutting interest rates now will merely fuel the stock market, not the economy.”
Free casino chips for the Wall Street Pigmen. Same as it ever was.
End the Fed.
“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency first by inflation then by deflation the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered… I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies… The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.”
― Thomas Jefferson
Holding costs?
“Buyers often complain that homes cost more to operate than expected. A common rule of thumb is to set aside 1 percent of your home’s value annually for repairs and maintenance. That would be $5,000 for a $500,000 home. You may need more than that for an older home or less for a well-maintained home in excellent condition.
Even buyers who have a home inspection can be caught off-guard by a fallen tree or a leak, Wydler said. Buyers, he said, have to anticipate expenses that lenders don’t consider when deciding whether to approve a mortgage.
“Your lender will go over your principal, interest, taxes and insurance payment, but that won’t include your utilities, the cost to replace your heating and air conditioning or even your landscaping,” he said. “Our advice is to buy the least expensive house that will make you happy.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/09/21/real-estate-avoiding-buyer-remorse/
You see this all the time in first time home buyers and also new home buyers. Wait, I have to maintain it? Why doesn’t stuff just work? It’s like this big surprise when crap breaks or stuff needs to be maintained.
Stuff that the landlord (or mom and dad) always did and they just expect it to happen via magic.
And of course they don’t have money for it. No one seems to have ever told them that houses deteriorate.
IME, people don’t like being told or understand that houses are depreciating assets.
“depreciating assets”
In Denver loanownership is a religion. Saying otherwise is heresy.
“…Buyers often complain that homes cost more to operate than expected…”
Holding costs? We don’t need no friggin’ holding costs!
The HBB and its readers have been warning for at least 15+ years now about the danger of ever rising holding costs such as maintenance.
New York Times — Are We Ready For The Future Of Meat:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/21/climate/lab-grown-meat-future.html
The archive website isn’t working on my phone browser. It’s the same globalist scum media “no meat for the poors” article you’d see in The Guardian or Washington Post.
Citizen! The Democratic Convention & globalist scum media have informed the proles that we are to feel joy as The Party leads us into a glorious new era of socialism. The conspicuous absence of joy in your posts as our betters herd us onto the incorporated neoliberal plantation suggests a review of your social credit score may be in order. Remember, the Biden-Harris regime & Democrat-Bolsheviks have mandated that all new vehicles sold after 2026 will be fitted with a remote kill switch…so unless you plan on doing a lot of walking, you’d best fall into line with globalist diktats and be joyful about it!
“You can refinance later if rates drop, but you can’t go back in time to buy a home you missed out on”
Realtor Babble.
always be willing to walk away, they made millions of these, it’s just lumber, brick, drywall.
I bet you never hear that from a realtor.
IOW: Marry the home. Date the rate.
As rates come down, so will supply.
What?! Realtors on Reddit were saying sellers were waiting for the Fed cut before listing because it supports higher prices. Never mind that mortgages are based of the 10Y treasury. Realtors really are stupid.
For now, with U.S. asset classes in full-on rally mode, investors seem to have concluded that the Fed is back on their side and sees its role as keeping them happy.”
The Fed was established to facilitate the concentration of all wealth and power in the hands of a corrupt and venal .1% in the financier oligarchy. Mission accomplished.
“The Bank of the United States is one of the most deadly hostilities existing, against the principles and form of our Constitution. An institution like this, penetrating by its branches every part of the Union, acting by command and in phalanx, may, in a critical moment, upset the government. I deem no government safe which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities, or any other authority than that of the nation, or its regular functionaries. What an obstruction could not this bank of the United States, with all its branch banks, be in time of war! It might dictate to us the peace we should accept, or withdraw its aids. Ought we then to give further growth to an institution so powerful, so hostile?” –Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 1803. ME 10:437
Nearly one in five homeowners (18%) can’t afford groceries after covering home expenses.”
Welcome to the winnahs’ circle!
As a result, she was able to get her client’s offer accepted within 24 hours of the price reduction — beating out other potential buyers.”
Congratulations, knife catchers. That $150K discount will be meaningless as your shack continues to shed thousands in Yellen Bux “value” month after month, while your mortgage stays the same.
‘A detached house in Mississauga’s Port Credit neighbourhood that sold for $2 million in November 2021…sold for $350,000 less than what it sold for about three years ago’
Their interest rates aren’t as high as the US and they’ve just had 3 rate cuts with promises of more to come. Wa happened to my soft landing Tiff?
‘In some neighborhoods we have homes that have been on the market for 10 months,’ said Dana Cottrell, a mountain area Realtor and president-elect for the Colorado Association of Realtors.”
Things should start getting interesting when starving realtors refuse to accept listings from greedheads whose delusional wish prices means their shacks are going to sit unsold.
‘As rates come down, so will supply. Prices and demand will inevitably go up,’ says Lueker.
Lueker works for an industry of dissemblers, the NAR, which requires its members to “Always Be Closing” – which means lying to “clients” to create a false sense of urgency. Remember when lying realtors (redundant) said a lack of inventory was the only thing keeping buyers on the sidelines? Now we’ve got inventory galore, but tapped-out ‘Murican debt donkeys can’t afford to finance insanely overpriced shacks in the current “cost of living crisis.” In a bursting housing bubble, prices will inevitably go DOWN until people can afford to buy again.
“In a bursting housing bubble, prices will inevitably go DOWN until people can afford to buy again.”
We’ve seen this movie before, and it is almost as exciting as watching paint dry. Most people desperately buy houses when they first qualify on the false premise that real estate always goes up. The prize goes to those sufficiently patient and financially resilient to wait out a 5+ year housing bust to discover the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. 🌈
Recent US housing bust examples have included 1989-1996, 2007-2012, and 2023-????. People I know who bought circa 1996 or 2012 came out with very low long run housing costs and high home equity gains. Those who bought circa 1989 or 2007 saddled themselves with unsustainable ongoing housing cost burdens; many eventually walked away from their mortgages when they went underwater. Good luck to anyone who bought at multigenerational high prices in the past couple of years, before the long and variable lags of higher interest rates finally drag prices back down to affordable levels.
Good post.
This time we have social media breaking through the narrative.
Another resident also complained about the “absolutely disgusting” lack of hygiene among the immigrants and how it has impacted the town. “I feel bad for a lot of these people,” said Andrew, who does housing repairs. “And then some of these houses you go into … they live like they still live in a clay building in Port-au-Prince and they just want to keep it how it was,” he continued. Andrew explained that the houses the Haitian immigrants live in are “disgusting,” recounting that he once spent three days simply scrubbing a kitchen after Haitians vacated a house, before moving on to cleaning the rest of the house. He noted the massive increase in immigrants over the past two years, saying, “The agencies, they just keep bringing these people in and bringing people in and bringing people in.”
“This is one of the most immediately obvious aspects of the immigration crisis in Charleroi,” Hochman noted. “The big businesses are buying up homes in town and packing them with as many as 15-20 Haitians per property. It’s essentially converting the entire town into a gigantic workers’ barracks.”
Residents Fear Small Penn. Town Won’t ‘Come Back from This’ after Biden-Harris Import Thousands of Haitian Immigrants
S.A. McCarthy
September 20, 2024
Last week, America 2100 shared reports from locals and residents chronicling a steep increase in traffic accidents and a rise in violent crime, including Haitians attempting carjackings and mugging Americans outside liquor stores. The non-profit group noted, “It isn’t just Springfield. It’s happening everywhere. In Charleroi, Pennsylvania — a low-income town of just 4,000 — the immigrant population has increased by 2,000% over the past two years. And it’s almost all Haitians.”
Another resident also complained about the “absolutely disgusting” lack of hygiene among the immigrants and how it has impacted the town. “I feel bad for a lot of these people,” said Andrew, who does housing repairs. “And then some of these houses you go into … they live like they still live in a clay building in Port-au-Prince and they just want to keep it how it was,” he continued. Andrew explained that the houses the Haitian immigrants live in are “disgusting,” recounting that he once spent three days simply scrubbing a kitchen after Haitians vacated a house, before moving on to cleaning the rest of the house. He noted the massive increase in immigrants over the past two years, saying, “The agencies, they just keep bringing these people in and bringing people in and bringing people in.”
Parents also observed that crimes against American students have increased. “There’s been some assaults with some kids on the bus,” a Charleroi mom said. She recounted, “One student attacked another American child on the bus. … And I guess he was like 20.” The girl who was attacked, the mom said, was about 14 years old.
Delivery driver Andy explained how the immigrant influx has destroyed Charleroi’s economy and job market. “That’s what these staffing agencies are doing. … They said, ‘We can’t find people to work.’ Well, that’s a half-truth. There’s people that would work if you paid them, you know … the going wage for the work,” Andy said. He continued, “But they want to pay less and so they ended up hiring these, getting involved with these agencies that bring in these workers.” He added:
“Those jobs that they [Haitian immigrants] have, they used to be American jobs. But they [employers] decided, ‘We don’t want to pay five bucks more an hour, we’ll pay three bucks more an hour and we’ll take that off the top and we’ll keep that, and we’ll bring in Haitians with them through this work program.’ It’s a lot of jobs that have been lost by Americans. So they bring in … people from third-world countries who will do that work for poverty wages. And they think it’s a great deal — and it probably is a good deal for them.”
https://washingtonstand.com/news/residents-fear-small-penn-town-wont-come-back-from-this-after-bidenharris-import-thousands-of-haitian-immigrants
Sorry about the double post on top, I hit send without checking.
Yeah, there’s never been a worker shortage, it’s always been a pay shortage. Funny how econ 101 applies to everything except wages. Raise wages???????????/ unpossible.
“In Charleroi, Pennsylvania — a low-income town of just 4,000 — the immigrant population has increased by 2,000% over the past two years. And it’s almost all Haitians.”
Is that enough to turn a blue voter red?
It’s enough to turn an entire state red. DJT needs to emphasize that it’s won’t stop im Springfield or Charleroi. It’s coming to YOU. That will bring out some votes.
“Every town is a border town.”
“It’s coming to YOU”
There are no industrial / food processing jobs in Oil City, Colorado. No reason to send them there.
There are two requirements
1) A big need for unskilled labor (as you pointed out)
2) Cheapish housing.
The big businesses are buying up homes in town and packing them with as many as 15-20 Haitians per property. It’s essentially converting the entire town into a gigantic workers’ barracks.”
The Cabal has ordered its uniparty hirelings to import millions of 3rd World wage slaves to maximize corporate profits and make it impossible for white males to form or support families or households. The uniparty traitors are more than happy to accept their 30 pieces of silver from the globalists in return for selling out their countrymen – but if these traitors start being held accountable for their actions, they might think twice or even three times about facilitating the Great Replacement.
Canadians have turned on Lil’ Fidel Trudeau and his globalist Liberal Party.
https://x.com/Tablesalt13/status/1837490565329428869
Polls need to stop saying among college educated and call it what it is…among college indoctrinated.
I tell my young apprentices that NO MEN should go to college, almost ever. Unless you will graduate with a degree in the hard sciences and no debt, don’t do it.
I tell them the only purpose of college is to make you hate yourself for being male, hate yourself for being American, and hate yourself for being White, if you’re White, or to make you hate White people if you’re not White.
Edit to add: holds a college degree, AND professional licensure in a trade.
STEMs belong in college, yes.
As for debt, I like Suze Orman’s formula: it’s ok to borrow your expected starting salary. Any engineer/scientist will likely pull $80K, which is about what you would borrow for 4 years of a state school. IMO that’s ok. And with some creative co-op or scholarship, I think it’s very worthwhile to double major, even if it means an extra semester and a couple summer classes.
I won’t speak about other STEM majors, but I do know there is a glut of Computer Science majors, with a lot of CS grads having to settle for low paying and low status jobs in tech support and helpdesks. Remember all those coding boot camp schools that promised an engineering job after just 6 months of training? From what I am hearing none of those people are finding work now.
A reader sent these in:
Some would say I shouldn’t comment on the new mortgage insurance rules because I’m not a real estate expert or a mortgage broker.
True enough. But I understand #debt, and we are getting an increasing number of calls from people saying, “I can’t get a mortgage on the pre-con I agreed to buy five years ago because it’s appraising too low.”
That’s a problem because the builder can sue you for the loss if you can’t close.
So why doesn’t the lender “juice” the appraisal so you qualify?
Perhaps they could and would, but there’s a bigger problem:
Currently, CMHC mortgage insurance only covers single owner-occupied units.
So, if you used your HELOC on your principal residence to get the deposit for your pre-con condo, the lender knows the condo is an investment, so CMHC insurance isn’t available. The bank is taking all the risk. They don’t like that, so “no mortgage for you.”
However, under the new rules, mortgage insurance is available if you are a condo investor.
(NOTE: Mortgage insurance protects the lender, not the borrower.)
Is it possible that the banks will be more likely to finance “tiny rental condos” that close in 2025 because they now have a government backstop?
I have no idea. I’m a debt guy, not a mortgage expert, but that seems plausible to me.
But wait, there’s more!
Developers don’t build a 50-story condo tower with cash in their pockets. They use buyer deposits and bank financing.
If deals don’t close, not only is the buyer screwed, but so is the builder. They default on their construction loan, the project goes into receivership, and now the banks could lose millions.
So, allowing CMHC insurance on single-unit investment properties gives buyers a break, but the builders and the banks get a huge break.
The banks are saved!
Perhaps I’m reading more into this than the evidence indicates, but I did a lot of corporate receiverships before I switched to working exclusively with individuals, so I’m biased.
I’m conflicted. I’m happy that some individuals will live to fight another day (although they are likely just kicking the can down the road and delaying the inevitable), but do the banks need another bailout?
I will watch closely to see if I get fewer calls from panicked pre-con buyers. Stay tuned.
https://x.com/doughoyes/status/1836153953324548322
Toronto Real Estate Is Collapsing Much Faster Than Most Realize
https://x.com/BetterDwelling/status/1836802118839116001
Look at the bond curve in US .
5y/10y/30y…. Simply running away…. Fed can only influence short term bond yield but cannot influence long term bond yield which is a function of term premia… basically market expectation.
This chart is telling me that Fed is looking to reignite inflation and run the economy hot.. so Fed wants to have the cake and eat it to .. let’s see whether bond market revolts and we see sharply rising long bond yields in next few months which will derail US economy or Fed turns out to be a magician.
https://x.com/riteshmjn/status/1836779603437965487
Sadly, the window of time to lock in a low mortgage rate is not coming in 2025, I believe.
Instead, if the last 6 cycles are any guide, it looks like the period from 2026 to 2028 is when mortgage and refi rates would find their cycle low.
https://x.com/JeffWeniger/status/1836872336605118688
Are 🇨🇦’s first-time home buyers amongst the wealthiest households in the country or should there be more questions about what exactly is a first-time home buyer?
Canada’s Insured $1.5M First-Time Home Buyer Loans Are A Quiet Bail Out
https://x.com/BetterDwelling/status/1836516870482203038
Want more info on 🇨🇦’s insured mortgages for first homes up to $1.5m?
Good luck. 🇨🇦’s gov response to whether it can be applied at the portfolio level.
Let’s say banks can buy the insurance for the loans. Was the widescale laundering in HSBC’s portfolio “first-time” buyers? 🙃
https://x.com/StephenPunwasi/status/1836576633085464762
Falling house prices are bad for our reelection so we’re letting you borrow up to 98% LTV on a $1.5M house to keep the bubble going. Our economic plan is working.
https://x.com/SteveSaretsky/status/1836843216966144287
She’s definitely FAKE. and drunk🧠 👀
https://x.com/CosmicMads/status/1837015341630738811
WTF
https://x.com/ClownWorld_/status/1836870212966396003
This happened in Belgium. Driver was rushed to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
https://x.com/NoCapFights/status/1836460850934378877
US debt now stands at $35.3 trillion. If we were to return to 0% interest and make payments of $1 million per hour, it would take approximately 4,023 years, or until the year 6,047, to bring the debt back down to zero.
https://x.com/jameslavish/status/1836027629025018140
Architecture and engineering job postings evaporated.
Bearish for new construction.
https://x.com/MosesSternstein/status/1837244594041311539
Housing completions are one of the better real estate LEIs & there’s still a large pipeline of units to work through (active builds)
https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1837243533691920438
Wednesday Powell: The economy is great
Friday FedEx:
https://x.com/NorthmanTrader/status/1837109972045271473
Layoffs soared in August, hitting their highest total in 15 years, while year-to-date hiring hit the lowest in 19 years of a Challenge, Gray & Christmas survey.
https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1837148964568932623
Christine said the quiet part out loud
https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1837235307306979494
How many times do we need to do the carnival Furu macro merry go round as it pertains to jobless claims?
Claims almost always peak at the end of or after recessions, do basic research. Little sense in watching them before cuts & the pay is unlivable in 37 states, they’re up 2 consecutive years regardless.
https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1837282954667860272
lol
https://x.com/jbulltard1/status/1837233408390447418
Man high on psilocybin mushrooms staying at nearby short term rental arrested for murder & attempted murder following attack on a family of 3. Suspect entered family’s home, tried to steal their car & attacked them when confronted.
https://x.com/jjsheedy/status/1837240928039223461
“When NAR says they’re fighting for “home ownership,” it seems they’re often fighting for landlord ownership which, mathematically, lowers the real home ownership rate.”
https://x.com/JohnWake/status/1837258013041987867
Layoffs are not low.
Wealth advisors using claims to put the blindfold over the state of the labor market. Fed was clear in their presser about the state of the labor market.
https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1837123783536046320
Ok this is a new one for me.
Home seller knows he needs to drop the price but the agent doesn’t want it to happen.
2 screenshots
https://x.com/GayBearRes/status/1837141690110353513
She’s definitely FAKE. and drunk🧠 👀
No. She’s stupid and a whore.
The epitome of a ticket taker.
ticket taker
Another rather crude phrase comes to mind.
Paper Education Co. Inc.’s chief operating and technology officer, Roberto Cipriani, has resigned from the struggling online-tutoring company at the end of a summer that saw steep job cuts and the replacement of fellow co-founder and CEO Philip Cutler.
Mr. Cipriani said in a memo to staff that he was stepping down from his management role but would remain a board member, alongside Mr. Cutler.
“The time has come for me to take a step back and allow new leadership to bring fresh perspectives, taking Paper to the next level,” he wrote. “I know the past few months have been challenging, but we are making progress on our next chapter” under the leadership of interim CEO Rich Yang. He expressed confidence that Paper was “on the right track for better days ahead.”
Paper’s chief product officer and chief people officer have also left in recent months.
Montreal-based Paper, which became one of Canada’s tech darlings during the pandemic, laid off nearly half its head-office staff and all its tutors in Canada this summer, just months after hundreds of them in Ontario and Quebec voted to unionize.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-another-co-founder-exits-paper-after-deep-staff-cuts-by-struggling/
Used vehicle prices in the D.C. market have fallen dramatically over the past year.
Vehicle search site iSeeCars.com says the average price of a used 1- to 5-year-old EV has dropped 27.4% over the past 12 months, or the average equivalent of $9,728. That compares to a drop of just 5.3% for similarly-used gas-powered vehicles.
iSeeCars said the accelerating decline in used EV prices reflects a continuing drop in demand and a slowdown in sales for new models.
For shoppers considering a used EV, it means some good prices. But used EVs also come with used batteries, and that can be a cost-probative replacement.
“Having some level of the batteries’ condition, maybe have a health report which they’ve developed, having some kind of analysis to see what its health is probably a smart way to go because you don’t want to buy a used EV and end up having to replace the battery pack,” said iSeeCars executive analyst Karl Bauer.
The dramatic drop in resale value for used EVs is also something for buyers or brand new models to consider.
“Our data says that electric vehicles are only driven about 10,000 miles a year, while gas vehicles are driven about 12,000. So you are getting 20% less use out of an electric vehicle, while also taking a bigger hit out of resale value,” Bauer said.
The average price of a used Tesla Model 3 in the D.C. market is now $25,977. Almost all used EV prices hover around the $25,000 mark, which may actually be a sweet spot for the used EV market.
“So will the average price of a 1- to 5-year-old used EV drop down to about $25,000 and stabilize? There is the government incentive on used EVs. If you buy one for $25,000 or less you can get a $4,000 credit on a used EV purchase. That might very well help them stabilize under $25,000 on the used EV market,” Bauer said.
https://wtop.com/business-finance/2024/09/used-ev-prices-in-the-d-c-market-are-down-27-bargains-but-beware/
Heat pumps: Why Germany’s heating revolution is stalling
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck is desperately trying to promote the use of heat pumps for heating German households because the Greens’ politician is convinced of the technology saying it has the potential to create jobs in Germany while saving the climate.
Heat pump technology, which utilizes ambient air or groundwater heat, is relatively emissions-free — especially when the heat pump is powered by green electricity from private photovoltaic system.
When Habeck and his Greens became part of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition government in 2022, they successfully launched a campaign to change how Germans heat their homes, which caused production and sales of heat pumps to soar, setting a record for the technology last year.
But towards the end of 2023, clouds began to gather over the heat-pump boom.
Over the next six months, sales of heat pumps “virtually collapsed” to merely 90,000 units between January and June, the German news agency dpa reported in August. According to data from the German Heating Industry Association (BDH), the figure marked a 54% decrease compared with the same period a year ago.
The drop in demand has dealt a big blow to the government’s ambitious goal of installing 500,000 heat pumps annually starting in 2024.
Critics of the new regulation say the law is a bureaucratic nightmare and has caused a lot of confusion. BDH chief Markus Staudt has called on the government to ensure greater planning security for investors. “It is of central importance that the government sends a signal of trust to the citizens,” he told news agency AFP recently.
According to a survey commissioned by the German newspaper Die Zeit, as many as 70% of Germans reject compulsory regulations on banning heating fired by oil or gas or paying for obligatory replacements of their heating systems.
https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/other/heat-pumps-why-germanys-heating-revolution-is-stalling/ar-AA1qUkfU
Isn’t Germany famous for very cold winters?
Prison building plan in crisis as £1.6bn contractor collapses
Plans to build 20,000 extra prison spaces to cope with overcrowding have been plunged into doubt following the collapse of a major construction company involved in the project.
ISG, which held government contracts worth billions of pounds, on Friday shut down its UK operations and made 2,200 staff redundant.
The construction services company had an annual turnover of £2.2bn. Its collapse is the biggest failure in the building sector since the liquidation of Carillion in 2018.
ISG is a significant government outsourcer, holding contracts worth a combined £1.65bn from the Ministry of Justice. Many were central to plans to expand the prison estate.
The bankruptcy could not have come at a more difficult time for the Government as it scrambles to contain a national prison overcrowding crisis.
The number of available places in men’s prisons fell to just 83 in August, the lowest number on record, after a summer of riots added even more pressure to a system that was already at breaking point.
Around 1,750 prisoners were released early this month in a bid to free up space and ministers are considering renting spare prison spaces from jails in Estonia to ease overcrowding.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/prison-building-plan-crisis-1-163332708.html
Plans to build 20,000 extra prison spaces to cope with overcrowding have been plunged into doubt following the collapse of a major construction company involved in the project.
One would think that a firm with a huge business backlog should be able to stay in business, but this is the 21st Century “West” we are talking about, whose motto ought to be “it can’t be done”.
For Pete’s Sake, how had can it be to build a prison? Even the most inept commies were able to do it.
PICS: Gauteng’s abandoned projects ruined by ‘challenges’ and vandalism
Government projects in Gauteng continue to face various challenges including vandalism and construction delays that have hampered service delivery.
The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) oversight committee in the province visited 10 unfinished and abandoned projects in the West Rand, Sedibeng, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane regions this week.
According to Gauteng NCOP leader, Jane Mananiso, the visits were part of its Provincial Week Programme, held under the theme “Confronting the Challenges Facing the Timely Delivery of Viable Public Infrastructure to Communities”.
“These oversight sessions involved officials and managers from the affected districts and provincial and national government departments,” she said.
The Kopanong Hospital in Vereeniging construction began in 2021, with an original completion date of August 2022. The appointed contractor could not finish the project, and their contract was terminated.
“[We] were very concerned about the state of the Kopanong Hospital, which is in decay. The abandoned, incomplete wards were meant to accommodate emergency patients during Covid-19, but the contractor failed to finish the job.”
When the project was terminated, it was only 65% complete.
https://www.citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/gautengs-abandoned-projects-ruined-by-challenges-and-vandalism/
Funny, isn’t it, how South Africa didn’t have these sorts of problems when the Afrikaners ran the place. There was talk back then about how South Africa was almost a first world nation. No one says that anymore.
Something to ponder: South Africa is the source of 3/4s of the world’s supply of platinum group metals (Russia is #2). South Africa’s Marxist kleptocrat government has demanded that foreign-owned mines place unqualified black DEI hires in key leadership and technical positions, with predictable results. In addition, criminal gangs have shut down operations at numerous mines by stealing the copper cables needed for electrical transmission at power-intensive mines. Platinum is a noble metal, 10X more rare than gold, but currently selling for less than half the price per oz. Looking at supply/demand fundamentals, it seems like diminishing supply for the aforementioned reasons makes it worth considering as a hedge against inflation, especially with BlackRock Jay pumping more created-out-of-thin-air FedBux liquidity into the financial system. Not financial advice, just one man’s musings.
I still remember the picture of the ANC flag with the sickle and hammer. Under it was Nelson Mandela and the Soviet ambassador. That is the moment I learned that all of the End Apartheid agitprop was bullshizzle.
Ok , so this appears to be the One World Order Agenda.
Creation of a One World Order Dictorship with a blueprint of the 2030 UN Sustainable Earth Agenda.
These Entities want to reduce food production by at least 30 %.
They want to reduce energy production to a alarming extent.
They want to reduce carbon emission to zero by 2050.
They want to invade Borders globally.
They want mandated fake vaccines .
They want global governments to transfer power to the UN/WHO by Treaty, that would override all freedoms, constitutional protections, sovereign states and governments . Global dictates by a corrupted and infiltrated and unelected UN/WHO , under the pretense of combating contrived and manufactured global emergencies like Climate Change, Panademics ,equity etc.
They want Monopolies/Rich Elites etc., to have private /public partnerships in a facism/commie power grab.
They want a destruction of all prior systems for a anti life elimination of the life force of earth and all inhabitants.
They want to eliminate free speech, so they can defraud humanity into compliance to their false narratives.
They want to control or own all resources of earth and determine consumption of same.
They want to play God and enslave humanity, beast and plants, and destroy the life force for their replacement anti life , using technology as the means of enslavement and replacement.
They want technology to be the tool of enslavement, rather than it being a tool controlled by humanity and life forces.
They want to force the grand bee hive life force into
compliance to these Entities anti life dictorship.
Infiltration of governments ,and a corruption of all systems has been ongoing for decades and decades.
These Entities infiltrated like cockroaches or a virus , and like a parasite want to kill their host and replace with anti life.
It can be summed up as the military /industrial complex asserting a power grab to literally control all life on the planet.
There will be no need for governments by the people because these Entities just want to force their Great Reset, 4th industrial revolution dictatorship to take possession of earth and control all inhabitants of earth.
Genocide and depopulation of enormous amounts of population is part of their plan , along with sterilizing enormous amounts of their targeted populations.
The hardest part for most people is that their governments are in collusion on this anti life attack on targeted populations of the world.
Usually when a Country wants to invade another country and take over, they do so by warfare. But, this enemy captures and invades Governments and systems to partner in their epic power grab to rule the world.
The One World Order dictatorship offers nothing to humanity, and they are not saving the earth from doomsday Climate Change, or Panademics, or claims of equity for all.
They are overt about their end game plans to control all life on the planet.
They are serious about you will own nothing, eat bugs, mandated vaccines, etc etc.
Its pretty hard to believe that this is happening , but all the evidence shows it is happening .
The Day Of The Rope is coming 😻
Mum influencer slammed for ‘dystopian’ post
When influencer Jessica Herman uploaded to TikTok a video of her typical evening in the futuristic community where she now lives, she likely wasn’t expecting to be so slammed she would be compelled to delete her account.
But add the South African to the ever increasing list of tone deaf influencers who seem to have no idea of life – or actively ignore the reality – outside their privileged bubbles.
“Potentially dystopian,” said one comment on the video. “The stuff of nightmares,” was another.
Ms Herman’s video, entitled “My evening in Neom, Saudi Arabia (as a mum of two),” has now been viewed more than 15 million times on Twitter/X after it vanished from TikTok.
The criticism of Herman is in two parts.
First, that she is glamorising Neom, a much criticised $730 billion new community being built in the Saudi Arabian desert which has been slammed as a vanity project with poor conditions for workers and locals and championed by authoritarian rulers in a country that has little regard for human rights.
The second is that for a very expensive mega project “eco city” of the future it looks, well, distinctly meh.
The centrepiece of Neom is planned to be The Line, a bizarre horizontal city 170km long housing showing nine million people linked by a train zooming along at 500 km/h.
Herman’s clip seems to be part of a concerted effort by the Saudi Arabian authorities to get influencers to spruik their desert city safe in the knowledge they will ignore any of the pesky issues plaguing Neom.
https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/social/mum-influencer-slammed-for-dystopian-post/news-story/b54c04ebec8ce77ef154b07c0490581e
That video was posted yesterday (in the letter with all the twitter links)
It looks AWFUL. 15 minute “city” indeed.
“blink twice if you are being held against your will” type of propaganda.
South London estate residents paying £1,000 more in heating bills than average
A town hall official has denied he mishandled residents’ concerns about problems with a heating system serving over 700 households that mean families are charged £1,000 more than average for their energy bills.
Tom Vosper, who is responsible for heat networks at Southwark Council, rebuffed suggestions his response to an investigation by leaseholders which showed their communal boiler system was using three times more gas than typical was incorrect.
The high consumption means residents on the North Peckham estate were slapped with bills of over £2,500 for heating and hot water by the Labour-run council earlier this year. Unlike most households with individual boilers, residents on heat networks are not protected by energy regulator Ofgem’s price cap which currently limits bills to £1,568 for the typical household.
Councillor Sam Foster, chair of the housing scrutiny committee, said it was clear that the maintenance and management of heat networks had been neglected before the council published a heat network strategy three years ago. He added: “Prior to 2021 things should have been done that were not done and post 2021 we’re now in a phase of improving things.”
“Based on the current usage of the network North Peckham is likely losing somewhere in the region of 65 to 80 per cent of the heat generated at the boiler house before it gets to people’s homes. This is indicative of decades of failure by the council to maintain these networks.”
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/south-london-estate-residents-paying-150757058.html
‘We don’t want people to believe we are living very different lives from them’, government minister says
Ministers have sought to end the perception they are leading ‘very different lives’ to the public ahead of Labour’s party conference amid efforts to draw a line under a row about clothing donations to high-profile Government figures.
Culture Secretary and Wigan MP Lisa Nandy said it was important to demonstrate the Government’s priorities are “the country’s priorities” after it emerged on the eve of Labour’s annual gathering that clothing donations would no longer be accepted by the Prime Minister and his top brass. Neither Sir Keir Starmer, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner nor Chancellor Rachel Reeves will accept such donations in the future.
Sir Keir and his wife Lady Victoria Starmer had faced scrutiny over the acceptance of gifts, including clothing, from prominent Labour donor and peer Lord Alli.
The Financial Times newspaper meanwhile reported that donations “in kind” listed in the publicly available registers of interest for both Ms Reeves and Ms Rayner had also been for clothing.
The row has drawn criticism from Labour’s political opponents who have sought to contrast the lavish gifts with the Government’s decision to limit the winter fuel payment for all but the poorest pensioners.
Asked about the reasoning behind the decision, Culture Secretary Ms Nandy told BBC Breakfast: “For exactly the reason that you just said, that people are really struggling in this country, and we don’t want people to believe that we are living very different lives from them. Most people who go into politics, of all political parties, are ordinary people who want to make people’s lives better.”
Sir Keir has accepted around £39,000 from Lord Alli since December 2019. The FT’s reporting claimed that a donation “in kind” Ms Rayner received from Lord Alli was for clothing, while a donor called Juliet Rosenfeld provided funding for the Chancellor’s wardrobe in four instalments.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/don-t-want-people-believe-092650064.html
Sir Keir and his wife Lady Victoria Starmer had faced scrutiny over the acceptance of gifts, including clothing, from prominent Labour donor and peer Lord Alli.
Am I the only one who sees irony in a bunch of Commies being members of the British aristocracy? I would think they ought to renounce their titles on a matter of principle.
Not really. They’re all Marxist globalists at the core.
Globalists gonna globe.
Bangkok restricts street vending business to poor Thai nationals
Authorities in Bangkok, Thailand have issued new rules to tighten control over street vendors, with only “poor Thais” be allowed to be street vendors in Bangkok and they will be barred from employing migrants.
Under the new regulations, street vendors must have Thai nationality, hold government welfare cards, be paying installments for houses built by the National Housing Authority and receive welfare allowances from the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security. In addition, they must be included in the annual taxation system of the Revenue Department.
Their income must not exceed THB300,000 (US$9,060) a year after deducting business-related costs on their tax returns.
Each vendor is allowed to have a sales assistant who must also be Thai. Vendors must also receive permission from the relevant public health authorities.
At their stalls, vendors must ensure pedestrians have a space 1.5 to 2 meters wide to walk in depending on street widths. The area of each stall is limited to three square meters.
Stalls must occupy only the side of the pavement adjacent to a road surface but must be at least 50cm from the road for safety.
There must also be a space at least 3 meters long at an interval of every 10 stalls to function as an emergency exit.
The rules will take effect when Thai Royal Gazette publishes them.
https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/bangkok-restricts-street-vending-business-to-poor-thai-nationals/ar-AA1qVUBc
Everyone claims they are no longer turd world sh!tholes (look at all of our new industry!), yet they still have street vendors with stalls on sidewalks. And not only that, they now need to reserve those “jobs” for their citizens.
street vendors with stalls on sidewalks
Within 5 miles of my house, I’ve seen:
1. A woman selling wrapped loaves of cornbread outside of a store.
2. A couple guys selling whole (green) coconuts and coconut water out the back of a truck
3. Food trucks who set up in a friendly parking lot that doesn’t kick them out
4. Women selling papusas out of a cooler at the soccer fields.
5. Small truck selling helaldo and gelato at a known street corner.
6. Obligatory street preacher with microphone and speakers. Sometimes accompanied by ladies handing out pamphlets.
I guess my little burg is nicer than yours.
But I’m not talking about mobile peddlers and roach coaches. I’m talking about actual structures setup on the sidewalk, like the newspaper stands in the old movies. And not just a newspaper stand, but also a taco stand, a burger stand, stands that sell hot dogs, candies, t-shirts, toys, costume jewelry, etc., all the way down the block. If you’ve ever been to Mexico you’ve no doubt seen them. At closing time the stands stay put, locked up for the night.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/07/21/arts/design/mexico-city-street-food-signs.html
“Within 5 miles of my house, I’ve seen”
I’d rather see those examples of entreprneurship than the Venezuelans with the sqeegees. Who it seems, are all wearing newer more expensive shoes than I am. Paid for by a friendly NGO, via you, the taxpayer.
From what I can tell, these entrepreneurs generally aren’t new arrivals. They seem to be siblings or parents of the construction workers and house-cleaners, looking to make extra cash.
The owners of one of Kansas City’s and St. Louis’ highest-profile development firms face federal fraud charges in an alleged scheme that officials say defrauded a St. Louis city minority and women’s owned business program.
Owners of one of the region’s highest-profile developing firms with ongoing projects in St. Louis and Kansas City were indicted Friday on fraud charges.
The federal indictment alleges Lux Living owners and brothers Vic Alston and Sid Chakravery and their chief accountant Shijing “Poppy” Cao conspired to defraud the City of St. Louis to gain millions worth of tax incentives from the city through its minority hiring program.
The brothers are behind several properties and developments in both St. Louis and Kansas City, including the Chelsea and SoHo luxury apartment complexes in St. Louis and the Wonderland and Katz building renovations in Kansas City.
The brothers also own and operate Big Sur Construction LLC, a construction management and development company. Both Big Sur Construction and Lux Living are privately owned companies.
Alston, Chakraverty and Cao are each charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in the indictment.
According to the indictment, officials at the development corporation became suspicious after Alston, Chakraverty and Cao repeatedly tried to falsely verify inflated payments from a cleaning company to the corporation.
When Lux Living failed to get verification, the indictment reads, they sought another woman-owned business enterprise to falsely verify it had done the work.
The brothers and Cao face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if found guilty of conspiracy charges. Wire fraud charges carry the same penalty. Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith is prosecuting the case.
Alston and Chakraverty are no strangers to public scrutiny.
A NPR Midwest Newsroom investigation in 2022 uncovered Lux Living failed to disclose a history of SEC violations and lawsuits while seeking to build affordable housing at the KC Port.
Public records show Lux Living’s chief executive Victor Alston was sanctioned in 2017 by the Securities and Exchange Commission while he was in charge of Ixia, a network company based in California.
The SEC found Alston broke accounting rules while he was chief executive of the publicly traded company, resulting in Ixia restating past financial statements. Alston agreed to a settlement with the federal commission that banned him from serving as an officer or director for any publicly traded company for five years and fined him $100,000. As part of the SEC settlement, Alston did not admit or deny wrongdoing.
The Kansas City riverfront development deal fell apart when the KC Port’s board voted against approving tax incentives worth more than $25 million to Lux Living.
“The track record of the developer raises a lot of questions,” said Bruce Eddy at the time, who leads the Jackson County Community Mental Health Fund.
A handful of investigations into the brother’s business have revealed longstanding issues at the brother’s rental properties across St. Louis, including tenants complaining of property neglect, lackluster management and short-term rentals leading to parties in their buildings.
In March, a 16-year-old was shot to death in a downtown St. Louis building where a party was being held at a short-term AirBnB rental.
In 2022, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch chronicled complaints by residents of The Hudson, a Lux Living development, who signed leases and found themselves occupying unfinished apartments.
https://www.kcur.org/housing-development-section/2024-09-20/lux-living-kansas-city-st-louis-defauding-scheme-minority-hiring
Every time public funding is set aside to help the “disadvantaged” grifters swoop in like locusts.
Pierce County’s system for delivering homeless services is a mess, a consultant says
Pierce County’s collaborative response to the homelessness crisis lacks direction, transparency and accountability, a review has found.
A consultant recently shared a report on Pierce County’s Continuum of Care. The Continuum of Care is a regional planning organization that coordinates housing and services for homeless people and families.
Such organizations are used by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to facilitate the use of federal funding provided to a region to mitigate homelessness. There are more than 400 such organizations across the country competitively applying for billions in grant funding.
Additionally the consultants received input from continuum partners who felt racial inequities existed, including elements of “white dominant culture,” defined in the report as power hoarding, fear of open conflict, lack of transparency, transactional goals and relationships, defensiveness and white fragility.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/pierce-county-s-system-for-delivering-homeless-services-is-a-mess-a-consultant-says/ar-AA1qVhCx
Pierce County’s system for delivering homeless services is a mess, a consultant says
Pierce County’s collaborative response to the homelessness crisis lacks direction, transparency and accountability, a review has found.
A consultant recently shared a report on Pierce County’s Continuum of Care. The Continuum of Care is a regional planning organization that coordinates housing and services for homeless people and families.
Wanna bet wholesale grifting is happening? Lots of invoices are submitted for accomplishing nothing, though I’m sure lots of travel and stays at expensive hotels while attending seminars is involved.
A low-cost housing complex launched during the pandemic to help ease homelessness in Santa Fe saw two overdose deaths within just a few hours of each other one Saturday late last month.
Timmy Bailey and Bryan Watchman, who lived in separate apartments at Santa Fe Suites, both died Aug. 24 from suspected opioid overdose, according to reports provided by Santa Fe police.
Police arrived at the complex shortly after 9 a.m. and found 60-year-old Bailey deceased. He was in a sitting position, with his feet on the floor, “hunched over a metal glass pipe,” officers wrote in a report.
Less than two hours later, officers wrote, they entered Watchman’s apartment and found him dead in a chair. A medical examiner determined his death appeared to have been caused by “an accidental overdose,” noting several pieces of burned aluminum foil found in the apartment, police wrote.
The two incidents highlight a deadly trend — victims of opioid overdoses who have died while using the drug alone.
Whether the deaths indicate a larger problem at Santa Fe Suites — which began under a public-private partnership between a nonprofit and the city of Santa Fe — is not as clear. The complex, a former hotel, was purchased in part with federal COVID-19 relief funds and operates under a supportive housing model, in which tenants are able to receive needed services on site.
Some residents and workers at businesses in the neighborhood say drug use and trafficking, as well as other crimes, have increased in the area since the complex opened as a transitional housing facility, and they question whether it provides enough security.
Advocates say, however, there just aren’t enough services to go around when it comes to a growing demand for addiction treatment — a problem that reaches far beyond Santa Fe Suites.
“It’s scary,” said resident KrisAnn Tafoya, referring to the two recent overdose deaths that rocked the apartment complex. However, she noted, drugs are “everywhere” and she thinks it is wrong to “point the finger at the suites.”
“The ones that I know that are dealers, I don’t see them coming in here or people flocking to them,” she said. “I don’t see them trying to push their stuff on anybody. … I think it could happen here, just like it could happen across the street at the Albertsons parking lot.”
Edward Archuleta, executive director of St. Elizabeth Shelters, said fentanyl overdoses are “nothing unique to [Santa Fe] Suites” but “happening all over town” — in houses, apartments, on the streets and in alleyways.
Tafoya, who has lived at the complex for about three years, said she has seen the effects of fentanyl. “I know people that I do consider friends who weren’t smoking it when I first got here, and I just see the change in them. It’s awful. It’s ugly.”
Anita Jenkins, a resident who has lived at Santa Fe Suites for several years, said she believes drug dealing and drug use recently have increased there.
“They let people in who shouldn’t be here, and it takes them months to get them out,” Jenkins said. She also claimed security has been pared down in recent years.
https://news.yahoo.com/news/housing-complex-sees-two-overdose-033400229.html
The two incidents highlight a deadly trend — victims of opioid overdoses who have died while using the drug alone.
Are parties where fentanyl is consumed like cocktails a thing? If not, I would expect people to be alone when they OD.
I imagine there would be some kind of buddy system where two guys alternate. One smoking, one ready with the narcan.
If they were that careful they wouldn’t be addicts, I think.
Steve Mann: A scene out of a big city? No, right here in Lodi
One acts as a lookout, alerting another who’s parked in a ratty red car that the coast is clear. No cops in sight. People pedal their bicycles or drive their cars over to the red car, lean in through the window a few seconds, then leave. It’s an open air drug market. San Francisco? Nope. Stockton? Guess again. The Hobby Lobby parking lot in Lodi? Yup. The same scene plays out across the street in the Safeway parking lot near Starbucks. A lookout plays hide-and-seek with police as the other waits in his car to sell a fix of fentanyl to the next hapless customer. This was happening in full view of everyone on Monday, and probably every day. A retired Lodi cop says he’s seen it too and calls it a narcotics farmer’s market. He says the situation has gotten progressively worse, even brazen, since voters passed Prop 47 ten years ago, which decriminalized many offenses. Open air drug markets have come to Lodi for all to see, he says.
https://www.lodinews.com/opinion/article_51ab12ec-76f6-11ef-89d5-83999ecc76a1.html
Google maps FTW. Lodi looks like a huge planned community from the 70s. All of the houses are contained in a confined area, no bleed out or sprawl of any kind. Very different from back East, where homes gradually thin out from cities to burbs to outer burbs to thinner and thinner farmhouses.
And, Fentanyl? I’m still puzzled just how many people got so addicted so quickly. I had never heard of fentanyl until it killed Prince in 2016. Just over 8 years ago. 😕
I guess fentanyl is easier to procure than say Percocet.
But one thing is certain, there are a lot more throw away people now than in the recent past.
On a related note, a mainline protestant church in our town is trying to sell its property, as they have almost no congregants left and are ready to close their doors. The buyer wants to turn the old church into a homeless center. There has been a tidal wave of opposition to this plan, especially in the neighborhood where the church is. Anyway, it looks like it won’t be happening.
Published online 2019 Nov 11
Fentanyl is currently approved and commonly used to treat breakthrough pain in cancer patients and various other clinical conditions that involve noncancer pain, such as postoperative pain. However, its potential for abuse and the rise in overdose deaths pose a serious challenge to public health18–21. Deaths that were attributable to illicit fentanyl use were first reported in the early 1980s and occurred sporadically in the United States6,7,22. A surge in the occurrence of fentanyl-related fatalities among illicit drug users occurred in 2006. A total of 1013 deaths in six states occurred from April 4, 2005, to March 28, 200723. Since then, the prevalence of opioid-related mortality has increased persistently, and the number of reported fentanyl-related deaths more than doubled (from 2628 to 5544) between 2012 and 201421,24,25. The rate of fentanyl-related overdose deaths increased from <15% in 2010 to ~50% in 2017 in Marion County, Indiana26. Overall overdose deaths and first-responder calls increased in a community-based sample in an impoverished neighborhood in Vancouver, Canada, in 2017, and fentanyl was detected in 52% of the subjects who were prescribed opioid agonist therapy27. At the same time, fentanyl-related deaths also increased in Australia.
The presence of fentanyl and its analogs has become a central contributor to the increase in the number of opioid-related overdose deaths. Preliminary estimates of opioid overdose deaths in the United States in 2016 revealed that fentanyl and its analogs (e.g., acetylfentanyl, furanylfentanyl, and carfentanil) have contributed to nearly half of opioid overdose deaths16,30,31. Moreover, the number of deaths that were attributable to illicitly manufactured fentanyl and its analogs nearly quadrupled between July 2015 and June 2017 in Montgomery County, Ohio32. Heroin-positive cases declined while methamphetamine-positive cases increased in these victims. Urine drug screens showed that the prevalence of recent fentanyl use in patients who received opioid agonist treatment in England was 3%, and multiple fatalities with synthetic fentanyl analogs were reported in northern England in early 2017.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6848196/
Big pharma got this started.
commonly used to treat breakthrough pain in cancer patients
It’s the go-to for end of life care, particularly in the forms of lollipops and sublingual sprays.
In a few short weeks, California voters will receive their ballots for the November general election. In addition to the critical candidate races, there are countless ballot measures, most of which have a direct impact on citizens’ financial well-being.
Of the 10 statewide ballot measures, three expose taxpayers to excessive debt. Propositions 2 and 4 are $10 billion each for statewide bonds and, even worse, Proposition 5 lowers the vote threshold for local bonds, which are repaid by adding extra charges to property tax bills for decades.
At the local level, there are more than 470 tax increases and bond measures on the ballot according to the California Taxpayers Association.
Even if a few of these proposals could be justified, taxpayers should approach all these measures with a default position of rejection.
Here’s why.
First, Californians are already overtaxed and they know it. Other states operate much more efficiently with much lower taxes and Californians are casting their votes with moving vans. California has the highest-in-the-nation income tax rate, the highest-in-the-nation state sales tax rate (even before all the local add-on taxes), the highest gas tax and, even with Prop. 13, we rank 19th out of 50 states in per capita property tax collections.
This punishing tax burden has resulted in another No. 1 rating for California: The state more people have left than any other state.
Second, California has a corruption problem that rivals, if not exceeds, that of Illinois and New Jersey. According to the New York Times, “Over the last 10 years, 576 public officials in California have been convicted on federal corruption charges, according to Justice Department reports, exceeding the number of cases in states better known for public corruption, including New York, New Jersey and Illinois.”
Third, California has unprecedented levels of government waste. While media reports of wasteful government spending appear daily, the two largest examples are California’s high speed rail project, which is costing taxpayers billions with virtually no chance of completion, and the debacle of the $30 billion lost to fraud by the Employment Development Department.
Fourth, California’s elected leadership lacks basic competence. As just one example, the last two days of the legislative session devolved into utter chaos as important bills were ignored and special-interest legislation advanced. Debate on many of the most important proposals was limited to 30 seconds per speaker. And California politicians claim to be the ones to “protect democracy.”
Fifth, speaking of competency, there is a callous disregard for prioritizing spending. Many tax and bond proposals on the ballot claim to be for essential government services, such as public safety. But this is usually just a ploy to garner sympathy without revealing where the money taxpayers already provide is going.
Sixth, throughout California, there is an abject lack of accountability as to where money is spent. Demands for audits of government spending are met with resistance or ignored altogether. By the time audits are conducted, millions, if not billions, of dollars are already out the door. This was the case with the two previous examples of waste, high speed rail and the fraud associated with the Employment Development Department.
In a column for CalMatters, veteran journalist Dan Walters pointed to two instances of how agencies responsible for tracking government spending run into roadblocks in obtaining the necessary information to assess whether money is being spent properly. Both relate to homelessness.
Walters notes that state Auditor Grant Parks criticized the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, a creation of Gov. Gavin Newsom for coordinating homelessness programs. But Park concluded, “The state lacks current information on the ongoing costs and outcomes of its homelessness programs, because (the council) has not consistently tracked and evaluated the state’s efforts to prevent and end homelessness.”
In the same vein, federal judge David O. Carter recently ordered L.A. homelessness officials to immediately produce the data needed for auditors looking into where hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars were spent. But foot-dragging L.A. officials told the judge that the information wouldn’t be available until October — even as millions continue to be spent.
https://www.mtdemocrat.com/opinion/overtaxed-californians-face-hundreds-of-poorly-justified-tax-hike-and-bond-measures/article_ed6b1128-75d9-11ef-b670-6b8734105809.html
But foot-dragging L.A. officials told the judge that the information wouldn’t be available until October — even as millions continue to be spent.
They have to steal everything left that isn’t bolted down. If there is anything left.
California unemployment rises as private hiring slows and state government payrolls tumble
California’s labor market weakened at the end of summer, with the unemployment rate ticking up again and the state eking out a small number of new jobs, according to new data released Friday.
The statewide unemployment rate went up a notch to 5.3% in August (from 5.2% in July), tied with Illinois for the second highest behind Nevada’s 5.5% rate, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said. The nation’s jobless figure, as previously reported, edged down to 4.2% last month.
And significantly, the public sector in California, which had been a reliably sturdy source of employment growth, lost jobs last month for the first time in more than a year. The drag came from a strikingly big loss in state government payrolls, which analysts attributed to Sacramento’s budget woes.
“The drop this month reflects mainly the hiring freeze first announced by the governor in the spring,” said Michael Bernick, a former director of the state’s Employment Development Department who has been following California government trends since the late 1970s. “No layoffs have been imposed,” he said, “but vacant positions generally are not being filled as employees retire or leave state government.”
For most of the last three decades, Sacramento has been adding jobs like clockwork, its payrolls growing from about 400,000 in 1995 to 580,000 in July before declining by 17,100 last month.
The number of unemployed people in the U.S. has grown by 775,000 over the last year, to more than 7.1 million. In California there were more than 1 million jobless workers as of August. A disproportionately large number of them are younger workers, said private consulting firm Beacon Economics.
California’s relatively high and rising unemployment rate also may reflect the surge in immigration that has added to the labor pool.
The state’s film industry remained lackluster. Motion pictures employment in Los Angeles County dipped below 100,000 in August.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/california-unemployment-rises-as-private-hiring-slows-and-state-government-payrolls-tumble/ar-AA1qVqyS
S.F. area loses 7,000 jobs in August as tech layoffs mount
Tech layoffs continued to take a toll on the San Francisco economy in August as the unemployment rate rose.
The San Francisco metro area, which includes San Mateo County, lost a net 7,000 jobs in August, according to state data released Friday. The unemployment rate rose in San Francisco from 4% in July to 4.1% in August.
Professional and business services lost a net 2,800 jobs entirely from professional, scientific and technical service, which include tech jobs. The tech-focused information sector also lost 1,400 jobs.
Companies including Cisco, Udemy, Intel and Lyft all confirmed Bay Area layoffs in the past month, signs of continued weakness in the labor market.
San Francisco and San Mateo counties also lost a combined 2,500 government jobs, mostly from the state workforce. San Francisco’s Department of Human Resources confirmed that no city layoffs occurred. However, the separate school district workforce is facing a fiscal crisis and hiring freeze.
Michael Bernick, a labor expert and special counsel at Duane Morris LLP, noted that job gains have slowed compared with earlier monthly job gains of more than 20,000 this year. August state job gains were concentrated in the 6,800 new jobs in leisure and hospitality. The information sector lost 5,100 jobs statewide, the most of any sector.
“California has roughly 12% of the nation’s workforce, and yesterday it had over 20% of all new unemployment claims, and over 20% of all continuing claims,” said Bernick, who is a former director of California’s Employment Development Department.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/s-f-area-loses-7-000-jobs-in-august-as-tech-layoffs-continue-to-mount/ar-AA1qV1Wr
More and more jobs are being offshored. My employer isn’t doing a lot of hiring in the bay area, or anywhere in the US for that matter. But we are hiring like crazy in low wage locales.
A video showing a 50-foot bed in the backyard of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has gone viral after the hip-hop mogul was arrested and charged this week with a slew of s3x-trafficking charges.
A clip of the massive all-white bed surfaced on social media, with one account captioning it: ‘If that bed could talk…’
The video emerged just days after the 54-year-old was arrested by Homeland Security in New York City for running a criminal enterprise. He has been charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Earlier this year, federal agents confiscated more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant from Diddy’s home in Miami and Los Angeles.
He was accused of arranging ‘Freak Offs,’ described as ‘elaborate and produced s3x performances’ arranged and directed by Combs while he masturbated and often recorded them.
His indictment stated that some ‘Freak Offs’ would last for days, requiring Combs and victims to receive IV fluids to recover from the exertion and drug use.
Many took to social media after seeing a clip of the oversized bed.
‘The bed in jail is a little smaller,’ one user on X quipped in response to the video.
‘With a bed that big he would probably need 1000 bottles of baby oil,’ another joked.
‘Why does Diddy’s backyard look like if Willy Wonka and Clockwork Orange had a nightmare-ish hellchild?’ one user said.
https://ladunliadinews.com/sean-diddy-combs-freaky-50-ft-backyard-bed-goes-viral/
Where do all these people find the time for all this nonsense? I can barely keep my house clean and my lawn mowed. I guess they aren’t commuting or packing lunches or dropping kids off at school.
I’m sure he has (had?) an army of maids, cooks, handymen and landscapers to take care of all that.
Heck, I don’t mow my yard anymore, I pay a dude (a heritage American) to do it.
I’m with you on the American lawn worker but unfortunately most would rather save $10 a week and hire the “firm” who pays illegals less.
Then they will be happy to chat with you about something needing to be done about the illegals. 🙄
The link will take you to a graph on the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’s website of the USA’s all sectors; debt securities and loans versus the USA’s gross domestic product, from 1970 to April, 2024.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=DRmJ
They’re going to need a bigger graph.
Seems like the ratio of GDP/debt would be more interesting than the ever-increasing curves, and not good news if the ratio is ever increasing.
SEC Quietly Hints at “Imminent Financial Crisis” With Banks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiAN5Fb4-h0&t=606s
I’m expecting another round of bank failures.
Arizona Supreme Court Rules 98,000 People Without Confirmed Citizenship Documents Can Vote
by Jamie White
September 21th, 2024 1:54 PM
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled on Friday that nearly 98,000 people whose citizenship documents could not be confirmed will be allowed to vote.
The case emerged after the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office uncovered a database error that for two decades mistakenly designated over 90,000 voters as having access to the full ballot. The error is connected with a state law that requires voters to provide documented proof of citizenship
FOX 10 Phoenix
Sep 21, 2024
https://youtu.be/a-PBNaMCGwE?si=GMIOJKbNmxMIHo_U
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled on Friday that nearly 98,000 people whose citizenship documents could not be confirmed will be allowed to vote.
And so it begins. The way we’re going they will soon be granting security clearances to illegals.
Why did this go to moderation? Is ill eagle a bad word now?
No. I watched an AZ news story on this and it’s a confusing story of bureaucratic screw ups going back 20 years involving drivers licenses.
The Kinks — Everybody’s Gonna Be Happy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRgieleri9Y
David Bowie — And I Say To Myself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVKWsx3l4r0
Recorded in 1966, when he was 19 years old
Spencer Davis Group — It’s Gonna Work Out Fine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMSiM_ah2vg
Steve Winwood before Traffic and Blind Faith
Pink Floyd — Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk_OJhx3d2U
From /r/LateStageCapitalism:
“Dems are the ones in power. They are, literally right now, funding, supporting, and providing cover for a genocide. When we protest, they send police to beat and arrest us. When we try to make our voices heard politically, they sue us to try and keep our candidates off the ballots. They didn’t even allow for proper primaries, on the off chance that a progressive candidate might run and call them out on their terrible policies. Instead they pretended Biden was completely 100% okay, until it was just too late for primaries, at which point they admitted to the issues they’d been lying about the week before, pressured him not to run, and handed the nomination to a candidate who did so badly in her only actual primary run that she failed to win a single state and dropped out early. This new candidate then confirmed she would continue all the policies we’d been protesting against, told us to fuck off, and then promptly swung to the right. She’s now giving speeches about having the “most lethal army in the world” and showing off her endorsements from war criminals and fascists, while confirming she has no interest in pursuing even the most basic progressive policies like healthcare or increasing the minimum wage. And every day, libs scream at us about how we must vote for her anyway, about how she is actually fantastic and even the most mild critics of her are actually russian bots, and if we don’t vote for her despite her disgusting policies and open hostility toward us, we will be personally responsible for every bad thing that will ever happen ever.
So, what would you prefer we talk about instead?
‘has been waiting for years to buy. But he and his wife held off as rates and prices marched up. Now, it feels like the time. Lamsal, an engineer by training, has been doing well financially. He and his wife are under contract to buy a new construction house for $455,000. That’s far more than the $290,000 that the same house was selling for at the end of 2020’
The market needs knife catchers Edison, good job!
‘she recently helped a family save $150,000 on a home purchase. In this instance, she found the perfect home for her buyer — but it was overpriced. So, she built a strong relationship with the listing agent by conveying the value of working with her. After establishing the relationship, Lueker learned about a pending price drop before anyone else. As a result, she was able to get her client’s offer accepted within 24 hours of the price reduction — beating out other potential buyers’
Worth every bit of that 6% for their ethics.
‘they wanted to avoid bidding wars that might drive prices up. As it happened, the dream home they bought was the second one they looked at. It had spent 12 days on the market without an offer, and they were able to negotiate down from the list price, securing a house they loved on their own terms. ‘I’m willing to make the commute’
I’ve heard that before.
Commute daters…
‘They’re offering $15,000 below asking price, and the seller has no choice but to take it’
That’s the spirit Todd!
‘How on earth did we allow housing prices to rise faster than household incomes for the past five decades, with little reason to hope this gap won’t get ever wider?’
It’s clear now more than ever that housing bubbles, and bubbles in general, are how the globalist scum run things so people don’t feel as poor.
What share of US residential housing is owned by corporate investors at this point? A friend claimed over 40% in conversation today, but I have no idea where she got her number.
Is an implication that housing is too-big-to-fail, since a concentration of housing in monopolist corporate owners (e.g. Blackstone) makes them systemically risky and hence bailout worthy in case housing prices ever go down?
I’ve seed 30% tossed around as a number, so 40% is probably true in some areas of California.
“I’ve seed 30%…”
FWIW, [d] is a long way away from [n] in the qwerty world. 🙂
A coworker used to say, “spunt” rather than “spent.” But he was also a product of the boondocks, possibly kissing cousins.
He covers:
1) How many homes investors own
2) Where they own
3) How big these investors are
https://nitter.poast.org/NotoriousAirbnb/status/1837530362173657464#m:
In San Diego, nearly 50% of the ~7,869 whole-unit, full-time Airbnbs are owned by an owner w/ more than 1 property.
These are people who whine they “cannot afford mortgages w/out Airbnb”…on their extra houses. They are investors.
Not mom & pops.
https://nitter.poast.org/NotoriousAirbnb/status/1837530666004865461#m:
Around 25% of full-time Airbnbs in San Diego are owned by an LLC or other corporate entity.
Two Outer Banks homes collapse in ocean on Friday
WRAL
3 hours ago
Another home fell into the ocean in Rodanthe on Friday night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jojCwKv_VmI
53 seconds.
The images are ridiculous. Those houses were built on stilts in the water, not even on the land. And they looked like they hadn’t been occupied in a while.
And google maps FTW. I’m not even sure I would label Rodanthe as “land.” The only paved road is the heavily engineered concrete main highway, the rest are practically dirt. Who would live here?
Arizona Aquifers
University of Arizona Cooperative Extension
5 days ago
About 5% of Arizona’s population depends on private wells for fresh water and more than 40% of our annual water use comes from Arizona’s aquifers. Following a brief introduction to regulations, requirements and equipment used for drilling a private well in Arizona, this video presents the geologic origins of Arizona’s aquifer materials with illustrations and pictures of AZ aquifers. Finally, aquifers are ranked by their ability to store and produce water.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MFW4VF3lRo
7:23.
40% of our annual water use comes from Arizona’s aquifers
When those aquifers run dry you won’t be able to give away a house in Phoenix or Tucson. And it can take centuries, if not millennia to refill them.
Springfield Ohio. Haitian Migrants.
JLR© INVESTIGATES!
61 minutes ago
Accident in Springfield. Vehicle with out license plate.
Boots on the ground. Visiting Springfield Ohio. Speaking to residents & seeing what’s going on with the Haitian Migrant Crisis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBXmHmhZsgM
13 minutes.
I feel bad for the citizens of that town.
I have had 2 vehicles hit by illegals with no drivers licence, valid tag or insurance. The last time it happened to my wife who was rear ended. Witnesses chased the illegal when he sped away through a residential neighborhood, they got the tag and description of the vehicle but the Jupiter Fl. policemen said there was no since going after him because nothing would happen to him anyway. I went looking for him, it took me about 2 hours but I found his vehicle hidden behind some apartments that were inhabited by the parents of a bunch of anchor babies.
24M investor owned, 100M total, so roughly 24%
Oops! That didn’t nest properly.
My comments are disappearing.
My wife and middle daughter shared the same birthday, September 21. They both passed away and I miss them terribly’
Happy Birthday Shannon, Happy Birthday Colleen. I love you.
Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
https://youtu.be/DPL_SV3n7IU?si=3MRyB2M0jzPJHxoF
Finance·Real estate
Jerome Powell says the Fed can cut rates but it can’t fix the housing crisis
BY Alena Botros
September 19, 2024 at 10:44 AM PDT
Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Anna Moneymaker—Getty Images
The Federal Reserve delivered its first interest rate cut in more than four years yesterday. It was a declaration of victory over once hot, hot, hot inflation. And mortgage rates responded by fluctuating in kind of a weird way. The average 30-year fixed weekly rate dropped from 6.2% to 6.09% and the daily rate rose from 6.15% to 6.17%. They might seem like tiny changes, but it matters to anyone who wants to buy a home—think of the total cost of a mortgage over its 30-year lifespan.
…
https://fortune.com/2024/09/19/jerome-powell-fed-cant-fix-housing-crisis-mortgage-rates/
U will own nothing.
Empowering Your Financial Journey
5 Assets That Middle-Class Americans Won’t Be Able to Afford in the Next Five Years Due to Inflation
By Steve Burns
Inflation has become a pressing concern for middle-class Americans, eroding their purchasing power and making it increasingly difficult to acquire and maintain essential assets. As the cost of living continues to rise faster than wages, many families are finding themselves priced out of crucial investments that have traditionally been cornerstones of financial stability and growth.
This article explores five critical assets that, due to inflation’s ongoing effects on asset prices, purchasing power, and discretionary spending, may become unaffordable for middle-class Americans in the next five years.
1. The Dream Home Slips Away: Real Estate Becomes Unattainable
The American dream of homeownership is becoming increasingly elusive for middle-class families. Single-family homes, especially in desirable locations, are rapidly appreciating, outpacing wage growth and making it difficult for many to enter the housing market, with many US areas still near all-time highs in pricing.
…
2. Retirement on the Rocks: Savings Lose Ground to Inflation
Inflation poses a significant threat to the retirement plans of middle-class Americans. As the cost of goods and services rises, the purchasing power of retirement savings diminishes, making it increasingly challenging to accumulate enough wealth for a comfortable retirement.
…
3. Farewell to Financial Freedom: Diverse Investment Portfolios Become a Luxury
A well-diversified investment portfolio has long been considered essential for long-term financial health and wealth accumulation. However, middle-class households find it increasingly difficult to build and maintain such portfolios as more of their income is directed towards essential expenses and retirement savings.
Inflation is forcing many families to allocate a significant portion of their budgets to necessities like housing, food, and healthcare, leaving less available for savings and investments.
…
4. Safety Net in Tatters: Emergency Funds Prove Harder to Maintain
Financial experts have long recommended maintaining an emergency fund to cover 3-6 months of expenses as a crucial component of economic security. However, amid persistent inflation, middle-class families find building and maintaining such funds increasingly challenging.
The primary issue is that inflation is eroding purchasing power faster than wages can keep up. As the cost of living increases, the amount needed for an adequate emergency fund also rises. Meanwhile, stagnant wages mean many families have less disposable income for savings.
…
5. Entrepreneurial Dreams Deferred: The Rising Cost of Business Ownership
Starting and operating a business has long been a path to financial success for many middle-class Americans. However, inflation is making entrepreneurship increasingly challenging and expensive.
…
https://www.newtraderu.com/2024/09/20/5-assets-that-middle-class-americans-wont-be-able-to-afford-in-the-next-five-years-due-to-inflation/
Back to Finance 101
What is a Bear Steepener?
In the world of finance, terms can often sound more complex than the concepts they represent. ‘Bear Steepener’ is one such term, often encountered in discussions about bond markets and interest rates.
To understand a ‘Bear Steepener’, it’s essential to first grasp the concept of the ‘yield curve’. In simple terms, the yield curve is a graphical representation of interest rates across different maturities (like 2-year, 10-year, 30-year, etc.) of bonds. The shape of this curve gives insights into market expectations about future interest rates and economic activity.
Note: Past performance does not guarantee future results
A ‘Bear Steepener’ is a specific movement in the yield curve, where the difference (spread) between long-term and short-term interest rates increases. Two primary drivers can cause this: 1) Short-term rate decreases faster than long-term rates, or 2) Long-term rates increase faster than short-term rates.
The term ‘bear’ signifies that this movement typically occurs in a bearish market environment, where bond prices are falling, and yields (interest rates) are rising, especially for long-term bonds.
…
https://www.firecapitalmanagement.com/finance-101/what-is-a-bear-steepener