It’s Like I’m On A Freefalling Plane And When Are We Going To Crash?
A report from Boston.com in Massachusetts. “Temperatures, home prices, and sales did cool in September. The median sales price of $850,000 for a single-family home in Greater Boston last month still broke the record for September (by $50), according to a report the Greater Boston Association of Realtors released Tuesday, but it’s a far cry from the $961,250 properties were commanding back in June. It was the third straight month of price declines, according to the GBAR. The condo market saw only 630 sales, a 10.6 percent drop compared to September 2023 and ‘the lowest for any September in over a dozen years,’ the GBAR reported. ‘We’ve also seen a sharp increase in listings since the Labor Day weekend, which has afforded buyers more time and a greater selection of homes to choose from, so they’re acting with less urgency than they did earlier in the year,’ said Jared Wilk, GBAR president. That inventory rise — the number of active listings is up at least 23 percent in both the single-family and condo markets — has also put a damper on price gains, according to the GBAR.”
Daytona Beach News-Journal in Florida. “One day in mid-September, real-estate agent Mike Gagliardi was asked about the condominium market. He checked and found that in the previous 24 hours, 60 separate condo units for sale in the Daytona Beach area had dropped their asking prices. Supply is in pursuit of demand, resulting in a condo sales slowdown. Gagliardi, team lead for the Mike Gagliardi Team with Re/Max, said the current inventory on the market is estimated to sell in 14-15 months, making it a buyer’s market. ‘We’re just not getting any buyer activity,’ he said. ‘Last year, about 50% of our deals were cash. We’re slowly seeing that transition away,’ he said. ‘It seems like the people with the cash are holding onto it.'”
“In Volusia County, condo sales are on pace for a year-over-year decline in 2024, according to numbers crunched by Mark Wright, director of real estate for the Property Appraiser’s Office. Dennis Almand — a Eustis businessman who has bought three Daytona Beach Shores condos within the last four years and is also trying to sell 276 acres in Georgia — sold one of his three condos, taking a $10,000 loss, said he didn’t mind. The other two were upgrades and the fulfillment of a dream. His wife, two children and four grandkids love the ocean. ‘You mention the beach, man,’ he said, ‘and we’re going.'”
The Union Tribune in California. “San Diego County homes are taking longer to sell and there are other signs buyers would rather walk away than make a purchase, said a new report from Orange County-based Reports on Housing. The real estate research firm said as of September, 6,990 homes have been taken off the market compared to 3,478 last year. ‘Many sellers in San Diego County have thrown in the proverbial towel,’ said Steven Thomas, founder of Reports on Housing. ‘Life changing circumstances to pull a home off the market are the least likely reason that they are pulling their homes off the market. They are pulling their homes off the market because of lack of success.'”
“He said last year, when there were fewer homes on the market, starting out with a wild listing price didn’t make much of a difference. With more homes for sale now, there just aren’t enough well-heeled buyers to bolster the market. Bolstering his claim is that 34 percent of current listings have had their asking price reduced at least once. Also, the time it takes for a home to sell, called expected market time, has increased to 80 days, compared to 57 days last year. That figure includes all housing types — single-family, condo, townhouse — and all price points.”
“There’s an economic principle that gets thrown around business circles that says, technically, all homes are affordable because someone is buying them. Thomas said that’s not how he would describe things. ‘If that was true, there wouldn’t be any homes languishing for a long time,’ he said.”
The San Francisco Chronicle. “Ten years ago, it would have been odd for a California homebuyer to talk with real estate agent Alex Michas about home insurance early on in the purchasing process. In today’s market, home insurance can make or break a sale. ‘I think there’s going to be some upset people when it becomes clear the impact this insurance situation is having on their values, but that isn’t really there yet because interest rates are sort of shielding that,’ Michas said. Meanwhile, 13% of agents in California had a sales transaction canceled due to not finding insurance in 2024. That’s almost double what buyer’s agents found in 2023, according to data from the California Association of Realtors.”
“‘I’ve heard of stories where someone goes into escrow and they find out the fire insurance is $7,500 a year, and they can’t afford that. It’s just not something they can do on top of the mortgage,’ said Loren Bennett, a Redfin agent focusing in Ventura County. ‘It’s definitely a change. I definitely think it’s here to stay, which is disappointing in a way, but I think it is something that we need to get used to.'”
From KOMO TV. “An affordable housing provider sued the city of Seattle on Tuesday, claiming that a series of ordinances meant to help tenants are proving financially disastrous for housing providers. GRE Downtowner, LLC, owns the Addison on Fourth apartment building in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District. In court filings, the company claims that a half dozen ordinances adopted by the city since 2018 have made it unprofitable to operate affordable housing complexes. Coupled with the Winter Eviction Ban, the COVID-19 Eviction Moratorium, the six-month notice on rent increases as well as providing relocation assistance if rent increases exceed 10%, and Sean Flynn, the executive director of the Rental Housing Association of Washington said it creates an inhospitable landscape to house the city’s most vulnerable residents.”
“The lawsuit claims that changed once Seattle started adopting the tenant protections in 2018 and now the building has a 38% vacancy rate, which it blames on factors related to these city ordinances. ‘The Addison no longer has enough revenue to pay its lender,’ Flynn said.”
Loop North News in Illinois. “Apartment owners apparently don’t like Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and his band of extreme left-wing aldermen sticking their noses into landlord private property rights. Chicago’s small, ‘Ma and Pa’ apartment building owners in six rapidly appreciating Northwest and West Side neighborhoods say the mayor – an avowed Democratic Socialist – and left-wing Chicago City Council have launched an attack on their property rights. And experts say that could cost owners money and loss of control over their real property. The ordinance purports to ‘preserve naturally occurring affordable housing’ by requiring owners of rental apartments who wish to sell their buildings to give tenants a right-of-first-refusal to buy.'”
“A North Side real estate broker – and resident owner of his renovated three-flat family home in the Avondale neighborhood – had a strong reaction to the ordinance. ‘The anti-gentrification ordinance is a political ploy by Mayor Johnson and his gang of super-liberal alderpeople to appeal to their voting base, and keep them in office,’ the Avondale resident surmised. ‘The ordinance may slow down demolition of aging frame two-flat buildings because of the sharply higher demolition fees. However, any new replacement housing will carry higher rents and will generate much more real estate tax dollars for the city.'”
The Ottawa Citizen. “Ashcroft Homes has lost control of its much-troubled housing development, Eastboro, which has been sent into receivership. Ontario Superior Court Justice Owen Rees has appointed MNP Ltd. as receiver over all of the property and assets of Ashcroft Homes – Eastboro Inc., a subsidiary of Ashcroft Homes. The Royal Bank of Canada applied for the order under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, arguing that Ashcroft has failed to make $4.85 million in interest payments on an $80 million bank debt, and has failed to offer ‘a satisfactory plan’ for restarting the stalled Eastboro project in Orleans. ‘Development on the Eastboro development has been halted and the debtor is shown itself unable to obtain funding for the additional works needed,’ Sylvia Kovesdi, RBC’s senior director of special loans and advisory services, said in an affidavit, adding: ‘The project is a failure.'”
“The receiver has now assumed control of Eastboro’s assets, including the deposits made by would-be homeowners in the 200-acre development. One of those homebuyers, Sami Bibi, 57, an economist at Statistics Canada, made a down payment on his four-bedroom Eastboro house in October 2019. His $670,000 house was finished in June 2023, but Bibi and his family were not allowed to take possession because the subdivision’s stormwater system remains unfinished. Bibi said Wednesday he’s saddened by the latest news, but not overly surprised since Ashcroft had not provided a timeline for the sewer work. ‘I suspected they had a problem,’ Bibi said.”
BBC News in the UK. “Kevin and his family moved into their new home on April Fool’s Day 2020, something he says is ironic given his living room ceiling is still leaking four years later. Kevin says problems with the house in the village of Mindenhurst, Surrey, started before they got the keys, when they were told by Cala Homes that safety balustrades would need to be installed across all the upstairs windows because the windowsills were too low.”
“‘From the minute we walked in there was a glut of issues,’ says Kevin. ‘The front windows didn’t shut, the alarms didn’t arm, there was no power in the kitchen, the plumbing didn’t work and there was no hot or cold water in the showers. We’ve had the patio re-laid three times, the driveway re-laid twice… it’s just been a nightmare.’ Kevin says the house had a total of 184 problems including water leaks. Two independent chartered surveyors, Colin Bernhardt and Robin Austin, inspected Kevin’s home. Within an hour of arriving they agreed Cala Homes could have done an electronic test to quickly work out where Kevin’s ceiling leak was coming from, rather than their repeated, failed attempts to fix it.”
“‘This is a mastic joint, it allows the building to contract and expand,’ Colin says as he pulls it out of brickwork on the roof. ‘It’s not doing anything. These are all gaps where water can ingress,’ Robin adds. ‘I just think it’s the blind leading the blind in terms of what I’m seing here.’ Kevin says he approached the NHBC in September 2021, who told them to work with Cala as his dispute was within the two-year period. The issues with the home have been ‘really tough,’ he says, and began at a particularly difficult time for the family.”
“‘[We had a] new baby, three small children, Covid… We’ve had to go through counselling as a couple, this has really impacted our lives. The communication between the contractors and subcontractors has been poor. We have had to effectively project manage every issue from start to finish. We looked at selling 18 months ago… and the advice that we took was that we probably couldn’t sell this house at the moment, we’d lose too much money.'”
ABC News in Australia. “An independent review has exposed serious failures in how the Victorian Building Authority (VBA) handled complaints from home-owners facing years of financial distress over defective or unfinished homes. The damning report has prompted the government to announce it will replace the VBA with a new, more powerful watchdog with greater powers to tackle sub-standard building work. It found poor building standards and unethical conduct had flourished in an ineffective regulatory environment overseen by the VBA. Their complaints related to the construction of 75 homes, 22 of which remain incomplete. Four complainants are embroiled in legal action. In one example, a couple approaching retirement age continued to pay for alternative accommodation nearly five years after they signed a construction contract for a home where allegedly major defects later prompted a messy dispute.”
“All the complainants have suffered ‘severe financial, emotional and physical distress’ from their interactions with the building industry, the legal system and the VBA, the report said. ‘Every aspect of their lives has been negatively impacted,’ the report said. ‘They have watched their savings or superannuation be replaced with debts they cannot bear.'”
“Property owner Kerry Ould was one of the case studies included in the review. She invested her superannuation into a unit, but discovered it was covered in dangerous combustible cladding and riddled with major defects. Ms Ould said the VBA were of little help during her ongoing battle with property developers. ‘They’ve let us down. They’ve destroyed us. For eight years my life has been on hold. It’s like I’m on a freefalling plane and when are we going to crash?’ she told ABC Radio Melbourne.”
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‘Almand — a Eustis businessman who has bought three Daytona Beach Shores condos within the last four years and is also trying to sell 276 acres in Georgia — sold one of his three condos, taking a $10,000 loss, said he didn’t mind. The other two were upgrades and the fulfillment of a dream. His wife, two children and four grandkids love the ocean. ‘You mention the beach, man,’ he said, ‘and we’re going’
It’s smart to take yer a$$ poundings like a man Dennis. Water under the bridge. Sux to be yer former neighbors though.
Based on what I’m seeing $10,000 is just a little kick in the @ss. I’m looking at one Daytona Beach condo that sold in 2022 for $239K that was listed for sale in 2023 for $250K. In 222 days it has dropped in ask from $250K to $185K with no takers. This appears to be the rule rather than the exception.
Florida is finished
Realtors are liars.
“Not all liars are realtors, but all realtors are liars.” – Socrates
‘[We had a] new baby, three small children, Covid… We’ve had to go through counselling as a couple, this has really impacted our lives. The communication between the contractors and subcontractors has been poor. We have had to effectively project manage every issue from start to finish. We looked at selling 18 months ago… and the advice that we took was that we probably couldn’t sell this house at the moment, we’d lose too much money’
Good advice Kevin, don’t give it away!
The Karens on this dude’s HOA are going to be so triggered.
https://x.com/ClownWorld_/status/1849229240086225197
Trump Derangement Syndrome is America’s #1 untreated mental illness.
https://x.com/ClownWorld_/status/1849024199848837239
The day of the pillow approaches.
The BLM-Antifa rent-a-mobs have seen lean times since their globalist oligarch financial backers stopped sponsoring their Mostly Peaceful Protests, but the cash will start flowing again given the Oligopoly’s displeasure over a Trump victory.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/10/report-black-lives-matter-network-is-running-cash/
Comrade Harris has been a DEI faker for her entire career.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/10/22/kamala-harris-admitted-law-school-ucsfs-adverse-experiences-program-parents-were-tenured-professors/
What happened to the Politics of Joy?
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/10/23/dark-kamala-harris-to-close-campaign-with-angry-screed-against-trump-by-national-mall/
It’s going to be non stop lawfare against him after he’s sworn in.
They are pulling their homes off the market because of lack of success.’
Suck it, greedheads.
In court filings, the company claims that a half dozen ordinances adopted by the city since 2018 have made it unprofitable to operate affordable housing complexes.
“Affordable housing complexes” were never meant to be self-sustaining. Rather, they are lucrative taxpayer-funded patronage and graft rackets for local Democrat-Bolshevik apparatchiks and their political cronies.
Spin this, REIC shills.
https://x.com/charliebilello/status/1849195615479087538
Open borders have consequences.
https://x.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1849432092595175803/photo/1
First Lizzo now Jelly Roll….
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/jelly-roll-loses-100-lbs-192454519.html?guccounter=1
No matter how much you think you hate the globalist scum media, it isn’t nearly enough.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13996867/LA-Times-editor-owner-trump-kamala-harris.html
At least it was cheaper than building the wall:
“The eye-watering financial cost of the migrant crisis hit $150 billion last year and is causing devastating consequences for residents of hard-hit cities struggling to cope with the influx, The Post has learned.
Of that figure, calculated by Washington DC-based non-profit Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), $67 billion came from the federal government, but the majority of the burden was shouldered by states and local governments.
FAIR estimates there were at least 15.5 million “illegal alien residents” in the country at the beginning of 2022, with federal funding amounting to $3,187 per migrant per year, an increase of 45% since their last survey in 2017.”
https://nypost.com/2024/10/23/us-news/migrant-crisis-cost-150bn-in-2023-local-towns-cutting-costs-to-cope/
15.5 million is that a lot?
SS Administration is screwing over the Olds by using falsified inflation data that screws SS recipients out of honest COLA increases.
https://kfor.com/news/local/how-the-2025-social-security-cola-compares-to-recent-years/
Grandma must starve to pay for the illegals.
The dollar’s days are numbered as the Fed & uniparty hurtle us down the road to Zimbabwe 2.0. Got gold?
https://www.reuters.com/world/spurred-by-shared-grievances-brics-gathers-pace-2024-10-24/
Few things are as satisfying as seeing Real Journalists suffering the consequences of the socialist utopia they’ve been promoting in states like California.
https://x.com/cmarinucci/status/1848761187888140521
The person doing that is probably just stealing fuel, so he can go to town and steal baby food and diapers. So, yes, that is a California thing.
A reader sent these in:
*FED’S KASHKARI: IT WASN’T LABOR MARKET THAT CAUSED INFLATION
Correct, it was the Fed that caused inflation
https://x.com/zerohedge/status/1848423879192035532
Don’t let anyone convince you that homes can’t be built any cheaper. They can, land prices, taxes, and development fees aren’t set in stone. Neither are construction costs.
https://x.com/JonFlynnREstats/status/1848778906163093862
People WITHOUT a mortgage are really not interested however people WITH a mortgage are EXTREMELY interested
The combination of Batshit Crazy House Prices which creates the need for huge mortgages & a massive increase from 0.25% to 5% will tend to foster HUGE attention
https://x.com/ronmortgageguy/status/1848351018314019185
Let’s be honest
A country with a big chunck of its population obsessed with Interest Rate Movements has clearly gone down a wrong path
Unfortunately I don’t see any way it will change in the near future
https://x.com/ronmortgageguy/status/1848351020675445005
September home sales dropped to their lowest level since 2010 as real estate data begins to re-frost
https://x.com/MacroEdgeRes/status/1849092992696496273
Apple has sharply scaled back production of its Vision Pro mixed reality headset since the early summer and could stop making the existing version of the device entirely by year end
Consumers didn’t want $3,500 wired ski goggles?
https://x.com/MacroEdgeRes/status/1849106357821059353
Winnebago is laying off employees due to a substantial slowdown in sales for RVs and recreational vehicles
https://x.com/MacroEdgeRes/status/1849148667694813269
Flashback to 2009.
https://x.com/BarefootStudent/status/1849152663432171523
Only instances the Bank of Canada has deployed a 50BP cut
2001
2009
2020
Today
🇨🇦👏🏻 Eh!
https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1849115553232785695
How long until the muppets are back on CNBC calling for a 75bp rate cut?
https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1849150529068466206
Real-time measures of job openings not looking so hot lately.
https://x.com/PeterBerezinBCA/status/1849119156370628651
When will this clown show up to ask for an emergency rate cut?
https://x.com/INArteCarloDoss/status/1849149655684190599
A United Nations report found that female athletes have lost nearly 900 MEDALS to trans-identifying men.
Over 600 female athletes in more than 400 competitions across 29 DIFFERENT sports have been defeated by men.
Will the Left still say this isn’t happening?
https://x.com/carolinedowney_/status/1849071605755847087
French authorities seized about $75 million worth of French Riviera real estate and luxury cars as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering linked to Russian businessmen Ruslan Goryukhin, who appeared in #PandoraPapers, and Mikhail Opengeym.
https://x.com/ICIJorg/status/1849202893896753401
International students and Temporary foreign workers live in better quality, and newer, housing than Canadian-born citizens do -Stats Canada study, released today
https://x.com/Tablesalt13/status/1849068672892981331
The Trudeau government to announce significant immigration cuts in the coming weeks after almost getting fired by his own MPs
https://x.com/Tablesalt13/status/1849182961360417146
The “refi boomlet” is fizzling following the latest jump back up in mortgage rates
https://x.com/NewsLambert/status/1849174895009140941
My brother bought one of these mass produced houses in Glendale Arizona. He paid heavy because they suckered him with a 4.5% rate but when you’re paying $100k more than the house is actually worth they don’t care about shaving a point or two off the rate
https://x.com/Rochestergrey/status/1849177373008154753
JUST GOT A QUOTE FOR MY CYBERTRUCK CAR INSURANCE IN TORONTO
$1901 A MONTH LOL
https://x.com/gurgavin/status/1849131793082892446
BOJ’S GOVERNOR UEDA: THE BOJ WANTS TO LIFT INFLATION EXPECTATIONS TO A NEW LEVEL.
https://x.com/financialjuice/status/1849165395086975431
For this crime in France he was sentenced to two years in prison with a suspended sentence of one year. He should be free today.
https://x.com/RadioGenoa/status/1849121913945403868
The mortgage industry faces more risk than it has in the past 30 or 40 years, former Ginnie Mae President Ted Tozer said, because in 2020 the Federal Reserve threw everything it had at the housing crisis and now it has no ammunition left.
https://x.com/IMFpubs/status/1849095937802609018
Boeing $BA disasters are unending.
https://x.com/ParrotCapital/status/1849189668862173285
I started splitting out new construction when I run stats for my reports and the inventory is near 6 months in one of my primary markets. As we have been saying, by next May when everyone is listing existing, it is going to be a blood bath and then, we will see the real capitulation begin.
https://x.com/jimmydean197/status/1849115623806099718
“The only regulation that works is failure.” – Rick Santelli, 2017
https://x.com/RudyHavenstein/status/1849249395717390517
🇨🇦RUMOURS FROM THE HALL:
The Liberal Government is contemplating an Early Mortgage renewal window in 2025 to give Canadians the option to append to their existing mortgage terms, a renewal term of 10 years at 3.5%.
The idea is to support mortgage owners that have artificially low rates, the likes of 1.39% and protect against further globally driven rate hikes. The move is aimed to insulate the banks from a tsunami of mortgage defaults and give room for home prices to naturally continue their correction and open up more supply.
https://x.com/TdLeaker/status/1849118963956883666
Governments will do everything they can to save an economy built on one asset class 🤷♂️
https://x.com/mortimer_1/status/1849124003233120408
But don’t worry when you don’t have a job to buy that house or support that mortgage renewal… 🤷♂️
https://x.com/mortimer_1/status/1849110064491372778
40% of housing starts in 2Q19 were < $300K per Zonda. It’s 9% today. https://x.com/AliWolfEcon/status/1849214766780469478
Thought of the day: If RE agents and mortgage brokers actually knew which way rates were going, they’d be bond traders.
https://x.com/GayBearRes/status/1849072233181782382
The monthly payment on buying an entry-level home is 45% more than renting. We need a big drop in mortgage rates to get anywhere near the historical norm of 14%, which I highlight here in some falling mortgage rate scenarios.
https://x.com/RickPalaciosJr/status/1849093953779544070
Interest rates matter to more than just debt junkies. They manipulate the stock market, bond investments, etc. Worrying about interest rate for your house rental from the bank, car rental from the bank, or credit card interest rates makes you a fool.
“A country with a big chunck of its population obsessed with Interest Rate Movements”
Fidelity SPAXX was paying 4.97% APY before the criminal Fed cut rates.
The War On Savers never ends.
The Trudeau government to announce significant immigration cuts in the coming weeks after almost getting fired by his own MPs
He is going to hang on until the bitter end.
“female athletes have lost nearly 900 MEDALS to trans-identifying men.”
Females are strong and independent and don’t need no man. They created this problem (by allowing it), they can solve this problem on their own.
TBH anything that kills women’s sports is ok with me.
“They created this problem (by allowing it), they can solve this problem on their own.”
“Honesty does not get you laid.” —Unknown
“The Trudeau government to announce significant immigration cuts”
nonsense. 485k/year to 395k/year. It’s maybe a 20% cut. This in a nation that was about 18 million people. That’s a huge percentage of their population EVERY YEAR. Canadians are being replaced.
about 18 million people
In 1960. Now it’s closer to 40 million.
Queer Works CEO indicted in fraud scheme involving Palm Springs universal basic income pilot program
Jacob Rostovsky, the CEO of the local non-profit Queer Works, has been indicted on 53 felony counts in a fraud scheme surrounding a universal basic income pilot program in Palm Springs, the Riverside County District Attorney’s office announced.
District Attorney Mike Hestrin said a jury returned a 53-count indictment against Rostovsky on Tuesday.
Rostovsky, 33, was indicted on a variety of charges including fraudulent claims, grand theft, misappropriation of public funds, insurance fraud, perjury, and money laundering, according to the DA’s office.
The indictment includes an aggravated white-collar crime enhancement due to the significant economic loss of the scheme. Rostovsky surrendered at the DA’s Office on October 17 and posted $944,000 bail, authorities confirmed.
“I am calling on the Riverside County Civil Grand Jury to investigate any potential government malfeasance or misconduct that may have occurred in the administration of these contracts,” Hestrin said. “It is simply unacceptable that public funds are handed out with the lack of due diligence or oversight that is alleged in this case. The people of Riverside County deserve better from their public officials who have a duty to act as responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars.”
The grand jury indictment was unsealed when Rostovsky was arraigned Wednesday at the Hall of Justice in Riverside. Queer Works, founded by Rostovsky, was purportedly set up to provide mental health services to the transgender and nonbinary community.
In July 2021, Queer Works received grant funding from Riverside County for various programs aimed at assisting homeless individuals and victims of domestic violence.
In March 2022, the City of Palm Springs agreed to provide Queer Works with $200,000 to develop a universal basic income pilot program. In July 2022, the Palm Springs City Council approved a request for an additional $500,000 in matching funds for a universal basic income grant that Queer Works intended to pursue with the State of California.
https://kesq.com/news/crime/2024/10/23/queer-works-ceo-indicted-in-fraud-scheme-involving-palm-springs-universal-basic-income-pilot-program/
The Homeless Industrial Complex is profitable. Just make sure the brown envelopes reach the right hands. Yes, you’ll have to give up some of your plunder. That’s how it works.
“Rostovsky, 33, was indicted on a variety of charges including fraudulent claims, grand theft, misappropriation of public funds, insurance fraud, perjury, and money laundering, according to the DA’s office.”
Heck of a guy!
A-List Thai Stars Among 18 Arrested In Pyramid Scheme Fraud Case That Has Gripped The Country
A pyramid scheme fraud case has gripped Thailand after 18 people, including A-list stars, were arrested and assets worth 225 million baht (S$8.8mil) seized in connection with the case last week.
Top TV host Kan Kantathavorn, actor Sam Yuranunt Pamornmontri, and actress Peechaya Watanamamontree, better known as Min, had allegedly helped convince victims to join the pyramid scheme by The iCon Group, by enticing them to buying the company’s health and dietary supplements and making financial commitments.
More than 1,100 victims have filed online fraud allegations against the company for losses exceeding 400mil baht (S$15.7mil).
The 18 suspects, charged with defrauding the public and violating the computer crimes act, have been denied bail.
Actress Min, who served as iCon’s communications director, said she joined the company a year ago believing it was reputable.
The 35-year-old, who rose to fame after winning Miss Teen Thailand 2006, expressed regret for not thoroughly researching its background. She also apologised to those affected by the alleged fraud.
Host of popular music game show The Wall Song, Kan, 38, who, according to reports, was iCon’s chief marketing officer, was also arrested. Since then, several brands have cut ties with him.
https://www.8days.sg/entertainment/asian/thai-stars-involved-pyramid-scheme-fraud-case-837221
Over there, it’s man against man…
Here, it’s the other way around.
“…convince victims to join the pyramid scheme by The iCon Group, by enticing them to buying the company’s health and dietary supplements..”
IIRC, the oldest pyramid scheme on record going back to the late 1880’s was based on selling snake oil as a miracle health supplement.
Not a lot of progress since then…
“…The iCon Group…”
Short for: I will Con you
LMAO!!
A recent article from the Wall Street Journal highlights a significant decline in the resale values of electric vehicles. Two years ago, certain used electric models were fetching prices equal to or exceeding those of new vehicles, driven by supply chain disruptions that led to a car shortage. Now, dealerships are overflowing with unsold electric cars, prompting manufacturers to reduce prices on new models to stimulate sales. These price cuts have positively impacted sales figures; for instance, financing incentives boosted Tesla’s global deliveries in the third quarter, reversing earlier declines. However, these discounts have also caused the prices of used electric vehicles to drop, compounding the difficulties facing the auto industry as it grapples with the transition to battery technology and electric vehicle production. Many consumers are becoming disillusioned with electric technology due to inadequate charging infrastructure and other concerns surrounding electric brands. Despite these challenges, the Biden-Harris administration has set a goal through EPA tailpipe emissions regulations for two-thirds of new car sales to be electric by 2032.
According to the Wall Street Journal, in September, the average selling price of a three-year-old electric vehicle stood at approximately $28,400, which is lower than that of a gasoline-powered car of the same age and represents a 25% drop since the start of 2023. This significant decrease in the value of used electric vehicles contrasts sharply with the traditional used-car market, where values have remained relatively stable during the same timeframe.
Tesla, the leading electric vehicle manufacturer globally, slashed prices by up to one-third on select new models in the U.S. last year, prompting other automakers to follow suit with their own price reductions. Additionally, in January, rental company Hertz sold off a significant portion of its Tesla fleet onto the used car market after finding that electric vehicles were underperforming in rentals, further driving down prices. According to the Wall Street Journal, the average listing price for Tesla’s most popular models, the Model 3 and Model Y, fell by about 25% over the past year.
While the drop in used electric vehicle prices might make them more appealing to potential buyers, many current owners who paid a premium for their cars now find themselves in a difficult position, owing more on their loans than their vehicles are worth. As the Wall Street Journal notes, normally, buyers gradually build equity in their vehicles as they make loan payments, but the reverse has happened to some EV owners because of the price reductions, making some vehicles worth less. For example, at the start of this year, the value of a 2018 Tesla Model 3 had dropped so much that it was worth $10,000 less than what was owed on the loan. An Edmunds study of EV trade-in values showed that in August, owners on average owed about $10,000 more than the car was worth—up from about $8,000 at the start of 2023.
https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/renewable/used-electric-vehicles-sell-for-bargain-prices/
I recall a recent thread on X about the high price of cars. A bunch of EV shills appeared and said they love their EV’s and would never go back to ICE.
Yeah, since ICE cars are pricey the obvious solution is to buy an impractical EV that’s even more expensive and depreciates more.
“inadequate charging infrastructure ”
Yes, we’ve all been banging on about that for years now. Instead of incentivizing consumers to buy the car, they should have incentivized business owners to install charging stations (or maybe they already did).
I’m surprised that Tesla hasn’t taken more of a lead on this, but maybe it’s not surprising. Does anyone else get the impression that Elon has lost interest in Tesla and shifted his focus to X and SpaceX, with a side quest into PA politics? If I were Elon, I would have started to slowly sell of Tesla stock, but I’m not sure it’s legal for him to do that. He’d start a panic if he did that.
“….incentivized business owners to install charging stations…”
Building adequate numbers of strategically placed charging stations either public or private is going to take many decades.
But even if you could wave a magic electric wand, and build all those stations overnight, where is the extra electrical grid and generation capacity going to come from?
Just getting the permits to build a new power generation station in California can in itself take decades.
Delta Airlines Inc. has for the past few years been among the biggest corporate buyers of carbon offsets. That demand — from airlines, energy companies, automakers and logistics firms — drove forecasts of a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars in the coming years.
But after strong pushback from experts, Delta is now among a growing list of major companies that have ended purchases of these cheap credits. Alphabet Inc.’s Google and EasyJet Plc have recently joined in the rejection of what had been an enormously popular approach to sustainability. Many of these companies are now focused on the more expensive task of reducing their own emissions.
As a result, there’s been a sharp decline in sales in 2023, according to a Bloomberg Green analysis of the most recent public datasets covering 320,000 offset transactions. While the data don’t include every transaction, the sample covers the vast majority. It’s the second consecutive annual decline, pointing towards an emerging trend.
Among the offset purchases seeing the steepest declines are credits tied to renewable-energy projects, which fell 29%. Most experts have written off these offsets as junk because electricity from wind, hydro and solar plants is already low cost. That suggests extra funding from the sale of the credits doesn’t contribute to further reduction in emissions.
“For many years, scientific reports have repeatedly questioned the credibility of offsets from renewable-energy projects,” said Lambert Schneider, a carbon markets expert at the German research organization Öko-Institut. That scrutiny culminated over the summer with a decision by a crucial standard-setting organization to classify a large portion of carbon offsets as useless.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/more-companies-ditch-junk-carbon-090031163.html
But after strong pushback from experts, Delta is now among a growing list of major companies that have ended purchases of these cheap credits.
What purpose do these “credits” serve other than to virtue signal?
RFK Jr. Flips the Script on Kamala’s Lies About Trump Using the Military on the Public
It turns out that the Biden-Harris regime expanded domestic military authority to include LETHAL force.
What this means is the Department of Defense now has the power to step in and use lethal force within U.S. borders, even against its own citizens, when it deems lives are at risk.
8:31 PM · Oct 23, 2024
https://x.com/VigilantFox/status/1849247231066460657
Inflation is improving, but pervasive tipping makes Canadians feel otherwise
With Canada’s inflation rate now back below 2 per cent, the Bank of Canada has seemingly won the fight against fast-rising prices. Yet the bank’s own survey of consumer attitudes shows people believe inflation is still rampant.
One driver of that perception gap could be the onslaught of requests consumers now face for tips – both the shock of being prompted for sky-high tips at some payment terminals, and the request for tips from businesses that never expected gratuities in the past.
The surge in inflation that began in early 2022 and the expansion of tipping were each born out of the chaos wrought by the pandemic. Factory shutdowns, border closings and labour disruptions threw a wrench into supply chains, causing the price of goods and services to spiral higher.
Meanwhile, during the lockdowns consumers were encouraged to tip generously to workers as plummeting restaurant traffic cut into the livelihoods of people risking their health to serve customers. A proliferation of payment terminals at many smaller businesses and a big increase in the use of contactless payment methods during the pandemic made tipping even more prevalent.
Inflation has largely gone away. However tip-flation, powered by the twin forces of guilt and technology, is proving harder to undo.
Meanwhile, fast-food chains, as well as non-restaurant businesses such as oil change shops and retail stores, have started to prompt customers for a gratuity at the till.
“We’ve all probably seen more and more tipping in our day-to-day lives,” said Andrew Barclay, an economist with the consumer price division at Statistics Canada. “When you go to the restaurant the tip options seem to be higher, and there are more tipping options for takeaway food or for services that didn’t use to involve tipping.”
However, Statscan does not factor in tips when it measures how prices have changed for its monthly consumer price index.
Vittoria Gallone, a real estate agent in Mississauga, Ont., is one of those Canadians who found herself tipping more generously during the pandemic but who has grown frustrated with Canada’s pervasive tipping culture.
“Those were hard times and I wanted to support workers, but tipping expectations just kept going up and never pulled back,” she said, adding she gets especially annoyed when prompted for a tip for takeout food before she’s even received any service.
“Even though inflation has come down, high prices are still hurting a lot of people, and then you have establishments gouging people with this sense of entitlement over tips,” she said.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-tipping-culture-inflation-consumers/
LMAO. That’s right its the inflation destroying your life its the tipping. You don’t hate the media enuff
Like they hold a gun to your head and demand a tip.
When I drove to Alaska and back in 2001 K-dns would tell me, we don’t tip like you do in the states. I was eating out a lot and it felt weird eating a meal and just walking off so I would usually leave a few K-dn pesos.
Ottawa is set to announce a major reduction in the number of permanent residents it plans to allow to settle in Canada in a sharp change of course as public support for rising immigration continues to wane.
The announcement of this year’s immigration levels plan on Thursday, which a senior government source says will be made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, will set out how many permanent residents Canada plans to accept in the next three years.
Another senior government source said Ottawa plans to reduce permanent resident numbers from 485,000 this year to 395,000 in 2025. It plans to cut numbers to 380,000 in 2026 and to 365,000 in 2027, the source said. The Globe and Mail is not naming the sources as they are not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
The policy reversal follows a sharp drop in public support for current immigration levels as polls show Canadians are concerned about its impact, including on the cost of housing.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-ottawa-to-announce-reduction-in-number-of-permanent-residents-as/
oh BFD
That’s like a 20% cut in something that should be about 1/10th that size. (it should be zero)
all hat, no cattle.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, while defending his government’s immigration policies in Parliament on Wednesday (Oct 23) became the butt of jokes for using a made-up word “brokenist”.
Trudeau was defending his party’s record on criticism when Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre seized the opportunity to lambaste the Canadian PM, linking immigration issues to Canada’s ongoing housing crisis. Mocking Trudeau for his strained relationship with his own party, he commented, “cannot fix what he broke because he’s busy fighting his own caucus.”
“Once again, we see the leader of the Opposition is pushing a ‘brokenist’ vision of Canada that is simply not aligned with the reality,” said Trudeau. To this, Poilievre quickly retorted with a smirk, “It’s not even a word,” drawing laughter from the chamber.
https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/trudeau-breaks-english-brokenist-canadian-pm-gets-mocked-in-parliament-and-on-internet-for-made-up-word/ar-AA1sPDEE
‘brokenist’ vision of Canada that is simply not aligned with the reality,” said Trudeau
Just when I thought I couldn’t possibly dislike that POS anymore than I already did he goes ahead and says ‘brokenist’.
Strong, united, grumbling Liberals
Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU emerged from Wednesday’s caucus meeting to report that his party is strong and united. Forget about the dozens of MPs who just told him it’s time for him to go.
— A learning exercise: For three hours Wednesday, MPs took turns at an open mic — either swiping at Trudeau’s leadership, or backing it.
Two sources tell POLITICO about 50 MPs stepped up to the microphone; approximately 30 called on Trudeau to resign.
“In my nine years of caucus it was the most meaningful, direct and blunt caucus that I’ve seen,” said Liberal MP WAYNE LONG, who has been calling on Trudeau to resign since earlier this year.
Like Long, dissenting Liberal MP SEAN CASEY says his opinion of his leader remains unchanged.
Several MPs told Playbook it’s time for Trudeau to reflect. Casey would not disclose meeting details, but he said a sense of finality “will become evident.”
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/ottawa-playbook/2024/10/24/strong-united-grumbling-liberals-00185271
Russia’s T-72 Is The Best Tank on Earth and Ukraine Knows It
Russia’s Soviet-era T-72 Main Battle Tank (MBT) has proven to be a key asset in the Ukraine War, outperforming even newer tank models like the Russian T-14 Armata and NATO-supplied systems like the U.S. Abrams and German Leopard-2.
-The T-72’s simplicity, adaptability, and cost-effectiveness make it ideal for the harsh conditions of trench warfare in Ukraine.
-Enhanced with reactive armor and countermeasures, the T-72 remains highly resilient despite high losses.
-Its ability to withstand minefields and engage in brutal combat has made it a reliable, lethal platform, reinforcing its role in Russia’s military strategy.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the Soviet-era T-72 Main Battle Tank (MBT) is the best tank in the world. No, it’s not high-tech or fancy in any way, like the American Abrams or German Leopard-2. But it gets the job done.
And, as we’ve seen in the Ukraine War, it gets the job done better than any newer tank system, including Russia’s T-14 Armata, that it might be compared to.
Ukraine is a snapshot of the future of warfare and, boy, is it a blast from the past. Trench warfare has defined the frontline. It has become a war of brutal attrition. Newer platforms, such as the aforementioned Abrams MBT or the T-14 Armata for Russia, have failed to live up to much older systems, like the Soviet-era T-72 or the even older T-64 MBT. Sure, drones and javelins are newer bits of tech that have reshaped the war. But these are ancillary to the larger, costlier systems I’m writing about here.
Russia has demonstrated that the T-72 is their best tank in practical terms. Its resilience in the muddy, bloody killing fields of Ukraine is unmatched. There have been instances where these thundering behemoths have been equipped with mine plows and utterly cleared mines allowing for Russian troops to follow through. Even after receiving countless blows from the mines, the T-72s in question roared on, as if they had merely hit a speed bump.
So, to be clear, the T-72, a decades-old platform, is performing much better than the faulty systems that NATO has lavished upon Ukraine. In fact, in many cases, as with the U.S.-provided Abrams MBTs, the Ukrainians have had to pull them entirely from the front as they were not serving the Ukrainian military well. For a fraction of the cost of these other, newer systems, the Russians are simply amping up the old T-72 with defenses like reactive armor and greater countermeasures against mines and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs).
Of course, multiple Russian T-72s have either been destroyed or captured, notably at the messy start of the war. But the nature of the Ukraine War is unlike anything the West has had to fight in generations. The T-72s have obliterated Ukrainian tanks in battle, including more advanced Western tanks, showcasing their effectiveness in harsh conditions. But the losses for the T-72s have been high.
While that might sound daunting, the reason that Moscow is relying on these older tanks to do the heavy lifting for their tank force is that they are cheaper to replace and easier to maintain.
T-72s are adaptable, especially when enhanced by copious modifications. Because of its aforementioned simplicity, these tanks can survive far longer in the intense combat conditions of the Ukraine War. It also makes training easier.
T-72 crews are generally ready for combat. They are usually competent and they happen to be in good spirits for the most part, even when some of the other elements of the Russian force are demoralized. That’s because the T-72 crews know they’re using an effective and lethal combat system.
Ukraine and NATO should not underestimate the old T-72. These tanks are not old at all, in fact. They’re in the prime of their lives, as the Russian experience in Ukraine shows us.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russias-t-72-is-the-best-tank-on-earth-and-ukraine-knows-it/ar-AA1sNYZL
The T72 is basically unchallenged in Ukraine due to the lack of Javelin AT weapons, no close air support, etc., and there’s lots of them. I still wouldn’t care to be in any vehicle on the battlefield these days since technology has obviated their advantage.
At the time they were introduced, the US tanks were going to be a ‘game changer’. I watched some videos of soldiers there criticizing the US tank. It’s too heavy and gets stuck easy. One guy said they built it for operating on sand. The other big complaint was it runs on part gas and part diesel, which is a headache.
The Abrams tank runs on Jet A, aviation fuel. It also requires lots of logistical support that Ukraine lacks. On the other hand, those Bradley fighting vehicles have done well in that environment, but they’re part of an equipment battle plan, not a stand alone weapon system.
The MSM is pulling out all the stops. Headline from CNN:
You can’t make it up
Scammers are stealing homes from under their owners’ noses. AI is making it scarily easy.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/scammers-stealing-homes-under-owners-155314784.html
Some real-estate scammers operate by transferring a home’s deed away from its rightful owners.
The owner of a $137.5 million LA mansion says they’re a victim of deed fraud and can’t sell it.
The increasing ubiquity of AI tools makes faking deeds and ownership easier than ever.
Spelling Manor — a 120-room mansion in Los Angeles with its own bowling alley and beauty salon, built by Aaron Spelling, the television producer behind “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Dynasty” — is one of the largest properties for sale in the country.
It’s been on the market for over 2 ½ years with a fittingly giant price tag: $137.5 million.
Its owner must have been thrilled when Eric Schmidt — the former CEO and executive chairman of Google, with a net worth of $23 billion as of October 21 — expressed interest in purchasing it, as The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.
The issue, though, is that the owner, who operates anonymously behind a limited liability company called 594 Mapleton, can’t sell it to him or to anyone else. (The Journal cited previous reporting that local agents believe the owner behind the LLC is a Saudi billionaire.)
Spelling Manor’s owner told the Journal through their lawyer that scammers filed a fraudulent deed with Los Angeles County earlier this year. Two people accused of the scam in a lawsuit told the Journal that they were the rightful owners. The ongoing legal battle over the mansion’s ownership stands in the way of its sale.
Similar fights over who really owns homes and land are playing out across the country. Emboldened by AI technology and immense amounts of public information, some scammers have become bolder in their deed theft — also called title theft — attempts, real-estate fraud experts said. Their targets can range from mansion dwellers to owners of more modest homes and parcels of land.
A May 2024 study by the American Land Title Association and economic research firm NDP Analytics with 783 responses found seller impersonation fraud — when someone fakes the identities of property owners with the aim to sell their properties — is fairly common. Twenty-eight percent of title insurance companies experienced at least one seller impersonation fraud attempt in 2023; 19% saw attempts in April 2024 alone.
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center doesn’t specifically track deed fraud. However, in 2023, it processed a total of 9,521 real-estate-related complaints — which it defines as a loss of funds from a real-estate investment — resulting in more than $145 million in losses.
And while Spelling Manor is a conspicuous example because of its size and value, anyone who owns a house or a piece of land could have their deed transferred away without their knowledge.
“Maybe this brings awareness, and people start to realize that if it can happen to them, it can happen to anybody,” Tyler Adams, the CEO of wire-fraud-protection company CertifID, told Business Insider. “But I hope it’s not the reverse and people think, ‘Fraudsters go after the big bucket. They’ll never come after my $200,000 home.’ Not the case. The way worse problem is in a much smaller market.”
If scammers can fake a deed, they get a house — or maybe a mansion
Victor Petrescu, a Miami-based attorney at the law firm LKLSG, said he handles two or three title fraud cases a year.
He told BI he recently represented a homeowner whose identity was falsified “on a deed in order to convince someone to wire sales proceeds to a bank account.”
“I know it’s still happening,” he added.
In the Spelling Manor case, Adams said the alleged deed fraud might not be a tactic to receive the full sales price of the home but to extort the rightful owner for a smaller payday in order to get the home returned to them.
Adams said a scammer might think, “If we mess with the deed enough to the point where the lawful owners can’t sell it, could we convince them to send us some crypto somewhere to get it back?”
An attorney for Spelling Manor’s owner, 594 Mapleton LLC, its listing agent, and the LA County District Attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
Deed fraud has also complicated the ownership of Graceland, the Memphis, Tennessee, estate that belonged to Elvis Presley and remains in his family.
Earlier this year, a company called Naussany Investments and Private Lending said it owned Graceland and announced plans to auction off the property. Presley’s granddaughter, Riley Keough, sued the company, accusing it of using forged documents to claim ownership, and won the case.
In August, a woman from Missouri, Lisa Jeanine Findley, was federally charged with fraud and identity theft in the plot to steal the historic property.
A spokesperson from the Graceland estate did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An attorney for Findley, who was indicted on charges of mail fraud and identity theft, also did not respond to a request for comment.
Adams said the first step in fighting this type of fraud is to strengthen the verification process for recording documents.
“I think that collectively as a society, what we need to do is institute better identity verification for all of these things, so when somebody is filing a new deed at a county clerk’s office, that office should have good identity-verification practices to make sure that the person who’s filing that deed is who they say they are,” Adams told BI.
“Because at the root of all of these scams is an identity problem,” he added.
Deed fraud has also frustrated regular property owners
Scammers aren’t just targeting the big fish.
In 2023, William Gordon’s vacant land in Arizona was sold to someone else without his knowledge.
Gordon had purchased the property in 1999 for $76,500, but at some point, someone submitted a new deed to the Pima County recorder, using Gordon’s name but changing the state from Arizona to Texas.
Gordon only realized the ownership transfer had taken place when his title company sent him a letter congratulating him on the sale of his property for $200,000.
A recorder’s office is essentially like a library for property-related documents. Gabriella Cázares-Kelly, the Pima County recorder where Gordon’s land is located, told BI in 2023 that the recorder’s job is to record documents, not verify them.
“We rely on title companies, on notaries — which is why they are required to have insurance — because it is ultimately up to those companies to have the safeguards to ensure that they’re dealing with the correct property,” she said.
Gordon eventually got his property back after the title company signed a quitclaim deed that relinquished ownership, giving him his land back. The mess cost him about $9,000 in legal fees, he said.
Petrescu said the owners of properties worth a fraction of the price of Spelling Manor are more likely to experience deed theft.
“With these smaller transactions, a lot of closing agents are just trying to close these on a volume basis,” Petrescu said. “It may be easier to take advantage of someone who’s not crossing their t’s, dotting their i’s, because they’re just juggling 10 files that day.”
In 2022, a lot in Fairfield, Connecticut, was sold after a fraudster impersonated its owner, a doctor named Daniel Kenigsberg. He discovered the sale after a friend told him that someone was building a home on his once-empty parcel of land.
A “Daniel Kenigsberg” of Johannesburg had signed documents to try to steal the property, according to court documents viewed by BI.
“The real problem is people who are average, normal people that finally saved up enough money to buy a house and are getting ripped off by a scam that they weren’t prepared for,” Adams said. “That’s sort of the sad part here — that those are the people that are going to be impacted a lot more.”
AI tools make it easier for fraudsters to scam anyone
Scammers increasingly rely on artificial intelligence to pull off their cons, whether the medium is the phone, phishing by email, or a title transfer with a local record keeper.
“Unfortunately, their techniques evolve with technology,” Marty Kiar, the property appraiser in Broward County, Florida, told BI.
Kiar said that in September, someone contacted a title company saying they had a vacant lot to sell in Hallandale Beach.
When the title company pushed for identity verification, the purported seller offered to do a video call that turned out to be a deepfake or AI-generated video playing on a loop showing an image of a missing woman from a different state, NBC Miami reported.
If the title company hadn’t pushed for proof of the purported seller’s identity, they “very easily could have gotten away with this scam,” Kiar said.
“It was all AI imagery,” he said. “What I’m really fearful of is, as technology evolves more and more and more, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see this more and more and more.”
One of AI’s hallmarks is its ability to learn and digest enormous amounts of information. Property data is readily available to the public, and in some states, a simple search can unearth appraisal data, blueprints, transaction records, and even pictures of executed deeds. With AI, fake documents could be created faster and more realistic-looking.
“They’re just creating these AI models that are reading all of the public records and public data that they can possibly get their hands on, that are then creating a means by which they can manipulate that information,” Adams said. “So it’s like the ingestion is now automated because of AI models, and then the impersonation is a lot more sophisticated.”
An AI tool might be able to recognize a vacant property in a database faster than a human could or identify homes without mortgages attached to them (which could mark them as targets for a refinancing scheme).
The amount of personal information available to fraudsters also makes impersonation easier.
Kiar said his office has handled hundreds of fraud cases. Only two of those cases so far have involved AI, but he remains concerned that more are on the way.
“The criminals are very, very smart,” he said. “They’re going to use the most up-to-date technology to try to scam somebody out of their property.”
The WEF keeps talking about trans humanism and imply a forced hacking of humans under a control grid.
And certain researchers are talking about these nano particles being delivered in one way or another on humanity.
Yesterday they will talking about the ill effects of EMF’s and how 10 to 30% of people are getting sick from these waves.
But what if they put conductors or antennas in humans to these waves.
They want to chip people to engage in commerce.
So they want this control mechanism to be put in the body, rather than in a phone, that could be thrown away. Possible delivery systems would be vaccines, cloud seeding, gain of function bio weapons, food delivery, etc.
Some researchers are studying what destroys these structures that apparently assemble in the body.
It’s beyond belief that these Entities could of delivered these toxic structures as a electric control mechanism or genocidal bio weapon.
But, from what I have been reading they can be destroyed in the body. But who do you trust these days regarding just about everything?
With the WEF talking about this trans humanism hacking, the first thought is why would humans agree to it. Who says humanity will have any choice, or if humanity would have any known consent.
With the WEF talking about this trans humanism hacking, the first thought is why would humans agree to it.
Are you kidding? People are going to trip over each other to get it done to them first. They will brag about the implants in their brains and all the “advantages” they convey and will publicly pity all the losers who refuse to have it done.
With massive state-sponsored stimulus underway, are China’s economic woes finally resolved?
CNBC
Economy
IMF warns on China’s property market worsening as it cuts country’s growth outlook
Published Tue, Oct 22 2024 9:43 PM EDT
Sophie Kiderlin
KEY POINTS
– The Washington, D.C.-based organization highlighted that China’s property sector contracting by more than expected is one of many downside risks for the global economic outlook.
– China last week reported third-quarter gross domestic product growth of 4.6%, slightly higher than the 4.5% that economists polled by Reuters had been expecting.
– In a report published Tuesday, the IMF trimmed its forecast for growth in China for this year to 4.8%, 0.2 percentage points lower than in its July projection.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned of a possible worsening of the state of China’s property market as it trimmed its growth expectations for the world’s second-largest economy.
…
Of the 45 people arrested by “anti-looting patrols,” only two were from Pinellas County. 41 of them were not U.S. citizens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsCzQ-n6x-A
https://www.wfla.com/news/pinellas-county/over-80-arrested-for-looting-and-scams-after-hurricanes-pinellas-county-sheriff/
“If you can loot in person, you can vote in person.” —Donald Trump, Jr.
41 of them were not U.S. citizens
I’ve said it before: If DJT can only accomplish one thing, I hope it’s sending the invaders home, as many as possible.
Back in the 70’s when illegals were arrested they were sent straight home. They were not allowed to go to their apartment or wherever they lived to collect their belongings. which meant they lost everything. I met a guy who said he gave up trying to be an illegal because he got fed up with losing all his possessions when he was deported. They put him on a plane with just the shirt on his back and sent him back to Mexico City.
This Housing Problem Will Only Get Worse (York Region Real Estate Market Update)
Team Sessa Real Estate
9 minutes ago VAUGHAN
In this episode, we look at the current Vaughan Home Prices, Richmond Hill Home Prices & Markham Home Prices and real estate market trends for the week ending Oct 16, 2024. We also discuss the problem when people are looking to downsize but cannot afford to do so in the areas they are used to without making some big compromises.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTSTyR2sYLA
15:15.
At 8 minutes he’s talking about people looking to downsize (and cash out) who can’t because builders ‘built where the money was’ in bigger igloos and there’s no bungalows for those getting older.
‘The median sales price of $850,000 for a single-family home in Greater Boston…it’s a far cry from the $961,250 properties were commanding back in June. It was the third straight month of price declines…‘We’ve also seen a sharp increase in listings since the Labor Day weekend, which has afforded buyers more time and a greater selection of homes to choose from, so they’re acting with less urgency than they did earlier in the year’
It’s a good thing everybody put 20% down Jared!
‘We’re just not getting any buyer activity,’ he said. ‘Last year, about 50% of our deals were cash. We’re slowly seeing that transition away,’ he said. ‘It seems like the people with the cash are holding onto it’
Gosh Mike, I hope you saved some of that filthy lucre you were handed during minor repository illness.
‘as of September, 6,990 homes have been taken off the market compared to 3,478 last year. ‘Many sellers in San Diego County have thrown in the proverbial towel…Life changing circumstances to pull a home off the market are the least likely reason that they are pulling their homes off the market. They are pulling their homes off the market because of lack of success’
This is the only sensible San Diego RE guy to my knowledge.
‘He said last year, when there were fewer homes on the market, starting out with a wild listing price didn’t make much of a difference. With more homes for sale now, there just aren’t enough well-heeled buyers to bolster the market. Bolstering his claim is that 34 percent of current listings have had their asking price reduced at least once. Also, the time it takes for a home to sell, called expected market time, has increased to 80 days, compared to 57 days last year. That figure includes all housing types — single-family, condo, townhouse — and all price points’
I’m pretty sure the UHS aren’t reporting 80 days.
‘There’s an economic principle that gets thrown around business circles that says, technically, all homes are affordable because someone is buying them. Thomas said that’s not how he would describe things. ‘If that was true, there wouldn’t be any homes languishing for a long time’
Allow me to point out Steve that this is where UHS relisting/reset the days on market is blatant market manipulation.
Life changing circumstances to pull a home off the market
No, those surprises put homes on the market.
Yes they do…such as when my dad came down with a debilitating chronic illness a decade ago and could no longer maintain the home my parents lived in for half a century. It was a rough time to sell a home 4 miles from the Ferguson city hall at the inception of Black Lives Matter.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferguson_unrest
‘I’ve heard of stories where someone goes into escrow and they find out the fire insurance is $7,500 a year, and they can’t afford that. It’s just not something they can do on top of the mortgage…It’s definitely a change. I definitely think it’s here to stay, which is disappointing in a way, but I think it is something that we need to get used to’
Not a lot of good news these days fer bay aryans Loren.
‘The lawsuit claims that changed once Seattle started adopting the tenant protections in 2018 and now the building has a 38% vacancy rate, which it blames on factors related to these city ordinances. ‘The Addison no longer has enough revenue to pay its lender’
They are still digging the hole deeper in Seattle. Chicago too.
‘Development on the Eastboro development has been halted and the debtor is shown itself unable to obtain funding for the additional works needed’…‘The project is a failure’
What’s crazy about that Sylvia is that they are making something of which there is a mind boggling shortage. That’s all you guys have said for over a decade.
‘The receiver has now assumed control of Eastboro’s assets, including the deposits made by would-be homeowners in the 200-acre development. One of those homebuyers, Sami Bibi, 57, an economist at Statistics Canada, made a down payment on his four-bedroom Eastboro house in October 2019. His $670,000 house was finished in June 2023, but Bibi and his family were not allowed to take possession because the subdivision’s stormwater system remains unfinished. Bibi said Wednesday he’s saddened by the latest news, but not overly surprised since Ashcroft had not provided a timeline for the sewer work. ‘I suspected they had a problem’
That economics degree really paid off Sami.
‘All the complainants have suffered ‘severe financial, emotional and physical distress’ from their interactions with the building industry…‘Every aspect of their lives has been negatively impacted,’…‘They have watched their savings or superannuation be replaced with debts they cannot bear’…‘They’ve let us down. They’ve destroyed us. For eight years my life has been on hold. It’s like I’m on a freefalling plane and when are we going to crash?’
It was still cheaper than renting Kerry.
Real Estate Negotiation SECRETS Revealed NOW
Mark Turcotte BARRIE REAL ESTATE
56 minutes ago
Want to close more real estate deals and increase your profits? In this video, we’re revealing the top negotiation secrets that will give you an edge in the competitive world of real estate. From understanding the seller’s mindset to using psychology to get the best deal, we’re covering it all. Whether you’re a seasoned real estate agent or just starting out, these negotiation strategies will help you succeed in today’s market. So, what are you waiting for? Watch now and start closing more deals!
Are you looking to sell or buy Innisfil, Barrie , ESSA, Springwater Township real estate. Understanding the correlation between price and days on the market may be crucial to your success. In this video, we discuss how many property sellers in Barrie are now associating price with how long their property has been listed for sale. This allows them to price their property competitively and attract more potential buyers. Selling your home can be a daunting task, but with proper strategies and insights, you can achieve your goals with ease. Our team of experienced real estate agents is dedicated to helping you succeed in your real estate endeavours, whether you’re buying a new home or selling your existing property. Our mission is to provide you with actionable tips and tricks that will help you navigate the complex Barrie real estate market confidently. Don’t let your property sit on the market for months on end.
First, hire a professional real estate agent who knows the area well. They can help you price your home properly, market it effectively, and guide you through the negotiation and closing process.
Next, make sure your home is in the best possible condition. Declutter, clean, and repair any visible damage. Consider staging your home with furniture and décor that showcase its best features.
If you’re looking to buy orgo sell a property in the barrie area, this is the video for you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwMlXzqlPQs
22 minutes. At 5:30 ‘if I came down five grand that fast I’d go…holy cow they dropped their pants on a shitty offer?’
I Will Fix Agency Capture
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
8 hours ago
I’ve spent 40 years suing our government agencies. I understand the perverse incentives that put agency capture on steroids. I know how the system is supposed to work to protect the public interest and I will fix it. 🇺🇸
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oqei7YQAZU
2 minutes.
The Kinks — Got To Be Free:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7qChiEGugE
Beatles — Taxman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUim9Jv0y6Q
Rolling Stones — On With The Show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIVyKOFhti4
🎵 If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet…🎵
Does it seem as though US home sales are sinking into the depths of a deep, dark CR8R?
It certainly does seem that way to me.
The Wall Street Journal Housing
Home Sales on Track for Worst Year Since 1995
September sales fell 3.5% from a year earlier. In 2023, home sales hit their lowest point in 30 years.
By Nicole Friedman
and Gina Heeb
Updated Oct. 23, 2024 10:34 am ET
Sales of existing homes in the U.S. are on track for the worst year since 1995—for the second year in a row.
Persistently high home prices and elevated mortgage rates are keeping potential home buyers on the sidelines. Sales of previously owned homes in the first nine months of the year were lower than the same period last year, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday.
Existing-home sales in September fell 1% from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.84 million, NAR said, the lowest monthly rate since October 2010. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had estimated a monthly decrease of 0.5%.
September sales fell 3.5% from a year earlier.
After a sluggish 2023, economists and real-estate executives widely expected activity to pick up in 2024.
But mortgage rates have stayed higher throughout the year than some had forecast, including in recent weeks after the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate cut last month. That has kept home-buying affordability low.
Home prices have continued to rise, as inventory in many parts of the country is still below normal historical levels. Climbing home insurance costs and a coming election are also adding to buyers’ uncertainty.
…
https://www.wsj.com/economy/housing/home-sales-on-track-for-worst-year-since-1995-9a2029ae
“Home Sales on Track for Worst Year Since 1995
…
In 2023, home sales hit their lowest point in 30 years.”
I’m having mathematical difficulty reconciling these journalistic facts.
2023 – 30 = 1993, so in 2023 U.S. home sales were putatively at their lowest point since 1993. And the U.S. went into a recession in July 1990*, suggesting that perhaps 1990-1992 were also not banner years for U.S. home sales.
If 2023 home sales were the worst since at least 1993, and 2024 home sales are worser, it seems like this year’s home sales are on track to be the worst since at least when we bought our first home as newlyweds in 1992, if not earlier.
There were a LOT of homes on the market in 1992, thanks to a preceding recession and foreclosure crisis. It was like shopping in a proverbial fire sale.
* https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_recessions_in_the_United_States&wprov=rarw1
Is Trump or Harris the Wall Street candidate…or neither?
Dow sinks sharply as Wall Street gears up for possibility of a Trump victory
By Nicole Goodkind and Lucy Bayly, CNN
3 minute read
Updated 4:06 PM EDT, Wed October 23, 2024
It’s the third down day for Wall Street, led by a decline in tech stocks ahead of that sector’s earnings season.
Peter Morgan/AP
New York CNN —
US stocks took a dive Wednesday as mounting concerns over big tech earnings, rising Treasury yields and political uncertainty drove down all three major indexes.
Investors have been increasingly on edge about the prospect of former President Donald Trump winning the election, a possibility for which Wall Street has been preparing to a greater extent. While polls remain effectively dead-even, Trump’s prospects have grown since the start of this month in political betting markets.
“The logic here is very simple: Candidate Trump has called for a significant increase in import tariffs to revive domestic manufacturing,” Steven Ricchiuto, chief US economist at Mizuho Securities, said in a Wednesday afternoon note. “These tariffs are seen as immediately raising the price of consumer goods and, in the process, reversing the goods deflation that has helped pull inflation back towards the Fed’s 2% target.”
Trump’s policy proposals, if enacted, are also expected to cause the government to borrow significantly more money compared to Vice President Kamala Harris’ policy plans. That would make it riskier to invest in government-issued securities, leading investors to demand higher interest rates to hold US debt.
Treasury yields continued their upward march, with the 10-year note briefly topping 4.25%, its highest level since July. This surge in yields has put additional pressure on stocks.
That rise in bond yields made stock investors nervous. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite led the decline, ending the day down by 1.6%; while the S&P 500 and Dow both fell about 1%. For the Dow, this translated to a drop of just over 400 points. At one point early Wednesday, the Dow was down more than 600 points, marking the third consecutive day of losses for US markets. All three indexes settled slightly lower later Wednesday afternoon.
…
https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/23/economy/us-stock-market-dow-falls/index.html
Politics·U.S. Presidential Election
Wall Street has already priced in a Trump victory—just look at European stocks and the inflation market
BY Paolo Confino
October 24, 2024 at 6:04 PM PDT
Former President Donald Trump
Wall Street investors have already started to prepare for what they consider to be a certain Donald Trump victory in the November election.
Anna Moneymaker Getty Images
In campaign field offices across the country, the Presidential Election is very much neck-and-neck, yet on Wall Street it’s a settled matter.
“The investor community they’ve been very, very, favoring Trump based on my conversations and based on just a general ambiance,” Interactive Brokers senior economist Jose Torres told Fortune.
The market has already started pricing in a Trump victory. A series of recent analyst notes detail how Trump’s protectionist economic policies would translate into market outcomes. Investors expect a second Trump term would mean tariffs on importers hoping to enter the U.S. market and higher levels of inflation. Trump’s signature economic proposal of implementing blanket tariffs isn’t the platonic ideal of a free-market policy one might have associated with past conservative leaders. Yet, the market is very much preparing for the tectonic shifts that a closed off U.S. market could pose to the global economy.
In Europe, stocks are already lagging the broader market. In the U.S., inflation forecasts have started to trend up just as Trump pulled ahead in the betting markets. Analysts have even started to bandy about predictions of stagflation. The polls show Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris in a dead heat heading into the final week of their respective campaigns. However, prediction markets are tilting in favor of Trump, which has colored much of the market forecasts.
“Trump win increasingly priced in, but polls still tight,” Barclays European equities strategist Emmanuel Cau wrote in an analyst note published Wednesday.
European stocks are already underperforming the market due to investors’ fears hey’ll be hit hard by Trump’s proposed tariffs, according to Barclays. For investors, European companies struggling with Trump’s tariffs could lead to major earnings hits. In a worst-case scenario in which a full-blown trade war between Europe and the U.S., companies in Italy and Germany could see high single-digit drag on EPS growth, according to Barclays. Entire sectors, such as tech and the European auto market, could suffer the same fate, per the bank’s forecast.
European stocks, “keep lagging, suggesting they may be perceived as the losers from a second Trump presidency,” Cau wrote.
Another feature of Trump’s tariffs is that they’re widely expected to be inflationary. “Expected tariffs (per Trump’s stated proposals) support potential upside risk to market pricing of inflation if Trump wins the U.S. election,” Bank of America rates strategist Meghan Swiber wrote in a note on Wednesday.
And because Wall Street expects Trump to win the election, projections for the future rate of inflation have ticked up. For example, inflation compensation, which is the premium investors are willing to pay to protect the real value of their returns from inflation, rose since September, according to Bank of America. Part of the increase was due to positive economic data. Another part had to do with Trump’s political fortunes.
“We note it also coincided with higher market-implied probability of Former President Trump winning the U.S. election,” Swiber wrote.
Trump’s tariffs would lead to 70 to 80 basis points of inflation, according to Bank of America’s estimates.
…
https://fortune.com/2024/10/24/wall-street-election-trump-win-europe/
The Outlook
Economists Say Inflation, Deficits Will Be Higher Under Trump Than Harris
In WSJ survey, economists see Donald Trump’s plans as more inflationary by a larger margin than in July when President Biden was on the ticket
By Paul Kiernan and Anthony DeBarros
Updated Oct. 14, 2024 12:01 am ET
…
https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/economists-say-inflation-deficits-will-be-higher-under-trump-than-harris-0365588e
“Economists Say Inflation, Deficits Will Be Higher Under Trump Than Harris”
Nobody believes that B.S.
Sleepy Joe’s current budget deficit is $2-Trillion!
The important point is that nobody seems to care much about high deficits anymore on either side of the aisle.
The important point is that nobody seems to care much about high deficits anymore on either side of the aisle.
For decades now, deficits have not mattered.
not mattered
When you have to borrow to pay the interest, mattering compounds.
Here’s why mortgage rates are rising after the Fed’s rate cut
By Bryan Mena, CNN
5 minute read
Published 12:31 PM EDT, Thu October 24, 2024
For those whose finances are tight, waiting for housing affordability to improve is their best shot at the American Dream of homeownership.
For those whose finances are tight, waiting for housing affordability to improve is their best shot at the American Dream of homeownership.
Peter Morgan/AP
Washington CNN —
US mortgage rates rose again this week, the fourth-straight weekly increase. That rise in borrowing costs has undone some of the relief Americans felt this summer when mortgage rates fell in anticipation of a rate cut from the Federal Reserve as inflation improved.
The average rate on a standard, 30-year fixed mortgage was 6.54% in the week ending October 24, according to a survey of lenders by Freddie Mac released Thursday. That’s the highest level since early August, but still below this year’s high of 7.22% seen in early May.
Expectations of a Fed rate cut caused mortgage rates to drop to a two-year low of 6.08% in late September, but it failed to spur homebuying activity. Sales of previously owned homes, which make up the vast majority of the market, fell 1% in September from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.84 million, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday, the lowest rate since October 2010. Mortgage applications have also declined over the past four weeks, falling to the lowest level since July, according to a separate report from the Mortgage Bankers Association out Thursday.
Sluggish housing demand could be because lower rates came too late for the majority of home seekers: Many families prefer to buy and sell homes in spring, when the weather is warmer and they can plan ahead for the new school year. Prospective buyers might also be waiting on rates to come even lower, since the Fed has made it clear it will continue to pare back borrowing costs through 2025.
Every percentage point on a mortgage rate makes a big difference for that monthly payment. But a persistent lack of homes on the market is continuing to push up home prices, which climbed in September for the 15th consecutive month, according to NAR data — on top of skyrocketing home insurance costs in some markets.
Here’s what’s driving the recent upswing in mortgage rates.
Strong economic data
When the Fed cut interest rates last month, many hoped it would kick-start the frozen housing market. Mortgage rates track the 10-year US Treasury yield, which was expected to fall in anticipation of further rate cuts. But recent economic data has looked stronger than expected, which has shifted the market’s expectations, sending bond yields higher.
…
The government’s finances
The bond market might also be influenced by factors around the government’s finances.
One of them is the upcoming presidential election and rising bets that former President Donald Trump could clinch a win. He and Vice President Kamala Harris, according to some projections, have suggested policies that would significantly add to the strain facing the federal budget in the coming years. A recent report from the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated that under a second Trump presidency, the US national debt could balloon by $7.5 trillion by 2035, compared to an increase of $3.5 trillion under a Harris presidency during the same time period.
“We’re going to be broke really quickly unless we get serious about dealing with our spending issues,” billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones told CNBC Tuesday. “I am clearly not going to own any fixed income.”
The government’s fiscal situation might already be having an impact on mortgage rates.
“We have this large budget deficit, so any time the government has to borrow, borrow and borrow, that just means that there is less mortgage money available for lending into the housing market, all else equal, so maybe the deficit is also hindering some of the mortgage rate decline potential,” Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, told reporters Wednesday.
…
https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/24/economy/why-mortgage-rates-rose-after-fed-cut/index.html
Wuh happened to ‘yer bear steepener spiel? It was right on the money!
I’ll likely have to trot it out again a few more times before the economy tilts into recession, inflation, or stagflation…
Twice-Deported Illegal Alien Arrested for Killing Texas Man in DUI Crash
by Dan Lyman
October 24th, 2024 5:13 PM
A previously deported illegal alien is facing a slew of charges after allegedly killing a Texas man in a drunk driving crash then resisting arrest, according to reports.
The tragedy unfolded on the evening of Oct. 13 in Bastrop County.
Grayson Davis, 29, was driving on FM 535 when his vehicle was struck by another driven by a suspect identified as 35-year-old Jorge Peralta.
Peralta fled the scene on foot and then resisted Texas Department of Public Safety troopers attempting to apprehend him, according to court documents reviewed by CBS Austin.
Illegal Alien Crimes
@ImmigrantCrimes
🚨 Bastrop County, TX: Illegal alien Jorge Peralta has been charged in connection with a car accident that resulted in the death of 29-year-old Grayson Davis.
Peralta is charged with Evading Arrest, Resisting Arrest, and Intoxication Manslaughter.
11:12 AM · Oct 24, 2024
·
https://x.com/ImmigrantCrimes/status/1849468931603329056
Bring out the rope and a wobbly stool.