In This Market, You Get Killed When You Start Too High

1. ‘Trump’s extremist economic agenda is going to tank the housing market and housing construction’

   You know Scott, I’ve been watching you flap yer pie hole for over a decade and you haven’t accomplished one gotdam thing. Now you don’t want to ‘tank’ the shack market?

   1. “Sen. Scott Wiener”

      Look at the legislation he has sponsored. He is what Salon and other sc*m media identify as a Minor Attracted Person.

      What happened at those Diddy parties, Scott?

      What happened in those back rooms, after most of the other guests left, Scott?

      How old was Justin Bieber when you met him, Scott?

      1. Did Scott actually meat Justin?

2. “Kelly Haynes is a Fort Myers Beach resident. She said that she doesn’t feel like she will be compensated. ‘I think it’s another false promise, and we’re gonna be left with nothing,’ said Haynes.”

   [Fort Myers Beach is located on a BARRIER ISLAND that proudly boasts of an elevation of …

   THREE FEET!

   … and now and then the town gets attacked by HURRICANES.

   And people willingly pay big money to live there and then bitch when things don’t go their own way.]

   [People are stupid.]

   1. [This is what happened to Fort Myers Beach two year ago …]

      “15ft Storm Surge Washes Away Homes in Ft. Myers Beach – Hurricane Ian”

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al8yTiCVfro

      [Two years ago a fifteen-foot hurricane-generated storm surge washed over a barrier island that had an elevation of three feet and (amazingly!) houses were washed away. There was a message contained there somewhere but apparently some residents did not receive it.]

3. Mike Littwin, who is obsolete and irrelevant, advocates for an actual insurrection, while collecting a check from the Colorado Sun.

   Where the resistance could get real: Mayor Mike Johnston says Denverites would actively resist mass deportations (11/24/2024):

   “In a recent interview with Denverite, Johnston promises that Denver, a proud sanctuary city, won’t be “bullied” by Donald Trump’s threats to withhold federal funding to various agencies if the city refuses to cooperate with Trump’s promised mass deportation of unauthorized — and even some authorized — migrants.

   And he predicts that if Trump were to send in the troops to round up hard-working Denver migrants and break up families, as he has said he would, that people in Denver would rise up to stop them.

   Johnston said, in fact, that if Trump launches “Operation Aurora” and goes so far, as promised, to use the military to forcibly remove local migrants as part of his plan to deport millions nationally, that Colorado citizens would rise up to protect them …

   if the military is called on to roust Colorado migrants, it would probably be with invading National Guard forces from, say, Texas or Alabama. Johnston says the people in Denver and in greater Colorado would not stand for that.”

   https://coloradosun.com/2024/11/24/mike-johnston-trump-opinion-littwin/

   Greater Colorado? Don’t make me laugh.

   Arapahoe, Jefferson, Douglas, Adams Counties will be fighting along side the Texas and Alabama National Guards against your Denver Soy Army of pink p*ssy hats and dilated bottom surgeries.

   1. Related article:

      “Would you be willing to go out and protest these things?” 9NEWS Reporter Marc Sallinger asked Johnston.
      “I would if I believed that our residents are having their rights violated,” Johnston said. “I think things are happening that are illegal or immoral or un-American in our city, I would certainly protest it, and I would expect other residents would do the same.”

      9NEWS asked the mayor several times what his plan is on day one if federal forces or national guardsmen from other states show up in Colorado. He said right now there is no plan, but city leaders are hoping to come up with one before the inauguration in January.”

      https://www.9news.com/article/news/politics/denver-mayor-mike-johnston-police-officers-block-trump-deportation/73-99dcea89-e9ad-4e11-ad1e-d3facd6e5519

      Un-American?

      Your elected City Council is full of actual communists, Mike.

   2. And he predicts that if Trump were to send in the troops to round up hard-working Denver migrants

      Since when does spending EBT card money and sitting around all day watching TV and drinking beer constitute “hard work”?

      If Dumver wants to provide for invaders (while ignoring American homeless) they can do it with their own money. And let their be no doubt, the prospect of losing Federal free cheese has to be creating a panic at city hall. There will be lots of layoffs and budget cuts if that happens.

      And DPS is already closing down and consolidating schools, as few invaders have kids and the locals stopped having any years ago. Without the Federal largess to which they have become accustomed they will have to close even more schools, laying off administrators, teachers and other employees.

      1. Without the Federal largess

         Wouldn’t it be ironic if they give up their illegals without a whimper and also lose the Federal school subsidy money?

         1. Their promises to stop the Feds from deporting are empty and are nothing more than virtue posturing. Even if the DPD is ordered to stop ICE, they know better and will find ways to be where the ICE is not. It will make for good footage on the local evening news as the round the wagons around illegals who aren’t targeted that day.

   3. Colorado’s red counties need to either secede or join with the free states like Wyoming to get out from under Denver’s commie malgovernance.

      1. “Colorado’s red counties need to either secede or join with the free states”

         Make Southern Colorado Texas Again!

   4. The El Paso county GOP are RINO stooges of the developers who pull the political strings in this county. This enabled the county to go blue, since the Establishment GOP wine-and-cheese “conservatives” represented only wealthy Boomers and were part and parcel of the corrupt, crony capitalist status quo. That said, El Paso has a lot of red-pilled veterans and patriots who despise the so-faux “conservatives” who are the controlled opposition. They’re lying low for now because the majority of the population still hasn’t made the connection between Colorado Springs going blue and the deterioration in the quality of life here.

      1. El Paso county

         AKA Colorado Springs (not El Paso, TX), for those not familiar with the Centennial State

4. Ralph should not be allowed to pee in the girls bathroom.

5. Ralph should not be allowed to be the 138th ranked swimmer in NCAA Men’s Swimming his Junior year and win the NCAA Women’s Swimming championship his senior year.

6. Jon Jones gives Trump his UFC belt after Miocic win!

   6 days ago

   https://youtu.be/GqcJy_UrDFU?si=o6jLBO9oLCV25ITc

   Greg Gutfeld had a joke about this on his show this week.

   He said…

   Not to be outdone Rachel LaVine gave Jerry Nadler his control top pantyhose.

7. From the Bisnow article:

   The cannabis industry has spun into a certain degree of chaos since the world began to open back up after pandemic lockdowns.

   “Covid came, and there was a huge boom,” The Flower Collective Chief Operating Officer Maxwell Pollet said. “Stimulus checks and people staying at home really built demand. The response to that was build more grows, grow more weed, sell more weed.”

   The Nederland-based cultivation, manufacturing and wholesale distribution company went through something like legalization whiplash in Fort Collins, which spent about five years going back and forth on licensing or shuttering marijuana businesses. So Pollet and his team avoided making some of the mistakes that plagued the rest of the industry post-Covid-19.

   “We knew we had to isolate ourselves,” Pollet said. “We own the properties we operate on.”

   So when people went back to work, began hitting the bars and buying less weed, a glut of marijuana products hit the market, driving down prices and sending an ill-prepared industry into something like a recession. The Flower Collective was able to weather the storm.

   Not every company was so lucky.

   Cannabis sales in Colorado have been on a sharp decline since they peaked in 2021 at $2.2B. By 2023, sales had dropped to $1.5B. This year is on track to hit $1.4B, according to MED data.

   Statewide, the total number of active business licenses — including cultivation, manufacturing, retail, testing and transportation — has dropped by 22% since the peak year of 2021, according to MED data compiled by the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business.

   It took nearly four years for the CEO of Rocky Mountain Business Advisors to sell a cannabis manufacturing business with an attached industrial space. When the business, once valued at $4M, finally did sell in April, he “almost gave away the property” as part of the deal, he said.

   CEO Gregg Kunz, who is also RMBA’s managing broker and an author, said his phone rang frequently five years ago with folks looking to buy a cannabis business. Calls today are more likely to be from a business owner trying to sell.

   “I can only think of one time in the past year where somebody wanted to buy a cannabis business in Colorado,” Kunz said.

   1. sales had dropped

      Silvermine Subs (which is open until 3AM and have delivery) were the most affected.

      Cheba Hut also caters to stoners, but they close at midnight, plus they don’t deliver themselves, they use door dash.

   2. weed destroyed colorado. I hope they all go bust.

8. Will Trump’s picks for top financial roles finally deliver rate daters the low mortgage rates they have long sought?

   1. Investors see Treasury pick Bessent as calming US bond market worries
      Updated Sat, November 23, 2024 at 8:39 AM PST 3 min read
      By Davide Barbuscia
      FILE PHOTO: View shows a hat in support of Republican Donald Trump at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) · Reuters

      (Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of Scott Bessent for Treasury secretary could lift some of the gloom that has pervaded the sagging U.S. government bond market in recent weeks, investors said.
      …
      https://finance.yahoo.com/news/guessing-game-over-trumps-treasury-222400547.html

   2. Yahoo Finance
      Bloomberg
      Bond Market Halts Brutal Run as Buyers Pounce on 4.5% Yields
      Liz Capo McCormick and Ye Xie
      Sun, November 24, 2024 at 4:57 PM PST 4 min read

      (Bloomberg) — The US bond market is finally showing signs of steadying after a two-month selloff, with investors starting to swoop in whenever yields test new peaks.
      …
      https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bond-market-halts-brutal-run-182708075.html

9. “If those are any indication, a Trump presidency will likely make it harder for immigrants, including mixed-status households, and other low-income Californians to access subsidized housing.”

   How does it make sense to subsidize housing for immigrants in a state whose taxpaying citizens are leaving in droves because of impossibly unaffordable housing costs? Taking money from taxpayers to incentivize new immigrants to move in and replace them seems patently unfair.

   1. Since when does anything make sense in the formerly Golden State?

   2. “If those are any indication, a Trump presidency will likely make it harder for immigrants, including mixed-status households, and other low-income Californians to access subsidized housing.”

      The Trump Administration doesn’t need to build a wall, which cartel people smugglers can go over, go under, or bore through. They also don’t need to conduct mass roundups using military or National Guard personnel. All they need to do is go after the employers who are giving jobs to illegals, especially in the meat packing plants and agribusinesses, and go after the landlords who are renting to them. With no jobs and no housing, the illegals will self-deport, just as millions did during the 2008 GFC. But let’s see if Trump is willing to stand up to the corporate employers who need 3rd World wage slaves to drive down labor costs & maximize profits for our corporate overlords.

      1. + 1,000

10. The Monkees – Hey Hey We’re The Monkees

    https://youtu.be/ekpNONaQPjY?si=rJbP7WA_1eiCmJMF

    Here we come
    Walkin’ down the street
    We get the funniest looks from
    Every one we meet

    [Chorus]
    Hey, hey, we’re Invaders
    And people see us walking around
    We came across the open border
    They bussed us right into your town

    [Verse 2]
    We go wherever we want to
    Do what we like to do
    Sometimes it is murder
    We brought our rapists too

    [Chorus]
    Hey, hey, we’re Invaders
    And people see us walking around
    We came across the open border
    They bussed us right into your town

    We’re just tryin’ to be friendly
    Come and watch us sing and play
    We’re your new generation
    And we’ve got nothing to pay

    1. You have no idea how bad it is here.

       The Venezuelans beg on the corners, often with a toddler child in tow for Muh Heart Strings. They’re either holding the kid or letting it sit on some dirty curb breathing exhaust fumes all day.

       It’s child abuse, and you, the parent, nobody invited you here, nobody wants you here.

       1. nobody wants you here.
          I know several people who want them to stay. I have sent them numerous links to where they can request an immigrant to live with them. From Michigan to Massachusetts but they have yet to request one or more. I keep pointing out the hypocrisy of saying the illegals belong but they won’t take any in.
          They have to understand they are phony in their “compassion” but keep doing anyway. I don’t know how they justify it in their minds.

          1. Virtue signalers. They put those hypocritical signs on their front lawns that say: “Immigrants welcome here”, but they don’t actually want them anywhere near their neighborhood.

11. “Fed policies in the wake of the global financial crisis have focused on bolstering asset prices, Bright said. ‘The downside is that not everyone is an asset-owner,’ he said.”

    Trying to make everyone get richer through steadily rising housing prices is a dumb idea with an expiration date.

12. ‘I think it’s another false promise, and we’re gonna be left with nothing,’ said Haynes. ‘It’s a way for them to have control.’

    Your government loves you, Kelly, and would never stoop to using false promises or deceit to control you.

13. Why are we subsidizing an area that is constantly going to be battered by floods and have just insane claims going forward?’ asked Kluener.”

    Precisely. Pack yer boxes & GTFO, FBs.

14. Do you weep tears of sorrow thinking about how many renters are priced out of housing forever?

    1. Home
       Real Estate
       ‘Shark Tank’ investor Barbara Corcoran says young people’s dreams of buying a home are being crushed
       Theron Mohamed
       Nov 22, 2024, 5:27 AM PST
       barbara corcoran with a microphone
       Andrew Toth/Getty Images

       – Barbara Corcoran says it’s “disturbing” how young people are being locked out of the housing market.

       – The “Shark Tank” investor pointed to first-time buyers getting older and losing out to cash buyers.

       – Corcoran said Trump-fueled inflation and stubborn rates are risks, and she doesn’t see a bubble.

       High prices, steep mortgage rates, and fierce competition are locking young people out of becoming homeowners, Barbara Corcoran says.

       The “Shark Tank” investor and real-estate tycoon pointed to “disturbing” data from the 2024 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers during a recent interview on “Cavuto: Coast to Coast” on the Fox Business Network.
       …
       https://www.businessinsider.com/shark-tank-barbara-corcoran-first-time-buyers-housing-rates-prices-2024-11

       1. Why does anyone give this bag of dog dookie an ounce of credibility after everything she promised before the last housing crash, and during it?! It’s all there for anyone to look up. It is almost note for note what she is saying now.

    2. No. It infuriates me that corporate entities with access to unlimited Yellen Bux are allowed to compete with legitimate homebuyers and independent landlords in the housing market.

       1. FS, this situation is simply a natural result of the way corporation law and stock exchanges are set up.

          Corporations are created by state law as “limited liability” entities, so that the putative “owners” of a company reap the rewards of the business, but are exempt from any responsibility for harm the businesses may cause to others, whether negligently or intentionally. So they “own” the business in that they share in the profits, but don’t “own” it in the Dr. Laura sense of being responsible and taking accountability for one’s actions. This setup is contrary to any concept of English Common Law, morals, justice, or common sense.

          Next, the shares of these corporations are listed on public stock exchanges, where consumers, institutions, and governments alike are continually exhorted from every direction by every possible media outlet to invest in them. In this way, the careers and retirement plans of millions of people are made to depend on the constant rise in value of share prices, again regardless of any ill effects caused by the companies’ business operations.

          Then any rise in the stock market indexes is greeted with exhilarated jubilation, while any decline is cause for recriminations and ill will and finger pointing. Quite simply, the level of the stock market indexes becomes the sole metric of the health and well-being of a society. Wars, pandemics, famines, environmental disasters– nothing else matters, as long as stocks are up, it’s all good.

          The corporations thereby amass enormous wealth, giving them preferential access to lobbyists, politicians, and bureaucrats who will ensure that they receive favorable treatment compared with individuals and unincorporated small businesses, making them even richer still.

          And so the cycle continues. The only way to break it is to look ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves whether we want to be part of this system. That is, do we continue to countenance widespread corporate destruction in return for nominal portfolio gains and superficial bragging rights? Will we continue to exult in gains of share prices while bemoaning Wall Street’s short term focus on profits and sociopathic contempt for product quality, consumers, patients, and prospective home buyers and renters?

          1. “whether we want to be part of this system”

             Sold the last of my stonks this spring, sitting in all cash, with which each rate cut, the Fed continues its War On Savers.

             I bought a burned down house which is now a burnt out hole in the ground last year, for cash, which may or may not become my new house someday.

             And yeah, I renewed my apartment lease this summer.

             The “system” is broken.

15. Aaron Buchanan works at Young’s Fuel Service in Bakersville, told News 13 he is in disbelief at the outpouring of help.

    This is America at its best, rallying to the aid of our fellow citizens impacted by natural disasters. “Love your neighbor” put into action is a core tenet of any Christian congregation worthy of the name.

16. ‘I have one client just walking away from two dispensaries and about five more about to walk away from their leases,’ said John Wickens, founder of Six Chair Blue, a cannabis-focused real estate brokerage based in Denver.

    Most of the stoners in the Front Range would rather buy from cartel drug dealers than pay the exorbitant taxes charged by legal pot retailers.

    1. They’d better pray their cartel weed isn’t laced.

17. KingSett Mortgage Corp., one of Canada’s largest private equity real estate lenders, has gone to court demanding more than $300 million it claims Thind’s companies owe, with almost $100,000 in interest accruing every day.

    If there’s anything more satisfying than seeing real estate speculators get defrauded, it’s seeing the lenders that have enabled and encouraged Housing Bubble 2.0 get their heads handed to them thanks to speculative malinvestment.

18. The wall of lies is crumbling.

    https://x.com/_aussie17/status/1860594955854692482

    1. 100% safe and effective.

19. Taxpayers should not be forced to fund globalist propaganda outlets like NPR.

    https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1860696219187835389

20. The globalist propaganda mouthpieces at MSNBC are facing a nightmare scenario of Elon Musk being their new boss. The few that retain their jobs, that is.

    https://x.com/saras76/status/1860708504278901191

21. The Fed sees no bubbles, and BlackRock Jay thinks monetary policy is too “restrictive.”

    https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1860724883405074453

    1. Perhaps the bond vigilantes disagree, as long-term bond yields rocketed up following the supersized 1/2 percent Fed rate cut earlier this year, and they recently increased by more in a further expression of doubt in the Fed’s commitment to contain inflation.

22. Priorities.

    https://x.com/grandoldmemes/status/1859261487010972085/photo/1

    1. JFK put a man on the moon.

       Obama/Biden/Harris put men in little girls’ bathrooms.

23. Family stunned as replacing car’s battery costs more than buying electric car

    A family who purchased an electric vehicle for a 17-year-old as her first car went on to regret their decision. In 2022, Avery Siwinski’s family forked out for an electric car so that the teen could drive herself to and from school.

    The car in question was a 2014 Ford Focus Electric and had just 60,000 miles on it despite being a few years old. Avery loved her car, but started having problems with the vehicle around six months after getting it. The main issue? The car’s battery.

    “I was really excited. And it was fine at first, I loved it so much, it was small and quiet,” Florida teen Avery gushed about the car to 10 Tampa Bay. But it ‘all of a sudden just stopped working’. After taking it to the shop, they discovered that the battery had died, which normally wouldn’t be too much of an issue.

    However, when Ford discontinued the model, they also stopped producing the batteries – and getting a replacement for Avery’s car would cost a whopping $14,000, not including the installation costs.

    “I know that Ford stopped making the car but it’s frustrating that they stopped making the battery too, so it left hundreds of people without a car to use,” she said.

    https://www.unilad.com/technology/news/electric-car-battery-costs-more-than-the-car-165440-20241024

    1. Ah, the joys of being an early adopter of technologies that aren’t ready for prime time.

       1. One might think the EV battery packs could be made in standard sizes and configurations, much like regular car batteries are. When the battery in your Chevy dies you can just buy a new one at WalMart or an auto parts store. But that would make too much sense, I suppose.

          1. They way far out from anything like that. An old Prius for example. You can’t get a good battery replacement. There’s no money in it so no one bothers. There’s lots of shady deals with no guarantees, fly by night outfits and prices so high, plus shipping/installation, it’s out of the question.

             It’s little design disasters in these age brackets and brands going away. Not ready for prime time even years in.

          2. I visited the Edison/Ford museum in Fort Myers, FL a few years ago.

             On display were some of Edison’s DC batteries, which can be connected in banks, and when regularly serviced, could be used in industrial applications for decades after their manufacture.

24. Chinese EV makers are not doing quite as well as you might think

    China’s Tesla rivals might be booming, but they’re still losing money. Nio, Zeekr, Xiaomi, and Xpeng have all broken personal sales records in recent months. Xpeng delivered 24,000 vehicles last month, and Xiaomi sold over 100,000 of its SU7 EV this year alone.

    However, the booming sales come as many Chinese EV makers continue to report heavy losses, as they grapple with a brutal price war and intense pressure to quickly launch new affordable models amid a crowded field of battery-electric vehicles.

    EV startup Nio, known for its battery-swapping stations and run by CEO William Li, sometimes dubbed “the Elon Musk of China,” reported widening losses in its Q3 earnings on Wednesday.

    The company reported a net loss of 5.06 billion yuan ($700 million), up 11% from the third quarter of 2023.

    Shares plunged nearly 7% in the hours after the announcement, despite Nio delivering 61,800 vehicles in the past three months, a new quarterly record for the company. Nio’s rivals reported a similar blend of booming deliveries and painfully high losses.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/chinese-ev-makers-are-not-doing-quite-as-well-as-you-might-think/ar-AA1uEEX0

25. Afraid of losing the US-Canada trade pact, Mexico alters its laws and removes Chinese parts

    Mexico has been taking a bashing lately for allegedly serving as a conduit for Chinese parts and products into North America, and officials here are afraid a re-elected Donald Trump or politically struggling Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could try to leave their country out of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement.

    Mexico’s ruling Morena party is so afraid of losing the trade deal that President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday the government has gone on a campaign to get companies to replace Chinese parts with locally made ones.

    “We have a plan with the aim of substituting these imports that come from China, and producing the majority of them in Mexico, either with Mexican companies or primarily North American companies,” Sheinbaum said.

    Mexico is scrambling with private companies to get them to move parts production here. “Next year, God willing, we are going to start making microchips in Mexico,” Mexican Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said on Thursday. “Of course they’re not yet the most advanced chips, but we are going to start producing them here.”

    Mexico’s nationalistic ruling party, which is normally very resistant to being seen as bending to U.S. demands, is scrambling in other ways, too.

    The ruling party is in the process of eliminating a half-dozen independent regulatory and oversight agencies that were established by former presidents. That includes the anti-monopoly, transparency and energy regulatory bodies. Together with reforms that will make all judges stand for election in Mexico, that has sparked concern in the U.S. and Canada.

    Countries are required under the agreement to have some independent agencies, in part to protect foreign investors. For example, they could prevent a government from approving a monopoly for a state-owned company that could force competitors out of the market.

    Gabriela Siller, director of economic analysis of the financial group Banco Base notes that if a country is dissatisfied with the trade agreement during the periodic reviews, like in 2026, there is a clause in the pact that says they can ask for a review each year to work out a solution, and keep doing that for a decade while the agreement remains in force.

    “That is, they wouldn’t be able to get out until 2036,” Siller said. “I think they will play hardball with Mexico in the 2026 review.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/afraid-of-losing-the-us-canada-trade-pact-mexico-alters-its-laws-and-removes-chinese-parts/ar-AA1uCCzr

    1. Mazda dealerships are stuck with made-in-Mexico CX-30s that are plagued with reliability issues, while Japanese-made CX-5s are among the most reliable and well-built cars on the market. Sorry, globalists, but viva la difference.

    2. Mexico’s nationalistic ruling party

       Sheinbaum, unlike her predecessor, is a Davos globalist.

       1. (((/Davos Globalist)))

          in a country with 130 million people there are less than 100,000 Jews and yet somehow one ends up President.

          weird huh?

          1. Stop noticing!

          2. weird huh?

             To be honest, I’m still blown away. When I lived there antisemitism was acceptable. Now their prez is a member of the tribe? She allegedly won in a landslide, about 60% of the vote, and her opponent was a mestizo woman. I’m still trying to wrap my head around that.

26. From a US$300 billion climate finance deal to global carbon trading, here’s what was – and wasn’t – achieved at the COP29 climate talks

    The petroleum-laden dust has settled on this year’s United Nations climate summit, COP29, held over the past fortnight in Baku, Azerbaijan. Climate scientists, leaders, lobbyists and delegates are heading for home.

    At the outset, expectations for the conference were low. The United States had just voted for the return of climate denier Donald Trump. And Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev declared oil and gas a “gift of God” at an opening event.

    Fossil fuels were the elephant in the room. At last year’s COP in Dubai, nations finally agreed to include wording on: transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science

    But at this year’s COP, there was no decision on how, exactly, to begin this transition – and fossil fuels are not explicitly mentioned in the outcome documents.

    Delegates from oil giant Saudi Arabia repeatedly tried to block mention of fossil fuels across all of the negotiating streams.

    https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/news/from-a-us-300-billion-climate-finance-deal-to-global-carbon-trading-here-s-what-was-and-wasn-t-achieved-at-the-cop29-climate-talks/ar-AA1uE5dq

    1. a US$300 billion climate finance deal

       A lot of sticky hands are going to try to grab some of that pie.

    2. so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science

       The same “science” that predicted snowfalls would be gone by now.

       1. $cience

          A conference of lobbyists.

27. Far-right leaders eye breakthrough in Romania presidential elections

    Romanians were voting Sunday in the first round of a presidential election amid a surge in inflation and fears over the war in neighbouring Ukraine that could favour far-right leader George Simion.

    The vote kicks off two weeks of elections in the poor NATO member country, including a parliamentary vote and a December 8 presidential run-off.

    Simion is targeting people like Rodica, a 69-year-old who was among the first to vote in Bucharest’s chilly sunshine. The pensioner, who would not give a family name, was afraid of the Ukraine war and wanted “better living conditions and peace”.

    The stakes are high in the race to replace President Klaus Iohannis, a liberal and staunch Ukraine ally, who has held the largely ceremonial post since 2014.

    Romania, which has a 650-kilometre (400-mile) border with Ukraine, has become more important since Russia invaded its neighbour in 2022.

    The Black Sea nation now plays a “vital strategic role” for NATO – as it is home to more than 5,000 soldiers – and the transit of Ukrainian grain, the New Strategy Center think tank said.

    Simion, 38, is hoping to make a breakthrough as far-right parties across Europe notch up electoral successes. Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election has further “complicated” Romania’s choice, political analyst Cristian Pirvulescu told AFP.

    Known for his fiery speeches, Simion – a Trump fan who sometimes dons a red cap in appreciation of his idol – hopes to get a boost from his victory.

    Simion opposes sending military aid to Ukraine, wants a “more patriotic Romania” and frequently lashes out against what he calls the “greedy corrupt bubble” in Brussels.

    Romania has so far only had “minions and cowards as leaders”, he recently said, adding that people “no longer accept to be treated as second-class citizens” in other countries.

    Should he reach the second round, analyst Pirvulescu predicts a “contagion effect” that would likely boost his AUR party in the December parliamentary election.

    “Romanian democracy is in danger for the first time since the fall of communism in 1989,” he added.

    https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/far-right-leaders-eye-breakthrough-in-romania-presidential-elections/ar-AA1uEzI0

    Interesting how often democracy is at danger in an election. And are they far right if they are the majority like in the US?

    1. The pensioner, who would not give a family name, was afraid of the Ukraine war and wanted “better living conditions and peace”.

       Obviously a far-right agent of the Kremlin.

28. Nova Scotia Tories appear safe with close battle for second between Liberals and NDP

    With two days left before Nova Scotians elect their next government, polls suggest Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston’s decision to call an early vote will pay off and the real battle will be between the Liberals and NDP for second place.

    The Progressive Conservatives are seeking a second consecutive mandate Tuesday after sweeping the Liberals from power in August 2021. Tory Leader Tim Houston called the snap election on Oct. 27 citing the need for a fresh mandate and ignoring his government’s election law, which for the first time in Nova Scotia set a fixed election date — July 15, 2025.

    In a recent interview, Alex Marland, a political scientist at Acadia University, said the final result is shaping up to be what Houston hoped for when he called the election. Marland said several factors were at play in Houston’s political calculus to go early.

    Marland said what the polls suggest is that the Progressive Conservatives should “steamroll” through many rural areas outside of Halifax. “Within the Halifax area they are in much tighter competition with the NDP and that’s a real problem for the Liberals because it suggests that the Liberals aren’t competitive anywhere,” he said. “So the real issue here … is how much of the Liberal vote will hold?”

    https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/nova-scotia-tories-appear-safe-with-close-battle-for-second-between-liberals-and-ndp/ar-AA1uEJW4

    1. Progressive Conservative

       I really get a kick out of party names in other countries.

29. With the Laurentian elite’s power fading, a new and less stable Canada is emerging

    Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are unlikely to hold onto the Greater Vancouver riding of Cloverdale-Langley City in the Dec. 16 by-election. The government is deeply unpopular, and it lost much safer seats in Toronto and Montreal in by-elections earlier this year.

    But more is going on than simply voter resentment of a government that’s long in the tooth. The Liberal Party confronts a political phenomenon that emerged more than a decade ago and that has returned with a vengeance, threatening not only the Prime Minister’s electoral fortunes, but the future of the party itself.

    It has been more than 12 years since the publication of our book The Big Shift, in which we declared that political elites were in decline in Central Canada, that the Conservative coalition forged by Stephen Harper had become a national governing party, and that progressives would respond to the Conservative challenge through some sort of merger of their forces.

    In our book, we wrote about what we called the Laurentian elite: the political, bureaucratic, academic, cultural, business and media leaders who inhabited the better neighbourhoods of Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and other cities between Windsor and Quebec City.

    The Laurentian elite had governed by consensus through most of Canada’s history. The great disruptions of the past – the hanging of Louis Riel, the conscription crises, the Quebec sovereignty movement, the debate over free trade – stood out because they disrupted that consensus.

    Though the Laurentian elite were not specifically Liberal, we wrote, the Liberal Party had long represented their interests, and other parties that formed government, such as the Progressive Conservatives under Brian Mulroney, also reflected those interests.

    But by the second decade of this century, it was clear to us that the influence of the Laurentian elite was weakening, for two reasons. First, Western Canada was growing in population and influence. The four Western provinces had surpassed Quebec and Atlantic Canada in population, while the oil and gas sector of Alberta and Saskatchewan had become a major driver of the Canadian economy.

    Second, hundreds of thousands of immigrants from developing countries were arriving annually. Many clustered in suburban communities surrounding Toronto and Vancouver. Others took advantage of Alberta’s booming economy.

    The West – especially the Prairie provinces – and rural Ontario formed the base of the Conservative Party. The Laurentian Liberals occupied the city centres of Central Canada. Whichever side could win over the vast numbers living in the major suburban communities of Ontario and B.C. governed.

    Today, the demographic forces that gave birth to the Big Shift are more powerful than ever, while new forces are at work that we had not anticipated. They are coalescing and expanding to the benefit of Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives, while throwing the Liberal Party into crisis.

    Trudeau biographer Stephen Maher recently observed in these pages that New Democrats and their ideological counterpart in Quebec, Québec Solidaire, have more federal, provincial and territorial seats combined than the Liberals, with conservatives of one stripe or another dominant over both.

    “The Liberal brand is on the precipice of ruin,” Mr. Maher wrote.

    Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, whose Parti Québécois has a healthy lead in the polls, has vowed that a PQ government will hold a referendum on sovereignty in its first term in office. He envisions an independent Quebec before the end of the decade.

    Federalists will face a challenge when confronting a sovereigntist government in Quebec that they have not faced in the past. Laurentian Canada and the Liberal Party have left Western voters so angry and alienated that Canada confronts not one sovereignty movement, but two. Danielle Smith in Alberta and Scott Moe in Saskatchewan talk about and have passed legislation that puts Saskatchewan First and declares Alberta Sovereignty.

    The West is hardly uniform – one poll showed that British Columbians were more inclined to identify with Washington State than with Alberta or any Canadian province. But the four provinces have long shared a sense of separation from Central Canada.

    The one thing Westerners and Quebeckers have in common with the rest of Canada is a diminishing sense of commitment to the Canadian idea. An Ipsos poll from June of this year revealed that 35 per cent of Canadians said they were less proud of being Canadian than they were five years ago, while only 16 per cent were more proud. (The online poll of 1,001 adults had a comparable margin of error of 3.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.)

    Will a Western-born Conservative leader such as Pierre Poilievre be able to contain the latest surge of centrifugal forces that threaten the federation as prime minister?

    The Big Shift we described more than a decade ago is back with a vengeance. Whether Canada will survive it is another story.

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-with-the-laurentian-elites-power-fading-a-new-and-less-stable-canada/

    1. Quebec should have left a long time ago.

30. One of the Biden regime’s biggest swindles was funneling hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to far-left and globalist-sponsored “researchers” and “think tanks” to counter alleged “misinformation,” i.e. any challenge to approved globalist Narratives.

    https://x.com/zerohedge/status/1860538869399060793

    1. This is a global phenomenon. The $200B pledged at the latest COP meeting will be mostly swindled away.

31. Politics includes a lot of pretending.

    People say one thing when they clearly mean another. They swear up and down that they’re not doing the thing they’re doing right in front of your face. Or they insist they’re doing it for some reason other than their obvious intent.

    But this week, in glorious defiance of all of that shameless artifice, Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland trotted themselves out at a charming little grocery store to basically holler, “Ho ho ho, guess who just saved Christmas, kids?”

    What they were announcing was a two-month GST holiday, beginning in mid-December, on children’s clothes, shoes and diapers, Christmas trees, books, toys, games and puzzles, beer and wine, snacks, prepared foods and restaurant meals. Everyone who worked in 2023 and made less than $150,000 will also get a $250 cheque in the spring.

    As fantastic as this pageant of festive government largesse was, they should have really leaned in – like a TV show that gets cancelled with three episodes to go, so the writers just get drunk on self-indulgence. They could have had a few saucer-eyed children in pyjamas, softly humming carols as they waited to hear who would save Christmas. Did no one consider an upright piano, or a phalanx of malevolent toy soldiers that look suspiciously like Pierre Poilievre?

    The House of Commons has been in suspended animation since September, because of a Conservative filibuster that may belong on the naughty list. The Tories want to bring down the government and go to the polls yesterday, and since the shotgun marriage between the Liberals and the NDP fell apart, the minority government has become more precarious.

    So Thursday’s announcement was meant to plunk a sack full of nice things in front of Canadians, with a gift tag that read “LOVE, THE LIBERALS” on it, while simultaneously dangling an anvil stamped “MEAN OTHER PARTIES” above it.

    But zoom out a bit, and this whole spectacle demonstrates how stuck the government is.

    There is ample evidence that people all over feel the economy is worse than it is. But if you have a not-going-to-blow-up-in-your-clueless-elitist-face way to tell them that it’s not so bad, you are better at political communications than anyone else practising at the moment.

    Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are only the latest and most visible incumbents to be tossed onto a very large discard pile of vanquished sitting governments. Half of the world’s population voted in 2024, and the vast majority opted to throw the bums out – regardless of who their particular bums were.

    Global inflation fuelled by pandemic snarls and geopolitics – because while that sounds like a defensive deke every time Mr. Trudeau or Ms. Freeland say it, it’s pretty accurate – is a big explanation for this tsunami of anti-incumbency.

    The real problem for this government is that everything they do now looks clueless, or desperate, or both.

    The difference between a bouquet presented on a giddy third date or one proffered after you’ve already decided to deliver the “We need to talk” speech isn’t the flowers, after all – it’s the giver and the vibe. You’re excruciating if you keep trying, but if you don’t, you’re proving that you don’t care.

    And so here we arrive back at the same question: What else are they supposed to do?

    I guess one way to pass the time, especially during the most wonderful time of the year, is put on a good old-fashioned variety show: Justin & Chrystia Save Christmas.

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/opinion/article-justin-trudeaus-holiday-tax-break-spectacle-shows-how-stuck-parliament/

    1. Everyone who worked in 2023 and made less than $150,000 will also get a $250 cheque in the spring.

       That should pay for a small bag of groceries

       1. a small bag of groceries

          It certainly won’t counter the carbon tax price increases.

32. Ex-Rep. Matt Gaetz teases run for Florida governor

    Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz suggested Saturday that he might run for governor of the Sunshine State, days after he withdrew from consideration as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general pick.

    The 42-year-old Republican posted a GIF of the state flag waving on X, teasing he is open to running. He was responding to ex-Florida House Rep. Anthony Sabatini, who posted Gaetz “will be the next Governor of the State of Florida.”

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is term-limited from seeking re-election. DeSantis called a special election for April 1, 2025 to fill Gaetz’s seat in Florida’s 1st congressional district.

    https://nypost.com/2024/11/23/us-news/ex-rep-matt-gaetz-teases-run-for-florida-governor/

33. A look at how some of Trump’s picks to lead health agencies could help carry out Kennedy’s overhaul

    The team that President-elect Donald Trump has selected to lead federal health agencies in his second administration includes a retired congressman, a surgeon and a former talk-show host.

    All could play pivotal roles in fulfilling a political agenda that could change how the government goes about safeguarding Americans’ health — from health care and medicines to food safety and science research. In line to lead the Department of Health and Human Services secretary is environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine organizer Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

    Many on the list were critical of COVID-19 measures like masking and booster vaccinations for young people. Some of them have ties to Florida like many of Trump’s other Cabinet nominees: Dave Weldon, the pick for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, represented the state in Congress for 14 years and is affiliated with a medical group on the state’s Atlantic coast. Nesheiwat’s brother-in-law is Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., tapped by Trump as national security adviser.

    Kennedy has long attacked vaccines and criticized the CDC, repeatedly alleging corruption at the agency. He said on a 2023 podcast that there is “no vaccine that is safe and effective,” and urged people to resist the CDC’s guidelines about if and when kids should get vaccinated.

    Decades ago, Kennedy found common ground with Weldon, 71, who served in the Army and worked as an internal medicine doctor before he represented a central Florida congressional district from 1995 to 2009.

    Starting in the early 2000s, Weldon had a prominent part in a debate about whether there was a relationship between a vaccine preservative called thimerosal and autism. He was a founding member of the Congressional Autism Caucus and tried to ban thimerosal from all vaccines. Kennedy, then a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, believed there was a tie between thimerosal and autism and also charged that the government hid documents showing the danger.

    Weldon’s congressional voting record suggests he may go along with Republican efforts to downsize the CDC, including to eliminate the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, which works on topics like drownings, drug overdoses and shooting deaths. Weldon also voted to ban federal funding for needle-exchange programs as an approach to reduce overdoses, and the National Rifle Association gave him an “A” rating for his pro-gun rights voting record.

    Makary, Trump’s pick to run the FDA, is closely aligned with Kennedy on several topics. The professor at Johns Hopkins University who is a trained surgeon and cancer specialist has decried the overprescribing of drugs, the use of pesticides on foods and the undue influence of pharmaceutical and insurance companies over doctors and government regulators.

    Kennedy has suggested he’ll clear out “entire” FDA departments and also recently threatened to fire FDA employees for “aggressive suppression” of a host of unsubstantiated products and therapies, including stem cells, raw milk, psychedelics and discredited COVID-era treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.

    Makary’s contrarian views during the COVID-19 pandemic included questioning the need for masking and giving young kids COVID-19 vaccine boosters.

    Kennedy has said he’d pause drug development and infectious disease research to shift the focus to chronic diseases. He’d like to keep NIH funding from researchers with conflicts of interest, and criticized the agency in 2017 for what he said was not doing enough research into the role of vaccines in autism — an idea that has long been debunked.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/a-look-at-how-some-of-trumps-picks-to-lead-health-agencies-could-help-carry-out-kennedys-overhaul/ar-AA1uD62w

    1. Covid vaccines are poison.

       Get Big Pharma advertising banned from TeeVee and we’ll know you really mean business.

       1. I seriously doubt that anyone asks their doctor for specific meds because they saw an ad. I think it is just Pharma buttering the bread of the networks for favorable news reporting.

          1. Plus the ailments those magic pills treat are mostly ones I’ve never heard of, like nasal polyps.

34. How Trump won middle-class voters — and what his return means for their finances

    Brian Eskow never thought he would vote for Donald Trump. He was raised in a strongly Democratic family in New Jersey, describing his father as a socially liberal Marxist, and had believed without question that Democrats were his party. He voted for former President Barack Obama twice, and then for Hillary Clinton.

    But something started to change for him after the pandemic when he was in law school. He became skeptical of critical race theory while studying it in class, and the experience “nudged me to the right,” he said. In 2020, he still voted for President Joe Biden, but as Election Day approached this year, he found himself increasingly alienated by what he perceived to be the Democratic Party’s new cultural agenda.

    For Eskow, a 34-year-old white Jewish male who grew up in an upper-middle-class household, it was the debate over critical race theory — an academic framework for examining how racism remains embedded in social institutions and systems, and a popular target of GOP lawmakers — that shifted his political allegiance.

    “I don’t think [this framework] is correct. But if it is correct, it’s world-shattering and it makes you feel really bad that you’ve been ignorant,” he told MarketWatch. He supported equality, he said, and did not accept what he viewed as an implication by proponents of critical race theory that he was “shamefully ignorant.” This single chasm led Eskow to question all of his political values, a journey he has chronicled on his podcast, “Searching for Political Identity.”

    “I was left saying, hey, maybe [Republicans are] right about everything else, too,” he said in an interview. “Immigration, economics — maybe they’re right about all of it.”

    Eskow, who works for his uncle managing construction projects in San Diego, said that even as someone who earns more than $100,000, he has still felt the impact of high inflation in recent years. In Trump, “I see a guy who is focusing on jobs. And I’m thinking, well, the other side doesn’t seem to focus on jobs; they want to focus on carbon emissions,” he said. “Maybe [Trump] knows how to get the economy roaring.”

    The middle class was once a reliably Democratic base. Yet as its members continually saw their share of American wealth shrink and their financial stability erode under recent Democratic and Republican administrations alike, their vote has become less predictable.

    Middle- and lower-middle-income voters “are roughly evenly split in their partisan orientation,” according to the Pew Research Center.

    “When you get to that $30,000 to $75,000 range, those are the people who are most reactive to the times,” Patrick Murray, the director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, told MarketWatch. If they feel they are not getting ahead, they’ll think, “it’s time to give somebody else the chance.”

    MarketWatch spoke with first-time Trump voters who said they had supported Democratic candidates in previous elections. Rather than any of his economic proposals, they said, it was actually simmering frustrations with the post-2020 Democratic Party that led them to vote for Trump this year. These voters described their positions as more anti-Democrat than pro-Republican, and felt a loss of trust in the party that once claimed the moral high ground but was now mired in “smug self-righteousness,” as one voter in Albuquerque, N.M., put it.

    These voters, having lived through one Trump term, found the messaging about the former president from both Harris and some center-left news outlets — seeing the media as amplifiers of the Democratic Party and its supporters — to be hysterical and dishonest, nudging them steadily to the right. Charlie Cheon, a 30-year-old YouTuber based in Philadelphia, went as far as to call Trump’s victory a “f— you” to the media. Influential people like Elon Musk — who flipped for Trump this election, spent nearly $120 million to support his run and amplified his supporters on X — validated these growing resentments.

    Cheon, an immigrant from South Korea who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s law school in 2023, currently works as a restaurant server and describes himself as middle class. This was the first election in which Cheon was eligible to vote, but “I would have voted for any Democratic candidate” in 2016 and 2020, he told MarketWatch — noting, “I was left-leaning my whole life until a few years ago.”

    “Trump did not change,” Cheon said. “I did.”

    “A lot of us felt the severe pinch of inflation, myself included, and wanted a clear departure from the status quo,” he said. This sentiment was not limited to cut-and-dried economic topics, either. “Middle-income Americans care about issues like crime and unchecked migration,” Cheon added, “and the Democrats were gaslighting people into believing either that there was no problem with regards to those issues or that they were doing a good job handling it.”

    “None of what she was saying could help me personally,” Cheon said. “I saw no bold vision on her part to address the economic needs of the vast majority of the public.”

    Throughout Harris’s three-month campaign, Lawrence found himself increasingly at odds with the Democratic Party. At rallies in districts with large Black populations, Black celebrities like Megan Thee Stallion and Magic Johnson showed their support for Harris. “Again, pandering,” he said. A turning point came in October, when Obama suggested sexism might explain lower-than-expected support for Harris among Black men. Rather than talking about issues that affect Black men most, like the economy, Lawrence said, party leadership “tried to shame us.”

    When Lawrence expressed in online forums for Black men that he was leaning toward Trump, some responded that the former president would bring back the Jim Crow era, which alienated Lawrence further. “None of that is going to happen,” Lawrence said. “At that point, my mind was made up.”

    For Cheon, the YouTuber, the economy “was definitely a serious concern,” but the decisive factor in his vote was now “standing against the woke left, who has poisoned the well of our discourse with victim mentality and grievance politics.” Cheon added that the priorities of the “woke left,” which he associates with Democrats, are “unfavorable to the future of Asian Americans,” whose achievements he believes have made them a target in efforts to narrow racial inequality.

    YouTuber and writer Bridget Phetasy, another first-time Trump voter, echoed those sentiments in a recent video. “If you had told the Bridget of 2016 that the Bridget of 2024 was going to vote for Donald J. Trump, I would have said, ‘Wow, that’s unfortunate — I lose my mind in the future.’” However, she said, her vote was not really for Trump.

    “I’m voting against the left and many of the things that they stand for,” Phetasy said in the video, citing support for transgender rights and the cultural censorship she feels in liberal circles. She took issue with new gender-neutral language — such as “birthing person” instead of “mother” — that some people use in an effort to be more inclusive. “I have been radicalized by becoming a mother,” she said. (Phetasy did not respond to interview requests from MarketWatch.)

    For Nick, who lives in Albuquerque, housing affordability, crime and immigration have become major issues. “I live in a high-crime neighborhood. This was the best my wife and I could afford without taking on what we would consider too much debt,” he said. Together, they earn about $75,000 to $80,000 per year, and identify as lower-middle class.

    While Nick — a white, 41-year-old private music teacher — is not a fan of Trump’s economic proposals, including raising tariffs, he hopes a deregulatory approach by Republicans might somehow make housing cheaper, he said. Yet ultimately, “I’m not sure my economic class was such a decisive factor in my vote,” he added. “A lot of it, for me, was voting against the Democrats and Harris more so than it was about voting for Trump.”

    Nick previously voted for Obama in 2008, Jill Stein in 2012, Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020, but now feels that the Democrats’ agenda is “enabling crime and criminals.”

    “I don’t think this is their intention — I think they intend to try to address crime in more compassionate ways,” he said. “But it is what it is, and I am tired of it.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-trump-won-middle-class-voters-and-what-his-return-means-for-their-finances/ar-AA1uCurx

    1. In Trump, “I see a guy who is focusing on jobs. And I’m thinking, well, the other side doesn’t seem to focus on jobs; they want to focus on carbon emissions,” he said. “Maybe [Trump] knows how to get the economy roaring.”

       I seem to recall that US emissions dropped under Trump’s first term. As a side effect of a healthy economy.

       1. I’m currently seeing some of the worst gridlock I can remember on California freeways, although it has been bad every year since I moved here except for during recessions and the Pandemic. Milions of cars sitting in traffic for hours each day results in $ millions in excess fuel consumption and wasted time and stress sitting in traffic with no productive benefits. Also a massive amount of excess greenhouse gas emissions plus noxious pollutants are generated by bumper-to-bumper freeway traffic.

          Too bad California wastes so much money and political effort to coerce everyone to buy an EV, yet can’t figure out a way to end nonstop traffic gridlock that makes every miserable, wastes money, and pollutes the environment.

          1. Milions of cars sitting in traffic for hours each day results in $ millions in excess fuel consumption

             But I thought you guys all drive EV’s 😉

    2. “a loss of trust in the party that once claimed the moral high ground but was now mired in “smug self-righteousness”

       Sounds about right.

35. The death of U.S. industrial policy and the tragedy of Joe Biden

    The tragedy of Joe Biden is that after setting out to be the most transformative American president since Ronald Reagan, he will ultimately be of little consequence, remembered mainly for foreign-policy failures such as the crisis in Gaza or the Taliban’s return to Afghanistan. Domestically, his successful revival of industrial policy, which appeared to have launched a genuine renewal of the country’s productive capacity, will be quickly shelved by Donald Trump.

    And given how easily Bidenomics will go the way of Betamax and the BlackBerry, it seems unlikely a future president will ever want to try something similar again.

    Mr. Trump’s belief is that in a competition with China, the U.S.’s best hope lies in a small-state, free-market approach. Take his approach to Mr. Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which subsidized renewable energy and electric-vehicle producers to speed up the country’s energy transition. The president-elect wants to roll it back. Mr. Trump, who is on record inexplicably saying climate change is a Chinese hoax, also maintains that Mr. Biden’s promotion of EV sales would lead to the “complete obliteration” of the American automobile industry.

    The incoming president is instead saying that his “energy dominance” strategy will make American industry great again. He aims to cut taxes, roll back government and ease environmental restrictions on oil companies, in the stated hope that a flood of cheap energy will reinvigorate American car companies, stir new investment, open the door to a revival of manufacturing and stimulate the growth of artificial intelligence (whose energy demands are ravenous).

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-the-death-of-us-industrial-policy-and-the-tragedy-of-joe-biden/

    1. Domestically, his successful revival of industrial policy

       The one that was chock full of regulations, red tape and all sorts of hurdles that businesses had to jump over?

       which appeared to have launched a genuine renewal of the country’s productive capacity

       I sure didn’t see any of that in my neck of the woods. The old Hewlett Packard campus, which was transformed into a business park years ago, has mostly been a ghost town. Its main tenant, a company that refitted delivery vans to be EV’s (Lightning Motors) went out of business.

    2. The author:

       John Rapley is an author and academic who divides his time among London, Johannesburg and Ottawa. His books include Why Empires Fall (Yale University Press, 2023) and Twilight of the Money Gods (Simon and Schuster, 2017).

36. Is the housing mania a U.S. only problem, or more of an international one?

    1. Yahoo Finance
       Associated Press Finance
       Tens of thousands of Spaniards protest housing crunch and high rents in Barcelona
       Spain Protest
       Demonstrators march to protest the skyrocketing cost of renting an apartment in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
       JOSEPH WILSON and HERNÁN MUÑOZ
       Updated Sat, November 23, 2024 at 1:13 PM PST 4 min read

       BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Tens of thousands of Spaniards marched in downtown Barcelona on Saturday to protest the skyrocketing cost of renting an apartment in the popular tourist destination.

       Protesters cut off traffic on main avenues in the city center, holding up homemade signs in Spanish reading “Fewer apartments for investing and more homes for living” and “The people without homes uphold their rights.”

       The lack of affordable housing has become one of the leading concerns for the southern European Union country, mirroring the housing crunch across many parts of the world, including the United States.

       Organizers said that over 170,000 had turned out, while Barcelona’s police said they estimated some 22,000 marched.

       Either way, the throngs of people clogging the streets recalled the massive separatist rallies at the height of the previous decade’s Catalan independence movement. Now, social concerns led by housing have displaced political crusades.

       That is because the average rent for Spain has doubled in last 10 years. The price per square meter has risen from 7.2 euros ($7.5) in 2014 to 13 euros this year, according to the popular online real estate website Idealista. The growth is even more acute in cities like Barcelona and Madrid. Incomes meanwhile have failed to keep up, especially for younger people in a country with chronically high unemployment.
       …
       https://finance.yahoo.com/news/thousands-spaniards-protest-housing-crunch-164209979.html

    2. Why Australia’s long-suffering renters are not alone

       Rents are soaring not only in Australia but also in the US, UK and Canada, preventing inflation from declining closer to central banks’ targeted levels.
       Swati Pandey, Irina Anghel and Enda Curran
       May 10, 2024 – 9.31am

       London | Surging rents across many developed economies are proving to be a stubborn hurdle for central banks as they struggle to nail down inflation once and for all this tightening cycle.

       In the US, UK, Canada and Australia, rapidly rising housing costs – which have a hefty weighting in consumer price index baskets – are preventing inflation from declining closer to central banks’ targeted levels. The danger is that workers will demand even fatter pay cheques to deal with the cost-of-living squeeze, undermining the inflation fight even further.
       …
       https://www.afr.com/world/europe/australia-s-renters-caught-in-global-inflation-quagmire-20240508-p5h5af

    3. Financial Times
       Opinion
       The FT View
       Central banks cannot solve a housing crisis
       New Zealand’s government should focus more on regulatory changes to unlock housing supply
       The editorial board
       To solve New Zealand’s housing problems, Arden’s administration will need to look close to home
       © Brendon O’Hagan/Bloomberg
       The editorial board March 3 2021

       To many, it may look obvious that the central bank quantitative easing programmes launched after the 2008 financial crisis have led to inflation, as money printing inevitably does. It is just that it has shown up in booming stock markets, high prices for art and collectibles, and surging cryptocurrencies; rather than higher consumer prices, cheap money has led to asset price inflation. In this reading, central banks should reconsider their stimulus policies as they are only delaying and deepening the eventual bust.

       Stimulus is also, critics allege, increasing wealth inequality and worsening housing crises: higher asset prices increase the net worth, as measured by market prices, of those who already have substantial wealth while leaving the position of those without assets unchanged. Similarly, it pushes home ownership further out of the reach of those lacking in savings or inheritances — inflation that shows up in assets but not wages is particularly bad news for affordability.

       This is why New Zealand’s government has instructed the country’s central bank to consider the effect of its policies on the housing market. The centre-left administration of Jacinda Ardern has said that while the Reserve Bank will remain independent, it will have to take into account the government’s objective of “sustainable house prices”, which includes taming investor demand, when making policy decisions.
       …

       1. “…which includes taming investor demand,…”

          It seems perfectly natural for the smart money to pile into housing when central banks and other govermental agencies are actively intervening in markets to create housing price inflation.

       2. The centre-left administration of Jacinda Ardern

          Enough with the gaslighting. She was a WEF stooge.

37. Do you worry the stock market spiraling to record heights from already overvalued levels may portend a major crash, just as other such unbalanced conditions have historically resolved?

    1. Caution: United States recession probability sharply rises in 2024
       Paul L.
       Finance
       Nov 23, 2024

       The United States economy is facing an increased possibility of a recession, with key indicators flashing warning signals.

       In particular, the Conference Board Leading Economic Index (LEI), a predictor of economic trends, has dropped to levels unseen since the 2020 pandemic, according to data shared by Global Markets Investor on November 22.

       The LEI has now fallen for 32 consecutive months, and such prolonged declines have only occurred during significant economic recessions over the past 65 years.

       The index aggregates ten critical economic components and tracks manufacturing orders, consumer expectations, and financial market conditions.

       Interestingly, LEI’s current level is lower than during the 2020 pandemic. This suggests that economic momentum has weakened, potentially due to tightening monetary policy, sluggish business activity, and deteriorating consumer sentiment.

       Recession concerns despite bullish stock market

       The recession concerns have resurfaced despite the U.S. stock market surging after Donald Trump’s victory. In this context, Trump is considered bullish for the economy, but key market players warn that a crash is imminent.

       For example, Black Swan investor Mark Spitznagel predicted that stocks could lose over half their value in a sell-off by year-end, drawing parallels to the dot-com bubble of 2000.

       Despite the current rally fueled by cooling inflation and easing Federal Reserve policies, he cited the government’s $34 trillion debt as a key recession risk.

       Spitznagel warned that the rally may lead to a severe market downturn. Notably, he has been cautioning of a recession since early 2023.

       Regarding the stock market signal, economist Henrik Zeberg has maintained that investors should expect a rally in the S&P 500 index and cryptocurrencies before a major crash. Already, the index’s technical set-up is signaling a possible incoming crash.
       …
       https://finbold.com/caution-united-states-recession-probability-sharply-rises-in-2024/

       1. investors should expect a rally in the S&P 500 index

          A significant increase in the index from an already moonshot record high cannot be considered a “rally”.

          What rubbish.

       2. I see, since Cameltoe lost the election, our economy is no longer envied by the world.

    2. “may portend a major crash, just as other such unbalanced conditions have historically resolved?”

       Let it burn.

38. Yellen the Felon is stepping down as Treasury Secretary. She should be going straight to prison.

    https://x.com/IanJaeger29/status/1860475311810396402

39. ‘Kluener is a Fort Myers Beach resident. He said that it is difficult to subsidize barrier islands like Fort Myers Beach due to the flood risk. ‘A barrier island that’s going to deal with constant flood risk. Why are we subsidizing an area that is constantly going to be battered by floods and have just insane claims going forward?’

    That’s what the rest of us are thinking about Florida Todd.

40. ‘When they bought the home Buchanan said no one, from the brokers to his home insurance agency indicated his home was in a flood zone. Because of this, the couple was never required to have flood insurance though early on Buchanan said they had a mortgage. For now, the couple is waiting for that and is undecided on whether they’ll cut their losses on the brick home they loved or try to find a way to afford to restore it. ‘The only thing I know is we’re going to have to sign our life away again,’ Buchanan said. ‘We’re looking at another 30 years in debt and it’s scary — it really is’

    I know yer feeling low Aaron, but after a few days, maybe a week you’ll see. You are the winnah! here.

41. ‘Homeowners in the city would still need to meet requirements and obtain permits, but they can now put 2 or 3 ADUs on a lot, depending on the acreage. The negative is that if you want to build a casita that looks like Dracula’s castle, the people have no say in that’

    Just when you would think The Blob Phoenix™ couldn’t get any worse, it does.

42. ‘Fed policies in the wake of the global financial crisis have focused on bolstering asset prices, Bright said. ‘The downside is that not everyone is an asset-owner’

    Yer right Mike, and Orange Man Bad is moving into the White house in less than two months because of Jerry’s fook up. He printed too much, woe is Jerry! Lock him up!

43. ‘But, now, Thind’s business empire appears to be struggling, and his company and related entities are being pursued in court over hundreds of millions of dollars in allegedly unpaid debts from lenders, suppliers and partners. KingSett Mortgage Corp., one of Canada’s largest private equity real estate lenders, has gone to court demanding more than $300 million it claims Thind’s companies owe, with almost $100,000 in interest accruing every day’

    This is typical of a K-dn empire collapse these days. Nothing in the news, bam it’s hit after hit and down he goes, taking KingSett to the wood shed too. Untypically, he isn’t connected to corruption or misdeeds. Even the good die young.

44. ‘In this market, you get killed when you start too high,’ he says. ‘It can be death by a thousand cuts, and then you end up selling for what it should have been [originally] listed at, or even a little lower’

    It’s called chasing the market down Dick.

45. ‘Kumar said all houses look the same to him’

    That must be handy from a marketing point of view Sanjay.

    ‘So when he was asked to market a three bedroom property on Burundi Ave in Clendon Park, he decided to lure potential buyers in with a ‘grabby’ listing headline. ‘Close to McDonalds,’ it stated. ‘To all burger lovers who want to buy a house walking distance to McDonald’s and walk down whenever you want, then this three bedroom is the best buy for you,’ the listing continues’

    From genius ideas come great promotions!

    ‘Kumar said it was a genuine selling point for the property, as he believed not everyone in New Zealand could afford to drive to McDonald’s. ‘There’s so many properties on the market. You have to be creative,’ he said, admitting he was not the best writer. It was in ‘very tidy condition’ – perfect for first home buyers’

    650,000 pesos for a first time buyer who walks for his burgers – sound lending!

46. Simon & Garfunkel — Richard Cory:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgMZNJ8VD80

    1. Grateful Dead — Cumberland Mine:

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xosZDm01ffc

    2. “Richard Cory” – A Poem written By Edwin Arlington Robinson, published 1897.

       Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
       We people on the pavement looked at him:
       He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
       Clean favored, and imperially slim.

       And he was always quietly arrayed,
       And he was always human when he talked;
       But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
       “Good-morning,” and he glittered when he walked.

       And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—
       And admirably schooled in every grace:
       In fine, we thought that he was everything
       To make us wish that we were in his place.

       So on we worked, and waited for the light,
       And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
       And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
       Went home and put a bullet through his head.

47. Does it make sense to sue your ex for the value of your shared rental housing that you didn’t own?

    1. Moneywise
       My divorce took a turn when my spouse demanded half the value of our apartment — the problem was we didn’t own it
       Victoria Vesovski
       Sat, November 23, 2024 at 3:44 AM PST 4 min read

       Love, commitment and honeymoon plans often take center stage before marriage, but one essential conversation frequently gets overlooked: money.

       While it’s easy to focus on romantic gestures, discussing salary, debt is crucial.

       You should, evidently, also make time to clarify whether you own or rent the home you’re about to share.

       One Reddit user, who goes by @Visible_Power1771, learned this hard way.

       After living in his apartment for years, he entered a new relationship that eventually led to marriage in 2021. However, one detail was never mentioned to his soon to be spouse — the apartment they lived in was a rental.

       When the relationship unraveled and divorce was on the horizon, the spouse demanded half of the apartment’s value — only to be hit with the reality that there was no equity to split.

       “Didn’t I ever tell her that this place is a rental? Why does she even assume that I can afford a 2-bedroom apartment in the city center?” shared.
       …
       https://finance.yahoo.com/news/divorce-took-turn-spouse-demanded-114400870.html

       1. Sorry if I seem sexist, but I have a hard time envisioning a man trying this stunt on his ex wife.

48. Illegal Alien Crimes
    @ImmigrantCrimes

    Stephen Singleton was allegedly struck and killed by an illegal alien who ran a red light.

    Singleton was a husband, father, grandfather, pastor, and 9/11 ground zero volunteer.

    · Nov 21, 2024

    https://x.com/ImmigrantCrimes/status/1859663006432624930

49. “Truth is a distraction from getting things done”

    Elon Musk
    @elonmusk

    Your tax dollars should not fund lies

    Quote
    End Wokeness
    @EndWokeness
    ·
    12h

    NPR’s CEO Katherine Maher: “Truth is a distraction from getting things done”

    Our tax dollars fund this, @DOGE

    9:45 AM · Nov 24, 2024

    https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1860696219187835389

50. “The crooks home in on the US government’s tourist visa program, which is friendly to their countries and allows them to fly into the US without a background check, authorities say.”

    South American ‘crime tourists’ target the rich in at least half of US states: Thefts ‘way, way up’

    By Megan Palin
    Published March 24, 2024, 5:07 p.m. ET

    South American “crime tourists” who exploit the US visa system to enter the country and commit burglaries have infiltrated at least half the states in America and taken “millions of untraceable” goods, The Post has learned.

    The organized groups of burglars and jewel thieves, particularly from Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru, have been targeting wealthy homes across the US for decades, but their crimes have spread — and recently soared in some cities, authorities say.

    “They travel to cities across the nation – including in Maricopa County — and steal millions in untraceable items,” said Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, whose office oversees such Arizona cities as Phoenix and Scottsdale, which have been collectively hit by more than 100 burglaries believed to have been carried out by the groups since November.

    “This is a group that is taking advantage of the relationship that certain countries in South America have with the United States so that they don’t have to have a lot of scrutiny coming in,” Mitchell told The Post.

    “The federal government’s tourist visa program allows them to fly into the United States without a background check. Once they’ve entered our county, they immediately obtain fake ID,” she said in a statement.

    “One defendant admitted to being in the US on a tourist visa and had already been a part of burglaries in California, Nevada and Arizona.”

    https://nypost.com/2024/03/24/us-news/south-american-crime-tourists-infiltrate-at-least-half-of-us-states-to-target-the-rich-thefts-way-way-up/

51. Report Of Suspicious Vehicle Leads To Arrest Of Woman In Greenwich: PD

    Richard Kaufman,
    Posted Mon, Nov 18, 2024 at 11:08 am ET

    GREENWICH, CT — A woman was found with fake documents and tools commonly used to commit burglaries after police responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle in the Backcountry on Nov. 16, according to the Greenwich Police Department.

    Kemberly Gagliano was arrested and charged with interfering with an officer, second-degree forgery and improper use of a marker, license or registration plate, police said in a news release.

    “At this time, it is believed that Gagliano may be connected with burglaries that have occurred recently in Greenwich,” police said. “The Greenwich Police Department is continuing to investigate further.”

    Police noted Gagliano may be connected with the South American Theft Group, a group that has targeted high-valued homes in the tri-state area, according to police.

    Gagliano tried to identify herself with a Mexican passport, which listed her name as Angelica Santos Chavez, and she told officers she was waiting to pick up her friend, police said.

    In addition to the passport, Gagliano provided a Mexican driver’s license, a Mexican international driver’s license and a New Jersey paper registration to the BMW, police said, adding that the passport and driver’s licenses were later all determined to be fake.

    https://patch.com/connecticut/greenwich/report-suspicious-vehicle-leads-arrest-woman-greenwich-pd

52. It seems like nobody who works in the Real Estate Industrial Complex can envision a world where home ownership isn’t at least 35% more expensive than renting. Why people expect a historically large price anomaly to not only persist but steadily worsen into the indefinite future is a deep mystery to me. I guess they forgot the mid-1990s, when it was cheaper to buy in coastal California with a reasonably low down payment and pay less per month on a mortgage than the rental rate on comparables. They also forgot the 2007 through 2012 period, when home prices began to approach affordability before the Fed stepped in with Quantitative Easing to bigly reflate the Housing Bubble.

    1. Yahoo Finance
       Owning a home has rarely been this much more expensive than renting
       Claire Boston · Senior Reporter
       Updated Sat, November 23, 2024 at 5:05 AM PST 5 min read

       On paper, owning a home is almost always more expensive than renting — about 14% more, on average, after factoring in expenses like insurance, taxes, and upkeep.

       But the difference has grown much more extreme in recent years as just about all homeownership costs have ballooned.

       How extreme? Exact cost estimates vary, but recently the premium for homeownership has been at least 35% over renting, a level that’s near historical highs and is likely to persist.
       …
       https://finance.yahoo.com/news/owning-a-home-has-rarely-been-this-much-more-expensive-than-renting-155251484.html

       1. “Exact cost estimates vary, but recently the premium for homeownership has been at least 35% over renting, a level that’s near historical highs and is likely to persist.”

          For the record, the home we rent has a Zestimate which implies a monthly mortgage payment of nearly $10,000, assuming a typical recently available 30 year fixed mortgage rates of 7.5% and 0% downpayment. That’s well more than 100% over our monthly rental payment, before considering taxes, maintenance, and exorbitant California homeowner’s insurance in a fire hazard zone.

53. If the globalist scum media is on your side, you are not The Resistance.

    https://www.axios.com/2024/11/24/resistance-trump-protests-womens-march

54. Another populist-nationalist “shock” election result in Romania.

    https://x.com/zerohedge/status/1861015763882013062

    1. @TheEmperorisNa1 said: There is no more “left and right”. There is only globalism and nationalism.

    2. Uruguayans jest elected a Leftist government.

55. The time has come for the sane counties to break away from the commies in blue states and cities.

    https://nypost.com/2024/11/24/us-news/rural-counties-in-california-and-illinois-push-to-secede-from-blue-states-to-separate-from-liberal-run-cities/

56. Buh-bye, Real Journalist.

    https://talkingbiznews.com/media-news/marfil-among-the-wsj-layoffs-in-dc/

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