They Were Getting Easy Credit To Build So They Built, Then The Bottom Fell
A report from the Emeryville Eye in California. “A recent SF Chronicle report provided some concerning data regarding Emeryville home values. According to the report, Emeryville is one of only two cities in the Bay Area that has seen a decline in home values since the 2020 pandemic. While San Francisco has seen a 3% decline in median home values since 2019 according to Zillow data, Emeryville has seen a 12% decline over this same span. This drop is being driven by 15.6% drop in value of condominiums over the past five years, falling from a median $568,000 in 2019 to $479,000 today. This decline seems to driven be a perfect storm of higher interest rates, spiking HOA dues, Insurance rates, and shifting consumer desires.”
“Some Realtors are optimistic that when the interest rates eventually drop, we should in turn see a return to a more ‘normal’ market in Emeryville. ‘Post COVID when interest rates were in the 2 to 3 percent range, home prices dramatically increased flooding the single family home market – which ultimately pushed many buyers who wanted a home and wanted to take advantage of low interest rates into the condo and townhome market,’ provided Compass Realtor Chris Clark. ‘Now that interest rates are much higher, demand has flattened and those with means that want to are able to get into a single family home. They can be more selective.'”
Fort Myers Beach News in Florida. “The verdict was unanimous for the more than two dozen Fort Myers Beach residents who turned out Monday to speak out at the Town of Fort Myers Beach Council’s hearing against the 17-story, multi-building Seagate condo project at the former Red Coconut RV Resort. The condo towers, which would be the largest buildings in the town at an estimated 255 feet, were just too tall they said. Former mayor Ray Murphy said the neighbors of Seagate are ‘not going to be able to enjoy their retirement days staring at a massive wall.'”
CBS Colorado. “The Colorado Division of Securities is pursuing legal action against a man whom it claims deceived investors and used the ownership of federally supported low-income housing projects to line his own pockets. Securities Commissioner Tung Chan announced its civil court filings against Michael Dale Graham, 68, on Nov. 12. The filing states Graham collected more than $1.1 million from eight investors to purchase three adjacent homes in Aurora. The Denver-based Gravitas fund and its investors purportedly qualified for the federal Qualified Opportunity Zone (QOZ) program with the homes. The zones encouraged growth in low-income communities by offering tax benefits to investors, namely reductions in capital gains taxes on developed properties.”
“Gravitas also transferred the titles for the two properties to Graham privately. As their owner, Graham obtained undocumented loans from friends totaling almost $600,000. The two loans used the two properties as security. Gravitas investors were never informed of the two loans, according to the case document. ‘Effectively, Graham used Gravitas as his personal piggy bank,’ as stated in the case document, ‘claiming both funds and properties as his own. Graham never told investors about the risks associated with transferring title to himself. On September 1, 2023, he sent a letter to investors, stating that the properties ‘we own’ are doing well and generating growth due to record-breaking home appreciation. But Gravitas no longer owned the properties. Gravitas no longer had assets at all.'”
The New York Times. “The insurance crisis spreading across the United States arrived at Richard D. Zimmel’s door this month in the form of a letter. Zimmel, who lives in the increasingly fire-prone hills outside Silver City, New Mexico, had done everything right. None of it mattered. His insurance company, Homesite Insurance, dumped him. ‘Property is located in a brushfire or wildfire area that no longer meets Homesite’s minimum standard for wildfire risk,’ the letter read. Zimmel’s bigger worry, he said, is how the struggle over insurance could affect his home’s value, which his real estate agent estimates at about $725,000. ‘I just don’t know what’s going to happen to the town if this keeps happening,’ said Zimmel’s agent, Shelley Scarborough.”
CBC Boston. “In a year-end interview with WBZ-TV, Gov. Maura Healey had a message for the handful of Massachusetts communities that designate themselves as ‘sanctuary’ cities for immigrants. ‘We are not a sanctuary state. If you come here, there is not housing here, and I think that’s been effective in changing the trajectory of [migration to Massachusetts],’ Healey said. ‘I don’t really understand what that terminology means in practice, because I guess I come to this also as a former prosecutor and Attorney General. I can tell you that when it comes to criminal investigations of violent crime, of drug trafficking, gun trafficking, human trafficking, today, and this has always been the case, local law enforcement, state law enforcement, working with federal law enforcement, will continue to do that work.'”
“Healey also called on Congress and the incoming Trump administration to try again to pass reform of the immigration laws and border security. And on the subject of how Trump won the election, Healey echoed the view of many observers that ‘Democrats weren’t paying enough attention to people’s pocketbook, to their economic circumstance.’ ‘I have been laser-focused on costs, [with] the tax cuts that I put in…and we’ve really focused on housing…we’ve got to lower the cost of homes,’ Healey said. ‘I think that’s where Democrats need to be. That needs to be the focus, that needs to be the message. And there were many people who did not feel connected to that in this last election.'”
From Bloomberg. “Elon Musk, the billionaire tasked with making the US government more efficient come January, has zeroed in on the Federal Reserve. The central bank in charge of protecting the world’s largest economy is ‘absurdly overstaffed,’ Musk wrote on social-media platform X. The remarks were part of a thread beginning when someone posted about the Fed’s latest policy decision. The Federal Reserve Board in Washington and 12 regional reserve banks across the US employed about 24,000 people last year. The Fed and Chair Jerome Powell have been a frequent target of Trump, who appointed him during his first term. Recently, he ridiculed Powell’s role as ‘the greatest job in government,’ saying, ‘you show up to the office once a month, and you say, ‘Let’s see, flip a coin.’”
“In the Eurosystem, which comprises the European Central Bank and the region’s 20 national peers, the central banks of Germany, France and Italy together had more people on their payrolls. While Powell hasn’t responded directly, ECB President Christine Lagarde challenged Trump’s gripe, inviting him to come and observe the work of her team in Frankfurt. ‘I have thousands of hard-working people — economists, jurists, computer scientists — and I can assure you that they work super hard every day, not just once a month,’ she told Bloomberg TV. ‘We defend the euro, and we fight for the euro, just as the Fed defends the dollar, I’m sure — I don’t want to speak for Jay Powell, but I’m sure that’s how he sees his job.'”
Bisnow on Texas. “Houston brokers and analysts saw a true mixed bag in the commercial real estate industry in 2024. A wave of distress has threatened to crash over the multifamily industry for years now, with investors buying Class-B and C assets for much more than they were worth in 2021 and 2022. But people still found a way to extend and pretend in 2024, Berkadia Senior Managing Director Chris Curry said. ‘Towards the tail end of this year, particularly Class-B and C workforce housing deals start to go back to lenders,’ Curry said. ‘[So much] distress has built up in the system that we can see, you would think it would be a lot more than what was taken over by lenders at this point. So that music stops leading into next year.'”
“The biggest difference in 2025 will be more sellers coming to the market, largely by force, said Berkadia Managing Director Joey Rippel. ‘Nobody would like to sell in this current environment if they can avoid it,’ Curry said. ‘So they kicked the can. Ultimately, that can can’t be kicked much farther. That will force a lot of deals to the market to clear at whatever price. That’s what’s going to get capital really excited, when there’s a lot more opportunity to buy with market-rate sellers.'”
The Philippines Star. “The Metro Manila condo oversupply, now equivalent to 34 months, is not surprising. Indeed, anyone with some brains would have expected it to happen. The country’s condo industry is supply-driven. They build without thinking who will buy all their units. Notice how in malls, nicely dressed agents annoyingly try to sell condos like sidewalk vendors. Their focus on the speculative buyer who buys ‘for investment’ is dependent on a lot of factors including how buoyant the economy is and if interest rates remain affordable. Now, the property developers have more unsold units than they want. Hopefully, they don’t end up like some of the ghost cities I saw in China. Chinese developers built all those high-rise condo buildings with a bahala na attitude. They were getting easy credit to build so they built. Then, the bottom fell.”
“Apparently, gone are the days when the elite have a lot of idle money to buy units for speculation. Even the corrupt politicians who buy condo units for their mistresses are apparently deciding to stay financially liquid. Ignoring the market segments that need housing is driven by the greed of our property developers. They shun the affordable segment that actually needs housing because they want quick profits, as big as the market can deliver. Now, their capital is trapped in suspended construction. There are many of those near where I am in Pasig that have not progressed since the pandemic. With no market to sell to and the high cost of interest on money required for completion, why hurry?”
Business Republic. “China is struggling with a property glut. Millions of unsold homes are weighing on real estate valuations and undermining President Xi Jinping’s efforts to stimulate the world’s second-largest economy. In 2025, expect the authorities in Beijing to step up by creating a housing policy ‘bad bank.’ The scale of the problem is anyone’s guess. Researchers at Goldman Sachs estimate residential inventory would amount to 93 trillion yuan ($13 trillion) if developers completed all projects currently under construction. That’s equivalent to eight times the value of homes sold in China in 2023.”
“When Xi first came to power in 2013, his administration was also grappling with a property market downturn. Citing ministerial officials, state media outlets at the time suggested ‘basic conditions’ were in place to set up a housing policy bank to tackle excessive inventory. Eventually the central bank stepped up instead, injecting more than 3 trillion yuan of liquidity between 2015 to 2020 to effectively subsidise the ‘destocking’ of new apartments. Ironically that move helped to inflate the property bubble, which eventually burst in 2020 and left behind a much larger property mess. In 2025, the Ministry of Finance will need to wield a big mop to clean it up.”
This Post Has 32 Comments
Realtors are liars.
‘Post COVID when interest rates were in the 2 to 3 percent range, home prices dramatically increased flooding the single family home market – which ultimately pushed many buyers who wanted a home and wanted to take advantage of low interest rates into the condo and townhome market…Now that interest rates are much higher, demand has flattened and those with means that want to are able to get into a single family home. They can be more selective’
So minor respiratory illness airbox buyers can now get a shack fer less at the same time Pitfalls of Commie Urban Living™ are kicking their a$$ Chris? They’re double fooked.
‘Zimmel’s bigger worry, he said, is how the struggle over insurance could affect his home’s value, which his real estate agent estimates at about $725,000. ‘I just don’t know what’s going to happen to the town if this keeps happening’
I drove through this area in 2004 on my way to Arizona. It’s very nice and it’s a fire waiting to happen. There’s no way to defend those shacks. This situation highlights what I contend is the insurance problem. Back then you could buy a shack for half of what Dick thinks his is worth (and it was a bubble then). How much of a premium would a company need to charge to come up with three quarters of a million pesos on one shack? Every shack on the road could be gone in an hour.
This is bum fook New Mexico. No jobs, nothing to do but hike and drive around.
‘Nobody would like to sell in this current environment if they can avoid it,’ Curry said. ‘So they kicked the can. Ultimately, that can can’t be kicked much farther. That will force a lot of deals to the market to clear at whatever price. That’s what’s going to get capital really excited, when there’s a lot more opportunity to buy with market-rate sellers’
That’s the spirit Chris, it’s a bottom feeders market!
Recently, he ridiculed Powell’s role as ‘the greatest job in government,’ saying, ‘you show up to the office once a month, and you say, ‘Let’s see, flip a coin’
Over to you Jerry.
‘In the Eurosystem, which comprises the European Central Bank and the region’s 20 national peers, the central banks of Germany, France and Italy together had more people on their payrolls. While Powell hasn’t responded directly, ECB President Christine Lagarde challenged Trump’s gripe, inviting him to come and observe the work of her team in Frankfurt. ‘I have thousands of hard-working people — economists, jurists, computer scientists — and I can assure you that they work super hard every day, not just once a month,’ she told Bloomberg TV. ‘We defend the euro, and we fight for the euro, just as the Fed defends the dollar’
Sitting under a sun lamp isn’t working Christine. And trashing 95% of the pesos value isn’t defending sh$t.
‘neighbors of Seagate are ‘not going to be able to enjoy their retirement days staring at a massive wall’
It’s still way cheaper than renting Ray.
“Apparently, gone are the days when the elite have a lot of idle money to buy units for speculation. Even the corrupt politicians who buy condo units for their mistresses are apparently deciding to stay financially liquid.”
OMG, the humanity!
“The Federal Reserve Board in Washington and 12 regional reserve banks across the US employed about 24,000 people last year.”
Isn’t this where god’s children get their first job out of college?
“employed about 24,000 people”
The Parasite Class.
Tapeworms, mosquitoes, leeches, all parasitic organisms clothed in a human skin suit.
The Fed has a “mandate” to maintain 2% annual inflation of the fiat dollar, translation: the Coin Clippers will shave off 2% (and often more) of your silver every year, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
It’s almost Jesus’s birthday. Remember when he chased the moneychangers out of the temple with a whip? Remember that one?
Ron Paul tried to warn us, but nobody listened…
“almost Jesus’s birthday”
Actually, no. Under political pressure the Catholic Church has often fused the belief of others with their own for solidarity. December 25th is more about worship of the sun god. Worshippers of the sun, around the time of the winter solstice, believed this act would bring back the sun and longer days. Jesus birthday is found nowhere in the Bible and if you examine the context you’ll realize it was likely fall or spring. One example is shepherds would not be sleeping outdoors tending flocks in the dead of winter in Palestine at that time. It’s interesting research. I believe in Jesus, just not calling Christmas his birthday. But hey, Santa ain’t real either.
“According to the report, Emeryville is one of only two cities in the Bay Area that has seen a decline in home values since the 2020 pandemic. While San Francisco has seen a 3% decline in median home values since 2019 according to Zillow data, Emeryville has seen a 12% decline over this same span.”
Why does my inner skeptic suspect underreporting of Bayarea real estate losses?
That said, I am pretty sure those price decline numbers don’t factor inflation into the calculation. If inflation were considered, I suspect a lot more Bayarea real estate losses would come to light.
Joe Biden’s America.
New York Post — NYC pledged to clean up the ‘Broadway of the Bronx’ — but it’s still teeming with junkies: ‘These streets are full of zombies’ (12/22/2024):
“The “Broadway of the Bronx” is a drug-ridden wasteland, where hordes of zonked-out junkies openly buy dope, shoot up and overdose in broad daylight — despite city officials’ years-old pledge to end the ceaseless squalor.
The Post spent several days in “The Hub” — the commercial area between Melrose and Mott Haven that encompasses Roberto Clemente Plaza — and found scenes of drug-fueled depravity and an ever-present unwelcome haze of crack smoke.
Two addicts were seen suffering apparent overdoses and dozens more nodded off or involuntarily contorted their bodies into the telltale “fentanyl fold.”
One potential overdose victim lay face down on the sidewalk for 10 minutes until a fellow addict gave him doses of life-saving Narcan. A few feet away, a haggard man nonchalantly injected a syringe into a woman’s neck.
“These streets are full of zombies,” said Emilio Morales, general manager of the landmark Opera House Hotel, a 3-star inn on East 149th Street. “It has never been as bad as it is now.”
https://nypost.com/2024/12/22/us-news/the-hub-in-the-bronx-is-still-overrun-with-addicts-despite-city-cleanup-pledge/
And remember, George Soros holds the receipts for all of this, because he paid for it to happen.
Whatever happened to methadone and suboxone, the drugs that were supposed to prevent withdrawal? Some years back there were news stories of people going to a facility, drinking a little ounce-glass of meds, and going about their day. They had to come back every morning for another dose, but they were at least functional. A former acquaintance of mine worked for a drug start-up that was working on a monthly shot for the same thing. I wonder if they’ve made any progess.
There are people on all kinds of strong daily meds, for life. Surely there’s some way to require these people to take these anti-withdrawal meds, preferably while living in a shelter. Even if all they can do is sit around and read books or play games, that’s still a win compared to where they are now.
I daresay it would actually be cheaper than the patchwork homeless-industrial complex we have.
Why does that creep Bill Gates get to fund private Companies suck8ng up Co2 and storing it? Blocking out the Sun is another one.
If Gates sucked up the oxygen people would immediately say the oxygen doesn’t belong to him, but because it’s carbon he can just take it.
I mean when they first started talking about sucking up carbon, the first question is what are they going to do with it..
But you can’t ask any questions about the counter measures to so called carbon emissions , which is a necessary emission for life.
And the self appointed Climate Change and Vaccine Czar Bill Gates is also buying up farmland and releasing mosquitoes in US States.
But, this is exactly what the WEF talks about, and that is private/ public partnerships between Government and Monopoly Corporations and fat cats like Bill Gates.
It’s basically a insurrection by Private Parties to create a One World Order that cuts off government by the people for these Entities to rule under their Stakeholder Capitalism Global goverance.
Whoever owns technology will control the World, according to Klaus Schwab. John Kerry said, no government can stop the” market forces.”
Is technology and market forces the
replacement for Government by the people? Is this a power grab so Mega Corporations and Rich Elites can force enslavement on humanity based on their fraudulent narrative of Climate Change and manufactured Panademics?
I submit that this was a pre planned scheme for Mega Corporations and Rich Elites to control the resources of earth and force humanity into enslavement, under the pretense of
GLOBAL Emergencies.
You will own nothing, eat bugs, but will be happy is their end game goal. The Monopoly model of destroying all competition until you have all the marbles. Even take free speech so your can defraud the masses .
And the Governments of the globe are colluding with this Agenda. Can’t even get a killer vaccine taken off the market, while governments stock pile more unsafe and not effective MRNA failed fake technology..Sane with stupid eliminate co2 emissions fraud.
I guess the people just have to refuse to comply with this insanity that is bat shit crazy fraud..
“…This decline seems to driven be a perfect storm of higher interest rates, spiking HOA dues, Insurance rates….”
Another sleepy Monday, another out-of-control holding costs story.
Of course, the USA MSM reports on none [or very little] of this, rather its all happy talk in MSM land.
From Bloomberg. “Elon Musk, the billionaire tasked with making the US government more efficient come January, has zeroed in on the Federal Reserve. The central bank in charge of protecting the world’s largest economy is ‘absurdly overstaffed,’ Musk wrote on social-media platform X.”
https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2023-ar-federal-reserve-system-budgets.htm
Tables D.1 and D.2 summarize the Federal Reserve Board of Governors’ and Federal Reserve Banks’ 2023 budgeted, 2023 actual, and 2024 budgeted operating expenses and employment.
Table D.1. Total operating expenses of the Federal Reserve System, net of receipts and claims for reimbursement, 2023–24
Millions of dollars, except as noted
Total System operating expenses, net of revenue and claims for reimbursement
2024 budget: 7,123.7 [$M]
Table D.2. Employment in the Federal Reserve System, 2023–24
Total System employment
2024 budget: 24,553 [employees]
– The Fed is part of the Administrative / Deep State.
– The Fed is the financing arm Progressive / D Party.
– The Fed is political; as in the last election with stealth stimulus supporting the loser Comrade Harris candidate
https://x.com/crossbordercap/status/1870513211499499694
CrossBorder Capital
@crossbordercap
Janet and Jay’s ‘hidden’ Pre-Election #liquidity boost is starting to fade. Implications for 2025 see https://capitalwars.substack.com @johnauthers @gnoble79
[chart here]
11:54 AM · Dec 21, 2024 · 22.2K Views
– The Fed is unelected and unaccountable, although the Fed is supposed to be under Congressional oversight.
– The Fed has failed many times with serious policy mistakes, and yet, no one is disciplined, reprimanded, or especially, fired.
– The U.S. dollar is now a “Federal Reserve Note,” a fiat currency being continuously debased by $ printing and other debasement schemes, and has lost at least 97% of its value since the formation of the Fed in 1913. It’s no coincidence that the Federal income tax was also enacted by Congress in 1913.
– Fed interest rate policy, and indeed all of the Fed, since that’s their primary function, could easily be replaced by the 2 year U.S. Treasury note yield. The U.S. taxpayer would then no longer have to suffer so many injustices, punishing inflation, and a worthless currency, but then they couldn’t fund the Progressive agenda.
– The former USSR had central planning. How did that work out?
“The surest way to destroy a nation is to debauch its currency.” – Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
“The way to crush the bourgeoisie [middle class] is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.” – Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
“The establishment of a central bank is 90% of communizing a nation.” – Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov Lenin
The Ten Planks of the Communist Manifesto
1848 by Karl Heinrich Marx
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
The state of carbon markets in 2024
The trade in carbon credits is a contentious strategy that aims to limit climate change and deforestation, and some see it as a valuable tool. In contrast, others call it a distraction that causes more problems than it solves.
Criticism surged in 2023. Media reports and scientific analyses called into question not just whether the purchase of carbon credits translated into the avoidance of emissions that would have resulted from the destruction or degradation of forests. Investigations asked whether carbon credit projects were actively causing harm, particularly to forest-dependent communities and Indigenous peoples, whose stewardship is critical to the health of many ecosystems. Benefits appeared to flow disproportionately to entities between the projects on the ground and the buyers of credits, known as intermediaries.
As 2024 comes to an end, the voluntary market has continued to evolve, with several relevant decisions for its future taken at the U.N. climate conference, COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan.
However, according to the analysis, the decisions didn’t go far enough to ensure carbon credits represent a permanent tool to mitigate climate change.
In early 2025, the Article 6.4 supervisory body will take up work to further clarify rules around the carbon market. Carbon market policy expert Federica Dossi said the group would “have to take tough decisions” that improve the quality of carbon credits over what has existed until now.
“If they are not, they will have to compete in a low-trust, low-integrity market where prices are likely to be at rock bottom and interest will be low,” Dossi said.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/economy/the-state-of-carbon-markets-in-2024/ar-AA1wmttw
Hours after suggesting he would seize the Panama Canal, Trump says he wants Greenland, too
President-elect Donald Trump has resurfaced an old position of his, that the US should take over Greenland, just hours after also threatening to take over the Panama Canal.
Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday that “for purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”
He made the comments in a post announcing the PayPal cofounder Ken Howery as his choice for US Ambassador to Denmark.
Greenland, the world’s largest island, is an autonomous dependent territory of Denmark, which is a US ally and NATO member.
Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday that “the fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama by the US.”
He added, “This complete ‘rip-off’ of our Country will immediately stop.”
In a separate post, Trump wrote: “If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question.”
“To the Officials of Panama, please be guided accordingly!” he added.
Trump expressed an interest in the US buying Greenland in 2019, during his first term in office. Greenland’s government quickly rejected the idea, saying that it wasn’t for sale.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/hours-after-suggesting-he-would-seize-the-panama-canal-trump-says-he-wants-greenland-too/ar-AA1wmSCA
Letters to the editor for Sunday, December 22, 2024
Apparently, charges in the recent political campaign that Donald Trump was an “existential threat” to democracy was not enough to sway the electorate. Now there is an op-ed in a recent Naples Daily News, “Mental illness and politics: A toxic mix”, that seeks to resurrect thoughts from a book, ”The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” edited by psychiatrist Dr. Brandy Lee and published in 2017.
Missing from the discussion is the vital fact that Dr. Lee’s appointment at Yale was not renewed as she repeatedly violated one of the basic rules of psychiatry: the patient, Donald Trump, was not examined. Likewise, Lee’s hyperbolic comment: “Trump could destroy the entire human species,” may have prompted some to question her judgment.
Most alarming is a lesson from the history of the Soviet Union: the abuse of psychiatry as a political weapon; as it was commonplace for Soviet dissidents to be incarcerated in psychiatric hospitals. Its use in the United States as a misguided political cudgel is much more of a threat to society than the supercharged biased comments of Dr. Lee. I’ll put my trust and faith in the American electorate rather than in the writings of a discredited psychiatrist or the reasoning of the former professor of medicine who penned the op-ed.
James F. Lally, MD, Naples
https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/letters-to-the-editor-for-sunday-december-22-2024/ar-AA1wjpr1
Check out the other LTE. Plenty of TDS in Naples, Florida.
Ok, and it’s coming out just how rigged the Med Insurance invisible hand corruption for profit in health care has been .
I contend that when one person gets screwed over by Health insurance denials, that person thinks it must be a mistake.But when 35 to 4o% are getting screwed over by unjustified denials and stalling, than that’s deliberate..
Health Ins claims employees are given bonuses for dental of claims, and set on quotas, or they could be fired, according to whistle blowers.
Bribery or job threat to employees of health claims departments.
And the discusting incentives they were paid by the Cares Act toprotocols. during Covid to lable everything Covid, along with killing protocals.
And the biggest affront is tax dollars are used to assault the taxpayers, while the Corps, take the money and run.
The Covid policies transferred trillions to Mega Corporations and Rich Elites, while small and med business was destroyed.
Advocacy group concerned over joint Aurora police, ICE operation
A migrant and housing advocacy group is asking questions about how the Aurora Police Department carried out an operation that led to the arrest of 16 undocumented immigrants.
The Housekeys Action Network Denver said Thursday the agency went too far by using ICE agents to take people into custody.
When Aurora police went to investigate a call for help regarding a home invasion and kidnapping at the Edge at Lowry complex, ICE agents went too. That has Housekeys Action Network Denver organizers concerned.
“We believe that this is a testing ground right now in Aurora. For them to try out to see how far they can go when it comes to detaining migrants without proper cause, and forcing them into deportation status in a lot quicker fashion,” Housekeys Action Network Denver Organizer V Reeves said.
The Network said several migrants who had nothing to do with the reported crime were detained by APD and then arrested by ICE.
“We cannot allow the police force to discriminate against them and mass for where they come from and to force them into this situation,” Organizer Reeves said.
But the former head of ICE’s Field office in Denver said ICE agents can help positively identify possible gang members. John Fabbricatore said ICE can also help keep migrants in custody until charges are filed in local cases.
“Once the city determines what they are going to charge them with then the city will come back and give ICE a writ to bring that person into city custody so they can be held at the county jail, Retired ICE Denver Field Office Director John Fabbricatore said.
Aurora’s new Chief of Police Todd Chamberlain said he would ask federal agencies to help in cases like the one at The Edge at Lowry, which was noticed by the country’s incoming border czar.
“What’s lacking is an ICE person standing next to him shoulder to shoulder. He’s talking the talk but let’s hope he walks the walk and hands these people to ice when he’s done with them. Because we can remove them not only from the community but the country,” Incoming Border Czar Tom Homan said.
“APD investigators contacted Homeland Security Investigations and ICE – ERO to assist with our criminal investigation of the violent incident that occurred Monday night into early Tuesday morning. The primary role of our federal partners was to assist with the identification of the suspects involved in the crime and their associates,” an APD spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for ICE told FOX31 the 16 people under arrest will go through removal hearings. The question now is whether they will be charged in the kidnapping torture case and be transferred to state custody.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/advocacy-group-concerned-over-joint-aurora-police-ice-operation/ar-AA1wc1ut
Escondido medical office building to be converted into apartments
A nearly vacant office building that once housed medical practices near the former site of Palomar Hospital will be converted into a 21-unit residential apartment complex
The 19,000-square-foot building, located on a 0.69-acre site at 240 S. Hickory Street, primarily served low-intensity medical offices while the hospital was nearby.
Darshan Patel owns the building and has been planning the conversion for several years. He purchased the property in 2020, intending to turn it into apartments, but kept it as a medical office while it remained fully leased.
Patel said the conversion would also help curb criminal activity on the site, citing break-ins, signs of unhoused people staying in the building, and other issues.
https://thecoastnews.com/escondido-medical-office-building-to-be-converted-into-apartments/
Homeless camp’s return in Ballard sparks renewed safety concerns among residents
The return of a homeless camp to a Seattle neighborhood is raising crime and safety concerns, but few neighbors are surprised that the RVs, trash, and drug dealing are back.
About a dozen recreational vehicles, as well as a few cars, are lined up on the streets surrounding the Office Max on NW Leary Way in Ballard. Seattle has a 72-hour time limit on street parking but people in the area said the homeless have been in place for more than a week and a half and many are uneasy with what they see.
“I feel less and less safe coming around here,” said Megan, who didn’t want her last name used. “There is loads of trash. There’s loads of food. There’s loads of drugs. There are needles everywhere.”
Sean, who works nearby and also wanted his last name withheld, said every morning he shows up for work there are fires in the parking lot.
“It’s hurting everybody. Businesses and residents,” Sean said. “Just a lot of traffic coming through the area, a lot of unnecessary hand-to-hand transactions, especially with that RV right there.”
Bruce Drager, who does homeless advocacy work and previously founded Greenlake Homeless Advocates, was checking in with the people who live in RVs along Leary Way on Monday. Drager said city policies to clear out these encampments are only perpetuating the problems.
“You can’t just keep sweeping them around from one spot to the next because then you’re just going to move the drug use,” Drager said. “That’s what they are hoping to do is appease the public enough, mollify them enough by just moving them rapidly enough that any one area doesn’t get inundated for a protracted period of time, and that’s sort of the game they play.”
Others have seen the pattern as well. “They’ve been back for about a week and a half now and they will probably clear them out in another week, but then they will come back,” Sean said.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/homeless-camps-return-in-ballard-sparks-renewed-safety-concerns-among-residents/ar-AA1vYv4F
Las Vegas homeowners concerned over homeless encampment, fires starting behind properties
Concerns are growing for residents of a brand-new housing development in west Las Vegas.
A homeless encampment has taken over an empty lot behind the new builds, making homeowners fearful about safety and potential property damage.
“At night there are massive bonfires, like when I wake up at 1:30 in the morning to get water or whatever, I look out the window and there’s just massive fires,” one homeowner told Channel 13.
The neighborhood, located near Rancho Drive and Lake Mead Boulevard, shares a wall with an empty lot.
Residents say when the temperatures dropped, fire pits and makeshift heaters popped up all over the plot of land where dozens of homeless people live.
“My concern is that it could burn down a whole neighborhood,” another resident said.
Some of the fires have burned so close to the houses, they’ve left marks on the walls. Another concern is break-ins. Recently, someone managed to get inside a house on the street by breaking down the back door.
https://www.ktnv.com/news/las-vegas-homeowners-concerned-over-homeless-encampment-fires-starting-behind-properties
Trudeau won’t step down over Christmas, Freeland considers vying for Liberal leadership, sources say
On Saturday, a large number of MPs in the Ontario Liberal caucus privately expressed their desire for Mr. Trudeau to resign, and more organizing meetings are expected as many in the Prime Minister’s caucus grow ever more impatient.
New Brunswick Liberal MP René Arseneault said Mr. Trudeau does not have the luxury of time. In an interview with The Globe on Sunday, he urged the Prime Minister to make a swift decision.
“He cannot wait, he has to address Canadians and talk about what happened and be clear about his intentions,” Mr. Arseneault said, referring to Ms. Freeland’s shock resignation last week.
“He needs to announce now that he will resign and put in place as smooth, logical and practical a process as possible to find a new leader for the Liberal Party and for Canada to face the United States at the end of January,” he said. “We don’t have time; we are in a minority government.”
A leadership race would fall at a precarious time for the Liberals. On Friday, the government lost the support of the NDP – the last opposition party that Mr. Trudeau could reliably turn to, in order to get his agenda through the House.
Ms. Freeland, who just this summer was viewed by many in Liberal circles as part of the minority government’s problem, is now getting private and public backing for her to take over the top job.
Toronto MP Yvan Baker, who in October called for a secret caucus vote on Mr. Trudeau’s future and last week publicly called for the Prime Minister to resign, said in a Sunday interview that he hoped for a speedy decision.
“My view is the sooner the Prime Minister announces that he is stepping down, the better,” Mr. Baker said. “The sooner he makes the decision to step down, the more time we will have for a leadership process to elect the strongest possible leader and for the new leader to earn the support of Canadians.”
Despite its leadership turmoil, the Liberal Party on Sunday released what it called its first television ad of the 2025 campaign. The one-minute video attacks Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, and says he plans to cut Liberal social programs like child care. Notably, the ad makes no mention of who the party’s leader will be in the next federal campaign and makes no mention of Mr. Trudeau at all.
Meanwhile, on Fox News, Mr. Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said her boss is racking up “Trump wins” before he’s taken office. She mentions Canada.
On Canada, she said: “You see Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flew to Mar-a-Lago in about 15 minutes when President Trump threatened tariffs. They just unveiled a billion-dollar border plan to secure our northern border.”
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-justin-trudeau-not-resigning-stepping-down-over-christmas-holidays/
Forgotten in the cannabis crash is how the industry is a Canadian success story
Forgotten in the midst of the 2020 cannabis stock market meltdown is the production, employment and real estate boom that emerged from the end of marijuana prohibition in Canada. When the government acted boldly to legalize recreational cannabis on Oct. 17, 2018, Canadian entrepreneurs steered 16 homegrown startups to valuations of more than $1-billion each. These companies spent hundreds of millions of dollars around the world (but mostly in Canada) to build greenhouses, lighting systems, million-dollar cannabis-storage vaults, and grew thousands of tonnes of a hot new agricultural product.
Canada, it’s been said, doesn’t make stuff any more. Labour productivity in construction is at a 30-year low and our business sector hasn’t expanded since 2019. We’re getting killed by the United States in the goods sector and stagnation might already be causing deterioration in Canadian public services. But legal marijuana showed Canadian productivity can blossom.
Cannabis is often viewed as a failed business story. Indeed, companies – and investors – lost millions of dollars in the boom, although bankruptcies in the sector slowed to a handful in 2023. The industry is nevertheless an example of Canadian might, when the government and business banded together to do something that hadn’t been attempted anywhere in the world. We raised capital and deployed it, building an industry that still produces the best, cleanest, most highly regulated and consistent cannabis in the world.
“We didn’t set out to say, ‘Oh, I’m from Canada, can I please come in sixth?’” Canopy Growth founder Bruce Linton, who secured $5-billion in funding from Constellation Brands, told me. Canopy’s valuation reached $22-billion in 2018 and the Smiths Falls, Ont.-based company has operations in Germany, Australia and Peru.
Marijuana lost Canadian retail investors billions and attracted bad actors as big, fast money always does. But it showed Canada doesn’t lack gumption, chutzpah or know-how. We need the next big opportunity to ramp up Canadian productivity. Something like legal cannabis, incentivizing Canadian business to light a fuse.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-forgotten-in-the-cannabis-crash-is-how-the-industry-is-a-canadian/
The U.S. economy’s trust deficit
While official sources and the media highlight strong consumer-spending and jobs data in the United States, or tout high U.S. stock-market valuations, more than three-quarters of Americans view economic conditions as poor (36%) or fair (41%). This disconnect between performance and perception can have far-reaching consequences; it already helped to propel Donald Trump to victory in last month’s presidential election. So, what is causing it?
Where personal verification is impractical or impossible, we rely on informational intermediaries, including the traditional media, government, or experts, such as climate scientists. In our digital age, social-media platforms and online sources have also claimed a prominent position in our information ecosystems.
But if these intermediaries are to close information gaps, they must be trustworthy — and Americans are not convinced that they are. A 2023 Gallup poll showed that faith in institutions, from media to government, had reached historic lows in the U.S., with only 18% of respondents expressing confidence in newspapers, 14% in television news, and 8% in Congress.
Why don’t Americans trust the institutions that are supposed to be helping to close information gaps? Rosy news about the economy’s performance that fails to account for people’s pocketbook realities might be part of the answer.
Income-distribution data can help shed light on these realities. The 2008 global financial crisis — which began with the collapse of a housing bubble — dealt a major blow to the balance sheets of the bottom 50% of households. In 2010, this group accounted for just 0.7% of total household net worth. A partial recovery followed, but the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent surge in inflation, which spurred the U.S. Federal Reserve to raise interest rates, produced new headwinds. More than a quarter of U.S. households now spend more than 95% of their income on necessities, leaving them vulnerable to even mild shocks and making wealth-building all but impossible.
This year, total U.S. household net worth stood at $154 trillion, with the bottom 50% of the distribution accounting for $3.8 trillion — just 2.5% of the total. That works out to $58,000, on average, for some 66 million U.S. households, with many owning much less. The top 10% hold two-thirds of all U.S. household wealth, and the bottom 90% share the remaining one-third.
It is not difficult to understand why Americans might be mistrustful of those delivering a rosy economic narrative that does not correspond with their experience. Even when media outlets do highlight the challenging economic conditions many Americans face, their reports are not translated into policies and actions that make a significant difference. This has been true for at least two decades, and undermines confidence in the system as a whole. At a certain point, people may start assuming that traditional institutions are either lying or clueless.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/smallbusiness/the-us-economy-s-trust-deficit/ar-AA1wjpdJ
Do you fear a future collapse in Treasury yields that nobody could have seen coming?
Federal Reserve
Outside the Box
Opinion: The coming global interest-rate collapse will force four Fed-rate cuts in 2025
Economic pain worldwide will trigger capital flight to U.S. Treasurys, driving down those yields, investment manager Louis Navellier says. The Fed will follow.
By Louis Navellier
Published: Dec. 23, 2024 at 7:35 a.m. ET
…
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-coming-global-interest-rate-collapse-will-force-four-fed-rate-cuts-in-2025-fe5713b1
The Container Store has filed for bankruptcy.
Paul Krugman: “Muh best economy ever!”
The Container store is sort-of great. I don’t think I’ve gone in there and not found what I was looking for. But it was PRICEY. Very pricey.
Healey also called on Congress and the incoming 47 administration to try again to pass reform of the immigration laws and border security.
No need for reform, comprehensive or otherwise, libbies. No need to “have a conversation.” 47 already had that conversation up and down the campaign trail, and the voters agreed with him. And no need for any new laws. The laws are already on the books, and 47 has the balls to enforce them.