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This Isn’t A Safety Net — It’s A Moral Hazard Factory

A report from CNN. “Share Ross, a Realtor based in southeast Florida, said she’s recently seen a sharp uptick in Canadians listing their Florida homes for sale. ‘Some of the clients I have been dealing with want to sell at any cost, even at a loss,’ Ross said. A growing exodus of Canadians from Florida could strain the state’s already troubled housing market. Florida currently has a record number of homes for sale. Sharon Savoy, a 65-year-old retiree from just outside of Toronto, said she isn’t quite ready to put her Miami home up for sale. ‘I enjoy my life there. Miami has some great nightlife and beautiful beaches. It’s got everything you need, and I’ve never had any issues,’ she said. ‘But if things continue to get worse, I will be selling my home in the USA. Not because I’m afraid of being there, but because, why would I want to do business there?'”

“Miles Zimbaluk, an Arizona-based Realtor who offers cross-border real estate guidance for Canadians looking to buy and sell US property, said he believes politics isn’t the only thing motivating more Canadians to list their properties for sale. Zimbaluk said a weakened Canadian dollar has factored into some snowbirds’ decision-making process. Last month, the Canadian dollar fell to its lowest level against the US dollar since 2003. It means that Canadians stand to make a profit by moving their money from the United States to Canada. ‘There are people cashing in now and taking that dollar back to Canada and converting it back to Canadian dollars,’ Zimbaluk said. ‘We’ve definitely seen a big uptick in people wanting to sell their homes for a lot of different reasons right now.'”

The Indianapolis Star. “A man is now in ICE custody after he allegedly shot a man inside the Sikh Satsang of Indianapolis temple last month and is now accused of lighting his home on fire for insurance money last year, court documents reveal. The shooting happened on Feb. 16 inside the restroom of the temple and police identified Gurpreet Singh, 22, as a suspect. Singh was arrested in Ohio a week after the shooting and transferred to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office’s custody March 17 after the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office filed two cases against him, one in connection with the shooting and another for his alleged involvement with arson. A little over two years ago, Singh hired the man to complete some construction on his house, which ultimately cost around $12,000, but when it came time to settle up, Singh allegedly gave the man several excuses for why he couldn’t pay him, according to court documents.”

“On Feb. 16, however, the issue was reignited when Singh confronted the man inside the restroom at the Sikh Satsang of Indianapolis temple and accused him of spreading rumors, according to court documents. The man pushed Singh, who police say fired one round, striking the man in the hip. Singh then hit the man in the face before pointing the gun at him and saying ‘I’ll kill you,’ according to court documents. On March 24, the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office filed an additional case against Singh for allegedly burning down his Indianapolis home last year. Investigators also learned his mortgage broker had filed a foreclosure on the property on March 15, 2024. The filing noted that Singh owed $430,984.22 with an interest rate of 6.875% to the broker. Singh was served with the foreclosure summons on March 28, 2024.”

“After the fire, Singh placed an insurance claim on the house, and in one of the interviews, Singh allegedly told the insurance adjuster he had $10,000 worth of gold hidden upstairs before the fire that he couldn’t find. Investigators informed him that ‘gold … would turn to liquid at a hot enough temperature and would pool into an area and return to a solid state once the fire was extinguished,’ according to court documents. Court documents filed in the case do not indicate that gold was found at the home after the fire. The loss on the home was valued at $430,000.”

Silicon Valley. “After two years of sluggish home sales held back by low inventory, February notched its highest level of inventory since before the pandemic. ‘We are making progress down the road to recovery,’ said Jordan Levine, chief economist for the California Association of Realtors. So far, the increase in inventory, which was up 52% year-over-year in February, has outpaced sales. ‘That’s helped to keep price growth more modest rather than the double-digit price growth that we saw a few years ago,’ Levine said. That buyers have been slower to seize upon an increased inventory is indicative of how the overall economic climate — a flagging stock market and persistently high interest rates — have impacted demand.”

“‘Typically there’s enough buyer demand to support that increased inventory,’ said Jordan Mott, a San Jose-based agent with Intero. ‘But stocks have taken a hit in value, and a lot of our buyers in the area rely on those for their down payment and qualifications. There’s an uneasiness among buyers. As of the last couple of weeks you’re seeing properties sit on the market longer than they were at the earlier part of the year. There’s without a doubt been a shift in the market.’ Buyers may find it difficult to get loans approved for some condominium complexes around California that have been placed on a ‘mortgage blacklist’ by Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae has been growing its list — which includes 168 condo complexes in the Bay Area’s five largest counties by population — as it looks to protect itself from taking on mortgages for properties that it considers to be underinsured, dilapidated or lacking sufficient reserves.”

From The Hill. “We are now witnessing an outcry from Democrats, loan servicers and the media over the prospect of Congress scaling back the Department of Veterans Affairs’s new mortgage bailout program, the Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase program. If the program is curtailed as proposed by Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wisc.), they warn, tens of thousands of veterans — perhaps as many as 80,000 — will lose their homes. But the reality is quite different and far more dangerous. Left unchecked, the program risks turning veteran homeownership into a costly, unsustainable entitlement for which taxpayers will be left holding the bag.”

“A housing finance system that eliminates the possibility of foreclosure is inherently unsustainable, and that is exactly what the Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase program does. Launched under the Biden administration, the program upends the traditional balance by having the VA buy troubled loans, hold them on its books, and absorb all future losses while servicers walk away whole. Even more troubling, the program’s overly generous terms invite strategic default. Veterans with 6 percent or 7 percent mortgages have a strong incentive to stop paying, just to qualify for a government refinance at 2.5 percent. Naturally, servicers love this. Under the traditional VA program, they shared up to 25 percent of losses; now the Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase program makes them whole, giving them every reason to push borrowers into the program. It privatizes gains and socializes losses. This isn’t a safety net — it’s a moral hazard factory that risks destabilizing the VA loan program and exposing taxpayers to massive losses.”

From Bisnow. “Some rent-stabilized buildings have lost so much value that their owners literally can’t even give them away. There are roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments in NYC, and many of their owners have struggled since legislation passed in 2019 to severely limit the amount they can raise rent to cover renovations and repairs on stabilized units, all while inflation has caused costs to skyrocket. Foreclosures of buildings that are majority-rent-stabilized are increasing, and values have plummeted — one rent-stabilized building sold for a 97% loss last month, The Real Deal reported.”

The Globe and Mail in Canada. “When Vancouver developers ran into a slowdown in presales of condo apartments a few years ago, many of them switched over to rentals. Now, a number of builders are saying that even rental projects are uncertain, as demand has softened noticeably in the past six months. That’s the result of a host of factors: big increases in supply in B.C., existing apartments being freed up because of provincial restrictions on vacation rentals, the federal cap on international students and people moving out of Metro Vancouver at high rates because of the housing costs. On top of everything else, builders expect that one of Vancouver’s biggest single rental projects of the decade – the massive Squamish-developed Senakw towers in the Vancouver west-side neighbourhood of Kitsilano – will pull the market down even further as 1,400 apartments in the first three of 11 planned towers start leasing December this year, continuing through 2026.”

“‘It’s clear to me in the market we’re in that rents are dropping 10 per cent,’ said Tony Hepworth, whose company, Pennyfarthing Homes, started building rental projects in Vancouver almost 50 years ago. He, and others, predict that Senakw’s development team will do whatever they can to fill the towers as quickly as possible. ‘The question is, how do they absorb it? They will need 50, 60 a month in move-ins. They will try to drive that by having very attractive rents.'”

“One of Vancouver’s senior planners, Matt Shillito, said that what’s happening is, in a way, what everyone has wanted – rents coming down. ‘I can understand developers being nervous. But from a city perspective, we are making efforts to increase supply. And that’s the tipping point we want to get to, where land prices start going down.’ As developers understand they’re not going to get $7 a square foot or even $6, that should start getting reflected in the prices they’re willing to pay for land. ‘We need land values to reflect the realities of economics now,’ he said.”

Lancashire Telegraph in the UK. “Four East Lancashire towns have seen average property prices decrease by more than 20 per cent between 2023 and 2024. In Rossendale, Helmshore and Bacup both saw house prices in their area plummet by 20.8 and 20.6 per cent respectively. Bacup saw house prices drop from £170,000 to £135,000 on average, whilst Helmshore saw costs plunge from £265,000 to £210,000. Elsewhere in the Ribble Valley, Longridge North, Ribchester, and Chipping saw prices decrease by 20.2 per cent, while Rose Hill and Burnley Wood saw prices drop by 17.9 per cent. Richard Donnell, executive director at Zoopla, said: ‘There is plenty of demand for homes but also lots of choice. Households looking to sell their home in 2025 need to be careful when setting their asking prices if they are to attract sufficient demand to agree a sale.'”

The Malaysia Star. “Many homebuyers are trapped in a financial nightmare, forced to rent while paying off housing loans for properties they cannot occupy, says National Consumer Foundation Sabah Chapter chairman David Chan. Such a financial burden has continued to weigh heavily on lower- and middle-income groups, he said. ‘These buyers are paying rent while still servicing loans for homes that remain under construction. It is unjust to leave them in such financial distress,’ he said.”

“He called on housing authorities and policymakers to implement a ‘Build-Then-Sell’ policy to prevent such predicaments. ‘The current ‘Sell-Then-Build’ model has left too many buyers in limbo, struggling with loan repayments for homes that are either incomplete or, worse, abandoned. It is time for serious policy reform to restore public confidence in the housing sector. Buyers’ hard-earned money must be safeguarded, and stricter measures are needed to prevent future abandoned projects,’ Chan said. The foundation said that sale and purchase agreements for new housing developments must require construction to be completed before properties are sold. The lack of enforcement and oversight has allowed developers to sell properties before completion, leaving thousands of families vulnerable to financial hardship when projects stall, he said. “

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This Post Has 111 Comments

  1. ‘A housing finance system that eliminates the possibility of foreclosure is inherently unsustainable, and that is exactly what the Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase program does. Launched under the Biden administration, the program upends the traditional balance by having the VA buy troubled loans, hold them on its books, and absorb all future losses while servicers walk away whole. Even more troubling, the program’s overly generous terms invite strategic default. Veterans with 6 percent or 7 percent mortgages have a strong incentive to stop paying, just to qualify for a government refinance at 2.5 percent’

    That’s some sound lending right there.

    1. “No one wants to see the nation’s heroes lose their homes.”

      Help for veterans should be limited to Down Payment assistance. That said, I thought firemen were our heroes. WTF?

    2. This is one to watch. The most likely scenario is that the federal government will wind up with a long list of zombie homes they need to dispose of. When things get tight enough even ‘the blacks’ wont want them. That is when you start throwing low balls and steal them.

      (((I’m referring to black rocks and stones)))

  2. ‘Some of the clients I have been dealing with want to sell at any cost, even at a loss’

    Just like that Share, yer giving it away.

    ‘A growing exodus of Canadians from Florida could strain the state’s already troubled housing market. Florida currently has a record number of homes for sale’

    All Time High Larry!

  3. ‘After the fire, Singh placed an insurance claim on the house, and in one of the interviews, Singh allegedly told the insurance adjuster he had $10,000 worth of gold hidden upstairs before the fire that he couldn’t find’

    Gurpreet also disabled the smoke alarms.

  4. Last month, the Canadian dollar fell to its lowest level against the US dollar since 2003. It means that Canadians stand to make a profit by moving their money from the United States to Canada.

    WIth Canada’s globalist quisling government leading the country to ruin, the Canadian dollar has a lot further to fall, even factoring in the Fed’s debasement of the dollar.

    1. We’re better off without the donut eating Canadians …..they spend a lot of their time and money at Tim Horton donut shops, don’t see where Pres. Trump sees value in that cold bunch ?

  6. ‘We are making progress down the road to recovery,’ said Jordan Levine, chief economist for the California Association of Realtors.

    Define “recovery,” lying realtor. If it means a bursting housing bubble, you are correct.

  7. If the program is curtailed as proposed by Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wisc.), they warn, tens of thousands of veterans — perhaps as many as 80,000 — will lose their homes.

    Enlisted military members and their spouses are notoriously bad when it comes to managing their finances. Any car dealer around a military base will confirm this. Taxpayers do not owe these “heroes” bailouts when they overextend themselves due to reckless and irresponsible use of credit.

  8. In Rossendale, Helmshore and Bacup both saw house prices in their area plummet by 20.8 and 20.6 per cent respectively. Bacup saw house prices drop from £170,000 to £135,000 on average, whilst Helmshore saw costs plunge from £265,000 to £210,000.

    But…but…muh generational wealth!

    1. This is blowing up online, it’s great to see. Some really good content is coming out around it. Even Thomas Sowell has taken it on and eviscerated it. One of the more amusing aspects of the whole sh!tshow is that the dwarf union is very upset because Peter Dink. came out against using dwarves so they went with CGI dwarves and so the one movie a bunch of them could actually get hired on to wouldn’t hire them. There is serious dwarf rage brewing. Sad!

      1. Disney should have announced that the movie was “indefinitely delayed” and quietly tossed it into a dumpster. But I guess the DEI crowd still has some sway at Disney HQ, so release it they did.

        Zegler calling the original movie “weird” was a blunder that may have cost her a great price. I can’t imagine anyone ever casting her again for a major role. The best she can hope for now are low paying gigs in indie flicks.

        2. I can’t imagine anyone ever casting her again for a major role.

          Hollywood is totally controlled by globalists, so “woke” Ms. Zegler’s future is secure.

  15. Interntional Man – Trump’s New World Order.

    https://internationalman.com/articles/trumps-new-world-order/

    [a snip]

    Marco Rubio serves as Trump’s Secretary of State, tasked with executing Trump’s vision for America’s role on the world stage.

    His statements—during his Senate confirmation hearings and in an interview with journalist Megyn Kelly—have made that vision unmistakably clear.

    Here’s what Rubio stated during his confirmation hearings (emphasis added):

    “Out of the triumphalism of the end of long Cold War emerged a bi-partisan consensus that we had reached ‘the end of history.’ That all the nations of Earth would become members of the democratic Western led community. That a foreign policy that served the national interest could now be replaced by one that served the ‘liberal world order.’ And that all mankind was now destined to abandon national identity, and we would become ‘one human family’ and ‘citizens of the world.’

    This wasn’t just a fantasy; it was a dangerous delusion.

    Here in America, and in many of the advanced economies across the world, an almost religious commitment to free and unfettered trade at the expense of our national economy, shrunk the middle class, left the working class in crisis, collapsed industrial capacity, and pushed critical supply chains into the hands of adversaries and rivals. An irrational zeal for maximum freedom of movement of people has resulted in a historic mass migration crisis here in America and around the world that threatens the stability of societies and governments.

    While America far too often continued to prioritize the ‘global order’ above our core national interests, other nations continued to act the way countries always have and always will, in what they perceive to be in their best interest.

    And instead of folding into the post-Cold War global order, they have manipulated it to serve their interest at the expense of ours. We welcomed the Chinese Communist Party into this global order. And they took advantage of all its benefits. But they ignored all its obligations and responsibilities. Instead, they have lied, cheated, hacked, and stolen their way to global superpower status, at our expense.

    The postwar global order is not just obsolete; it is now a weapon being used against us.

    And all this has led us to a moment in which we must now confront the single greatest risk of geopolitical instability and generational global crisis in the lifetime of anyone alive here today.

    Eight decades later, we are called to create a free world out of chaos once again. This will not be easy. And it will be impossible without a strong and confident America that engages in the world, putting our core national interests above all else once again.”

    1. [another snip …]

      The new global boundaries have yet to be defined, and the situation remains volatile and dangerous. Whether Trump can successfully guide the US—and the world—through this transition without descending into greater conflict remains an open question.

      On a smaller scale, this mirrors how powerful criminal organizations—such as mafias and street gangs—operate within a city. Ideally, a gang or mafia would eliminate all rivals. However, when certain rivals prove too strong to destroy, the conflict shifts toward defining boundaries until a formal arrangement is reached that divides territories.

      The same dynamic is now unfolding on a global scale between the US, Russia, and China as World War 3 plays out.

      Each side is maneuvering to expand its power and influence until a new arrangement is reached that defines the balance of the multipolar world.

  16. Top Vaccine Official Resigns From FDA

    The top vaccine official with the FDA has resigned and criticized the nation’s top health official for allowing “misinformation and lies” to guide his thinking behind the safety of vaccinations.

    Peter Marks, MD, PhD, sent a letter to FDA Acting Commissioner Sara Brenner, MD, MPH, on Friday saying that he would resign and retire by April 5 as director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

    In his letter, which was obtained by the Associated Press, Marks said he was “willing to work” to address the concerns expressed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), about the safety of vaccinations. But he concluded that wasn’t possible.

    “It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,” he wrote.

    Marks was offered the choice of resigning or being fired by Kennedy, according to a former FDA official familiar with the discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he didn’t have permission to discuss the matter publicly.

    Marks oversaw the agency’s rapid review and approval of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments during the pandemic. Marks is credited with coining the name and concept for “Operation Warp Speed.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/top-vaccine-official-resigns-from-fda/ar-AA1BVm3b

    1. https://nitter.poast.org/RWMaloneMD/status/1905978223227183370#m:

      At last. I have been waiting and hoping for this. Peter Marks, creator and advocate for “operation warp speed” is gone. I expect him to join pharma soon.

      One thing all farmers know- It is hard to get rid of rats once they get a taste for grain, but it has to be done.

      Now we need some “barn cats” at the FDA, CDC, and NIH. And we need to keep them a but hungry and motivated to catch rats.

          2. “AG Blondie’s Israel first…”

            Shin Bet via Epstein enlisting under age women to ensnare prominent businessmen and politicians on American soil, and bottle-blonde Pam gets shut down. Obey!

          3. Forget Epstein. The first thing she did as AG was go after pro-Palestinian activists.

  17. Anger at Trump ally Elon Musk sparks protest at Saskatoon Tesla dealership

    Jason Hanson owns an electric vehicle, but says he doesn’t have much else in common with Tesla owner Elon Musk.

    Hanson helped organize a Saturday afternoon protest outside a Tesla dealership in Saskatoon’s Stonebridge neighbourhood. Similar events at dealerships were planned for Saturday in cities across Canada.

    “I’m actually an EV owner, so I support electric vehicles, but when Elon Musk’s wealth is used as a way to exert power over entire countries, I think we have an obligation to come out here and protest the existence of this company,” Hanson told reporters during the protest, calling Musk — a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump who also heads up the newly created Department of Government Efficiency — a bully and a plutocrat.

    “We can’t protest Donald Trump right now because he doesn’t have a Trump Tower in Saskatoon,” said Hanson. “So this is the next closest thing.”

    Brendan Newton was one of a few dozen protestors at the dealership. He recently moved to Saskatoon from Kentucky.

    “Even visiting my family is becoming harder, because what’s going to happen when we go back home — is my partner going to get detained by ICE?” he said, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/anger-at-trump-ally-elon-musk-sparks-protest-at-saskatoon-tesla-dealership/ar-AA1BULXj

    1. “Jason Hanson owns an electric vehicle, but says he doesn’t have much else in common with Tesla owner Elon Musk.”

      He can’t be related to the Hanson Brothers. 🙂

      CLIP DESCRIPTION:

      2:17

      The Hanson Brothers get things started with a pre-game brawl before the National Anthem even begins.

      https://youtu.be/VHMi-j7W2gM?si=qYH5SQw3XTLpbejI

    2. is my partner going to get detained by ICE?

      Does your “partner” have a visa or a green card?

  18. She was expelled from the United States, but still thought America would help. She was wrong

    She asked to be identified only as “Ambo,” out of fear of being recognized back in her home country.

    “Life is very difficult for me,” she told CNN from a school-turned-shelter on a humidly hot day in Panama City, Panama.

    Over the ambient noise of blade fans attempting to cool the large room, she explained she left her native country of Cameroon due to “political issues,” fearing that she would either be “sentenced dead” or spend the rest of her life in prison if she stayed.

    She remembers arriving at the US-Mexico border on January 23 – three days after US President Trump’s inauguration – after trekking through Central America and the dangerous Darién jungle.

    She turned herself in to United States Customs and Border Protection in hopes of making her case for asylum. By her count she spent 19 days in US custody, then finally got that chance – or so she thought.

    Just after midnight on February 13, by her recollection, she and other migrants were loaded onto a bus where they drove for hours.

    “We were so happy thinking that they were going to transfer us to a camp where we are going to meet an immigration officer,” she recalled.

    She still thought that when she was loaded onto a plane, believing they were headed to another facility in the United States. But when they landed, they were in Panama.

    “We’re asking them why are they bringing us to Panama? ‘Why are we in Panama?’” she said, “People started crying.”

    “We’re like thinking maybe the camp in the US is full. That is why they are bringing us here. When it will be our turn, they will come and take us to give us a listening ear,” she said.

    But the Panamanian government took them to a hotel in Panama City, guarded tightly by security, no phones, and limited access to the outside world, according to multiple migrants CNN spoke to. Panama’s Security Minister Frank Ábrego previously told a local radio program the deportees were held at the hotel, in part, because officials needed to “effectively verify who these people are who are arriving in our country.”

    Even in a new country, under a new government authority, she held out hope someone from the United States government would step in and fix the situation.

    “We were somehow happy that maybe the immigration from the US would come to Panama to listen to our stories,” she told CNN, now fighting back tears.

    “It wasn’t the case.” Her voice cracked, recalling the moment her optimism shattered.

    Many are asylum-seekers from places like Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, China, Sri Lanka. They are now are caught in limbo – expelled from the United States, but unable to go back to their home countries out of fear of being persecuted or killed.

    “They shouldn’t just like abandon us like that without telling us what we have done wrong. It become very, very difficult and confusing to us. I’ve left my children back home,” Ambo said through tears.

    Ambo, her life now in a demoralizing standstill, still dreams about the United States, even though she has no idea when this nightmare will end.

    “America has always been a country that received people from all over the whole world. I believe that is why many people are going towards the USA for to seek for asylum,” she said.

    “They should listen to us and see if they can permit us to stay or not because when you don’t listen to somebody, it means that human rights does not exist again in America.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/she-was-expelled-from-the-united-states-but-still-thought-america-would-help-she-was-wrong/ar-AA1BVjVj

    1. Fix your own sh*thole countries, Africans, instead of lecturing us on your right to asylum and a lifetime of sponging off the system.

    2. “We’re like thinking maybe the camp in the US is full. That is why they are bringing us here. When it will be our turn, they will come and take us to give us a listening ear,” she said.

      Sorry sweetie, 47 stopped the food service, quit handing out the pre-paid cards and closed that hotel.

    3. I’ve left my children back home,”

      Sounds like she was planning on some chain migration: the children, her own siblings, then cousins and aunts.

      Anyway, why not go to Mexico and ask for asylum there? I know the sponging won’t be as good, but you will be safe from those Cameroonian warlords or whatever you ran away from in Mexico.

  19. Ohio Sheriff Busts Illegal Aliens Working on Construction Crew at His Jail

    by Dan Lyman
    March 29th, 2025 8:17 AM

    A sheriff in Ohio just revealed that illegal aliens who were working on a construction crew at his jail were arrested this week.

    On Friday, Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones announced that a secure area of the Butler County Jail in Hamilton is currently under construction.

    While reviewing worker documentation provided by a subcontractor, authorities determined some of the credentials appeared to be fraudulent.

    Because the Butler County Sheriff’s Office recently entered into a partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an ICE agent was on site at the jail.

    During interviews with the agent, two of the workers admitted to being in the U.S. illegally.

    One of the men has already been deported multiple times, according to Sheriff Jones.

    “They had fake identification. It was some of the best identification I’ve ever seen,” Jones said of the illegals’ driver’s licenses, passports, and social security cards.

    https://www.infowars.com/posts/ohio-sheriff-busts-illegal-aliens-working-on-construction-crew-at-his-jail

    1. One of the men has already been deported multiple times,

      Invaders who do this should be sent to Gitmo. Say a 6 month stay before being sent home for the first offense, 12 for the second offense, and so on.

          1. Face tats don’t make you look like such a tough guy now, eh? You’ll never see the sun or sky again.

  20. Elon Musk
    @elonmusk

    An investigation has found 5 ActBlue-funded groups responsible for Tesla “protests”: Troublemakers, Disruption Project, Rise & Resist, Indivisible Project and Democratic Socialists of America.

    ActBlue funders include George Soros, Reid Hoffman, Herbert Sandler, Patricia Bauman, and Leah Hunt-Hendrix.

    ActBlue is currently under investigation for allowing foreign and illegal donations in criminal violation of campaign finance regulations. This week, 7 ActBlue senior officials resigned, including the associate general counsel.

    If you know anything about this, please post in replies. Thanks, Elon.
    8:44 AM · Mar 8, 2025

    https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1898369343399899218

  21. Canada’s auto industry braces for impact as U.S. tariffs loom

    The employee parking lot at Stellantis NV’s car assembly plant near Toronto sat mostly empty on a recent winter day. Inside the sprawling Brampton, Ont., factory, work on a new assembly line has been halted and the cluster of chimneys atop the building no longer belches emissions. It’s as if the factory – like the auto industry itself – is holding its breath.

    The plant, built in 1986, has been closed since the end of 2023, its workers sent home to wait out a retooling for the next-generation Jeep Compass.

    Then came more bad news. First, U.S. President Donald Trump warned of 25-per-cent tariffs on Canadian products, including automobiles. He vowed to “permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada.”

    But add in slowing growth in sales of EVs and Mr. Trump’s move to kill the Biden administration’s EV mandates, and the plant’s employees are worried, says Vito Beato, president of the Unifor union local at the plant.

    The headwinds could affect all Ontario vehicle assembly plants, “but Brampton especially,” says Mr. Beato, whose local represents 3,000 Stellantis workers and another 5,000 at parts suppliers and other businesses in the region northwest of Toronto. About 85 per cent of his members work in the auto industry.

    “Members are concerned. Our plant is idle right now,” Mr. Beato says over coffee. “We’re vulnerable.”

    The laid-off workers receive as much as 70 per cent of their wages for two years and time is running out. The 1,000 Unifor members who work at suppliers to the plant have no such backstop, and their benefits ended after 52 weeks. Mr. Beato and the union are pushing the company and governments to support the workers, and to extend wage protections for plant employees. “Those members are dear to my heart,” he said. “All members are, but especially those ones.”

    Not including GM’s BrightDrop electric parcel van, the five Ontario plants run by Ford, GM, Stellantis, Honda and Toyota made a total of 1.6 million cars in 2024, compared with 2.4 million in 2016. The rise of manufacturing in Mexico and other low-cost countries are partly to blame, as is declining car sales in Canada and the U.S.

    Meanwhile, production by Detroit’s Big Three automakers at their plants in Ontario has slipped to about 400,000 vehicles.

    “That’s not much. That’s a big assembly plant,” said Greig Mordue, a professor of engineering at McMaster University and co-editor of The North American Auto Industry since NAFTA.

    “We have good people and they come to work every day,” Prof. Mordue says. “But when you’re paying $60 an hour all in, in terms of benefits and pensions and everything else, and your competition in Mexico is $4 an hour plus, it’s tough to compete.”

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-canadas-auto-industry-braces-for-impact-as-us-tariffs-loom-were/

    1. Not including GM’s BrightDrop electric parcel van, the five Ontario plants run by Ford, GM, Stellantis, Honda and Toyota made a total of 1.6 million cars in 2024, compared with 2.4 million in 2016. The rise of manufacturing in Mexico and other low-cost countries are partly to blame, as is declining car sales in Canada and the U.S.

      The handwriting has been on the wall for a while.

      Curiously, the Mexican media hasn’t given car tariffs much coverage, even though Mexico ships more cars to the US than the Canucks.

      In looking tat he Mexican media, I learned that the Cartels are installing surveillance cameras everywhere in Mexico. The Mexican army has removed about 6,000 of them. The article didn’t estimate how many are still out there, It did mention that many are located on private property and thus cannot be removed without a court order.

      Anyway, enjoy your Mexican vacation, Canucks.

      1. Before the election President Trump said China was building yuuge car plants in Mexico and he was going to stop them. I guess he has. Those things cost billion$. The way globalism has worked before, if they get their way, all the US cars will be made in Mexico for Chinese companies at 4 bucks an hour. They keep a few US assembly plants here and there for optics.

    2. “But when you’re paying $60 an hour all in, in terms of benefits and pensions and everything else, and your competition in Mexico is $4 an hour plus, it’s tough to compete.”

      So, you’re saying tariffs work to protect industry and jobs.

  22. Trump admin lays off most of Institute of Peace in latest federal purge

    The Trump administration has reportedly fired a majority of employees at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) over the weekend, with termination letters landing in personal email accounts starting Friday evening.

    Only senior officials and staffers abroad remain employed at the organization that used to tout 300 workers, according to the Associated Press.

    “The dismissal of U.S. Institute of Peace employees in the dark of night is unconscionable and deeply troubling. The Institute’s employees are fiercely dedicated to their important work, and they don’t deserve to be treated with such disrespect,” George M. Foote, outside counsel for USIP, said in a statement to The Hill.

    “The firings also put at serious risk the safety and welfare of those who work for and with the Institute in countries around the world. This action only adds urgency to the complaint that has been filed to halt and reverse the Administration’s unlawful attempt to dismantle the Institute,” he added.

    USIP operates with tax dollars and works to advance U.S. interests by helping to prevent violent conflicts and broker peace deals abroad.

    A White House spokeswoman told the AP that the institute “has failed to deliver peace.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-admin-lays-off-most-of-institute-of-peace-in-latest-federal-purge/ar-AA1BVvyh

      1. I haven’t either. So I guess they’ve never accomplished anything, ever. Jeebus this swamp stinks.

        1. I guess they’ve never accomplished anything

          They spent their budgets.

          I wonder where these the foreign service workers were stationed? Paris, Brussels, London?

    3. “The dismissal of U.S. Institute of Peace employees in the dark of night is unconscionable and deeply troubling. The Institute’s employees are *fiercely dedicated* to their important work.”

      Should people dedicated to peace be fiercely dedicated? Is he threatening us? 🙁

        1. Seriously, I wonder what they did all day. They most certainly didn’t stop any neocon wars.

  23. After ₹40 lakh loan for US studies, Indian techie returns home jobless and ‘drowning in debt’

    An Indian techie turned to Reddit for guidance after taking a hefty education loan to study in the United States but failing to land a job there. In an anonymous post shared on the ‘India’ subreddit, the user said that he took a loan of ₹40 lakh to get a master’s degree in the US. However, the bleak job market, coupled with visa limitations and lack of internship opportunities for Indian students, meant that he could not secure a job in the country.

    Now back in India, the techie has a job that pays him ₹75,000 per month. His EMI comes up ₹66,000 per month, leaving him with just ₹9,000. “I’m back in India, drowning in debt, and don’t know what to do,” he said in his Reddit post.

    The Reddit user explained that he did his undergraduate course in IT and took an education loan of ₹40 lakh to pursue a masters in the US.

    “My father ran a small business and, along with my family, they put in a lot they had — emotionally and financially — to help me chase the dream of a better future,” he wrote.

    The Indian student did an MSc in Management Information Systems in the United States, confident that he would land a job paying in dollars afterwards. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

    Despite one year of applying relentlessly to US jobs, he could not secure employment in the land of opportunity. Meanwhile, he struggled to cover his living expenses. His family sent him money from India, spending the last of their savings on him.

    “I completed my degree, but due to the economic recession, visa limitations, and lack of internship opportunities for Indian students, I never got a job in the U.S. I applied relentlessly for a year, but couldn’t even earn enough to cover my own living expenses. My family sent me money every month — draining their last savings,” he wrote.

    “Eventually, my father’s business was making losses and he fell ill. They couldn’t support me anymore, and I had to come back to India, heartbroken, jobless, and with a huge loan on my head. (Update: He’s better now and healthy),” he wrote on Reddit.

    Back in India, he resumed his job hunt. After looking for months, he managed to find a job paying him ₹75,000 per month – of which he now spends ₹66,000 on paying back his loan.

    The Reddit user said that he is now trying to get his life back on track by looking for freelance work that can generate extra income, or trying to restructure the loan – which has so far proved unsuccessful.

    https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/india/after-40-lakh-loan-for-us-studies-indian-techie-returns-home-jobless-and-drowning-in-debt/ar-AA1BVPeL

    1. Despite one year of applying relentlessly to US jobs, he could not secure employment in the land of opportunity.

      The “land of opportunity” to game the system in every possible way, bring the most devious and sophisticated frauds to your “adopted” country, and displace American workers with Indian Great Replacement employees beholden to you for hiring and promotion. GTHO.

    2. he took a loan of ₹40 lak

      About $46,000 USD. Good luck paying that back on an Indian salary.

      I completed my degree, but due to the economic recession, visa limitations, and lack of internship opportunities for Indian students, I never got a job in the U.S.

      That’s because they are all being offshored. Every so often there is a periodic “all hands” meeting on zoom I attend. There used to be a section in the meeting where all new hires are welcomed. I would say that less than 10% of new hires were in the US, the rest are you know where. Anyway, that section is no longer part of the meeting agenda.

  25. Silicon Valley vs. San Francisco Socialists

    In 2011, then San Francisco mayor Ed Lee, recently appointed after Gavin Newsom vacated the role to become California’s lieutenant governor, signaled the city elite’s further embrace of Silicon Valley when he helped facilitate the transformation of a vacant department store on Market Street into Twitter’s new headquarters.

    To lure Twitter, Mayor Lee designated “Mid-Market” as a new tech corridor. Inserted into the hollowed-out physical spaces of the city’s industrial past, the growth of tech held the promise of trickle-down economic development. At least, this was the justification for allowing Twitter and the tech firms who followed it to the neighborhood to be exempt from payroll taxes — the value of this tax break was later estimated to be about $70 million.

    Fast-forward to the fall of 2023 when Elon Musk, new owner of the company San Franciscans had subsidized, took to “X, formerly Twitter” with a series of attacks on a member of the city’s Board of Supervisors, its sole democratic socialist member: “Dean Preston should be in prison for what he’s done to San Francisco.” Around the same time, Musk committed to joining right-wing venture capitalist Garry Tan in contributing $100,000 as seed funding for the effort to remove Preston from office (Tan had pledged $50,000).

    Tan and company’s successful campaign to defeat Dean, as he is popularly known, on the November 2024 ballot should be seen as a signal achievement of the techno-libertarian effort to remake the “failed” San Francisco. (Their larger project to capture local electoral power has been covered elsewhere.) X/Twitter eventually abandoned Market Street for Texas in 2023; Tan has since followed Musk — now leading President Donald Trump’s shock offensive on the federal bureaucracy — to Washington, DC, also working to implement his political agenda on a broader scale.

    Even before the pandemic, the majority of the city’s elected leaders — including moderate Democrats who had backed Lee’s idea — had come to the realization that the “Twitter tax break,” as it came to be known, was a mistake. A group of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, note that the tax scheme came about at a crucial moment: In the wake of the 2008 recession, commercial office vacancy rates in SF climbed to nearly 18 percent (in the dot-com era, the rate was 1 percent).

    Meanwhile, the Mid-Market neighborhood had not been revitalized (almost all new development remained in SoMA and the Financial District), and worse, the city’s coffers did not benefit that much from the influx of affluent tech workers. Tech has never been the city’s dominant industry by employment, but the flood of its wealth has driven up housing prices for everyone else.

    The project to transform Downtown San Francisco into an urban Palo Alto grew into an actual catastrophe in 2020, when tech firms shuttered their offices and mostly never reopened, imperiling the city-center economy that had been built around it. On the other side of the Bay Bridge, Downtown Oakland has suffered a similar fate, as Uber backed out of a plan to redevelop a disused Sears into their new headquarters. That building too sits mostly empty, surrounded by glistening new apartment buildings with too-high vacancy rates.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/silicon-valley-vs-san-francisco-socialists/ar-AA1BUhY3

    2. You had me at “Downtown Oakland”.

      You didn’t have to finish the paragraph to say what happened.

  26. From The Hill. “We are now witnessing an outcry from Democrats, loan servicers and the media over the prospect of Congress scaling back the Department of Veterans Affairs’s new mortgage bailout program, the Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase [VASP] program.

    https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5220187-veterans-va-loan-program/
    Opinion>White House
    The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill
    Congress must stop Biden’s VA mortgage bailout — before it’s too late 
    by Tobias Peter, opinion contributor – 03/29/25 11:00 AM ET

    “… a housing finance system that eliminates the possibility of foreclosure is inherently unsustainable, and that is exactly what the [VASP] program does. Launched under the Biden administration, the program upends the traditional balance by having the VA buy troubled loans, hold them on its books, and absorb all future losses while servicers walk away whole.”

    “Even more troubling, the program’s overly generous terms invite strategic default. Veterans with 6 percent or 7 percent mortgages have a strong incentive to stop paying, just to qualify for a government refinance at 2.5 percent. Naturally, servicers love this. Under the traditional VA program, they shared up to 25 percent of losses; now the [VASP] program makes them whole, giving them every reason to push borrowers into the program. It privatizes gains and socializes losses.”

    “This isn’t a safety net — it’s a moral hazard factory that risks destabilizing the VA loan program and exposing taxpayers to massive losses.”

    “Prior to VASP, private servicers shared the risk and had a clear incentive to work with borrowers to avoid foreclosure. This system provided veterans with affordable, no-down-payment loans while containing taxpayer exposure.”

    “Today, those same workouts are harder to achieve due to higher interest rates. For most delinquent borrowers, the solution is straightforward: sell the home. AEI Housing Center analysis shows that roughly 84 percent could sell, cover their mortgage, arrears and closing costs and still walk away with an average of $128,000, thanks to a 50 percent jump in home values over the past five years. Instead of encouraging this dignified exit, however, VASP fosters dependency and shifts financial risk to taxpayers.”

    “While selling is not an option for all delinquent veterans, this points to a deeper problem: many of these loans were made to borrowers with high debt loads, poor credit and little savings. That’s a failure of underwriting, not a justification for permanent bailouts.”

    “This program is just the tip of the iceberg of programs implemented under the Biden administration. Other agencies, including FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, offer partial claims, modifications and deferral programs that allow missed payments to be tacked on to the end of loans — often combined with substantial payment reductions. These programs can let borrowers live virtually mortgage-free for years, fostering expectations of eventual forgiveness. In many cases, it’s a better deal than renting — with the added bonus of keeping any home price appreciation.”

    Wow. Unbelievable. Yes, “it’s a moral hazard factory.” All at taxpayer backstop and expense, and this is only one .gov agency. Other people’s money. It’s turtles all the way down, with the unit evil of D party apparatchik minions and managers fighting tooth and nail to maintain their corrupt bureaucracies. Unelected and unaccountable; the essence of the Deep, Administrative State.

    The entire federal .gov is rife with waste, fraud, and abuse; it’s a cancer that’s killing the patient. Close HUD and all of the subordinate housing agencies, including the GSEs. Based on what DOGE is finding, there aren’t any agencies immune. With the near-term exception of essential services, shut them all down and start over with a clean slate and re-apply limited government. It’s a Gordian knot problem. Of course, that’s easier said than done.

      2. entrenched fraud, waste, & abuse.

        But it was their fraud, waste and abuse.

        During the Covid experiment, I don’t think any of the firings resulted in cost savings.

    1. That paper is over 2 years old. Does this puddle watcher know the guberment started a new HAMP like program during CCP virus? ‘Oh, I discovered guberment is buying defaulted mortgage backed securities!’

      Ever heard of foaming the runway for banks? That was 15 years ago. Lame puddle watchers like this were probably popping zits in the high school gym locker.

    1. Personal Finance
      Homeownership is ‘an investment,’ Maryland governor says. High prices mean fewer young adults can benefit
      Published Sun, Mar 30 2025 10:00 AM EDT
      Lorie Konish

      KEY POINTS

      Since 1980, median home prices have increased much faster than median household incomes, according to the Urban Institute.

      For some, that is putting home ownership out of reach.
      …
      https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/30/why-fewer-young-adults-are-able-to-invest-in-homeownership.html

    2. Are the tariffs “priced in” to the market or is this week gonna be as wild as /r/wallstreetbets is predicting?

    1. US Fed’s preferred inflation gauge shows some cause for concern
      6 hours ago

      US Fed’s preferred inflation gauge shows some cause for concern in February 2025

      The US Federal Reserve Building is seen in Washington, DC, May 3, 2023. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)

      WASHINGTON, United States — The US Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure was largely unchanged last month, according to government data published Friday, but a widely scrutinized gauge of underlying price pressures rose.

      The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index rose 2.5 percent in the 12 months to February, the Commerce Department said in a statement, unchanged from a month earlier. Inflation rose 0.3 percent on a monthly basis.

      Both measures were in line with the median forecasts from economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

      But of greater concern to Fed officials, an inflation measure stripping out volatile food and energy costs rose more than expected, by 0.4 percent month-on-month, and by 2.8 percent from a year ago.

      The Fed is attempting to return inflation to its long-term target of two percent. Friday’s data suggests policymakers still have some way to go as they also grapple with the effects of trade policy uncertainty.

      “They’re kind of in wait-and-see mode for awhile,” Wolfe Research chief economist Stephanie Roth told AFP. “Our call is that they’re going to cut rates because growth is weakening, but they actually need to see a rising unemployment rate first.

      “So today probably doesn’t really change the narrative that much for them,” she added.

      Stop-start tariff rollout
      US President Donald Trump has embarked on a stop-start rollout of country- and sector-specific tariffs, drawing condemnation from allies and warnings from Fed officials that the measures will likely push up prices.

      “It looks inevitable that tariffs are going to increase inflation in the near term,” Boston Fed President Susan Collins — who has a vote on the US central bank’s rate-setting committee this year — said Thursday.

      Earlier this month, the Fed voted to extend a pause in rate cuts, holding its key lending rate at between 4.25 and 4.5 percent.

      Financial markets see a roughly 90 percent chance that the Fed will vote to continue that pause at its next rate meeting in May, according to CME Group.

      “The data support our view that downside risks to the economy are emerging, but with inflation heating up, the Fed for now will maintain its wait-and-see approach,” Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic wrote in a note to clients.

      Personal income increased by 0.8 percent last month, according to the Commerce Department data published Friday.

      Personal savings
      And personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income — a measure of how much consumers are saving — jumped to 4.6 percent last month, up from a revised 4.3 percent a month earlier.

      The jump in the personal savings rate since the start of the year may be related to consumer confidence, which has deteriorated sharply in recent months, with consumers more likely to save money if they are concerned about where the economy is headed.

      Americans are now feeling less optimistic about the US economy, and more concerned about rising inflation, according to fresh data on consumer sentiment published Friday by the University of Michigan.

      “UMich isn’t the greatest measure, but I think directionally, it tells you something important,” said Roth from Wolfe Research.

      “And I think it’s telling you that consumers are starting to become concerned about the inflation backdrop, and this is the thing that differentiates whether the Fed is able to look through this tariff or not.”
      …
      https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-feds-preferred-inflation-gauge-150921148.html

  31. ‘There are roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments in NYC, and many of their owners have struggled since legislation passed in 2019 to severely limit the amount they can raise rent to cover renovations and repairs on stabilized units, all while inflation has caused costs to skyrocket. Foreclosures of buildings that are majority-rent-stabilized are increasing, and values have plummeted — one rent-stabilized building sold for a 97% loss last month’

    How do you like those 5% cap rates now boys?

  32. ‘Shillito, said that what’s happening is, in a way, what everyone has wanted – rents coming down. ‘I can understand developers being nervous. But from a city perspective, we are making efforts to increase supply. And that’s the tipping point we want to get to, where land prices start going down.’ As developers understand they’re not going to get $7 a square foot or even $6, that should start getting reflected in the prices they’re willing to pay for land. ‘We need land values to reflect the realities of economics now’

    This happens over and again Matt. Everybody says ‘we need to build to bring prices down’, and when it does they panic. They never really cared about housing being affordable of course otherwise they’d welcome it.

  33. ‘Four East Lancashire towns have seen average property prices decrease by more than 20 per cent between 2023 and 2024…‘There is plenty of demand for homes but also lots of choice. Households looking to sell their home in 2025 need to be careful when setting their asking prices if they are to attract sufficient demand to agree a sale’

    It’s a good thing everybody put 25% down Dick!

  34. ‘He called on housing authorities and policymakers to implement a ‘Build-Then-Sell’ policy to prevent such predicaments. ‘The current ‘Sell-Then-Build’ model has left too many buyers in limbo, struggling with loan repayments for homes that are either incomplete or, worse, abandoned. It is time for serious policy reform to restore public confidence in the housing sector. Buyers’ hard-earned money must be safeguarded, and stricter measures are needed to prevent future abandoned projects’

    Let me get this straight Dave. So yer saying they can only sell something that exists? That’s interesting as the current system does seem to leave a wide wake of FB’s behind it. Come to think of it, they learned their lesson in Florida. We don’t hear about pre-construction airbox flame outs like we did back in the day. But do they have their own fresh set of problems in Florida.

    2. Economic Outlook
      Everything you wanted to know about a recession but were afraid to ask
      Economists are slashing their forecasts for growth and beginning to raise their odds of an economic downturn
      By Greg Robb
      Last Updated: March 29, 2025 at 11:51 a.m. ET
      First Published: March 29, 2025 at 5:29 a.m. ET
      Uncertainty has descended like a fog over the economy, experts say.
      Photo: MarketWatch photo illustration/iStockphoto

      Over the last two months, companies and consumers have signaled so much concern about the outlook for their businesses and pocketbooks that economists are slashing their forecasts for growth and beginning to raise their odds of a recession.

      With President Donald Trump stoking economic uncertainty by implementing wide-ranging tariffs, a steep slowdown in growth in the next several months now seems inevitable. Whether there is a recession — a period of time when the economy basically falls off a cliff — remains a matter of debate.
      …
      https://www.marketwatch.com/story/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-a-recession-but-were-afraid-to-ask-83b4e61c

    3. Updated Sun, Mar 30 2025 7:00 PM EDT
      Stock futures slip as a jittery Wall Street awaits ‘Liberation Day’: Live updates
      Lisa Kailai Han
      WATCH LIVE
      A trader works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York City, U.S., March 28, 2025.
      A trader works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York City, U.S., March 28, 2025.
      Jeenah Moon | Reuters

      U.S. stock futures fell on Sunday night as traders looked ahead to “Liberation Day” for clarity on President Donald Trump’s tariff plans.

      Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 172 points, or 0.4%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures dipped 0.5% and 0.7%, respectively.
      …
      https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/30/stock-market-today-live-updates.html

    4. Stocks slide, bonds buoyed as tariffs fan recession fears
      By Wayne Cole
      March 30, 2025 9:55 PM PDT
      Updated an hour ago

      Summary

      – Asian stock markets :
      Nikkei dives 4%, Nasdaq futures drop 1.4%

      – Trump says US tariffs to cover all countries

      – Flight to safety buoys bonds, gold hits record

      SYDNEY, March 31 (Reuters) – World share markets were in a tailspin on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump said tariffs would essentially cover all countries, stoking worries a global trade war could lead to recession.

      Trump’s comments to reporters on Air Force One seemed to dash hopes the levies would be more limited. Trump is due to receive tariff recommendations on Tuesday and announce initial levels on Wednesday, followed by auto tariffs the day after.
      …
      https://www.reuters.com/markets/global-markets-wrapup-1-2025-03-31/

    5. Financial Times
      Asia-Pacific equities
      Global stock markets tumble as Donald Trump’s tariffs loom
      Equities in Asia and futures for US and Europe hit by concerns over impact on exports
      A woman wearing sunglasses walks past an electronic board displaying the Nikkei 225 index with various stock prices and values
      Japan’s benchmark Topix dropped 3.3% and the exporter-oriented Nikkei 225 slid 3.9% on Monday
      © Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images
      William Sandlund and Arjun Neil Alim in Hong Kong
      Published 4 hours ago
      Updated 23:17

      Global markets fell on Monday over fears of an intensified trade war ahead of Donald Trump’s expected unveiling of a swath of extra tariffs.

      Japanese, Taiwanese, South Korean and Hong Kong stocks fell sharply alongside US futures, accelerating a sell-off that began last week, after Trump said reciprocal US tariffs he expected to announce on April 2 would apply globally.

      “You’d start with all countries, so let’s see what happens,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday in the US. Last week he hinted at concessions for some countries.

      The president singled out Asia for its trade practices. “Take a look at trade with Asia. I wouldn’t say anybody has treated us fairly,” he said.
      …

    6. Do you feel left out of the Treasury bond rally?

      It’s not too late… especially for the group of foreign countries that recently dumped their Treasurys (and thanks, by the way, for the dip buying opportunity).

      To my recollection, Treasurys and Uncle Buck pulled through the market turmoil of the Great Financial Crisis just fine. I see no reason to expect otherwise going forward with the present market turmoil.

      1. Buying debt that’s going to be inflated away by the Fed, or ditching my debauched Yellen Bux for God’s money – seems like a no-brainer, but you do you, PB.

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