Easy like Sunday morning
We effectively don't have public rules for our markets at this point - the powerful do what they want, so the way our regulatory system really works in those situations is there's a crash, and then you set the rules of who you bail out. - Matt Stoller
I wouldn’t have called economics beautiful, but it was arguably simple. Too simple, I thought. It’s one thing to expect elementary particles to obey simple, universal laws. It’s another thing entirely to expect the same of the human race. - Sabine Hossenfelder
QT Update
So they somehow managed to drop $20B worth of MBS in the past week, but still needed to monetize I mean buy Treasuries. Treasuries are still $340B higher and MBS $271B higher than a year ago, when CPI was well over 5% and housing was up 20% YOY.
Brandon Adams interviews Edward Chancellor Top-notch explainer of how the Fed looks at the world very differently from normal people, and how their policies (QE, ZIRP) greatly exacerbate wealth inequality. I liked Chancellor's quip that economists don't like Minsky because "he's hard to model." Also, "They massively overstate the deflation risk."!!!
Bonus Podcast: Guy Adami calls Neel Kashkari a “huge Johnson!”
Great Moments in Financial Journalism
Housing slumped in 2006 after several years of double-digit annual growth in many sections of the country. The slowdown has led to an uptick in foreclosures and layoffs in the construction industry. But the pain, so far, seems fairly contained. And many economists believe the U.S. has avoided a worst-case crash landing in real estate.
According to the SSA, the “median wage” in 2020 was $34,612.04
Open the door, Wally
Saw this post: “Opendoor's Demise is Greatly Exaggerated -- It is Surging”
Surging?
The yield on Opendoor bonds is surging.
The Jobs Report
Reminds me of a line from Nick Halaris on RealVision in 2021: “I really started thinking about the integrity of the data.”
As the U.S. Dollar Surges, American Buyers Splurge on European Homes The dollar’s strength has “definitely affected my search,” she says.
I get a kick out of people dismissing guys like Michael Burry, and someone should point immunologycls towards some Mike Green interviews on the problems with passive investing.
China’s Property Market Has Slid Into Severe Depression, Real-Estate Giant Says More than 30 Chinese real-estate companies, including China Evergrande Group and Sunac China, have already defaulted on their international debt.
XI "is gonna stomp out residential & real estate speculation...and if you're a western bondholder, what you're going to get in return rhymes with 'hero' - you're not gonna get paid anything, and that's what you're gonna deserve for investing in a regime like that." - Kyle Bass
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
We've reached the place that's been predictable since the 80's made it clear, starting with housing, that turning even the essentials of life, into the latest Ponzi scheme, was going to be embraced and even celebrated, by asset owners, as was the decimation of huge swarths of the US working class, left jobless and forgotten. One part of society was easily led to enjoy the profits made destroying other parts of it, whom were then labeled "losers" and ignored. Although the Sacklers did quite well, addicting the decimated, with a militarily protected opioid supply we laundered trillions to the MIC securing. I said then it was over and the end for the US, outside of dystopic hell for most inevitable. At this point, rationality calls for turning to mitigating and surviving that inevitability, individually and in communities of trust. Everything which one would think, could've created a more rational displacement of unimpeded corruption, has been in ongoing reveal for decades now. But all that's looming, is probably very nasty irrational reactions. And it's obvious they're going to exploit that very well. To the cheers of those who enjoyed all that asset inflation and human decimation. Don't Drink the Koolaid is quickly becoming don't drink the water, assuming our corrupt psychopaths and sycophants even provide any.
When are people going to realize that they don't need to defend their existence to these traitors any longer?