To rob the public, they must first deceive it.
We got to take this stuff seriously, as seriously as you are – because you have been forced to have to take it seriously.
Hard to find a bad Bastiat quote.
"Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results."
- Narcotics Anonymous, November 1981
“My generation gave former tenured economics professors discretionary authority to fabricate money and to fix interest rates. We put the cart before the horse of enterprise. We entertained the fantasy that high asset prices made for prosperity, rather than the other way around.” - Jim Grant, 2014
Consumers are using Buy Now, Pay Later to cover everyday expenses OK, but so what? Larry Fink is killing it!
"The fact that a large group of people need to break up a 20 dollar phone charger into four installments is a sign of just how bad things are. I keep seeing these buttons on more and more websites, and for items that cost $20 or even less." - thorosaurus, September 2021
A lot of people have been asking what goes into the CPI. This is from the BLS:
This is from the New York Times, and is typical - it’s basically a Fed Press Release: Fed Moves Toward Another Big Rate Increase as Inflation Lingers
Oh yeah, another BIG RATE INCREASE that’ll get them to a slightly less deeply-negative real policy rate.
Private equity may be heading for a fall
Not if Private-Equity Man has any say in it!
Time to read this again: Jerome Powell’s Fed policies have boosted the system that made him rich
Powell spent years as a private equity dealmaker, creating and selling the kinds of debt instruments that he later bailed out as Fed chairman. Powell’s radical actions to pump more money into markets, credited by many with keeping the economy afloat throughout the pandemic, have also greatly benefitted his former peers in the private equity business…Powell’s career illuminates the deeper realities about the Federal Reserve and the American economy. The Fed’s policies are not just the realm of technocrat PhD economists who are solving math equations. The Fed is enacting programs that create winners and losers. And the winners, time and again, are people like Jay Powell and the investment firms that made him rich.
You will boil and then simmer, and own nothing, and be happy.
A new Zillow® survey shows 50% of home buyers say the process left them in tears, with Gen Zers and millennials — many of whom are first-time home buyers – far more likely to cry at least once during their home-buying journey. More than 65% of Gen Z buyers and 61% of millennial buyers cried at least once when going through the process of purchasing their home.
It gets better: “The stress of buying is experienced differently among racial groups, as well. Latinx buyers were far more likely to report crying at least once (68%) compared to Black (51%) and white (48%) buyers.”
Some of you may remember the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter from back in the bubble before this bubble. Might be worth bookmarking again.
The Halifax House Price Index (HPI) is the UK's longest running monthly house price measure with data covering the whole country going back to January 1983.
Seeing a lot of real estate stories that remind me of this from Kyle Bass talking about the last housing bubble with Grant Williams back in 2016
Bravo pausing “Million Dollar Listing NY” after 9 seasons
Crime, homelessness hit downtown Portland's commercial real estate market “The upside? Portland isn’t alone.” “Portland is a pretty good average for what’s happening in the country right now.”
One reason Zandi doesn’t expect a housing bust (July 2022): If things begin to get too bad, the Federal Reserve could let up on monetary tightening.
The Abysmal Track Record of Moody’s Mark Zandi (September 2010)
‘The biggest Ponzi scheme in history’ The biggest Ponzi scheme in history…so far!
I even made this chart semi-log, to appease the many Fed apologists.
Tycoon Whose Bet Broke the Nickel Market Walks Away a Billionaire
”We have a society where some people are weighed down and oppressed by the rules and for others the rules, the laws, are a joke.” - Carolinian
Let’s play “Guess Which Country?”: Russia, or America?”
The privatization drive that was supposed to reap the fruits of the free market instead helped to create a system of tycoon capitalism run for the benefit of a corrupt political oligarchy
I don’t even know where to begin here…
High gas prices are “unequivocally” good for fighting climate change because people use less fossil fuel and emissions go down, but the poorest people, who don’t have other options also “suffer the most,” said climate economist Solomon Hsiang
I’m reminded of a 2006 Warren Buffett quote: “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?
In its lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the Karnataka High Court in Bengaluru, Twitter alleges that New Delhi had abused its power by ordering it to arbitrarily and disproportionately remove several tweets from its platform.
"Some of you may remember the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter from back in the bubble before this bubble. Might be worth bookmarking again."
New to me and definitely worth the bookmark, fab find thanks! :~)
Thanks for this!