24 Oct This would be funny if it weren’t so sad
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
“And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad . . . I find it hard to tell you ’cause I find it hard to take, when people run in circles it’s a very, very mad world” –Tears for Fears
Yeah. Mmmkay.
Meanwhile, little ole me has been out here on my blogs and my podcast warning you to be very careful of anyone who says, “Well, we would just nnnnneeeeevvvvveeeerrrrr have another 2008.”
Anytime I see some идиот in the media reassuring us that we could just never have another 2008 ever, ever again, I realize we’re going to see something similar or perhaps even worse.
Let’s take a little stroll down Memory Lane and reexamine what that time was like and what kinds of shenanigans and chicanery happened. I think you’ll find that history is repeating itself in a pretty eerie way.
– “This isn’t 2008” – Part 1 (Oh really? Maybe it’s worse.) published on January 5, 2023 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1125110/11959824
The follow up episode can also be found here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1125110/12016015
And yet, I still see realtors and brokers on social media saying the market is hot. It’s still a seller’s market. It’s nothing like 2008. Why, we’re not in a housing bubble. We’re not headed for any kind of housing crash. You guys just keep on buying and selling and rocking and rolling. And I’m like, Yeah, I’m really not sure what what kind of planet somebody is on, if they’re getting high on their own supply, if that’s what they really think. I’m not an economist, I’m don’t sit on the World Economic Forum. I myself am not a real estate agent or a mortgage broker – just a private individual with some common sense who lived through the 2008 to 2010 Great Recession. I also remember what it was like when the housing bubble popped and it was freaking awful. Seemed like every street that you turned down had multiple foreclosures and the houses were run down, they looked terrible because nobody was there taking care of them anymore. It was very depressing. So okay, play games if you want to. Sure, it’s not 2008. Well, we could never have anything like that happen again… okurrrr.
-“Bonus Episode: Housing Market ➡ Job Market” published on July 4, 2022 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1125110/10898050
Vindicated yet again, though I wish it weren’t so.
Home sales nearing 2008 levels
Home sales are expected to drop to their lowest rate since the 2008 recession, thanks to skyrocketing mortgage rates, reports The Wall Street Journal. The pace of sales won’t increase much in 2024, says a Redfin economist, as the mortgage rates aren’t expected to budge much either. Record home prices and limited inventory of existing homes compound the issue. The housing slowdown could have a wider effect on the economy, with consumers spending less on furniture and appliances; plus, fewer homebuyers means more renters, and rising rents could further stymie the Federal Reserve’s push to lower inflation.
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The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage topped 7.5% last week — an increase of about half a percentage point since August.
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Purchase mortgages dropped in September to their lowest levels since 1995, per the Mortgage Bankers Association.
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Nearly 40% of recent homebuyers under age 30 received family money to help with their down payments.
–https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/home-sales-nearing-2008-levels-5808444/
Imma do it:
I did. I warned you repeatedly to be careful of anyone, especially anyone with a vested interest in parting you from your money, who told you that we could just never, ever have another 2008 event.
Did you listen to other commentators assuring you that this is not 2008? Did you buy an overpriced house at a high interest rate? Did you think The Great Resignation would go on forever and ever and you could job hop relentlessly for more money each time?
Or did you get your mind right and prepare for an economic downturn? You can bet the fat cats are ready.
And that’s the direction we see. As housing becomes less affordable, you get more renters. As the job market gets worse and fewer people are prepared for a job market crash, you get desperate workers who’ll take whatever they’re given just to survive.
You vill own nozing und you vill be happy.
Oh, but that’s just a conspiracy theory, remember? If you think that, you’re so foolish you think the moon is made out of cheese. (Yes, I saw a neolib suggest that before. 😒)
“You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy” (alternatively “you’ll own nothing and be happy”) is a phrase originating in a 2016 video by the World Economic Forum (WEF), summarising an essay written by Danish politician Ida Auken. The phrase has been used by critics who accuse the WEF of desiring restrictions on ownership of private property. . . .
In 2016, Auken published an essay originally titled “Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better”, later retitled “Here’s how life could change in my city by the year 2030”, on the WEF’s official web site. It described life in an unnamed city in which the narrator does not own a car, a house, any appliances, or any clothes, and instead relies on shared services for all of his daily needs. Auken later added an author’s note to the story responding to critics, stating that it is not her “utopia or dream of the future”, and that she intended for the essay to start discussions about technological development. . . .
Also in 2017, a commentator for European Digital Rights (EDRi) described Auken’s article as “chilling” and “dystopian”. EDRi criticized Auken’s vision of centralized property ownership as a “benevolent dictatorship“.
–https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You%27ll_own_nothing_and_be_happy
I own nothing, I have no privacy, and life’s never been better. Mein Gott. 😞
“The most valuable asset they have is their job.” -Neel Kashkari, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Then he goes on to say that the odds of people losing their jobs is not remote.
“What the Federal Reserve does is provide the blood supply for the body of our capitalist economy. And what happened in 2008 is all the veins and the capillaries and the arteries collapsed. So every financial function had failed. It had collapsed and we had to restore them.” “It’s almost like alchemy! You can create money out of thin air if you’re at the central bank.” -Richard W. Fisher, former President & CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
“Buddy, it’s not a question of enough. It’s a zero sum game, sport. Somebody wins and somebody loses. Money itself isn’t lost or made, it’s simply transferred from one perception to another. Like magic. That painting cost $60,000 10 years ago. I could sell it today for $600,000. The illusion has become real. And the more real it becomes, the more desperately they want it. Capitalism at its finest.” -Gordon Gekko, Wall Street
-“Get your money for nothin & your job loss for free” published on March 23, 2o23 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1125110/12468460
So let’s contemplate this. If the system failed– if it collapsed in 2008 in toto and all the blood leaked from the arteries and capillaries and it was defunct . . . what do you think could happen now?
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