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U.S. Homebuyer Contract Cancellations Surge to 15 Percent in June, Highest Ever Recorded Sans Pandemic

A slowdown in the housing market is being identified as the primary cause of a significant increase in cancelled homebuyer contracts in the month of June.  Bloomberg Report Here and Redfin Report Here.  It would appear the inflated housing bubble has popped.

According to the data 60,000 home sales were cancelled while under contract in June, that represents 14.9% of all contracts cancelled by the buyer before the transaction closed.  If you take out the forced cancellations due to the pandemic, a 15% cancellation rate equals the highest monthly cancellation rate ever recorded.

The economy is contracting, economic activity and consumer purchases have stopped, and the contraction is now fast and sudden.

(Redfin) – Nationwide, roughly 60,000 home-purchase agreements fell through in June, equal to 14.9% of homes that went under contract that month. That’s the highest percentage on record with the exception of March and April 2020, when the housing market all but ground to a halt due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. It compares with 12.7% a month earlier and 11.2% a year earlier.

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UC Berkeley Law Professor Accuses Senator Josh Hawley of Transphobic Violence During Senate Hearing

Comrades, the professional moonbats went to Washington DC today to advance the Democrat position on baby killing.  However, UC Berkely Law School Professor, Khiara M. Bridges, claimed to be a victim of transphobic non-binary violence while being questioned about women and abortion.

After hearing Professor Bridges speak about “people with the capacity for pregnancy” in her testimony, Senator Josh Hawley attempted to understand exactly who Ms. Bridges was talking about because the Senate Judiciary hearing was assembled to discuss the legal consequences of the recent Supreme Court Dobbs decision on abortion.

Professor Bridges took exception to the line of inquiry suggesting that only women could get pregnant, and immediately accused Senator Hawley of conducting transphobic violence against her for asking questions without accepting her position that men can get pregnant.  WATCH:

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This is the modern political ideology of Democrats.   And leftists are puzzled, shocked and stunned about why so few people can relate to them anymore.

Violence that supports leftist ideology is called speech. Any speech that confronts leftist ideology is labeled violence.

The Democrat party really need to double-down on this approach.  It will be good for them, I promise.

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Rivian Electric Vehicle Manufacturer Planning Layoffs

Two things about this report showing Rivian is planning layoffs for its workforce.

First, the larger ‘layoff‘ issue is going to be more prevalent as the economy contracts and consumer demand declines.  There is almost no expanded investment going into any Main Street business that sells non-essential goods.

The economic contraction, the drop in consumer demand that indicates a recession, is very real and now very easy to spot.

Second, Rivian is backed by the financing of Ford and Amazon and operates in California, Michigan and Illinois (three deep blue states).  Rivian is also the supplier for Amazon electric delivery vehicles having previously announced (in 2019) a deal to purchase 100,000 vehicles from Rivian.  Additionally, Rivian has lost 69% of its market value this year.

LA TIMES – Rivian Automotive Inc. is planning hundreds of layoffs to trim its workforce in areas where the electric-vehicle maker has grown too quickly, according to people familiar with the matter. […] The Irvine company, which has more than 14,000 employees, could target an overall reduction of around 5%, the people said. The layoffs are still in the planning stage, and nothing has been decided.

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In the Aftermath of Political Violence, Japan Gives Big Election Win to Prime Minister Kishida Fumio in Tribute to Assassinated Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Japan, the party of current Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has scored a major election victory.

The election was held only three days after Shinzo Abe was assassinated, and the results reflect the Japanese people giving Fumio the opportunity to cement the legacy of the man he replaced.   Prime Minister Abe was an advocate for reforming the Japanese pacifist constitution, which has not been modified or amended since 1947.

Current Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, the leader of the LDP, now has a super-majority in the upper house, controlling more than two-thirds of the seats.  Fumio will have this majority for at least three years and will be able to structure amendments to the Japanese constitution, a life-long ambition of Shinzo Abe who was a hawk to the influence of Chinese aggression in the region.

With the people supporting him, Kishida Fumio now has a major mandate to fulfill the legacy of Abe and keep a focus in the economic and security needs of the average Japanese citizen.  This is a rare moment of almost universal control within the Japanese political system.  Western media are writing the typeset with furrowed brows and gritted teeth.  Meanwhile, the Beijing dragon is fuming behind the panda mask.

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Used Car Repossession Rates Double for Both Sub-Prime and Prime Borrowers, Indicates Trouble on Main Street

Barrons has an interesting article on an increase in bank auto repossession rates connected to defaults [see here].  Essentially, used car prices have surged significantly and the timeline seems to indicate the temporary covid-19 stimulus spending had a lot to do with the increase in demand.

According to data assembled by CoPilot, used cars are currently priced approximately 10,000 higher than they would be without any pandemic related influence, supply side or demand side.  Banks and financial institutions loaned money into the climbing market price.  However, the artificially inflated car prices now create a bubble where the liability on the books is significantly higher than the repossessed asset is worth.

A higher rate of auto loans are now defaulting for both sub-prime and prime borrowers (double for both), indicating the former buyers are under financial pressure and can no longer make their car payments.  The loan to value ratio was as high as 140% when the banks made the loans, a more traditional or normal ratio is 80%.

The banks have a vested financial interest in limiting the number of repossessed vehicles they allow into the used car auction market in order to keep the book value of the cars as high as possible.  Those banks and financial institutions have recently rented more storage space for the vehicles being repossessed.

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Sunday Talks, Stunningly Disconnected Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo: “We Have Inflation Now Because of a Lack of Supply”

Unfortunately, (a) she’s not talking about energy or oil production/supply; and (b) she believes it.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, a comprehensively incompetent and unqualified person selected to run the commerce department, blames, without hesitation, a “fundamental lack of supply” for the cause of U.S. inflation [04:38].  She’s not pretending, Raimondo genuinely believes this.

I have struggled with the question of whether it’s incompetence or intentional ideology that drives some of these cabinet members to say stupid stuff.  In the case of Commerce Secretary Raimondo, it is clearly incompetence.  In order to believe that a lack of supply is driving inflation; which is not coincidentally the same demand-cause opinion held by the federal reserve; a person has to ignore the dozens of key economic indicators that show consumer demand has contracted, inventories are climbing, and orders to manufacturers have dropped.

Even Samsung, one of the largest producers of electronics sold in the United States, has told all their suppliers to stop sending the component goods used to manufacture their products because orders for finished goods have plummeted.  Hell, consider this…. THE COMMERCE DEPARTMENT, yes, that’s right, the Department that Raimondo is in charge of, has collected the data showing RETAIL SALES have DROPPED.  Yet here she is blaming a lack of supply for inflation.  WATCH:

It is not a lack of supply driving supply side and producer inflation. It is the massive increase in material, processing and transportation costs associated with Biden’s energy policy that are impacting supply-side inflation.   Demand has contracted, inventories are climbing, manager orders have plummeted, and consumers are squeezed.  Yet this knucklehead thinks recession is unlikely.

Gina Raimondo was also on Meet The Press, with another knucklehead, Chuck Todd.

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President Trump MAGA Rally in Alaska to Defeat Senator Lisa Murkowski, Livestream 4pm Local, 8pm ET

Decepticon Senator Lisa Murkowski is the primary target and reason for President Trump’s travel to Alaska for a rally.   Murkowski, a leftist in the Republican ranks, must be removed if progress in taking down the UniParty is to continue.  President Trump is rallying in support of Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy, Senate candidate challenging Murkowski, Kelly Tshibaka, and candidate for congress Sarah Palin.

The anticipated start time for President Trump’s remarks is 4:00pm in Anchorage Alaska or 8:00pm ET.  Rumble livestream links below:

Donald J Trump Rumble LivestreamRSBN Rumble Livestream LinkAlternate Rumble Livestream Link

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Philadelphia Police Looking for 7 Teens Who Beat 73-Year-Old to Death with Traffic Cone

It has been many years since CTH made the decision to stop documenting the predatory attacks from within the Safari confines of Atlanta, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Oakland, New York City, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Austin and several major metropolitan areas. {Go Deep} It became almost impossible to report on the Safari because even a decade ago the politically correct internet police were scrubbing content faster than Nina Jankowicz would sing about disinformation.

However, in the decade that’s passed; and as expected throughout the rise of the Dream Defenders and BLM; things have gotten much worse.  The most recent example of danger within a regional safari zone comes from Philadelphia. A group of seven “teens” beat a 73-year-old man to death with a traffic cone.

A traffic cone.

PHILADELPHIA – Security video released Friday by Philadelphia police shows a group of teens fatally beating a man in his early 70s with a traffic cone.

In a statement, the Philadelphia Police Department said authorities were searching for seven teens seen in the video, which was recorded on the morning on June 24.  The victim, who was not identified in the statement and who police blurred in the video, fell to the ground after being struck with “objects,” the department said. He died the next day.

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President Trump Delivers Remarks from Las Vegas – 9:00pm ET Livestream

Sorry, I had no idea President Trump was delivering remarks today.  President Donald J Trump is speaking from Las Vegas and delivering remarks On America First Policies. Ongoing livestream links below.  However, they are having major technical issues:

Donald J Trump Rumble LivestreamRSBN Rumble Livestream Link

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Elon Musk Terminates Twitter Purchase Deal, Citing Material Breach of Agreement by Company Refusing to Provide Access to Data

Elon Musk has notified Twitter and the SEC [SEE LETTER HERE] that he is exercising his “right to terminate the merger agreement and abandon the transaction contemplated” due to the social media company not providing transparent access to background data that would allow authentication of “monetized daily active users” (mDAUs).

It appears that Twitter Inc did not want to reveal how Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop was able to sustain operations, at an extremely high cost, without making money.   That’s the essential source of the issue.

The social media company did not want anyone looking at the data stream inside the communication platform.   Musk was not allowed to authenticate the number of real users and identify the number of ‘spam’ or ‘bot’ accounts within the platform.

From the SEC Letter: […] ” Specifically, in the Merger Agreement, Twitter represented that no documents that Twitter filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission since January 1, 2022, included any “untrue statement of a material fact” (Section 4.6(a)). Twitter has repeatedly made statements in such filings regarding the portion of its mDAUs that are false or spam, including statements that: “We have performed an internal review of a sample of accounts and estimate that the average of false or spam accounts during the first quarter of 2022 represented fewer than 5% of our mDAU during the quarter,” and “After we determine an account is spam, malicious automation, or fake, we stop counting it in our mDAU, or other related metrics.”

Mr. Musk relied on this representation in the Merger Agreement (and Twitter’s numerous public statements regarding false and spam accounts in its publicly filed SEC documents) when agreeing to enter into the Merger Agreement. Mr. Musk has the right to seek rescission of the Merger Agreement in the event these material representations are determined to be false.

Although Twitter has not yet provided complete information to Mr. Musk that would enable him to do a complete and comprehensive review of spam and fake accounts on Twitter’s platform, he has been able to partially and preliminarily analyze the accuracy of Twitter’s disclosure regarding its mDAU. While this analysis remains ongoing, all indications suggest that several of Twitter’s public disclosures regarding its mDAUs are either false or materially misleading

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