CHANGE? Californians To Try To Kill High-Speed Rail Project By Referendum

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via hotair: The debates over repealing the gas tax and the floundering bullet train have a significant intersection. As the Times reports, state representatives have recently suggested that some funds from the new gas taxes may eventually need to go into funding the rail project. None of these proposals are sitting well with the groups who … Read more

Tons of Water Heading downstream in NC from the inland lakes….heads up, folks!

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RALEIGH, N.C. — With Hurricane floodwaters receding across much of eastern North Carolina, the Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday that more water will be released in the coming days from Falls Lake and Jordan Lake. Releases from the two lakes, which feed the Neuse and Cape Fear rivers, respectively, have been minimal since Florence swamped … Read more

Trump says China meddling in US midterm elections

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China is actually placing propaganda ads in the Des Moines Register and other papers, made to look like news. Trump said this China is actually placing propaganda ads in the Des Moines Register and other papers, made to look like news. That’s because we are beating them on Trade, opening markets, and the farmers will … Read more

What Will Surging Mortgage Rates Do to Housing Bubble 2? 5% Is Here, 6% Beckons As The Next Target.

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Wolf Richter wolfstreet.com, http://www.amazon.com/author/wolfrichter The average interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($453,100 or less) and a 20% down-payment jumped to 4.97% for the week ending September 21, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported this morning. A week ago, it was still at 4.88%. This is the highest average rate since the brief … Read more

Robert Kiyosaki & Tom Wright discuss how the biggest banking fraud ever unfolded in the years after 2008

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Rich Dad Radio Show, Released on 9/26/18 Wall Street supposedly cleaned up its act after the Great Recession. How then could the biggest banking fraud ever unfold in the years after 2008? Tom Wright, author of “Billion Dollar Whale,” joins Robert & Kim to discuss a bank fraud that resembles a Hollywood thriller, except it’s … Read more

The Everything Bubble: When Will It Finally Crash?

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by Brandon Smith Much like the laws of physics, there are certain laws of economics that remain constant no matter how much manipulation exists in the markets. Expansion inevitably leads to contraction, and that which goes up must eventually come down. Central banks understand this reality very well; they have spent over a century trying to … Read more

Real Wage Growth Is Actually Falling

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BY PATRICK WATSON The US economy is at “full employment,” says the official 3.9% unemployment rate. The problem is that fully employed people haven’t seen enough wage growth. It’s a puzzle. Wages used to rise faster when unemployment was this low. That’s why there was much celebration when the August jobs report showed a 2.8% annual increase … Read more

UPenn Wharton: “What Causes Financial Crises?”

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via knowledge.wharton: One of the great ironies of the 2008 financial crisis is that it was sparked by a product created from a historically safe investment asset: residential mortgages. In the past quarter century, delinquency rates of single-family home mortgages hovered below 3% for the most part except for the time around the Great Recession, according to the … Read more

Amazon makes first investment in a homebuilder, backing start-up focused on prefabricated houses

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Amazon said it’s funding homebuilding start-up Plant Prefab, marking its first investment in the space. Plant Prefab builds prefabricated, custom single- and multifamily homes. The investment follows Amazon’s launch of more than a dozen new smart home devices powered by Alexa. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/25/amazon-makes-its-first-investment-into-a-homebuilder.html   h/t NineteenEighty9

The U.S. Housing Market and Home Builders Are In Trouble — good data and chart showing 2018’s ugly housing sector. US Home Builders down most in a year since 2008.

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via palisade-research: Many of you know that I haven’t been exactly bullish on the U.S. housing market – especially the construction stocks. That’s why in early March I wrote about and recommended betting against the home builders (you can read that here and see how we structured it). I specifically made bets against KB Homes (Ticker: KBH) because they target first-time home buyers. And … Read more

Share buybacks and corporate bond redemptions are likely to slow considerably, the concentrated condition in the US equity market today is as amusing as it is disturbing…

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Corporate Buybacks + record insider sales, it just doesn't get more evident about management motives https://t.co/cTJKYbONtv — Sunchartist (@sunchartist) September 26, 2018 the boost that US repatriation provided to the US equity and bond markets via share buybacks and corporate bond redemptions are likely to slow considerably in the second half of the year vs. … Read more