Screwball

The banksters always win. Remember, even when the stock market takes a ****, they make money by shorting it, and make even more money of others doing the same. 

As far as the cap thing goes. Price controls are never a good thing when you go back through history. A guy who was a regular in the investment board 3 boards ago, lived in Detroit, guy named Rhino, posted a really good article about price controls and how that kind of stuff worked throughout history. I have hunted for that article since and can't find it. 

They don't work. Not to get political here, but both sides have advocated for it (I have proof). At the end of the day it's all about feeding the credit/ponzi financial system we are all a prisoner of (maybe not all). I don't know how they can wave a magic wand and cap rates, but if they can and do, the swine bankers also have the option of not giving credit. Some may say it ain't the banks it would be the CC companies, true, but at the end of the day we are talking about credit and balance sheets and it all goes through the banks - especially the 21 (not sure how many now) broker-dealers of Wall Street. Those who run our world.

I guess it all boils down to what you think is good or bad when it comes to the issuance of credit. Interest compounds. Exponents are a bitch.

ON EDIT: building on what Del said; they will just find another way to **** us, and their obedient servants in CONgress will gladly hide that in the next bill and nobody will ever know. 

22 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Trump admin against the Banksters should be lots of fireworks.

I'm guessing not. The banksters run the world, these ****wads are just the front men BSing the gullible population. If there is any fireworks it's all for show. Go back and watch the hearings when congress brought in the swine bankers after they blew up the financial system back in 09. It's all a show. People should have went to jail - or worse - they let them off like the worthless pukes paid off pukes they are. All on the same side. Everything else is theater. 

Trump is the perfect Al Czervik (Rodney Dangerfield of Caddyshack fame) for the con. No better distraction than a polarizing reality show creation like him. These people are laughing at us. 

7 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

Some stats

Fact Check: Do private equity firms own 20% of single family homes?

 

Good stuff.

I've been here for 26 years, paid off long ago. Small place for the old decrepit crank that lives here since kids are on their own, so it's as cheap as possible to live in, and maintain. I have no idea what it might take to buy a house today. I can see the interest rates, but how much down, how many years, whatever the deal might be today? No clue. 

I'm also glad I don't have to deal with that decision. 

Even here in Cornhole there is a footprint of PE (or someone like Blackrock (BLK)) buying homes and turning them into rentals. Not only here but many other places. It helps drive the price of rent up because it takes homes (and priced?) off the market. People here are paying over a grand a month for a 2 bed, one bath, and lucky if you have a garage. 

At the same time, I have watched homes around me sell for more money I ever dreamed possible, and it didn't take long for them to sell. I sure as hell wouldn't have paid what they did, given the house and rates at those times. One across from me has sold 4 times in the last 10-12 years. These were not big money.

Not sure they were smart money.

I taught for 6 years in a little state college in Ohio. I had sports people. Get out of jail free cards. Easier than those with disabilities.

We weren't big enough for football, but had many of the others. I had a guy I called the soccer player. He was there day one when I explained how it all works. Then I didn't see much of him. Maybe a class every couple of weeks, but he would send me an email telling me he had a soccer game the day of class. You needed to be in my class, or it gets bad. I spent extra time with him when he could be there to get him though. I should have flunked him, but I didn't.

The next semester when I walked into class on day one, my soccer player was sitting there. What are you doing here? They told me I flunked this class. No, you didn't. Really? Can you fix this? Of course, you may go. How the **** don't you know if you passed a class or not?

No NIL money involved. I can only image what happens with this much money. Or, doesn't happen. Nothing new really. It's all about $$$$.

11 hours ago, Deleterious said:

Seems like one of those feel good things that doesn't actually do anything.  

 

I don't follow the sector that close but BLK (Blackrock) stock took a beating the other day due to this IIRR. I think the big institutional companies buying real estate hurts the housing market and the people. I'm surprised how many are in Cornhole are owned by large corps or PE.

11 hours ago, Deleterious said:

🤔

 

That's probably a good thing. 🙂 And don't tell them about the levered ETFs either. You need balls of steel to mess with those things. What's not to like; you can go broke 3X quicker. 🙂

1 hour ago, Deleterious said:

So we are getting between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil from Venezuela?  We use 20 million barrels a day.  What's the point.  

So someone can make money?

Its always about money. There is a lot of irony in all this. Politically, especially given the imperialist nature of the USA going back the the PNAC clan, which spelled out world domination by military force if need be. What was it, Gulf war, ticker symbol HAL. Haliburton and the Cheney gang, originals of the PNAC world pillage operation. The goal was to control the resources. Black gold - Texas tea - Carlyle Group - Bush. Funny how this **** works.

The stock market is at all time highs (or close). What's not to like? Probably a lot not to like if you live in the real world which is everyone reading this and a ****load more.

It has always been about energy and other raw materials, but growth doesn't happen without energy. Who owns it, controls it, or steals it. This is what we do, but that doesn't mean we are too smart.

Energy needs? For who? And how? The amount of energy we consume, where does it come from, and who uses it?

When you think about it; the added demand from the newest thing, data centers, and as talked about up thread, the crypto mining that eats energy, our thirst is expanding at quite a rate. Check you next electric bill for proof. We are nowhere close to filling the void without petroleum derivatives anytime soon. 

Even if there was a plan for all the reserves in VZ to be extracted, transported, processed, and pumped into the gas tanks of our car, it would take years and billions of dollars. And when was the last time something didn't turn into a giant boondoggle? 

This is still why we need to steal the oil. Been the plan for a long time (see PNAC). This is also why they hate Trump, he's stupid enough to say it out loud. 

For every unit of growth you need a unit of energy. The problem lies in how much it costs to get it, no matter the flavor. EROEI. Energy Returned On Energy Invested. With the price of crude around 60 bucks no drill is about to hit anything. We produce more domestically and will for some time, but that game is also price sensitive, and they have sucked (fracked) the wells like a 30 year old cow. Once they start depleting, they go quick, that is happening.

The Permian Is Drowning in Its Own Wastewater - OilPrice.com

At the end of the day, and maybe the most important question; this would take years to develop if it even worked out. We are talking 300 billion barrels of crude (estimated reserves) here, so that's a lot of money to be a part of. But, who the **** in their right mind would commit billions in investments with unknown global stability over the course of the development? And I don't care what ****wads are in power.

TL:DR - there is no doubt a trade here.

2 hours ago, chasfh said:

Some of us are going to be escorted off the ride sooner than later, whether we want it or not. 😏

Here, beat the rush;

That was a wild game. One miss was for a point, and the other was for 3, but they both looked good off the foot..

Pit won't win a game in the playoffs and then hopefully Rodgers goes away. This also might have saved Tomlin's ass. Coming from a Steelers fan, and I'm guessing he's (Rodgers) not real popular in Lion country either. 

I agree.

I fought with OSHAA about how many tickets we could get for the parents and relatives who wanted to go watch a tournament game and not pay. They were like dealing with the mafia. And baseball was nothing like the revenue generators like BB and FB. I can only imagine...

Not so fast Kemosabie, as I typed that we have new action, more chart porn;

The big green candle on the right is at exactly 7:00 pm. Don't know what that means, but interesting...

As of a few minutes ago after the futures opened, crude is what you might call, a little uneventful. It took a **** at open, but has since recovered the dip, and is trading like a penny stock. We'll see what it looks like in the morning when retail gets involved, not that I think they can move the market, but the pigmen can. Based on sentiment... No, stop! Chart porn of crude, one minute tick.

4 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

IOW, total chaos. No adults anywhere to be seen in the mangement of college sports.

I have no clue because I don't follow it very close. I never liked college football, but I did basketball. I think they have already ruined BB. Then again, the money and shenanigans have always been there. Ohio OSHAA just voted in NIL money for high schools. Oh, goody!

I guess its more out in the open now. Ohio, football, Moeller, if you were familiar with big time Ohio football back in the day. I was a coach in division 4 baseball and was not at all impressed with the OSHAA. It's all crooked, but what ain't?

I won't provide a link because it's to Facebook and Draft Kings and I don't want to link, or even pick on those places, but here's what they are saying;

31.5% of all college football players are in the transfer portal

The portal has been open for less than 48 hours already

I'll be watching the futures on crude at 5 when they open. Disclosure; I have a long position in crude oil. 

Couple of links of interest:

Oil Markets Brace for Supply Squeeze After U.S. Captures Nicolás Maduro - Oilprice. com

Maduro overthrow in oil-rich Venezuela unlikely to shake energy markets in the near term - Bubblevison

I'm not posting this as political fodder for those who make it all political. This is the investment angle of what went on the other day. Good thread about the oil and looks pretty accurate best I can tell as I follow the energy space when I'm not in bonds.

It's what we do.

Bonus;

"This is the place" - I don't think so.

I spent a month one week in Salt Lake City.

1 hour ago, pfife said:

Its a 24% tax that began on the new year.   Some pot groups have sued but so far unsuccessfully.    Their claim is that the tax is a change to the citizen passed proposition, and the legislature doesnt have that power.    Still being litigated from last I heard.

As I read it, the tax is on the supplier to the retailer. The retailer would then decide how much of their raised cost they would pass along to the customer. IOW, I don't "think" this is a direct tax on the retail customer.

1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said:

and why is he wearing a sheer dress shirt?

Because he is giddy he makes so much money feeding the gullible a bunch of BS on a nightly bases. He probably jokes with the makeup artists how big of a stud he is. Balls ain't his thing. Rare commodity today.

Why would anyone give one good **** about who is on the news? Why would anyone watch that **** to begin with?

LOL! The ****ing world has went bat**** crazy. Where do you get off this ride?

Don't know where to put this because could fit here or in general stuff, but it could get political so I will go here.

From an Ohio guy who has been going to the pot Mecca of Monroe Michigan for probably 3 years. About an hour and 15 minutes if I avoid the nationally known speed trap of Woodville, Ohio, and use my Easy Pass to get on the pike at Rt. 51 and go North on 280 through Toledo.

Been to probably 10 places around there. I get stuff for people here since I'm retired and have time. Sunday at one place has 15% off for seniors, so I have been the designated senior. 🙂 Helping a few cancer victims as well. Glad to help. Ohio rips you off, which is where I'm going with this.

As of the new year, Michigan added more tax starting yesterday I think. Ohio, on the other hand, went recreational a year ago but have failed miserably to figure out what the hell to to. Way over priced here, so everyone still goes to Michigan. The parking lots in Monroe are full of Ohio plates. We drive around and look. The budtenders tell me the same thing.

An OZ in Monroe that is $100 (minus all the taxes) is $220 here. We voted to legalize this and the Ohio body just passed new laws to limit where some products can and can't be sold. For example, to limit sales at gas stations and retail stores. This seems to about CBD type products, but I'm not sure. There is also a bunch of stupid rules about how it needs to be transported and contained. You can't take a gummy in public, and any product you take with you needs to be out of reach from the driver of the car. Giggle. OK.

They also made it illegal for us Ohio people to bring back stuff from Michigan. Best I can tell, it was already illegal, as a federal law. OK. Looks like the Ohio people are trying to protect the revenue here, but people wouldn't go to Michigan if they had there **** together here. Duh!

It looks like the new tax in Michigan is only on the producers who sell to the retailers? The retailers can either eat the increase in tax, or pass some or all it onto the consumer? What's the word on the streets up Michigan way? What should we expect going forward?

On the Silver trade;

Don't really know the guy above but that caught my eye. From CNBC:

Gold, silver prices fall after CME raises precious metals margins — again

Silver get smacked around a bit this week.