Despite the open borders where millions of low wage workers and parasites pour across into the US, we still see 1-unit housing starts plunged -7.4% YoY in June as The Fed continues tightening.
Multifamily starts actually fell worse than 1 unit starts. 5+ unit starts were down -11.56% MoM. Multfamily permits were down -13.52%.
And it just isn’t little girls that Biden is creepy about (like the family member we all keep our kids away from), Biden is creepy towards adult women too! These guys, like most normal people, aren’t digging Old Joe’s creepiness.
Yes, one of the cornerstones of Bidenomics is the massive expansion of (impractical) electric vehicles (or EVs). You know, those mondo expensive cars that run out of power after a couple of hundred miles requiring a lengthy recharge (kind of makes long distance trips the domain of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) cars.
But as Biden/Congress spent trillions on green energy (massive subsidies for anything green), we noticed that 1) inflation hit 40 year highs and 2) The Fed intervened to raise rates. So, now we see that 60-month auto loan rates are now around 7.36%, up 74.4% under “Middle Class Joe.”
And we see used EV prices collapsing like a week-old soufflé.
Speaking of green energy fraud, here is the leader of the green energy fraud movement, John F’ing Kerry. Aka, Heinz Planes Grifter.
Bidenomics relied of massive Federal spending thanks to Covid and massive monetary expansion. This led to the highest inflation in 40 years (Bidenflation). But now The Fed is slowing M2 Money growth into negative territory and hiking their target rate.
The result? Bank credit growth has crashed to 0.5% YoY. In other words, banks are no longer expanding credit for the first time since the aftermanth of The Great Recession and Financial Crisis of 2008/2009. Of course, Washington DC bailed out their bestest buddies, the banks, while middle America suffered.
As America loses steam under Biden and The Fed, 41+ countries have signed on to the BRICs gold-backed reserve currency. Unlike the USA with its fiat currency (backed by Babbling Biden and Janet “The Midget Marxist” Yellen), this reserve currency will be backed by gold.
The US has passed the 32 trillion mark in national debt, and is going much, much higher. More like 32 tons on the back of taxpayers. When we add unfunded liabilities like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the tab soars to $224.5 TRILLION.
In the first six months of 2023, there were 340 corporate bankruptcies, topping every other comparable span in 13 years, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. This is up 93 percent from the same time a year ago and higher than in 2020, when there was a spike during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
There were 54 recorded corporate bankruptcy filings in June, unchanged from the 54 bankruptcies in May. Last month, some of the most notable companies to submit filings were Lordstown Motors, Rockport Co., Instant Brands Acquisition Holdings, and iMedia Brands.
“Lordstown Motors Corp. filed for bankruptcy June 27, with plans to restructure its business and seek a buyer, according to a company release. The electric vehicle manufacturer’s assets include its Endurance pickup truck and related resources,” S&P noted in the July 6 report.
“Instant Brands Acquisition Holdings Inc. also sought bankruptcy protection June 12. The tightening of credit terms and higher interest rates had impacted the company’s liquidity levels, according to an official release. The company has also already secured $132.5 million from existing lenders and plans to continue discussions with its financial stakeholders.”
Year-to-date through June, 15 companies with more than $1 billion in liabilities filed for bankruptcy, such as Cyxtera Technologies, Diebold Holding, Bed Bath & Beyond, Diamond Sports Group., and Party City.
Epiq Bankruptcy, a U.S. bankruptcy filing data provider, confirmed that 2,973 total commercial Chapter 11 bankruptcies were filed in the first half of 2023, up 68 percent from the same period in 2022.
Higher Interest Rates Impacting Businesses
Banking experts purport that higher interest rates are the leading cause of the increase in corporate bankruptcies. Many businesses either maintain vast debt loans that will require refinancing or need more liquidity to stay afloat.
“The increase in commercial and individual bankruptcy filings during the first half of 2023 underscores the economic challenges faced by businesses and individuals,” said Mr. Gregg Morin, Vice President of Business Development and Revenue at Epiq Bankruptcy, in the report. “Our objective is to provide bankruptcy professionals with timely and accurate data necessary for analyzing stakeholder volumes and trends for making informed business decisions.”
The situation could be exacerbated should the Federal Reserve pull the trigger on two more rate hikes this year. The futures market is penciling in a quarter-point boost to the benchmark fed funds rate at this month’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) policy meeting.
Meanwhile, according to a recent Fitch Ratings report, the corporate default rate is projected to climb to as high as 4.5 percent in 2023, up from the previous forecast low of 2.5 percent. The updated projections reflected “the tighter lending conditions and capital access resulting from stress in the banking sector and inflation uncertainty.”
However, some argue that corporate bond market indicators are “less ominous.”
“The interest rate differentials, or spreads, between the 10-year U.S. Treasury note and investment grade (IG) and high yield (HY) corporate bonds continue to hover within their average width over the past 25 years, a bond market signal indicating the likelihood of a less severe recession, with traders pricing in fewer corporate defaults,” wrote John Lynch, the CIO at Comerica Wealth Management, in a research note.
Economists contend that the worst corporate bankruptcies typically occur one or two years into a recession. Today, they are happening before the official start of an economic downturn as the U.S. economy is still expanding.
What’s happening?
“Simple,” says Mr. Pete St. Onge, a Heritage Foundation economist, “banks aren’t lending.”
“Banks are battening down the hatches, hogging their bailout money instead of lending it out,” he said in a recent podcast. “That credit crunch means not only do we get bankruptcies like in any recession, on top of that, we get a lending wall that cuts off even the healthy businesses. Of course, their jobs go down with them.”
Since the Federal Reserve launched the Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP) following the Silicon Valley Bank collapse in March, financial institutions have kept tapping into these emergency lending facilities. After hitting a record high at above $103 billion at the end of June, it remains elevated at $102 billion.
32.5 trillion in debt and $192 trillion in unfunded liabilities which means a total of $224.5 total debt + liabilities.
This is Bidenomics. Spend trillions, borrow trillions, promise entitlements. Rinse, repeat.
Auto loan rates are now up to 7.65%, a gut-wrenching 166% increase under Bidenomics.
Average monthly payments also reached a new record of $733. That compares with $730 in the first quarter and $678 in the second quarter of 2022. Buyers were financed with an average APR of around 7.1%, the highest since the fourth quarter of 2007.
2 out of every 3 consumers who agreed to a $1,000+ monthly payment in Q2 signed up for an average APR between 8.5% and 9.6%. (via Edmunds).
As for buyers who took on $1,000 monthly auto payments, about 65% of them had an average loan-term range of 67 months and 84 months, their average APR rate was between 8.5% and 9.6%.
Bidenomics. Crushing the soul of America’s middle class and low wage workers.
I love how the most secure building in Washington DC with cameras 24/7 EVERYWHERE and the Secret Service claims they don’t know who left the cocaine on a table. I will bet they pin the blame on VP Kamala Harris as an excuse to replace her word salads for the 2024 Presidential election.
Joe Biden, or “Blow Biden” after the cocaine was discovered in the White House the other day, owns the abysmal mortgage and housing market thanks to The Fed fighting inflation caused by Bidenomics (massive Federal spending and massive Fed stimulus).
Mortgage applications decreased 4.4 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending June 30, 2023. Last week’s results included an adjustment for the Juneteenth holiday.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 4.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 6 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index decreased 4 percent from the previous week and was 30 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 5 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 6 percent compared with the previous week and was 22 percent lower than the same week one year ago.
Here is the rest on the story:
As liquidity dries up under Bidenomics. Or Yellenomics. Take your pick!
Seriously, can The Biden Administration get any more embarrassing? Or dangerous to American civil liberties?
As Powell and The Gang raise interest rates, the more the economy is … slip slidin’ away. US Manufacturers New Orders YoY in May declined -1.0% for the first time since Covid.
The Federal Home Loan Bank system (aka, FLUBs), a relic of FDR and The Great Depression, subsidizes banks, not individuals. Much like its twin sibling, The Federal Reserve system, it is a Socialist institution that rely of manipulation rather than free markets.
The first sign of deep trouble in US banking this year came from a sunbaked office complex in a San Diego suburb. There, a small firm called Silvergate Capital Corp. assured investors it was weathering a run on deposits. Its lifeline: about $4.3 billion from a Federal Home Loan Bank.
Heads turned across the financial industry.
Silvergate didn’t have a network of branches serving consumers, and it barely offered mortgages. It specialized in moving dollars for cryptocurrency ventures.
Soon it became apparent that a roster of troubled regional banks was leaning on FHLBs — a relic of the Great Depression originally aimed at ensuring financial firms have cash to lend to homebuyers. Yet the banks had little to do with everyday mortgage lending.
Silicon Valley Bank, catering to venture capitalists and tech startups, said it held $15 billion from an FHLB at the end of 2022. Signature Bank, with clients including crypto platforms, had $11 billion. And by April, First Republic Bank, offering mortgages to millionaires on unusually sweet terms, ended up with more than $28 billion. All four banks collapsed.
For many, that was a crystallizing moment for the 90-year-old Federal Home Loan Bank system, which has ballooned to more than $1.5 trillion while playing a growing role as a backstop for banks taking all kinds of risks — and a diminishing role in funding new mortgages. That’s raising questions about the purpose of FHLBs and why the private institutions enjoy so much government support.
As Milton Friedman once said, “Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.”
Of course, rate increases are crushing regional banks as well as the middle class. But as M2 Money growth crashes, home price growth is slowing into negative territory.
Happy 4th of July! Enjoy those burgers and hot dogs, at least until you consider that food prices have risen a staggering 49% under Biden’s Reign of Economic Error.
The only good news is that The Fed’s monetary stimulus growth is slowing. But don’t worry! Biden and Congress will keep introduce massive spending bills to avert a recession. Which will cause downline inflation.
Confounded Interest - Anthony B. Sanders 
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