Post Covid Economy, Taxes & Inflation (1 Viewer)

[Steve R.]

An interview by Laura Ingraham with Larry Kudlow on Biden's reaction to the jobs report became available.

Kudlow: There is not logic or facts to defend Biden's economy assertions | Fox News Video

'Kudlow' host joins 'The Ingraham Angle' to breakdown Biden's April jobs report comments

video.foxnews.com

 

[Steve R.]

Are we on the cusp of a looming economic disaster?
So far, my experience has been anecdotal. See the Walmart image of empty cat food shelves. (Of course one picture does not document a shortage, maybe the delivery truck never arrived?) Our cat is not yet starving, but I still can't buy my favorite scrubie for cleaning pots and pans!

Beyond the anecdotal there have been an increasing number of articles speaking to increasing inflation. As a random pick, I went to Trading Economics to pickup some commodity price trends. Below are the trends for lumber, wheat, corn. They are all moving-up. Eventually, this should have an inflationary effect on the consumer.



As an aside, Biden a couple of days ago made an absurd statement. Biden said there was no worker shortage, the problem with companies not being able to get workers is that they are, according to Biden, not paying enough in wages!!!! Biden neglected to mention that the workers are getting paid to stay at home through unemployment benefits, so why should they work?

 

[Isaac]

Who knew Wheat and Corn would be so similar. Thanks for posting Steve - interesting trends!

Biden is an idiot and a clown. My wife and I were just touring a new home (builder) community in the East Valley Phoenix suburbs last weekend. The market is so bad they are back to their old tricks, doing "lotteries" for new home builds. 3 people a month are "picked" to have a home built. They can't even sign a contract until 5 months afterwards, by which time the price is expected to rise by about $50,000--$60,000. What was a $325,000 home a year or two ago will now be a $525,000 home (mind you, these are in the area of 1,900 square feet--nothing special!)

They are so far behind in building. Part of it is of course the ridiculous amount of demand and explosive city growth. However, the guy said the reason they can't keep up to the same pace they could 1-3 years ago is a huge labor shortage. They can't find people to work! He has been working on these new build offices for different builders (Ryland, Ashton Woods, etc) for many years.

 

[Steve R.]

My sympathies on buying a new home, you will be paying more $$$$. See the first article below. This will also affect "used" homes in a manner similar to "used" cars, see second article below. Our new "challenge" here in North Carolina is a developing gas shortage resulting from the hacking of the Colonial Pipeline.
Somewhat amazing that CNBC would acknowledge the lumber price increases in such a manner as NBC is one of the propaganda arms of the Democratic Party. I guess there is hope that facts will be honestly reported.

Soaring lumber prices add $36,000 to the cost of a new home, and a fierce land grab is only making it worse

As the housing market gets leaner, potential buyers are turning in greater numbers than ever to new construction, but builder costs are soaring.

www.cnbc.com

Chip shortages have disrupted the market for used cars. That's good for buyers.

Used car prices have soared due to global chip shortages. That has led to reduced availability of new cars and increased trade-in values.

www.usatoday.com

However, the guy said the reason they can't keep up to the same pace they could 1-3 years ago is a huge labor shortage. They can't find people to work!

So you don't believe good old fatherly uncle Joe Biden, the savior of our country? According to Biden, there is no labor shortage, the companies are simply not paying enough in wages. Simple.

 

[Isaac]

Fortunately we don't really need a new home, we were just toying with different options - went to tour them for fun, but I just walked out at the end laughing. Half a million for that is ridiculous. My wife has a hobby of touring new homes that we are never going to buy and finds it fun.....I guess..

 

[AccessBlaster]

Fortunately we don't really need a new home, we were just toying with different options - went to tour them for fun, but I just walked out at the end laughing. Half a million for that is ridiculous. My wife has a hobby of touring new homes that we are never going to buy and finds it fun.....I guess..

Our friends who lived in CA moved to Litchfield AZ last year. They bought 2 homes next door to each other. One for them and for the daughter/ grand kids. BTW they are not rich.

 

[Isaac]

Our friends who lived in CA moved to Litchfield AZ last year. They bought 2 homes next door to each other. One for them and for the daughter/ grand kids. BTW they are not rich.

That is awesome! Litchfield/litchfield park is way over on the west side, where I don't venture, but I respect it--it's done a much better job of developing affordable, new, beautiful neighborhoods than the east valley, which has steadily become too stuck up for its own good and no longer affordable - too much, too fast. Plus, they're almost an hour closer to san diego than I am, that much easier on the weekends

If I didn't have so many attachments to the east suburbs (chandler mesa gilbert tempe etc), those area suburbs would be my top choice, even NW to Peoria/Surprise.

 

[Pat Hartman]

I was thinking about moving to a "free" state but the prices in Florida have gone through the roof. My brother put our step-mother's house on the market and immediately got full price offers and also one cash offer for $11,000 over asking. Last year, he would have had trouble selling the house for $250,000. This week he's getting $360,000!!!!!!

 

[Isaac]

I was thinking about moving to a "free" state but the prices in Florida have gone through the roof. My brother put our step-mother's house on the market and immediately got full price offers and also one cash offer for $11,000 over asking. Last year, he would have had trouble selling the house for $250,000. This week he's getting $360,000!!!!!!

That's crazy! I believe it though, this is how TX/FL/AZ have gotten. Big perspective, I guess it's all just a cycle, a bit silly, as the years go by, some place is seen as attractive/cheap/free......popularity rises......then after a while it necessarily loses that reputation in favor of the 'next' place.

Our house has gone up 32% in value in just under 2 years. I don't like it - it's ridiculous; how will my children afford homes??
If I had knowingly moved to a place where real estate had a reputation for being unaffordable to all but highly paid professionals, I'd blame myself, but who would have put Arizona in that category a few short years ago? The answer is they can move further out of the city to the 'new' outskirts, but it makes for an ugly commute!

 

[Pat Hartman]

Feels like the housing boom before the bust again. At some point, prices get too high and you loose your buyer pool. Also, we'll be seeing much higher mortgage rates and that is another downward pressure on prices.

My Dad's house is in North Port which is a nothing residential town on the east coast. They also own three more lots making a block to block square. He wanted to give me one to encourage me to move down there a few years ago when I lost my husband. In retrospect, I probably should have done it but there was no bridge club in the town and that made it a non-starter

 

[Steve R.]

Feels like the housing boom before the bust again. At some point, prices get too high and you loose your buyer pool. Also, we'll be seeing much higher mortgage rates and that is another downward pressure on prices.

The stock market is having a "melt-up". What goes up, goes down - in theory. Been waiting for that "correction". Speculation is that the stimulus $$$$ Biden is throwing at the consumer is going into the stock market and not into buying consumer goods. The wait continues for the bubble to burst.

... but there was no bridge club in the town and that made it a non-starter

The senior center shutdown our bridge playing in March 2020. Still not allowing it. The governor is keeping stuff shutdown. Nevertheless, the public is basically ignoring the mask mandates as of now.

 

[Pat Hartman]

It always makes my stomach churn when I see my net worth changing by thousands of dollars at a time. up or down in big chunks doesn't matter. Both are nauseating.

I've been playing on line for the past year. I only played on line occasionally before. I spend way too much time in front of a computer so I much prefer being with people. BBO (Bridge Base Online) is free for general play. They only charge if you want to play in events that award ACBL master points.

The local clubs have been sending out questionnaires in anticipation of CT relaxing some rules. My response has been.

I will NOT play in person if I am required to wear a mask.
I will NOT play in person if the club requires a vaccination. What happened to my body, my choice or do we only care about that when we are killing babies? If the vaccine protects YOU from getting covid, why force ME to get vaccinated??????

To be clear, I did get vaccinated. I'm old enough to be in a danger group but I am also dead set against my granddaughters taking the vaccine. It is not sufficiently tested to take the risk if you want to have children at some point in the future. It takes YEARS of trials before something like this would be deemed safe for women of child bearing age. The mother of one of my best friends was a thalimide baby. How quickly we forget. People who are not in danger of dying if they contract the disease should never be forced to take a vaccine under any conditions.

 

[AccessBlaster]

how will my children afford homes??

How will they afford lunch the price of food is going through the roof

 

[Steve R.]

We first learned of the Colonial Pipeline getting hacked on Sunday. Not much happened on Monday. Today, a Tuesday, the effects (gas shortages) from the pipeline shutdown news was the nonstop news. Tucker, in the video clip below discussed this as part of his monologue on Biden wrecking the economy. From my perspective, while Tucker is mostly correct in analyzing the situation, he has gone a bit overboard and taken a more conspiracy orientated viewpoint then I would have.

Tucker: Biden's making a mess of US economy | Fox News Video

'Tucker Carlson Tonight' host examines rising gas and commodity prices and the mainstream media's coverage

video.foxnews.com

 

[Steve R.]

 

[Steve R.]

Given the Colonial Pipeline shutdown resulting from hacking, will the Biden administration finally re-examine its decision to shutdown the Keystone Pipeline? That may never happen since the Democratic Party is run by ideologues who don't comprise with reality. Kerry also admitted today that pipelines are environmentally superior to other forms of hydrocarbon transportation.

Biden's energy sec says 'pipe is best way' to transport fuel, sparks backlash regarding Keystone XL pipeline

At a Tuesday press conference, Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Jennifer Granholm was asked by a reporter about the "feasibility of using rail cars" to transport fuel across the country as the nation faces a gas shortage from a Russian cyber attack.

www.foxnews.com

John Kerry Believes Pipelines Are More Efficient, Contradicting the Biden Admin

During an appearance in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday, John Kerry said pipelines are better than the alternates.

www.breitbart.com

 

[AccessBlaster]

The left is heavily invested in electric vehicles not because they care about the earth, no because it's good for their portfolios.

The energy secretary has come under fire since taking her position after it was revealed that she still held a multimillion-dollar stake in Proterra, an electric vehicle company that President Biden toured last month.

Even Bernie has a summer house or two.

“And like thousands of other Vermonters, I do have a summer camp,” Sanders said, referring to the $575,000 lakefront home in North Hero he purchased in 2016. “Forgive me for that.”

So is Sanders right? Do thousands of Vermonters own summer camps?

 

[Pat Hartman]

Duh!!! Only the ideologs thought pipelines should be banned in the first place.

In my perfect world, there would be no stupid people. How can we eliminate stupidity from the world?