But you can never leave…
Ottawa Citizen- Ottawa is well on its way to becoming a 15-minute city
Housing Bust
As Ron Butler informs us in a recent commentary on X, the Toronto condominium market is looking a little shaky these days.
Here are the highlights:
Call yesterday about a $920K Pre-Con Condo purchase…
20% deposit & the Buyers instinct is to walk away. Value of that $920K purchase today at BEST $800K at worst $725K but FALLING…
What they really wanted was to walk away from the Pre-Con Purchase because even if they went ahead & closed on the unit they estimate they would lose $1500 month on what rent they could get versus their monthly costs…
The Developer would sue & would win & also win “Costs”. These Buyers would pay a chunk of the Developer’s legal fees…
These are calls happening all over the GTA daily….
Unroll here.
Vibecession? What Vibecession?
Unless you regard net worth as equivalent to income, you’re probably questioning this headline a bit. Not to worry, though. When the Bank of Canada is done slashing rates all the way back to zero, asset and real estate prices can get on an even steeper trajectory.
Canadians’ collective household wealth climbed to $17.3 trillion in the third quarter, marking the seventh increase in the last eight quarters — a period during which household net worth ballooned by nearly $1.9 trillion, according to Statistics Canada.
The most recent RBC housing affordability report indicated the typical family would have to devote about 60 per cent of their pre-tax income to afford homeownership today, compared with the 44 per cent quarterly average recorded in 2019.
The Great Toronto Condo Crash
Toronto [Pre-Construction] Condos became wildly miss priced 6 years ago
And no one cared
People just kept on buying with a ridiculously false belief rents would increase massively & mortgage rates would be 2.49% forever
Buyers would snap up Pre-Con Condos at $1250 per sqft when Re-Sale Condos across the street were offered at $825 per sqft
WTF? It made no sense
It did not. And now the sense is remaking.
“Politically Exposed Person”
Marc Andreessen: If you’d like to learn more about the Biden administration debanking disfavored people and companies…
More about that here in the Nov.27 Joe Rogan interview with Andreessen, but watch it all when you get time.
Circling The Drain
More evidence that the marginal consumer is tapped out. Combine that with ruinously expensive EV mandates and you’ve got a perfect storm that can take down a longstanding auto manufacturer.
A new report suggests that the automaker’s days are numbered. In an interview with the Financial Times, two unnamed Nissan executives said the company has “12 to 14 months to survive.” “This is going to be tough. And in the end, we need Japan and the US to be generating cash,” they said.
Slow sales in the US and Japan prompted Nissan to cut more than 9,000 jobs earlier this month, while simultaneously slashing production by nearly 20 percent. Nissan’s operating profit dropped 85 percent in the third quarter, with the company earning a net loss of ¥9.3 billion ($60.1 million at today’s exchange rate).
Y2Kyoto: Grüner Neuer Deal
Recently announced jobs cuts in Germany. This is just the top of the iceberg. Also each job eliminated at a large company triggers job cuts at various suppliers.
As none of Germany‘s structural issues is being addressed, more job cuts still to come. pic.twitter.com/x6X5xbsTyE
— Michael A. Arouet (@MichaelAArouet) November 25, 2024
Indiana AG Opens “Human Labor Trafficking” Probe At Tyson
One week after our viral “Dear Border Czar: This Nonprofit Boasts A List Of 400 Companies That Employ Migrants” note revealed the Tent Partnership for Refugees, an open border aligned nonprofit, funded by a Turkish billionaire who was a mega supporter of Kamala Harris, funneled migrants into factories via a complex network of settlement agencies, staffing agencies, and other nonprofits…
… Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita released a statement Wednseday, indicating his office has sent a civil investigative demand (CID) to Tyson Foods’ meat factory in Logansport, Indiana, seeking information about human labor trafficking.[…]
What’s very clear is that migrants did not aimlessly walk across Biden-Harris’ wide-open southern border and then find instant job placements that displaced and replaced blue-collar native-born workers. There is a massive NGO network, internationally and domestically, that channels unvetted migrants from foreign lands into US factories.
Related: HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra cannot answer why he placed unaccompanied children with sponsors whose address was a strip club.
Off Target
Target obviously didn’t get the memo: the marginal consumer is tapped out.
Target severely missed earnings expectations on Wednesday, spooking investors who are now sending the retailer’s stock price toward its worst daily drop in over two years and its third-worst day in the stock market ever.
The company’s share price tanked 21% on Wednesday morning after it reported a sales decline, lower profit, and a stockpile of unsold inventory.
In The Dark, Cold and Hungry
National Post- Trudeau to Canada — starve your kids for climate change
I’m Not Eating Bugs
London Free Press- London cricket plant cuts two-thirds of workforce amid cash-flow crunch
Aspire Foods announced the jobs cuts Wednesday. About 50 workers remain at the plant in southeast London that opened in 2022 and received $8.5 million in federal government funding.
“It has been challenging. The company was ramping up but it became clear we needed to improve yields and we did not have cost structure” to improve production while keeping workers on site, he said.
“The mechanical systems were challenged, they were overloaded harvesting. We had crickets everywhere.”
Great Success!
Blacklock’s- Owe $1.76 For Each $1 Earned
Household debt in Canada is nearly $3 trillion, more than the value of all economic production nationwide, Statistics Canada said yesterday. The cost of credit fees and charges alone was costing billions, a StatsCan analyst told the Commons industry committee.
“By 2024, in August, household debt had reached nearly $3 trillion though the relative debt level slightly decreased to $1.76 for every dollar of disposable income reflecting higher income growth,” said Withington.
Diversity Is Our Strength
Immigration Minister Marc Miller’s department in an internal report admits it took no steps to determine if foreign workers took Canadian jobs or kept wages low. “Impacts are not monitored,” said the report: “The program is less aligned with commitments to consider Canadian workers first.”
Canada needs mass immigration because a growing population is essential for a healthy economy. (link fixed!)
They Vote Republican, Don’t They?
Lockland is a town of 3,400 residents.
3,000+ migrants from Mauritania were imported to the town in the past year.
Now town resources are collapsing. pic.twitter.com/PyVyNRQBKx
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 27, 2024
Fortunately for their cats, Mauritanians are Muslim.
War On Meat
By 2050, Britain will be a Muslim nation, so good luck with that, buddy.
Britain must cut its meat and dairy consumption by up to 50pc to meet the latest net zero targets, the Government’s climate watchdog has said.
The Climate Change Committee said in an ideal scenario, meat and dairy consumption should halve by 2050 and products be substituted with plant-based options.
The proposals are part of new net zero targets that have been recommended to Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary.
In a letter to Mr Miliband, the committee said the Government must cut CO2 emissions by 81pc by 2035 when compared to the benchmark year of 1990. This would amount to a reduction of 200m tonnes from the current level of 384m tonnes.
Piers Forster, the CCC’s chairman, said persuading British consumers to change their diets would play a key role in achieving such massive cuts.
Mr Forster did not specify how the UK could reduce meat eating but options could include reducing subsidies for livestock, taxing meat products and a clampdown by regulators on advertising.
A Not So Fine Dining Experience
During the pandemic, the dictators assured us that restaurant closures would not be an issue, since the economy would easily “recover” afterwards. Add in the recent hikes in minimum wages and it comes as no surprise that the marginal consumer has evidently reached a very different conclusion.
Late last week, anonymous sources told Bloomberg that TGI Fridays was preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and was in talks with lenders who could possible keep the company afloat in the meantime.
In related news, Denny’s is scaling back its operations in accordance with the declining fortunes of its customers.
Denny’s is closing 150 restaurants over the next year, and the 71-year-old diner chain is mulling a major change to its 24/7 operating hours.
Fifty locations are set to close by the end of 2024, while the remaining 100 will shutter in 2025, Denny’s announced in an earnings call Tuesday.
Hardware Headaches
With the marginal consumer now cutting back in sharp contrast to the heady days of the pandemic spending spree, we’re likely to see more of this in the future.
True Value, the hardware retailer based in Chicago, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and agreed to sell itself for $153 million to Do it Best Corp., the home improvement company based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, according to court filings.
Housing Problems
Micheal Gayed of the Lead-Lag Report interviews Canada’s foremost real estate expert Ron Butler in a recent podcast. Well worth the listen as it covers all the main points about Canadian real estate. In a nutshell, the Canadian housing market might be where the US was in 2008, or maybe even worse.
Juan Valdez Will Be Looking For Work
This will go great with a bowl full of bugs first thing in the morning.
Psy.org- Scientists release the recipe for lab-grown coffee to accelerate creation of new coffee ecosystem
I’m Not Eating Bugs
Sun- Is Bill C-293 Canada’s ‘Vegan Act’?
Under this bill, public health officials could have the authority to close facilities they consider “high risk,” such as meatpacking plants, during pandemics and even “mandate” the consumption of vegetable proteins by Canadians — measures that border on the absurd. It’s hardly surprising that the private member who introduced Bill C-293 is Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, who is known for his vegan lifestyle.