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According to ATTOM, of the 1,624 counties that had at least 2,500 homes with mortgages in Q2 of 2022, 49 of the top 50 equity-rich locations were in the Northeast, South and West.

Counties with the highest share of equity-rich properties were Dukes County (Martha's Vineyard), MA (83.2 percent equity-rich); Chittenden County (Burlington), VT (82.3 percent); Gillespie County, TX (west of Austin) (79.4 percent); Nantucket County, MA (78.6 percent) and Travis County (Austin), TX (78.6 percent).

Meanwhile, counties with the smallest share of equity-rich homes in Q2 of 2022 included Geary County (Junction City), KS (7 percent equity rich); Vernon Parish, LA (northwest of Lafayette) (9.7 percent); Cumberland County (Fayetteville), NC (12 percent); Acadia Parish, LA (outside Lafayette) (13.2 percent) and Greenup County, KY (14 percent).

At the same time, just 2.9 percent of mortgaged homes were considered “seriously...

Authored by Jazz Shaw via HotAir (emphasis ours),

Tucked away in the hilariously-named “Inflation Reduction Act” that Joe Manchin has been working on with Chuck Schumer is one significant bit of spending that has been mostly flying under the radar. The measure would fund a massive expansion of the Internal Revenue Service to the tune of eighty billion dollars. And we’re not using the word “massive” in a hyperbolic fashion here. This money would go toward hiring an additional 87,000 employees for the detested agency, more than doubling the size of its workforce.

This weekend saw four more ships carrying grain and sunflower oil depart Ukraine ports through the UN-brokered safe maritime corridor in the Black Sea, overseen by a joint coordination center in Istanbul staffed by Ukrainian, Russian, Turkish and UN officials.

This as the Razoni cargo ship which was the first to depart Odesa carrying 27,000 tonnes of corn last week, is making its way to the Lebanese port of Tripoli, though not on time. The latest series of ships departed the ports of Odesa and Chornomorsk on Sunday, and their sailing has given rise to greater hopes of export stability, BBC reports, as millions in Ukraine-grain dependent countries are facing famine conditions. 

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Less bearish

Investor intelligence survey has bounced rather violently during the latest squeeze. Overall, levels remain relatively low, but it is the "delta" that matters.

On Wednesday, protesters flooded People’s Park in Berkeley, California, chanting, “Housing is a human right, fight, fight, fight!” The reason the crowd was protesting? The University of California, Berkeley, was set to begin construction on a student housing project, which would not only house 1,100 Berkeley students at below-market rates, but also provide subsidized apartments for 125 homeless people. And the protesters want to stop this project.

According to the Associated Press, protesters threw rocks, bottles, and glass at construction workers. They also removed several sections of the chain-link fence surrounding the park. On Wednesday, the university announced that it would pause construction of the park, citing protester violence.

“All construction personnel were withdrawn out of concern for their safety,” Dan Mogulof, UC’s assistant vice chancellor, said in a statement to NBC News. “The campus will, in the days ahead,...

As Statista's Katharina Buchholz details below, in seven states, governors or courts have officially halted executions. While governor-imposed moratoriums are in place in Oregon, California and Pennsylvania, judges have halted executions in Nevada, Montana, Tennessee and South Carolina, mostly in response to controversy around new drugs used in executions by injection. In the case of South Carolina, the state even reauthorized the use of the electric chair and the firing squad in response to growing scrutiny by pharmaceutical companies and the public around how execution drugs are sourced and used. The change has now being challenged in court while executions are on hold.

Since 2011, the EU has severely restricted exports of the key component of U.S. drug cocktails for executions. In 2016, Pfizer was the last FDA-approved pharmaceutical company to stop selling its drugs for use in the death penalty. As a result, states started to use alternative drugs and...

The very wealthy Leona Helmsley was once famously quoted as allegedly saying, ‘We don’t pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes.’ Now we have a repeat offender in Congress who may have studied Helmsley’s philosophy at some point. The Free Beacon has discovered that Pennsylvania Democratic Congressman Matthew Cartwright is once again in trouble for being delinquent on his property taxes. Cartwright and his wife share a condo in Washington and tax records indicate that they owed penalties and interest from 2021 due to being late in paying their taxes. As a Democrat who has repeatedly voted in favor of tax increases, that probably sends a rather poor message to the working-class voters of his district who have to avoid the wrath of a constantly growing army of IRS agents. With the midterms only a few months away and the country in the middle of a recession and skyrocketing prices for just about everything, people may have taxes on their minds when they go to the polls.

The most widely circulated physical newspaper is the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) by a long shot - sending out almost 700,000 copies a day. But it is important to note that this number is an 11% decrease since 2021.

The 60-second campaign ad for the embattled reelection campaign of U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) was posted on YouTube Aug 4. As of press time, it had just over 259,000 views.

“In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Dick Cheney, 81, says while wearing a white cowboy hat in a close-up camera shot. Cheney served as vice president alongside Republican President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009.

“He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him,” Dick Cheney said.

“He is a coward. A real man wouldn’t lie to his supporters. He lost his election and he lost big. I know it, he knows it, and deep down, I think most Republicans know it.”

Cheney said he was “so proud of Liz for standing up for the truth, doing what’s right, honoring her oath to the Constitution when so many in our party are too scared to do...

They'll never admit to it openly, but getting woke makes companies broke.  Hollywood has been overtly progressive for decades, but this is nothing compared to the social justice invasion since 2016.  After around five years of an unprecedented leftist onslaught on the entertainment industry we are finally starting to see the rampage lose oxygen.  There's a weakness within woke productions that the alternative media has been pointing out for a long time – They don't make a profit because they are designed to appease a minority of leftist zennials that don't have any money.  This is the wrong crowd to rely on for cash flow.     

It is fair to say that the entertainment industry was partially conned.  First, there are those tantalizing ESG loans that can be easily had as long a company loudly declares their fealty to the social justice agenda.  Then, of course, there is the fact that many corporate CEOs and marketing people track...

Sterling Carter, who worked for Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) at the time, was spotted on Nov. 14, 2020, wearing a black shirt with “Federal Agent” emblazoned across the front and back, and equipped with a full police duty belt that contained handcuffs, a pistol, two magazines, and a radio with an earpiece, according to an affidavit filed by U.S. authorities in District of Columbia court.

When officers approached Carter to figure out his identity, he pointed to a badge on his belt and said that he was with the FBI. When asked for his credentials, Carter said he did not have them on him, and hopped in his vehicle and sped away despite being ordered to stop.

The officers were unable to chase the man down.

Officers and agents with the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Capitol Police, the FBI, and the Metropolitan Police Department launched a joint effort to figure out the identity of the man, and eventually confirmed him as Carter through contact with the seller of...

During six months of war in Ukraine there have been some instances of Russian satellite states providing "volunteer" forces - with Chechens being a foremost reported group of foreign fighters said to be in Ukraine. But Russian state media recently presented the biggest offer of foreign troops yet, reportedly from an unlikely "pariah" nation also long at odds with the United States.

North Korea has said it is willing to send 100,000 "volunteer" troops to help Vladimir Putin execute the ongoing war in Ukraine, Business Insider has reported, citing Channel One Russia. Russian military pundit Igor Korotchenko made the claim to the state broadcaster, saying further that the DPRK military could provide a "wealth of experience with counter-battery warfare."

Oil prices have tumbled 25% since early June, driven by low trading liquidity and a mounting wall of worries: recession, China's zero-COVID policy and real estate sector collapse, the US SPR release, and Russian production recovering well above expectations.

The package includes provisions to address climate change, pharmaceutical costs, and a supercharged IRS.

"It’s been a long, tough and winding road, but at last, at last we have arrived," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). "The Senate is making history. I am confident the Inflation Reduction Act will endure as one of the defining legislative measures of the 21st century."

As the Washington Post notes, "Senators engaged in a round-the-clock marathon of voting that began Saturday and stretched late into Sunday afternoon. Democrats swatted down some three dozen Republican amendments designed to torpedo the legislation. Confronting unanimous GOP opposition, Democratic unity in the 50-50 chamber held, keeping the party on track for a morale-boosting victory three months from elections when congressional control is at stake."

*  *  *

Senate Democrats late on Aug. 6 advanced a mammoth spending bill on climate and energy, health care, and...

“We’re not in a recession right now. We do have these two-quarters of negative GDP growth. To some extent, a recession is in the eyes of the beholder. With all the job growth in the first half of the year, it’s hard to say there’s a recession. With a flat unemployment rate at 3.6 percent, it’s hard to say there’s a recession,” stated James Bullard, St. Louis Federal Reserve president.

Central banks and mainstream economists were entirely wrong about the narrative that inflation is "transitory," but after more than a year of raging inflation to four-decade highs, there are signs that current price spikes are waning. 

One of those price declines is the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) index of world food declined by 8.6% to 140.9 points in July, marking the fourth consecutive month of declines since hitting an all-time high in March. However, the international price of a basket of commonly-traded food commodities is still 13.1% higher than in July 2021. 

As shown below, the UN food index recorded the largest monthly decline since the summer of 2008. 

You will never see a “Make China Great Again” hat because China has always been about making China great. Whatever illusions we have had to the contrary are continually getting chipped away and nothing about the events of this past week gives me comfort on the longer-term trajectory of how we will conduct business with China. Hopefully I’m overly pessimistic, but at the moment, it seems like many of Academy’s views on the direction that China is heading continue to play out in real time. No similar Russian hats either, as every day is Make Russia Great Again, at least in Putin’s eyes and via state media. Also, I think that given what we’ve seen with India buying Russian commodities, Brazil signing up for Russian diesel, and various other countries aligning themselves to trade with parties most beneficial to themselves (and their people/their leaders), we won’t see hats like this from other countries. There was a lot wrong with how the Make America Great Again theme was...

Before we get into the UN's latest salvo in the war over narratives (feel free to scroll down if you're a regular reader); We know from government contracts, FOIA records, and leaked emails that the US government was conducting risky gain-of-function research on US soil until former President Obama banned it in 2014 over ethical questions raised by the scientific community. The 'research' included manipulating bat Covid to be more transmissible to humans, and following Obama's ban, was funneled overseas to the Wuhan Institute of Virology through New York nonprofit, EcoHealth Alliance - whose CEO Peter Daszak secured lucrative contracts to study and manipulate bat coronaviruses in Wuhan China four months before Obama's ban.

Daszak was the guy behind The Lancet's "it couldn't have come from a lab" Natural Origin statement - for which he reportedly engaged in a "bullying campaign" - before generating significant controversy over conflicts of interest involving many of its...

Much like the tragic figures of Greek mythology, China has a long and storied history of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Its ruling class, in particular, has always had an insatiable appetite for self-flagellation. Banning bitcoin is just the final chapter of this sad and destructive story.

Blessed with an abundance of natural resources, a massive population and full access to the South and East China Sea along its 9,000-mile coastline, China was perfectly set up to be the empire of all ages.

And for almost 2,000 years it dominated the region.

Long before the English and Spanish, China built entire fleets of treasure ships capable of traversing the far corners of the earth — capable of even reaching the New World, centuries before Columbus took sail.

Had things been different, America could well have been subject to the emperor instead of the king, and Mandarin would be the world’s predominant language, not English.

But this was not...

It's been an interesting confluence of developments for Tesla to end last week's trading. While most market participants were focused on the company's upcoming 3-for-1 split, two other pieces of news dropped that may wind up having a material impact for investors. 

Yes, Tesla longs, even more of a material impact than dividing up the share structure in a different way! Tough to believe, we know...

Regardless, the California Department of Motor Vehicles is now joining the fray against Elon Musk, this week accusing the automaker of misleading customers "with advertising language on its website describing its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving technologies as more capable than they actually are," the LA Times reported. 

By Michael Wilson, chief US equity strategist at Morgan Stanley

It would be hard to find a more maligned group than the Fed over the past year. Even the Fed itself admitted its transient call on inflation was wrong. In an effort to regain credibility, it has swiftly pivoted to its most hawkish policy action in a generation. While our fire and ice narrative assumed the Fed would have to be aggressive in 2022, we never expected to see a hiking cycle this severe. Kudos to Jay Powell and the Fed for taking such quick action after admitting their mistake. Suffice it to say, their efforts didn’t go unnoticed by markets, with both stocks and bonds having their worst start to a year in decades.

However, since peaking in June, long-dated Treasuries have had one of their strongest two-month rallies on record. Meanwhile, the yield curve has inverted by as much as 44bp. Perhaps most importantly, market-based inflation expectations have fallen sharply and now sit much closer to...

"There is a disturbing trend going on in America these days," Maher began, adding that people are "rewriting science to fit ideology to just fit what you want reality to be."

Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance

Last week I released a joint podcast effort with my dear friends over at Palisades Gold Radio, one of my favorite podcasts.

I had a conversation with Tom Bodrovics, the show's host. Tom is a private investor from western Canada with a background in oil and gas. In 2014 he identified the top of the housing cycle and sold his home to invest in the junior resource sector. He gained a libertarian and contrarian perspective in 2013 when he attended an entrepreneurship course in Europe and has been studying markets of all types ever since. He operates a successful business servicing the oil and gas sector in Alberta and is the host of Palisades Radio.

Reuters has described a high-seas "cat and mouse" between Chinese and Taiwan warships which are shadowing each other at a moment China is scheduled to end its military drills surrounding the self-ruled island. The four days of unprecedented drills was slammed by Taipei as simulating an invasion, and saw the People's Liberation Army (PLA) soon after Nancy Pelosi's departure fire eleven ballistic missiles near Taiwan - some of which reportedly flew over the island.

"About 10 warships each from China and Taiwan sailed at close quarters in the Taiwan Strait, with some Chinese vessels crossing the median line, an unofficial buffer separating the two sides, according to a person with knowledge of the matter," Reuters observes of Sunday tensions.

Below, we look at these recessionary forces and delusional policy makers in the context of blunt-speak rather than Fed-speak so that we can best prepare for what’s already felt but rarely spoken from on high.