KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: It’s 1776 — Do You Know Where Your Normie Neighbors Are? “Today, some Americans, who we will call our ‘normie neighbors,’ are afraid to speak out against massive shoplifting gangs lest they be called ‘racist.’ Our normie neighbors dutifully bent their knees and raised their sleeves for a BS shot because they didn’t want to be called ‘granny killers’ They are afraid to say, ‘No, that dude in a dress isn’t a woman.'”
Kevin Downey Jr is filling in for Kruiser today.
CHRISTIAN TOTO: Media Downplay Oliver Anthony’s Overnight Success. “The far-Left outlet bemoans that Anthony lacks a sizable paper trail, all but saying the reporter dug for any dirt possible but came up empty.”
Related: Record debt and inflation from the ‘Rich Men North of Richmond.’
According to the Treasury Department, for the first time ever, spending on interest on the debt not only surpassed military spending in July but tied the cost of our health care leviathan! At $67 billion, the cost of servicing our debt was eclipsed only by Social Security and education (because of student loans) and was 20% costlier than national defense. Put another way, more than 50% of all tax revenue collected from all payroll taxes of all U.S. workers went toward interest on the debt. Headed forward, assuming interest rates aren’t forced up even higher, we will pay an annualized rate of $1 trillion in interest on the debt of government programs and functions that shouldn’t exist even if they were free.
I wrote about that part two weeks ago, but here’s what it means for the not-so-rich folks south of Richmond, and most other places outside the Beltway:
Average mortgage rates are now close to $7.5%, the highest since 2000. However, housing prices are much higher than ever before. The median home price is now 560% of median household income. Even during the record 2008 housing bubble, it was only 360% of income. Homeowners are now spending a record 40% of their gross income on mortgages, aside from record-high down payments. The average mortgage is now over $2,800 – up from $1,427 in 2021 – before we get to the high levels of real estate taxes on inflated prices. This has created such a shortage of people willing to sell homes that even older homes now cost the same as new homes for the first time.
And:
In total, the annual expenses of a family of four have now outpaced the median male income by over $12,000 a year. In 1985, the median family of four on one income would net a surplus of $5,450.
The memes almost make themselves.
Bidenomics, it’s working!
IF THEY DON’T HURRY, THEY WON’T BE THE LAST TO LEAVE: Historic SF Luxury Department Store May Close its Doors Over City Squalor.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY:
The housing market affordability index is now ~10% BELOW the 2006 lows.
This is officially the least affordable housing market in US history.
Mortgage rates in many states are approaching 8% and the median house now costs 560% of the median income.
In 2008, the median home… pic.twitter.com/43hdgbTZCs
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) August 16, 2023
Plus this: “US population is up about 12% since 2006, but the percentage of renter occupied housing units is up 28% since 2006. It would make sense given the lack of affordability that renter occupied housing would continue to grow faster than the population does.”
You’ll own nothing, sit in the dark, and eat the bugs.
NOTHING IS EVER WHAT HE SAYS IT IS: Gavin Newsom Opened His Newspeak Dictionary and Found the Goodthink for ‘Gun Control.’ “California Gov. Gavin Newsom remains determined to ride gun control all the way to the White House in 2028 — or (shhh!) in 2024 — but the problem is that he can’t call it that.”
SCIENCE IS NEVER SETTLED: Skull found in China points to an unknown human species. “In some respects, the skull looked very similar to modern humans, particularly the facial structure. But other aspects of the skull seem to significantly diverge. Chief among these differences is the distinct lack of a chin, a trait this hominid may have shared with the Denisovans, a cousin of humanity that branched off evolutionarily from the rest hundreds of thousands of years ago.”
GROOMING A FALL GUY: Disney Already Knows Who to Blame for Its Next Massive Flop.
COME SEE THE VIOLENCE INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM: U. Chicago report: 30 million Americans believe violence justified to keep Trump from presidency.
BIDENOMICS: Despite Rebound, US Industrial Production Remains Lower Year-Over-Year.
Since government spending is counted as GDP, Biden’s massive spending hikes help provide a nice-looking headline number for economic growth. The situation on the ground tells a different story.
RESTORING DECENCY TO GOVERNMENT: The Biden Administration Brags About Leaving Americans Behind in Afghanistan.
ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Is It Time to Ban Electric Vehicles?
The New York Fire Department recently reported that so far this year there have been 108 lithium-ion battery fires in New York City, which have injured 66 people and killed 13. According to FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh, “There is not a small amount of fire, it (the vehicle) literally explodes.” The resulting fire is “very difficult to extinguish and so it is particularly dangerous.”
Last year there were more than 200 fires from batteries from e-bikes, EVs, and other devices.
…
Now let’s be honest: 13 deaths in a city the size of New York with some 8 million people is hardly an epidemic. Regulations should always be based on a cost versus benefit calculation, or there would be no cars at all.And yet the same scaremongers on the left who have zero tolerance and want bans for small risks when it comes to everything from swimming pool diving boards, gas stoves, plastic straws, vaping, fireworks, and so on, have a surprisingly high pain threshold when it comes to people dying or suffering critical injured from “green” electric battery fires.
How many ICE engines spontaneously blew up in that same timeframe?
BIDEN CRIME FAMILY UPDATE: Trump Pledges to Appoint Special Counsel to Go After ‘Manchurian Candidate’ Biden.
OUR GERONTOCRACY: Katherine Feinstein alleges Sen. Dianne Feinstein is victim of elder abuse in filings. “The filing, submitted Aug. 8, partially confirmed what had previously been reported by other outlets: that Katherine Feinstein, a former San Francisco County Superior Court judge and current San Francisco fire commissioner, has limited power of attorney over her mother, which the senator signed over to her on July 23, 2023. The recent court filing notes that this entitles Katherine to make legal decisions for her mother in certain civil-related matters.”
VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR WEEKLY INSANITY WRAP [VIP]: Meet Billy Joel, Florida Man. “Billy Joel, one of Long Island’s most famous residents, has apparently departed for Florida. That’s the big crazy on today’s Insanity Wrap — an entire week’s worth of nuttiness wrapped up in one easy-to-swallow medicated news capsule.”
Plus:
So much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.
THIS ISN’T NORMAL OR SUSTAINABLE: Biden Budget Deficits Look Like Those Normally Seen In Recessions.
To hear President Joe Biden tell it, the US economy is booming. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is running monthly budget deficits that you would normally see during a deep recession.
With two months left to go, the deficit for fiscal 2023 now stands at $1.61 trillion, after the federal government charted another massive shortfall in July.
And Biden wants to spend even more.To put the $1.61 trillion deficit in perspective, prior to the pandemic, the US government had only run deficits over $1 trillion four times — all in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Trump almost hit the $1 trillion mark in 2019 and was on pace to run a trillion-dollar deficit prior to the pandemic. The economic catastrophe caused by the government’s response to COVID-19 gave policymakers an excuse to spend with no questions asked. Now the Biden administration has settled into the new status quo – running ’08 financial crisis-like deficits every single year.
The July budget deficit came in at $220.78 billion, according to the latest Monthly Treasury Statement. The shortfall was due to a double whammy of big spending and falling government tax receipts.
Well, get used to that.
Lord Jim O’Neill, a former Goldman Sachs economist who first gave the BRICS bloc its name, has slammed the idea of the five nations ever collaborating to create a common currency.
The group — which comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — has been calling for ways to end the dollar’s dominance as the world’s premier reserve currency, and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has called for a common trading note between them.
But O’Neill, who coined the bloc’s name in a 2001 research paper, is unconvinced.
“It’s just ridiculous,” he told the Financial Times in an interview on Monday. “They’re going to create a BRICS central bank? How would you do that? It’s embarrassing almost.”
Five countries with reputations even worse than modern Washington’s don’t add up to a single reputable country.
WANTED? REALLY? Wanted: Single Male, No Smokers, Must Have Climate Anxiety.
HOW TO FAIL AT BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING: ‘Shark Tank’ star to teach business students about Dylan Mulvaney, Bud Light’s collapsed sales.
On Jul 31, Canadian investor and “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary, also known as “Mr. Wonderful,” announced plans to teach about the “unprecedented” boycott of Bud Light to college students nationwide this fall.
“This is an extraordinary case that I’ll be teaching in business schools across America this fall,” O’Leary said in an interview with Fox News.
“To lose 25% market share has never been achieved, and it’s impossible to even dream it,” O’Leary Fox News, mentioning that some of the largest previous moves in the beer market range between 1-5%.
He emphasized that beer is essentially the same product, and what sets it apart is the power of its brand. In April 2023, Bud Light partnered with controversial transgender influencer, Dylan Mulvaney.
“You have to ask yourself: ‘on a campaign that really brings you into a discussion around gender identity, is that the right thing for my beer brand?’” O’Leary said,.referring to Mulvaney’s “365 Days of Girlhood” Tiktok video series, which initially propelled him into the spotlight.
O’Leary won’t be the last. Business schools will be teaching this for years as the counterpoint to how Johnson & Johnson dealt with the Tylenol poisoning murders of 1982.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Evil Teachers’ Unions Have Completed Their Chicago Flex. “This wasn’t the biggest news story yesterday, but it does offer a good snapshot of the state of leftist politics in the United States of America at present. It’s also not about Hunter Biden, so our streak continues.”
YOUR OCCASIONAL REMINDER THAT COMMIES LIE ABOUT ANYTHING AND CONCEAL WHAT THEY CAN’T GET AWAY WITH LYING ABOUT:
As China announces that it will no longer be publishing youth unemployment data (because the rate is very high lol), a reminder that they have been steadily publishing fewer and fewer economic indicators in recent years as the data has become less rosy https://t.co/tdMDWhPeOA pic.twitter.com/ZuE6p6ZZAP
— John Burn-Murdoch (@jburnmurdoch) August 15, 2023
Xi wants Communist controls and capitalist returns. I guess we’ll see if he can pull it off but the indicators are mostly bad.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Fitch warns it may be forced to downgrade dozens of banks, including JPMorgan Chase. “The credit rating firms relied upon by bond investors have roiled markets lately with their actions. Last week, Moody’s downgraded 10 small and midsized banks and warned that cuts could come for another 17 lenders, including larger institutions like Truist and U.S. Bank. Earlier this month, Fitch downgraded the U.S. long-term credit rating because of political dysfunction and growing debt loads, a move that was derided by business leaders including JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon.”
Apparently Dimon doesn’t have much room to talk.
InstaPundit is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.