US National Debt Hits $32 Trillion, up $572 billion since Debt Ceiling Suspended. TGA Starts Refilling, Drains Liquidity from Markets.
Debt doesn’t matter. Until it does. And now it does
“Unrealized Losses” on Bonds Held by Banks, Oh Dearie, the Whole Schmear: +8%, to $558 Billion.
How do you lose 47% on 30-year T-Bonds? Buy at auction in Aug 2020. Or you can carry them at purchase price and hide the “unrealized loss” in the footnotes
After Blowing $43 Bn on Share-Buybacks in 6 Years, Boeing Scrambles to Borrow $10 Bn, on Top of the $9.5 Bn Credit Line in Oct, to Fund Surging Costs of its 737 MAX Fiasco: Having become a master of financial engineering instead of aircraft engineering
Fed’s Balance Sheet Plunges by $101 Billion in Two Weeks, as QT Continues and Bank Liquidity Support Begins to Unwind.
The dream of a return to QE was fun while it lasted.
Housing Bubble Getting Ready to Pop: Pending Sales Plunge in June, Homes Listed for Sale Jump, Price Reductions Spike amid Holy-Moly Mortgage Rates.
Pent-up supply suddenly shows up – those vacant homes no one was counting as vacant.
The Incredibly Ballooning US Government Debt Spikes by $1 Trillion in 15 Weeks to $34 Trillion.
Interest payments threatening to eat up half the tax receipts may be the only disciplinary force left to deal with Congress
Congrats, America🥂We Made it! Government Debt Spikes past $33 Trillion: +$1.6 Trillion since Debt Ceiling, +$2.2 Trillion from Year Ago.
Trillions whooshing by so fast they’re hard to see.
Over the past 12 months, the US gross national debt, fired up by a stupendous spending binge, soared by a breath-taking $1.36 trillion. So who bought this $1.36 trillion in new debt?
Fed Reports Operating Loss of $114 billion for 2023, as Interest Expense Blows Out.
On top of whatever unrealized losses (cumulative $1.3 trillion at end of Q3) from its securities holdings. But losses don’t matter to the Fed
Toronto’s House Price Bubble Not Fun Anymore: Average price of single-family house plunges 13%, or by C$160,000 from peak. Sales of homes priced over C$1.5 million collapse by 63%. Condos still hanging on.
The End of Easy Money: Bankruptcy Filings Pile Up at Fastest Rate since 2010.
A cleansing process, long overdue, to whittle down the corporate debt overhang and clear out deadwood, at the expense of investors
Housing Bubble Getting Ready to Pop: Unsold Inventory of New Houses Spikes by Most Ever, to Highest since 2008, with 9 Months’ Supply, Sales Collapse at Prices below $400k.
Stocks of homebuilders swoon amid worst inflation in construction costs
I’m in Awe of How Fast the Housing Markets in Sydney & Melbourne Are Coming Unglued. Nov-Jan was the largest three-months fall “since at least the 80’s”; “Can we still describe this as an orderly slowdown in housing conditions?” CoreLogic
That was Fast: Mortgage Rates Re-Spike to 7% Range as it Sinks in that the Fed Won’t Cut Rates “Anytime Soon,” Mortgage Applications Plunge to 1995 Levels. Even Investors Pull Out.
Spring selling season was a dud. But what comes next may be worse
Intel to Get $23 Billion in Government Grants & Loans Plus $25 Bn Investment Tax Credits, to Invest $100 Bn in the US, after Wasting $94 Bn on Share Buybacks
Massive handouts to the richest companies to put semiconductor production on US soil
Prices of New Houses Drop Below Prices of “Used” Houses for First Time since 2005. Sales Languish, Inventories Sky-High.
Builders have to build and sell homes, no matter what the market conditions. More price cuts may be needed to get this moving
US National Debt Passed $23 Trillion, Jumped $1.3 Trillion in 12 Months. Lightning speed: From $22 trillion to $23 trillion in 8 months. Debt out the wazoo
The Collapse of the Health Insurance CPI (How it Became Chickenshit).
The BLS now tweaked the methodology after letting it go haywire for two years. This fiasco should be a career-ender for the top of the BLS.
Tweaked version, see green circle
Wholesale Price Inflation in Germany Totally Blows Out, Highest in the Data Going Back to 1962.
The ECB is still recklessly delusional.
OK, here's one of the scary charts
US National Debt Spiked by $851 billion in One Month, to $32.3 Trillion. Flood of New Debt Coming in Q3 to Refill TGA, Pay for Raging Deficits.
For first time, Fed’s QT and refilling government’s checking account pull liquidity from the markets together
Home Sales Plunge, Supply Rises, Prices Drop Year-over-Year Most since 2012. Even Investors Pull Back.
Even All-Cash sales plunge 22% as investors don’t feel like overpaying either. The 2023 version of spring selling season is here
Subprime Auto-Loan Delinquencies, Loan Deferrals & Stimulus Curdle into Curious Phenomenon.
In the bizarre machinery of an economy that depends on consumer spending funded by stimulus and “extend and pretend.”
The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in America: Holy Cow, September Update.
Even the Fed is getting antsy about this raging mania house-price inflation. Housing Bubble 1 is starting to look cute in comparison.
Global Steel Production in 2022 Fell Most since 2009, Unwound Stimulus Spike of 2021. China’s Production Fell for 2nd Year.
China still produced more than the rest of the world combined, 12 times more than the US
Home Prices Drop Year-over-Year by Most since 2011, as Investors Pull Back, amid Dismal Sales and Rising Supply.
June (next month’s data) will be the final leg of spring selling season. Then things skid downhill till early 2024
CPI Just Got Revised Higher for October through December. The Revisions Take a Bite out of “Disinflation” Hoopla.
Released Friday afternoon, the annual revisions by the BLS went in the wrong direction.
I, Who Hates Shorting, Just Shorted the Entire Stock Market. Here’s Why. For your entertainment so you can hail me as the obliterating moron that shorted the greatest stock market rally floating weightlessly above the worst economic & corporate crisis
The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in America, March Update: Biggest Monthly Price Drops Now in Las Vegas, San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix, Dallas, Denver.
Double-digit drops from peak in San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas
QT at the Bank of Canada: Assets Down 24% from Peak. Spiraling Losses on Bonds, to Be Paid for by Canadians.
The BoC’s QT started much earlier and is way ahead of the Fed’s QT
Never Before Have I Seen So Much Fake Unemployment & Jobs Data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the Labor Department Nails it. What’s happening is infuriating. Read and cringe
10-Year Yield Hits 4.40% as Bond Market Begins to Adjust to Higher Forever: Higher Rates and Higher Inflation.
Suddenly lots of talk the 10-year yield will revisit 5%, which is funny just a few months after Rate-Cut Mania
Housing Bubble Getting Ready to Pop: Mortgage Applications to Purchase a Home Drop to Lockdown Lows, “Bad Time to Buy” Hits Record amid Sky-High Prices, Spiking Mortgage Rates.
Refinance applications collapsed to lowest since year 2000
The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in Canada: December Update on a Housing Bust.
The ridiculous spikes, fueled by the Bank of Canada’s interest rate repression and QE, unwind metro by metro, some lightning fast, others more leisurely
Natural Gas Futures in Europe Plunge 77% from Crazy Spike.
Record supply of LNG from the US and other sources. Record supply from Norway via pipeline. Conservation, power production shift. Adds up
Natural Gas Futures in Europe Plunge 77% from Crazy Spike
Rent Inflation Re-Accelerates to Red-Hot, All Three Now Agree: Zillow Asking Rents, What Big Landlords Said, and Actual Rents Tracked by CPI.
Debacle on the Inflation Front: The Fed’s victory lap about having licked rent inflation was premature.
Suddenly Here Comes the Inventory: Homes Listed for Sale Jump amid Price Reductions and Sagging Sales.
The shadow inventory emerges with perfect timing, just as holy-moly mortgage rates and sky-high prices keep buyers away
Sales of New Houses Collapse (in the West by 50%!) Inventories & Supply Spike to High Heaven, Worst since Peak of Housing Bust 1.
Forget “housing shortage.” It’s about crazy prices: For sales to revive at these mortgage rates, prices must come down a lot
Housing Bust
#2
Has Begun.
Some markets are already deep into it, others just started. A sobering trip from the free-money decade in la-la-land, back to normal.
SVB Financial had Investment-Grade Credit Ratings (Moody’s, S&P) up to Collapse. Got Slashed in One Fell Swoop to Default
Not learned a thing since Financial Crisis. Relying on ratings, holders of preferreds found themselves bailed in, bondholders crushed
Facing Crappiest Recovery Ever, Airlines Demand New $25-Billion Bailout, for $50 Billion Total, after Having Burned $45 Billion on Share Buybacks.
Coddled investors, not taxpayers, should step up to the plate and fund the “daily cash burn”
Update on the Housing Bust in Vancouver, Canada: Market for houses freezes up. Prices drop for all types of homes. Higher end hit hardest with house price down as much as 35% from peak.
Subprime Bites: Serious Auto-Loan Delinquencies Spike to Q3 2009 Level, Despite Strongest Labor Market in Years. These are the good times. But what’ll happen to banks and automakers when the cycle turns?
Here Comes the Housing Inventory as Sales Plunge: Active Listings Explode in Tampa, Orlando, Denver, San Diego, Jacksonville, Miami. Surge in other Metros.
Listing prices flat YoY, below June 2022. Mortgages still 7%. Prices too high. Something has to give
Fed Tightening Reduces Horrendous Wealth Disparity that QE and Interest Rate Repression Have Wrought: Fed Data.
The vast wealth of the top 1% households declined, the minuscule “wealth” of the bottom 50% increased a tad
The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in America, November Update: Deflating Everywhere, Fastest in San Francisco & Seattle. Phoenix & Dallas Roll Over Too.
In several markets, prices plunged even faster than they’d spiked
Home Sales Collapse, Prices Drop Further, Supply Jumps. People Are Finally on Buyers’ Strike.
Supply is coming back, demand is not. Prices are still way too high
Housing Bubble Getting Ready to Pop: Traffic of Prospective Buyers of New Houses Plunges, Homebuilders Cut Prices, Sentiment Dives.
Homebuilder stocks have been wobbling lower all year, now down between 24% and 40%
Fed Loaned $160 Billion to Banks and $142 billion to FDIC. But QT-Related Roll-off Continued.
At around 4.75%, plus collateral, these are expensive loans for banks.
San Francisco Bay Area Housing Market Crashes, Prices Plunge 35% from Crazy Peak: Where’s Demand Supposed to Come From?
In the first 10 months of Housing Bust 2 (now), median price plunged a lot faster than in first 10 months of Housing Bust 1 (2007-11)
Entire Housing Market, Buyers & Sellers, May Have Shrunk by 20-25% because of the 3% Mortgages.
They’re not listing their homes because they’re not moving out because they’re not buying a new home because they don’t want to give up the 3% gift from God
The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in America, April Update: Year-over-Year Price Drops Worsen in San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego, Portland, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Denver.
Even Miami lost ground. Spring selling season is a dud so far
Mall and Hotel Loans Are Blowing up Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities: CMBS delinquency rates for retail properties spiked to 18% and for hotel properties to 24%.
Crypto-Mania Collapse Update: Cryptocurrencies & tokens are multiplying like rabbits; there are now nearly 2,000 of them. Of the seven biggest, six have plunged by 78% to 92%. $638 Billion Gone. Pretty soon you're talking real money, so to speak
For 7 Months, “Core” CPI Hasn’t Improved at All, Stuck at 2.5x Fed Target. Services CPI Accelerates, Rents Not Playing Along, Used Vehicle CPI Spikes. But Energy Plunged.
Powell has been talking about this. Energy cannot plunge forever
I’m in Awe of How Fast Rents Plunge in San Francisco, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Other Expensive Cities. Rents Decline Even in Houston & Dallas. National Average Turns Negative.
That Was Fast: 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate Spikes to 6.18%, 10-Year Treasury Yield to 3.43%. Home Sellers Face New Reality.
Something has to give. And it’s going to be price.
Our Drunken Sailors Now Guzzling Directly from Punch Bowl: Powell, You Looking? Splurging Online, at Restaurants & Auto Dealers. YOLO
Consumers still on a buying binge at retailers, fired up by big income gains that outran goods-inflation by a wide margin
China Imposes New Capital Controls, Targets Foreign Real Estate Purchases, as Yuan Falls to 11-Year Low: “Wiring money overseas is not allowed for the purposes of purchasing real estate or insurance products”: banker in China
Fed Balance Sheet QT: -$1.1 Trillion from Peak, to $7.87 Trillion, Lowest since May 2021.
Fed shed 26.5% of Treasuries it had added during pandemic QE.
Here is the close-up view:
Brick & Mortar Retail Meltdown in Stunning Manhattan Style, Years Before & Now During the Pandemic.
Store rents had already plunged, amid surging vacancies. Then in spring, market froze; when it thawed, rents dropped to 10-year lows. 13 charts by corridor
The Fed Stopped Buying MBS Today.
The purpose of MBS purchases was to repress mortgage rates and inflate home prices. That process has started to reverse.
Wow, that was fast and huge: Junk-rated Netflix Borrows $1.9 Bn, Most Ever, in “Drive-By” Bond Issue, to Burn $3-$4 Bn in 2018 and Report a Loss to the IRS, as Debt Soars to $8.4 billion. This junk-bond market is in peak-bubble mode.
The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in America, December Update: Now Dallas, Las Vegas, Phoenix Plunge Fastest. San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego Down Most from Peak.
No dear, this is not seasonal
CRE Nightmare for CMBS Holders: Office Mortgage Delinquency Rate Has Biggest Six-Month Spike Ever. It’s just the Beginning.
And it’s structural. Variable-rate CRE mortgages and much higher rates just speed up the process.
The Holy-Cow Moment for Subprime Auto Loans: Serious delinquencies blow out. But it’s Even Worse Than it Looks. And this time, there is no jobs crisis. This time, it’s the result of greed by subprime lenders
Liquidity in New York City’s Housing Market Dries Up: 52% of the homes listed for sale last spring still have not sold. For sellers, “the situation calls for a clear strategy: cut prices.”
The Banks: “Unrealized Losses” in Q4, Securities Held by Banks, Bank Failures, and the Dropping Bank Count.
In 2024, some banks will fail. In 2023, five banks failed. In 1989, over 500 banks failed. Since 1936, there were only 5 years without bank failures
Great American Shale-Oil Bust Turns into Massacre: Shares of shale oil drillers collapsed by 25% to 50% today. Their bonds got massacred. Saudi-Russia price-war strategy appears successful in wiping out investors in the US shale-oil sector
Prices of Existing Homes in Germany Tank 14% so far, as ECB-Fueled Housing Bubble Turns into Housing Bust.
Germany is an example of what interest-rate repression and QE do to home prices, and what happens when inflation causes those policies to be reversed
Fed Balance Sheet QT: -$107 Billion in May, -$1.71 Trillion from Peak, to $7.26 Trillion, Lowest since December 2020.
Quantitative Tightening has removed 40% of Treasury securities and 28% of MBS that pandemic QE added.
Buyers’ Strike Deepens: Pending Home Sales Drop to Record Low Despite Surging Supply & Much Lower Mortgage Rates that Already Priced in Massive Rate Cuts.
“Sales recovery did not occur”: NAR. Prices are way too high, doesn’t take a genius to figure out
Construction Spending for Factories Soars, after Decades in the Doldrums.
Driven by manufacturing plants for technologically advanced, high-value products. Automation is the great equalizer
Battle for Deposits: Tired of Getting Screwed by Banks, People Yank their Cash Out, Forcing Banks to Pay Higher Interest Rates.
How it should have been all along. Fed’s interest rate repression killed competition for deposits.
Treasury Yields are a Mess
In a Very “Hawkish Skip,” the Fed Keeps Rates at 5.25% Top of Range, But Sees Two More Rate Hikes this Year. QT Continues.
“... to assess additional information and its implications for monetary policy.”
Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in America, June Update: 2nd Overall YoY Price Drop since 2012. Biggest in Seattle, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Diego, Dallas
Spring selling season, when prices always rise month-to-month; they did, but not enough
The Eyepopping Factory Construction Boom in the US.
The supply-chain catastrophe in 2020-2021, the edgy US-China relationship, and the scary dependence on China triggered a big corporate rethink
The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in America, August Update: First Price Drops Appear, All in the West.
The Case-Shiller index, which lags 4-6 months, starting to pick up the price drops in Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Denver, Portland
Higher for Longer Inflation & Interest Rates Not Over Until the Fat Lady Sings? Waiting for 2-Year Treasury Yield to Overshoot.
40 years of history say it’s not over until 2-year yield overshoots EFFR. It undershot for a year, inflation takes off again
What I Think about Tesla’s Financials: The chart that makes me scratch my head.
It’s funny-looking for anyone who's been around business. A total sudden break in trend. It just jumps from a sea of record losses to a profit. Magic wand comes to mind
US Government Debt Spikes by $1.2 trillion since Debt Ceiling, to $32.7 Trillion. Treasury to Add $1.5 Trillion in Debt by Year-End
Stunning numbers out today. Investors will buy the securities, and those the Fed sheds. Crystal ball sez: higher yields
Mortgage-Rate Buydowns by Homebuilders Are Now All the Rage to Prop Up Sales, Lowering Effective House Prices in a Big Way, but Don’t Get Picked Up by New House Price Data.
Appraisers have not yet caught on to it either
US National Debt Hits $35 Trillion. Debt-to-GDP Ratio, at Scary Levels, Dips a Tad. And T-Bills’ Share of this Debt.
We don’t even want to know what debt-to-GDP looks like in the next recession when it’ll get hit by a double-whammy
Banks and Commercial Real Estate Debt, a Deep Dive: Investors and Government on the Hook for Majority of CRE Debt.
Retail CRE debt been shitty since 2017, banks managed without collapsing. Now Office turns to crap. Multifamily, the biggie, is following
What Would Stocks Do in “a World Without Buybacks,” Goldman Asks. Companies buying back their own shares has “consistently been the largest source of US equity demand.” Without them “demand for shares would fall dramatically.” Too painful to even imagine
Vacancy Rate at Iconic Manhattan Tower with 899 Apartments Hits 26%: This Shows How Fast & Massive the Exodus Has Been.
Then there’s the “single-asset” commercial mortgage-backed security (CMBS) backed only by the mortgage of this tower
Zillow Comes Unglued, Lost $1.4 Billion on Flipping Houses since 2019, Bails Out, Lays Off 25% of Staff, Stock Plunges Further.
Another one of the most hyped Wall Street schemes belly-flops.
Here Comes the Inventory of Vacant Homes: With Buyers on Strike despite Lower Mortgage Rates, Supply Spikes to Highest in 4 Years. Sales Drop except High End
Game-changer is underway. Even NAR concedes “shift from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market.”
THE WOLF STREET REPORT: Housing Bust
#2
Has Begun.
Some markets are already deep into it, others just started. A sobering trip from the free-money decade in la-la-land, back to normal
Glimmer of Hope that Rate Hikes & QT Pushed Down Inflation or Just Another CPI Head Fake? (The Fed Warned on Head Fakes).
Inflation in many services is red-hot. Health insurance CPI pushed down again by record mega-adjustment
Fed’s Balance Sheet Drops $667 Billion from Peak to $8.3 Trillion, Below Aug 2021, as QT Continues and Bank Panic Support Unwinds.
The Fed has now shed 20.5% of Treasury securities it had bought during pandemic QE
PE Firm Blackstone’s Epic Pump-n-Dump with Bumble now down to just a Mop-up Operation: Shares -94% since IPO Pop
Blackstone made over $2 billion (as the public got wiped out), taking advantage of Consensual Hallucination