economics

Debasement

The Democrats want to continue spending the US dollar into worthlessness. The Republicans are trying to get some budget cuts in exchange, but Biden is saying his way, or default. He is laying the blame on Republicans because he is refusing to budge. The solution, some on the left are saying, is to mint a $1 trillion coin, and deposit it with the Fed.

The idea is to mint a worthless coin that has face value of $1 trillion. That way, the coin has one trillion dollars of seigniorage, i.e. profit for government, and the coin could be deposited to Federal Reserve treasury instead of issuing debt. In other words, they would be issuing new money by debasing the dollar, without generating debt in their balance sheet. It’s like issuing one trillion worth of cash, which is backed with just one worthless platinum coin. It’s not really different from just issuing debt that isn’t paid back, but this way they don’t have to raise the debt limit. This would instantly insert an additional trillion into circulation, creating a massive amount of inflation. Shenanigans like this will completely erode the trust in the value of dollar and make the dollar worth much less nearly overnight. It’s like writing a worthless check to pay your monthly mortgage payment.

This will allow Biden to continue spending money like the dollar is going out of style, which of course it is. God forbid we should actually learn to live within our means.

By Divemedic, ago

Trend That Explains Everything

I had lunch with a bank executive friend of mine this week. This particular executive is in charge of commercial lending, and was telling me about some interesting trends in banking. The current trendy investment for real estate is- storage rentals. This explains why companies are buying up all of the storage properties, cutting service, and raising rates. He said that building a storage facility with 250 units costs in the neighborhood of $12 million, but can be sold for double that after only two years in operation. Operating expenses are minimal, but such a facility brings in net receipts of $40,000 a month or more.

Why are they so lucrative? Well, that is being caused by current trends in Generation Z, the tranny generation. What he said to me ties together so many data points that it feels like a lightbulb just came on over my head. This is a generation that is refusing to work, yet they want all of the luxuries that their parents have without having to work for it. They still want to feel independent, so they are moving into cheap shacks built on trailers and calling them “tiny homes.”

They store their stuff in these storage facilities, and are free to live the good life, in their own “home” while still being a short walk from mom and dad’s house, where they can do laundry, grab some food, and still have access to things like free electric, free Internet, and still have time to earn a bit of extra money while out protesting for Soros cash or attending Antifa meetings.

I’ve wondered for years how they can afford to pay for the things they need without working, and now I know. Housing? Food? Utilities? It all ties in perfectly. Their only housing expense is the initial cost of the trailer house, $20K to $30K. Food and utilities are largely paid for by their parents, and their only real remaining expenses are Starbucks (most of them have a $20 a day addiction to shitty, candy flavored coffee), their cell phones, and these storage facilities. A large chunk of this generation doesn’t drive, they Uber everywhere.

Then, refusing to work, they go and protest to demand that we adopt a Socialist paradise, because Capitalist society is depriving them of all the things that they want to have.

By Divemedic, ago

Another Country Abandons the Dollar

Argentina is no longer buying foreign goods using US Petrodollars. They will be using the Chinese reminabi. The US Dollar is losing its position as the world’s reserve currency. The US economy is built on the Dollar being the world’s reserve currency. Our way of life, our nation, is in very serious trouble.

It is time to get rid of dollar denominated assets. Buy physical things.

  • Real estate.
  • Metals.
  • Guns
  • Ammo, food, consumables.

When the dollar falls, its purchasing power will disappear. Stocks, bonds, and bank accounts will become worthless.

By Divemedic, ago

Insurance

News for homeowners in Florida who wish to have insurance is rough. Insurance companies can’t do business in Florida, mostly because of the high cost of hurricane damage. The average Florida homeowner is paying $4,231 for their property insurance: nearly triple the national rate of $1,544. Homeowners in Florida pay the highest rates of any state in the US. Those rates are set to increase in June by an estimated 40%, on average.

The state of Florida has a taxpayer funded insurance system for those who cannot obtain homeowners’ insurance from a private carrier. This carrier is called Citizens’ Insurance. One in five Florida homes is insured by that fund, and that number will continue to climb as insurers leave the state. Things can’t continue on this path.

Insurance is nothing but a dilution of risk. That is, the risk of damage to homes is spread out among all of the people who have insurance policies, and the premiums of everyone are used to pay the damages of those who have losses. The problem with diluting risk in Florida is that oceanfront homes are worth 50 to 100 times as much as homes located further inland. For every insured oceanfront home that is lost, the premiums of as many as 150 inland homes are used paying for the damages. Pick any coastal city in Florida and look at the home costs. A single family home on the oceanfront that sells for less than $1,000 per square foot is a steal. In Miami, single family oceanfront homes START at $20 million each.

Couple that with the fact that the vast majority of hurricane damage is within two miles of the coast. Insurance companies can’t charge $100,000 a year for insurance premiums, so they spread that cost amongst every homeowner in Florida. This can’t continue because it is mathematically impossible for the situation to stay as it is. Currently, I pay 1.5% of the value of my house each year to insure it.

If the state of Florida wants to fix the insurance problem in the state, they need to divorce the risk pool of oceanfront homeowners from the rest of the state’s homeowners. If you want to build and live in a $10 million home on the beach, fine. But make your insurance premiums 5% of the home’s value, but stop raising my insurance to cover for your house.

By Divemedic, ago

Shell Game

California is going to a fixed rate electrical billing system where electric rates are set by the household’s income level.

  • Households earning less than $28,000 a year would pay a fixed charge of $15 a month on their electric bills in Edison and PG&E territories and $24 a month in SDG&E territory.
  • Households with annual income from $28,000 – $69,000 would pay $20 a month in Edison territory, $34 a month in SDG&E territory and $30 a month in PG&E territory.
  • Households earning from $69,000 – $180,000 would pay $51 a month in Edison and PG&E territories and $73 a month in SDG&E territory.
  • Those with incomes above $180,000 would pay $85 a month in Edison territory, $128 a month in SDG&E territory and $92 a month in PG&E territory.

Setting aside the entire “make more/pay more” thing, this is really dumb. People will be paying between $15 and $128 per month for electricity, no matter how much they consume? Yep, that is EXACTLY what they are proposing.

Under the SDG&E plan, customers would pay a fixed price that covers most of the utility’s energy delivery service that would not change month-to-month regardless of how much electricity is consumed.  

I said to myself that there had to be a catch. It turns out that there is. This pricing scheme only covers the part of your electric bill that is sold via SDG&E.

 This portion of a customer’s bill, which is mostly related to the electricity purchased from natural gas, wind and solar plants, will continue to vary based on electricity usage. In San Diego County, nearly 85% of customers have their electricity purchased by local governments known as community choice aggregators or other entities – not SDG&E.

OK. This is just another grift, with the intention of redistributing money from one class to another, using socialism as cover.

By Divemedic, ago

CA Price Controls

California will be enacting price controls on gasoline within the next 4 months, with the expressed purpose of eliminating gas and oil from the state.

As I predicted this moths ago, communists always start by going after landlords before enacting price controls elsewhere. Price controls always fail. California is headed for disaster. If you are an oil company, there is only one way to beat this, but I don’t think that they have the balls to do it. The stated goal is to put the oil companies out of business, so Californians will switch to wind power. OK. Let’s do it:

This important legislation should be part of an all-out push to move the state to clean, renewable energy and off oil and gas

Stop selling all gasoline in the state immediately. Within 72 hours, there won’t be a cop car, city bus, fire truck, or National Guard vehicle moving in that state. No more food deliveries. No more goods moving anywhere in California. Give them what they want. Now they are dependent on wind and solar.

The law will be gone in less than a week.

But the oil companies won’t do it, and will participate in their own destruction.

By Divemedic, ago