MaxRedline

What Do You Do With 20 Million Evicted Renters?

Mass evictions would be a disaster. For both individuals and families, evictions result in severe harm; when they become widespread, there are also significant consequences for entire communities and even the speed of economic recovery. Policymakers are actively seeking solutions, but it is difficult to prepare without knowing the size of the problem.

The COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project (CEDP) was formed to solve that problem. It is a coalition of economic researchers and legal experts who developed a model to estimate eviction risk nationally and at the state level. The disturbing result: 19 to 23 million, or one in five of the 110 million Americans who live in renter households, are at risk of eviction by September 30, 2020.

It doesn't help that some 25% of renters are spending more than half of their incomes on rent and utilities. That doesn't leave much wiggle-room for groceries, transportation, medical expenses, etc.

 

 

Socialist Paradise

After seven years of economic collapse, Venezuela’s crisis has entered a troubling new phase. In a nation that’s home to the world’s largest oil reserves, fuel shortages have grown so acute that fields are going bare. Venezuela is now on the verge of famine, the International Crisis Group warns. 

Evidence of fuel scarcity is everywhere. Ambulances can’t run, telecommunications networks are faltering and some farmers have given up altogether on machinery -- using oxen instead.

Their currency is essentially worthless, and those fortunate enough to live near the border with Colombia have found that fuel there costs around 15 Venezuela dollars per gallon. One result:

Venezuelan food inflation reached 251% in the first four months of the year, according to Caracas research group Cenda.

They may sit atop the world's largest oil areas, but they can't produce fuel from it; much less fertilizers. They lack the technological capacity and the required skills.

The fact is, they lost their talent. They no longer have the expertise to produce distillates on an efficient scale. I feel for people but this is the result of socialism. If their government were in charge of the desert there would soon be a shortage of sand. But then, it's what the people wanted - and they got it. Maybe the kiddies in Seattle should migrate to their socialist heaven.

 

 

Krazy Kate, Obsessed With Authoritarianism

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Ten churches from around the state are suing Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, arguing her coronavirus stay-at-home orders are unconstitutional. Lead attorney Ray Hacke said plaintiffs are all over the state.

“There’s a rising tide of churches and churchgoers wanting to push back against Governor Brown’s oppressive executive orders, and this case will hopefully remind her that she is not free to dispense with constitutionally protected liberties, even in emergencies,” Hacke said in a statement.

She's just being a Democratic. Name a state that's been under the thumb of Democratics for years that hasn't been run into the ground. In her latest move, she's declared a "drought emergency" and banned "dispersed camping" statewide. That seems to go against her whole "social distancing" schtick - and it's unclear if that applies to the population of bums, many of whom camp in Portland's Forest Park and elsewhere. It should, as the bums rarely (as in never) clean up after themselves, and they do start a lot of campfires.

CANBY, Ore. (KOIN) — One week after police shut down a restaurant in Canby for violating Governor Kate Brown’s executive order, dozens of customers flocked to the establishment with folding chairs to eat outside in a show of support.

How dare the owner of the tiny restaurant defy Kate? Well, unlike her, he has bills to pay; he doesn't collect fat paychecks with "free benefits" like healthcare and retirement, and he doesn't live on taxpayer money.

 

Another Democrat-Run State, So What's The Big Surprise?

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday began relaxing his stay-at-home order that was issued to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus, while also announcing that the state has a staggering $53.4 billion budget shortfall.

Not that it's a problem, or anything; he and his fellow Democratics will just raise taxes again - and then complain about companies relocating to places like Texas. They don't seem to understand the relationship between cause and effect.

 

Hotels Hit Hard

As COVID-19 continues to devastate the hotel industry, the Washington, D.C.-based American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) released new data Thursday showing that 70 percent of hotel employees have been laid off or furloughed as eight in 10 hotel rooms across the nation remain empty.

Occupancy rates haven't been so low since 1933.

 

Travel Restrictions Sock Rental Agencies & Airlines

Car rentals are down 80 percent nationwide, a spokesman for the American Car Rental Association trade group told USA Today last week.

About half of car rental transactions take place at airports, and fewer people flying means fewer rental transactions. I'd never given it any thought, but it does make sense. So rental companies are stashing thousands of vehicles in large, presently unused parking lots at venues such as baseball stadiums, fairgrounds, and more. They're losing money left and right, as they have to pay for the parking in addition to keeping up lease payments on the vehicles.

It's not a good time to be in the car rental business....

 

 

Liquids

Grupo Modelo, the brewer behind Corona, Modelo and other beers, said in a statement on Thursday that it was suspending its beer production after the Mexican government ordered nonessential businesses to close in an attempt to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Looks like things are getting serious now. And beer's not the only liquid casualty:

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Dairy farmer Jason Leedle felt his stomach churn when he got the call on Tuesday evening. “We need you to start dumping your milk,” said his contact from Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), the largest U.S. dairy cooperative.

Mass closures of restaurants and schools have forced a sudden shift from those wholesale food-service markets to retail grocery stores, creating logistical and packaging nightmares for plants processing milk, butter and cheese. The dairy business got hit harder and earlier than other agricultural commodities because the products are highly perishable - milk can’t be frozen, like meat, or stuck in a silo, like grain.

Leedle has dumped 4,700 gallons of milk from his 480 cows each day since Tuesday. Another major problem: The sudden shift in demand from restaurants - now closing en masse - to grocery stores creates severe logistical challenges. Suppliers struggle to make the shift from wholesale packaging for restaurants to preparing retail products for stores.

Even switching from bagging 10 lb bulk bags of shredded cheddar for food service to 8 oz bags for retail stores would require costly new packaging robots and labeling machinery.

This virus thing is hitting all kinds of people, all over, really hard.

 

Now For Some Good News

NEW YORK - U.S. mortgage borrowers may soon be able to refinance at rates even lower than they were on the heels of the country's recession a decade ago, in what industry sources are calling a "once-in-a-lifetime'' chance to slash monthly housing expenses. Rates for standard 30-year mortgages are poised to fall below 3 percent, a level not seen in more than half a century, analysts said.

Don't know about you, but even though I can pay off the existing mortgage right now, I'm going for the re-fi. No need to raid my bank accounts just yet.

 

Portland City Council Srikes Again

In November 2018, the city of Portland voted to pass a ballot initiative called the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF) that is basically Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s failed “Green New Deal” in a smaller, more localized package. In a few months, the city will begin finally investing the money they received.

It's a gross receipts tax on businesses, which are now essentially taxed twice one on stuff that they sell (gross receipts) and again on profits. No matter; the businesses won't pay it - their customers will. But it's a model for the nation, which is what counts as far as the erstwhile mayor of Portland is concerned:

Despite the uncertainty surrounding the tax and the use of subsequent funds, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler believes that the PCEF should inspire other large cities and perhaps even the entire United States. “It’s a model for the rest of the nation,” he said with pride. “A beacon and a testament to our community’s belief in doing things a different way.”

And the stupider, the better.

I stopped buying things in Portland years ago because of the mind-numbingly stupid policies the politicians foist on consumers. Things are less expensive in Washington County.

 

Oh, Tannenbaum!

Dig them holes with trowels by golly, fa-la-la-la-la...

Some New Yorkers are coughing up a lot of green for their evergreens this holiday season.

In a recent report from the New York Post, a roundup of live Christmas tree vendors around the Big Apple showed some varieties are being sold at rates as high as $6,500. Other sellers priced select trees in the $850 to $2,000 range.

And believe it or not, people are ponying up for the trees to spruce up their apartments for Christmas.

The heftiest $6,500 price tag was found at Soho Trees, which has seven stands located throughout Manhattan to service city dwellers eager to decorate their apartments with a real evergreen. Despite the cost, a sales manager told the outlet they are now sold out of the 20-foot Frasers, which went mostly to customers with penthouses or building lobbies to outfit. The price includes delivery and installation.

Fraser firs are in really short supply, and have been since the last recession, when growers cut back on planting them. It takes a decade or more for trees to grow to marketable size, which is usually seven to ten feet; even longer for the 20-footers. Plus, of course, they have to be transported to places like New York City - and that takes a lot of green as well.

Smaller trees, in the four-to-five-foot range, generally take just five years to grow, but they're hardly in high demand; even here in the Pacific Northwest they tend to be snubbed. Go to a U-Cut tree farm, and you'll find that they're not the size that are high on the hit parade. Around here, in fact, farmers generally won't even allow people onto those plots to molest the little ones. I always found it quieter, easier, and less expensive to just buy a $5 permit from the US Forest Service and go cut my own. But then, I like the Noble fir, which can be found in the national forest somewhere among the carpet of Douglas firs.

Back in NYC:

“The demand is higher than ever,” said Harold DeLucia, the owner of Tyler’s Trees and NYC Trees, which charges $1,429 for a 16-foot Fraser. “Business has already surpassed profits from last year.” Besides, said one Upper West Side shopper named Linda: “What’s Christmas without a tree?”

What, indeed?