From Wolf Street:
Pending Home Sales Rise from Near-Record Lows, Zigzag along those Lows, -43% from 2020, -30% from 2019: Charts Speak
There was a lot of housing-promo hoopla in the media this morning about that 4.0% month-to-month increase in pending sales of existing homes in August, sign of a sudden burst of demand due to lower mortgage rates, or whatever, written by goofballs or AI that never look at a chart.
That 4.0% month-to-month seasonally adjusted increase in the Pending Homes Sales Index by the National Association of Realtors today was off near-record low in the prior month, and was still down by 30.1% from August 2019 and by 42.7% from August 2020.
And the index was below March 2025, when there was a bigger widely ballyhooed surge in demand, or whatever, that was then more than wiped out by the sharp decline in April. That’s how it goes with zigzagging month-to-month data (historic data via YCharts):
Curious if Ed Koch would even have a place in the current democratic political landscape.
Curious if Ed Koch would even have a place in the current democratic political landscape.
He was the voice of reason and used it as the tagline later on his daily talk show. For those of you not around my age and not growing up in the shadows of NYC, you wouldn’t understand. His version of democrat is what our fathers and grandfathers were… blue collar, tough guys cashing the paycheck and having a few come quitting time. Koch, like JFK would have been Republicans today or Independent at the very least. Koch said dems didn’t/don’t have the stomach to fight terrorism. He governed with common sense. Today’s version of democrat needs to change their moniker to reflect the Mundamni and AOC ideology – not the party of the past.
That 4.0% month-to-month seasonally adjusted increase in the Pending Homes Sales Index by the National Association of Realtors today was off near-record low in the prior month, and was still down by 30.1% from August 2019 and by 42.7% from August 2020.
Paying $5,000 per month in PITI for a real piece of shit would have me apoplectic. I just couldn’t do it. I don’t know what I would do. If I had to rent, I’d move as far away from the city as I could to ease the monthly payment.
Move to China… they are starting up an H1B program.
If they were smart, they wouldn’t attempt to hire engineers, they’d hire American sales and marketing people.
Searching on Amazon is now the equivalent of a random letter generator. Boojo, Y Yerfone, Brokig, Cangphgin, maamgic, Coofandy, lomsoe, etc.
China does not know what they are missing out on.
““The ABC network is structurally shrinking every year, with between 5% and 11% of its revenue disappearing annually, which slows the reported growth rate of Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS). Disney would grow its revenue 5% this year if it didn’t own ABC, and about 4.5% because it does. Higher revenue growth rates lead to multiple expansion from Wall Street. When calculating the value lost by keeping ABC versus the higher multiple Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) could get from faster structural revenue growth over the next 10 years, there’s about $20 billion of value creation, roughly 10% of the company’s market cap. Nothing else in the Disney empire is regulable in the same way, so if ABC were shut down, the government couldn’t stop Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS)from taking actions, which is increasingly valuable in a generative AI world. You don’t want to be restricted in reacting to the marketplace and consumers as AI continues to disrupt markets.”
I’m glad I sold the stock when I did. Not because I timed it right but because their politics ruined their brand. I wanted no part of the ‘We Are The World – New Age’ message. Disney stock is down 1/3 over the last five years.
Boojo, Y Yerfone, Brokig, Cangphgin, maamgic, Coofandy, lomsoe
What’s the frequency, Kenneth?
One of good guys.
He was a populist on the left.
A while back saw a good documentary on him.
Koch was from the time before supremacy and facism was offered as an option by Fox News
grim says:
October 2, 2025 at 6:46 am
Curious if Ed Koch would even have a place in the current democratic political landscape.
Ted Cruz Verbatim Says, “Let’s Stop Attacking Pedophiles”
Malcolm Ferguson
October 1, 2025
/
9:57 a.m. ET
Koch was from the time before
supremacypronouns andfacismredistribution was offered as an option byFox Newslesser endowed men.Fast: Schumer criticized shutdowns in the past, and would not agree to it this past March. He caved into the AOC leftist wing of the party. AOC may challenge Schumer for his senate seat, unless of course she decides she could better help the American people through her vast knowledge and expertise. The centrists in the Democratic Party are being forced out. Lowest polling numbers for them in 35 years. They may think the shutdown will help them, but it may backfire.
President Trump and Congressional Republicans just shut down the government because they refused to stop your health care costs from rising.
Let me be clear: Republicans are in charge of the White House, House, and Senate. This is their shutdown.
-Kamala Harris
I have a photo of me and my family with Ed Koch at Lincoln center. My father was given an award by him when Ed was mayor. My Dad saved a bunch of people from a burning building. My Dad worked for ConEd in emergency services. He and his partner came across a burning building and used a ladder from their truck to get a bunch of people out, flames were everywhere and the fire dept or police had not arrived yet. We got a nice dinner and were taken to a performance of Fiddler on the Roof, and of course we met Ed Koch.
VSG – Did she sign your book or something? How long was the line at the book signing. Was there anyone else in the room besides Kamala and her publicist?
It takes at least a dozen democratic senators maybe to vote for a continuing resolution to keep the government open. Only three voted to keep the government open.
The Democrats may not be in charge but they certainly did not vote one to keep the government open.
No worries there will be more votes, nobody is going to go home until it passes.
3B – No distractions here with offers of a Senate seat. Look we have a guy from Queens as president twice. It’s time for the Bronx to show everyone what it can do. Our gal Sandy from the Bronx is running for President in 2028…
Juice,
Your Dad worked in emergency services for Con Ed… saved people from a burning structure… when men were men, before furries, safe rooms and edible crayons.
3b, the Schumer Shutdown!
AOC is going to market the phrase for her run.
VSG: Leaving the emotion out of it, which and others on the Left cannot seem to do, the fact remains that the Democrats this time shut down the government. The Democratic leadership sent the word out to the troops, blame it on Trump and the Republicans, as in its Trump’s government shutdown. One can argue the merits, but the fact remains that the Democrats shut down the government this time, due to huge pressure from the leftist AOC wing of the Democratic party.
Juice:Wonderful story about your Dad you and your family must be very proud of him. I used to run into him form time to time back in there day. He was a very genuine down to earth guy.
Fast Eddie says:
October 2, 2025 at 7:07 am
His version of democrat is what our fathers and grandfathers were… blue collar, tough guys cashing the paycheck and having a few come quitting time…….and in the closet.
“Mommy, why is that man yelling at the sky?”
“Don’t point honey, it’s not polite. And it might lash out. It’s a liberal and it’s angry. Just keep walking and don’t make eye contact with it.”
Juice: We got Trump from Queens, but I told you AOC ain’t no Bronx girl. There are no Puerto Rican girls running around the Bronx named Sandy, that is a fact, no way. She moved from the mean streets of Parkchester in the Bronx to bucolic Yorktown Heights when she was 5. She grew up there. Listen to her when she speaks, she is not a Bronx girl. She is a fraud and phony like Mamdani .
Leaving the emotion out of it, Maga is in full and total control of
the White House,
Congress,
Senate
Supreme Court
Mass Media
and still unable and unwilling to govern
3b says:
October 2, 2025 at 8:55 am
VSG: Leaving the emotion out of it, which and others on the Left cannot seem to do, the fact remains that the Democrats this time shut down the government. The Democratic leadership sent the word out to the troops, blame it on Trump and the Republicans, as in its Trump’s government shutdown. One can argue the merits, but the fact remains that the Democrats shut down the government this time, due to huge pressure from the leftist AOC wing of the Democratic party.
Two people killed during an attack on a Manchester, England Synagogue during Yom Kippur services.
The last government shutdown was when Donald Trump was President.
It cost the American people $11 BILLION.
Almost like there’s a pattern here.
-Gavin Newsom
VSG: You are deflecting, the Dems shut the government down, not the Republicans, you can repeat your line all you want, but that is a fact. This time around its the Dems fault; Schumer pressured by the left wing of the party.
VSG: Yeah Gavin is right on the cost and it was Trump that time, but now its Schumer.
Democrats are demanding health care for everybody.
Have they ever voted for cost controls for medical care that would even make that possible? Greater efficiency and well lower costs is what’s needed. I have yet to see any legislation put forth for example that uniformly limits the amount of damages in most medical malpractice claims. That is one cost that is sky high right now. Surgeons pay upwards of $150,000 a year for malpractice insurance. Surely not paying for high priced lawyers to sue is one way to lower heathcare costs.
Bring forward the legislation and we can have a real conversation abou it, until then vote to continue to run the government.
Harvard University hired a drag performer as a new professor — who is expected to teach a class on TV show “RuPaul’s Drag Race” in the spring semester, the Ivy League school announced over the summer.
The institution welcomed Kareem Khubchandani in a July message to the college community and revealed that the visiting professor from Tufts University will teach in the Studies of Gender and Sexuality program thanks to the Harvard Gender and Sexuality Caucus.
Khubchandani is perhaps better known by his stage name, “LaWhore Vagistani” — a persona that the academic has made an integral part of their pedagogy.
Chi – Look not everyone is cutout to study Human Anatomy, Calculus, Quantum Physics and Organic Chemistry. There needs to be room in the curriculum for the arts…..
Just when you think it can get any weirder, Maxwell House Coffee if changing its name to Maxwell Apartment Coffee for one year.
With “nearly a third (of Americans) opting to rent versus purchase a home,” according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the brand says it’s aiming to help today’s consumer, who faces rising coffee and home prices, save with affordable coffee.
“Two-thirds of American adults drink coffee every day, which can add up quickly, especially these days,” said Holly Ramsden, head of coffee for North America for Kraft Heinz, Maxwell House’s parent company, in a press release. “Maxwell House believes no one should have to go without great tasting coffee and Maxwell Apartment delivers the same delicious taste people know and love, at a value that celebrates all our fans are doing to make smart choices in their lives.”
To celebrate National Coffee Day, which was on Sept. 29, the brand is offering customers a 12-month “lease” of Maxwell Apartment, designed to stock up coffee lovers nationwide — four 27.5-ounce canisters of Maxwell Apartment coffee for $39.99. (For context, a single, 27.5-ounce canister of Maxwell House coffee is about $13 on Amazon.)
33 days until the election.
Sherrill vs. Ciattarelli who wins New Jersey?
Politicans citing the e-bike for this? That Garwood 17 year old murdered those two young girls.
“Relatives and friends of the victims claim the two girls knew the driver. They also said a restraining order was filed against the young man after he allegedly stalked one of the victims. ”
“She made complaints and nothing was done,” Tammy Carbajal said. “It’s just a tragedy. It’s just a tragedy.”
Look how much the front of that SUV is crumpled.
https://www.rlsmedia.com/article/breaking-garwood-teen-charged-fatal-cranford-hit-and-run
Sherrill vs. Ciattarelli who wins New Jersey?
Knowing this state, the chick will win.
What’s more exciting is the NYC race. I wish I lived in NYC so I could vote for Mundimi. I want to witness the fallout and madness.
Tesla said Q3 deliveries came in at 497,099, easily topping Bloomberg consensus estimates of around 439,800 and the 462,890 units delivered a year ago. Tesla said Q3’s total was a new quarterly record for the company.
Tesla stock was up 3% in early trade.
Stock is currently at $462 per share. Tampon Tim shorted it at $210 per share. Ooofa! Lol.
Ciattarelli polls within shooting distance of Sherrill. She is toast. Did you see those ads? Also, POC are sexist. They don’t want to vote for “girl”.
Juice Box says:
October 2, 2025 at 9:31 am
33 days until the election.
Sherrill vs. Ciattarelli who wins New Jersey?
Sherrill ain’t even a Jersey girl, born in Alexandria VA. She is a carpetbagger like Murphy and Corzine.
The last two Government shutdowns happened under Trump with Republicans holding a majority in the House and Senate.
January 2018: 3 days
December 2018- January 2019: 35 days
Republicans do not know how to govern
Some things never change:
A disgraced Florida nurse caught sexually assaulting her 15 year-old stepson by the boy’s father faces fresh anguish from behind bars.
The Daily Mail can reveal that Alexis Von Yates, 34, and her husband David Yates have separated after she was charged last year with sexually-assaulting his son.
Y’all are acting like Koch could do anything in the time period that is now.
His version of democrat is what our fathers and grandfathers were… blue collar, tough guys cashing the paycheck and having a few come quitting time.
Sure Eddie.
That time. With Union Jobs. When you could have bought a house in Clifton for 39k. When gas was 70 cents a gallon. When no one was on social media. When a beer was a buck. When you could fix your own car without a 600 dollar computer. When you owned an album and not have to stream, subscript, and lease everything. When if you went to war you were killed by a man, not a drone, not a robot.
I wonder, what it is like to be in a war being chased by a drone as it’s about to blow you up. Do you feel like a “real man” as opposed to when a war was fought with just men?
Boomer, those days are long gone. Lament all you want. Your masters have you under control, and it’s only a matter of time till you become the recipient of all you joke about.
Worse yet, wait till its one of your grandchildren.
Will Ciattarelli be able to un-ban grocery store plastic/paper bags?
JB
The electric bikes are fantastic.
But just like when Japanese cars came to America, dumb older Americans thoght they were cheap garbage and laughed at them. I know, I listened to the adults then as I rode in the Chevy Impala of the day.
Boomer mentality is that Chinese stuff is cheap and doesn’t work. This country has a level of arrogance, starting with it’s infected government, that it is the best thing since sliced bread.
An existential rift is the order of the day. It’s borderline apocalyptic.
Your government sees this. They are trying to “project strenth” with their psycho 700 general meeting, with an appointed turd telling real generals how to do their job. Imagine sitting there having Signal Hegseth calling you losers and fat while the Commander in Chief looks like he stopped at every McDonalds between Washington DC and Los Angeles.
Invest in lead. And start taking survival skills.
Juice Box says:
October 2, 2025 at 9:22 am
Chi – Look not everyone is cutout to study Human Anatomy, Calculus, Quantum Physics and Organic Chemistry. There needs to be room in the curriculum for the arts…..
Sure does.
Camoflauge works.
Juice Box says:
October 2, 2025 at 9:38 am
Politicans citing the e-bike for this? That Garwood 17 year old murdered those two young girls.
Juice,
You do know the kid came from a “connected” family, don’t you?
for example that uniformly limits the amount of damages in most medical malpractice claims. That is one cost that is sky high right now. Surgeons pay upwards of $150,000 a year for malpractice insurance.
Juice,
Surgeons will get their money from you. They find a way.
Cops will get their money from you too, when they make a mistake, your taxes go up.
ABC News reporting ice raid in New York raided entire apt building arresting us citizens as well. rodrick Johnson 67 a citizen stated agents broke down his door during the early morning raid and held him in zip ties for 3 hours. He was not told why he was held and was not allowed to communicate with anyone or an attorney.
Gotta make those numbers end of qtr is coming up.
It’s funny how these out of staters keep coming into NJ, somehow run for governor to try to use it as a stepping stone to higher office, and just destroy the state in the process.
Corzine thought he was going for president.
Christie is a local but he spent 8 years running for president instead of governing.
Murphy just put us on a suicide mission
Sherril would just be Murphy 2.0 at this point
BRT
Mabye someone from this forum should run.
Go for it.
BRT hasn’t got a china man’s chance
Huh? Our latest senator is Asian and our other Senator is in the closet.
How more of a liberal state do we need to be?
Ten 408
Senate shuts down government and votes to cover up E pstein files
that’s maga
Life on the Upper West Side. You cannot even add an indoor pool to your double-wide townhouse without the nosy neighbors complaining.
https://nypost.com/2025/10/02/real-estate/nyc-neighbors-sue-each-other-over-cellar-pool-construction/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=nypost
Maxwell House coffee is rebranding as Maxwell Apartment.
“Today, Maxwell House rebrands to “Maxwell Apartment” to meet the needs of today’s consumer and remind fans the brand is synonymous with great tasting, affordable coffee. In a time where value matters now more than ever, Americans seek value in areas of their everyday, including where they live with nearly a third opting to rent versus purchase a home.”
Tell me this isn’t bubble top type shyt.
https://news.kraftheinzcompany.com/press-releases-details/2025/For-the-First-Time-in-133-Years-Maxwell-House-Rebrands-as-Maxwell-Apartment/default.aspx
To celebrate the name change, Maxwell Apartment is offering a “12-month lease” of their coffee as a way for consumers to stock up on coffee for the entire year, according to the news release.
We laugh at Eddie’s chex mix posts but this isn’t far off…
Boomer: I posted the Maxwell bit before you. I guess you missed it. Just saying.
enjoy a cup of condescending coffee.
freeze-dried instant coffee…that is about the last choice I would make for my morning coffee.
I didn’t read today’s posts. Busy day at work. but I’ll go read the responses now.
Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all at record highs once again.
Trump Explores Bailout of at Least $10 Billion for U.S. Farmers.
WASHINGTON—President Trump is considering providing $10 billion or more in aid to U.S. farmers as the agriculture sector warns of economic fallout from his far-reaching tariffs, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Communist redistribution from the youth to the maga Farmer.
Ann Ryan wouldn’t be pleased with MAGA’s love for welfare and bailouts
This is your response to an allegation of company paying a competitor to go away?
No One says:
October 1, 2025 at 9:26 am
Regulators won’t be happy until the rental market goes back to 30 years ago when there were 3 printed rental/apartment listing magazines with phone numbers and a map, and half of the apartments are already off the market by the time you call them. It sucked but it was “competitive” and nobody was making much money from it, so nobody to go after. And real estate agents hate helping rental-seekers because they hardly get paid relative to the time it takes them. Meanwhile Zillow and Redfin make it infinitely easier for people to actually find rentals, and drive huge progress in efficiency and ease. But anti-capitalist bureaucrats have to justify their existence by attacking companies that actually do something, without conforming to their theoretical model that all commerce is supposed to work like the corn market.
Pretty rough stuff….. WSJ Behind paywall
The Embarrassing Pete Hegseth
The Pentagon needs sober, judicious leadership, not a drama queen who makes things jarring and fevered.
By Peggy Noonan
Oct. 2, 2025 6:12 pm ET
A lot of people in the Trump administration think this is their moment and America’s last chance. They know what time it is, you don’t, it’s later in the game than you think, the damage is great and right now is the final hope of constructive national change. A sense of urgency is their central driving force.
But when people get into a “last chance” mindset, they become insensitive to, less mindful of and careful about, what they come to think of as “constitutional niceties.” When it is constitutional niceties—respecting the other branches’ authority, knowing the limits on your own, knowing what’s your lane and what the traffic will bear—that have kept us going since 1789, when the new government began functioning.
You can lose a republic while trying to save a republic. No matter what your level of idiocy, you don’t want that, you can’t want it, so you have to be careful. And serious.
When you are driven by a sense of urgency you must still try to act like a normal person—normal in your comportment, which means sober, judicious. Not like some pumped-up drama queen who makes everything more jarring and fevered, and who comes across as the living answer to the question, “What would it look like if Captain Queeg took Adderall?”
Which gets us to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. His unprecedented extravaganza this week, in which he summoned hundreds of generals and admirals from around the world to Virginia’s Quantico Marine Base to listen to him speak, shouldn’t be lost amid the government shutdown.
It was, as a former general said by phone, “just flat-out bizarre.” It was embarrassing to watch. He made everyone in the audience look smaller, which made their profession look smaller. How does that help America?
Mr. Hegseth instructed them as if from a great height. What he told them is that the woke progressive era in the U.S. military is over. He will have a reset to the “warrior ethos.” “No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. . . . We are done with that s—.”
OK. Understood. Understood, in fact, since he was appointed. Mr. Hegseth could have reiterated all this by secure video conference, or just sent a video.
Instead he dragged commanders from their stations to be his audience. So he could pose with a giant American flag behind him like George C. Scott in “Patton,” only Scott delivered a great speech. Mr. Hegseth gave a TED Talk, a weirdly self-reverential one. He paced the stage like a strutting, gelled bantam, like an amped-up actor with rehearsed gestures and expressions and voice shifts.
“You might say we’re ending the war on warriors. I heard someone wrote a book about that.” Mr. Hegseth is author of a book called “The War on Warriors.” I guess he wants us to buy it.
There was braggadocio: “To our enemies, FAFO. If necessary, our troops can translate that for you.” He used “lethal” and “lethality” a lot, like a young Hollywood scriptwriter dreaming up some mad right-wing Army officer because he watched “Platoon” too much as a child, as perhaps Mr. Hegseth did. The frantic drama: “This is a moment of urgency, mounting urgency.” “We became the Woke Department.” “It’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals.”
The retired general later sighed on the phone and said: “I would like you to note that his hero, Norman Schwarzkopf, was fat. And George Patton wasn’t exactly a gazelle.” Sound military leadership has little to do with physical fitness and everything to do with strategic judgment.
Mr. Hegseth also seemed preoccupied with reimposing the military’s height requirement. There goes young Napoleon.
What are we doing in this dangerous world having the head of the Defense Department prance around like this and embarrass the generals he used as his backdrop? Why do his highly placed defenders in the administration think this is good for the White House, or even for Mr. Hegseth?
He is right that the U.S. military must be free of demands extraneous to its mission of keeping us and, yes, the world safer. They are the only Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines we have. We can’t jerk them around with our sudden cultural fevers, they aren’t a welfare agency, our defense structure can’t be the cultural left’s plaything. All of that got out of whack and carried away in the years leading up to and after 2020.
Here we must note we are a nation divided by algorithms. If your algorithm knows you as conservative and interested in military matters, you got a lot of videos of young soldiers and sailors acting out the past few years, and of service branches tweeting out showy political sentiments. You felt understandable alarm. If your algorithm knows you as liberal and not interested in military affairs, you haven’t seen that content, and will have been surprised by Mr. Hegseth’s reference to “dudes in dresses.” We are all getting different versions of reality every time we look at a screen, and it’s hurting us.
Mr. Hegseth is right that woke progressive policies have no place in a merit-based, competitive military, but the military follows the orders of civilian leaders. In any case it should have crossed his mind that he himself, when in service, never reached anywhere near the rank of those he was talking down to. They made military service their profession, stuck with it, rose and aren’t paid like TV hosts. All of them could leave and be better paid as board members and consultants. It wouldn’t be shocking if after Mr. Hegseth’s speech some of them moved up their retirements.
A correction to the past five or 10 years was inevitable and is legitimate. But you don’t want it to be an overcorrection; you want it done competently and with calm moral confidence.
You look at all this and say he’s just aping that vulgarian Donald Trump. Well, Mr. Trump does Donald Trump better. A Trump knock-off is cheaper and tackier than the original. You say Mr. Trump’s speech after Mr. Hegseth’s was even worse—a wild, incoherent and yet vaguely menacing mess. Yes, it was, and was worse because he’s president.
Mr. Hegseth has always had bad press, from the scandals that emerged after his nomination through fairly constant reports about chaos in his office. I thought and said early on he was a poor choice—a television host playing a culture warrior who lacked the weight and gravitas the Pentagon needed. This week the Daily Mail, not an immediate foe of all things Trump, had a story in which Mr. Hegseth was described as paranoid, “crawling out of his skin,” fearful and suspicious.
There are recent reports his Pentagon is putting forward new rules requiring journalists to have their work approved before publication. Where that stands is unclear, but it’s nuts. It makes America look like what our foes say we are, a place of make-believe freedom in which even the press is controlled by the government. Which really would be an urgent matter.
You know why people say something’s wrong with this guy? Because it appears something is wrong with this guy.
About 12 years ago, one of my colleagues retired. An amazing businessman who had an amazing teaching career in Physics as a retirement job. He was the best person in every way imaginable. Almost made the NFL in the 70s and also coached football. Just beloved by everyone and a pillar of the community. He ran for board office to try to fix all the nonsense in district and won easily. Those soccer moms implemented “committees” for all the important issues to freeze him out of any input on the matter. Seeing him fail to accomplish any reform at the municipal level was eye opening. The state level? Unfixable IMO.