Quick fact check on housing
Hey, Guys. I am one of those Americans who is hoping for a housing market crash. While I love the show, but I do know that you source a lot of your reporting from mainstream sources (and I understand why) and I just want to make sure that you don't end up regurgitating the mainstream economic reporting narrative on housing. Yes, new-home building has slowed down in the last decade, but this is not what is causing "supply-side inflation" of the housing market. Some quick, easily verifiable numbers: US population growth from 2010-2020: Approximately 20 million Number of new homes built in that time frame: 6.9 million Average size of US family: 2.58 persons Easy math: 20 million divided by 2.58 equals 7.7 million homes needed in that decade to keep up with population growth. 800 thousand short, yes, but it's not the catastrophically deficient number we've been lead to believe by the press. When the press talks about a "low housing supply" they are pulling that data from the number of available homes on the market compared with active buyers. Then they put this next to the new construction data and infer a very weak causal link. They are showing two statistics that measure different things and not pointing out the difference. This is possibly dishonest narrative spinning, but probably just incompetence. Sum total, the problem is investors, both corporate investors and private investors, locking up livable, physical homes permanently in the renters market away from buyers reach, making the available-homes-on-market number look perpetually bad. I've been talking about this for years just from seeing it on the ground level, and as the data from 2021 becomes compiled and verified, I'm betting it will show that a huge percentage of housing market action was investor frenzy, because average people just couldn't afford to play that game. As much as I am a believer in free market solutions, I believe the government needs to do something drastic to address this problem. I would suggest something along the lines of legislation limiting the number of income-generating residential properties owned by a single legal entity to 3 or something like that. But that would literally take an act of Congress, so instead the Fed has decided to raise rates, making it unprofitable for hedge funds to keep snapping up homes out of the reach of average families. A crude solution, but not one that I am opposed to, because again, I want this bubble to burst. Its time for the financially responsible citizens, who have been living within their means and saving their extra cash, to have their day. So I thank you, Breaking Points, for being the first media outlet that I've seen to actually cover investor activity in the housing market. Just don't allow yourselves to be gaslit by the "supply-side-inflation" narrative.
Trump Spoiler
If there was to be an independent running for president for the sole purpose of siphoning off votes from trump to help Biden, what type of candidate would be more effective? A liz cheney republican who would garner support from the Wealthy and Lincoln project types, or someone who had Trump 2016 era populist rhetoric mixed with right wing culture war commentary? Also, if Kamala got the nomination, would she face plant as hard/harder/not as hard as Hillary?
Liz Cheney and Forward Party?
Krystal, in the Liz Cheney reaction video, when speculating which party Liz would run for president in, you listed the Forward Party as a possibility. While she has done good things regarding January 6th, do you think Andrew Yang would actually disregard all her other backwards stances and give her a place in the Forward Party?
Cheney VP for Dems?
While this is highly unlikely, suspending disbelief, how do each of you think a Democratic ticket with Cheney as the VP would fair in the general election in 2024? I have no idea which Dem would be leading that ticket, but would Americans generally appreciate the bipartisanship, or would it be badly received? Or, separately, if Cheney did decide to run in 2024, who would make sense as a VP running mate?
An update to the Australian election result
Hi guys Not a question but i'd been interested in Krystal's thoughts on this given her coverage of the Australian election result a few weeks ago. It seems the former PM (and Trump ally) has been caught doing very Trumpian things - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-17/scott-morrison-secret-ministry-appointments-who-knew-timeline/101337414