Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojktVital Statistics:
Stocks are higher this morning on optimism over trade deals. Bonds and MBS are down.
Following on the heels of a deal with Japan, the EU and the US appear to be close to a framework as well. This should help prevent the tit-for-tat trade spats, which add to uncertainty in the markets.
Existing home sales fell 2.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.93 million units. On an annual basis, existing home sales were flat.
“The record high median home price highlights how American homeowners’ wealth continues to grow—a benefit of homeownership. The average homeowner’s wealth has expanded by $140,900 over the past five years,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun.
“Multiple years of undersupply are driving the record high home price. Home construction continues to lag population growth. This is holding back first-time home buyers from entering the market. More supply is needed to increase the share of first-time homebuyers in the coming years even though some markets appear to have a temporary oversupply at the moment.”
“High mortgage rates are causing home sales to remain stuck at cyclical lows. If the average mortgage rates were to decline to 6%, our scenario analysis suggests an additional 160,000 renters becoming first-time homeowners and elevated sales activity from existing homeowners,” Dr. Yun continued.
“Expanding participation in the housing market will increase the mobility of the workforce and drive economic growth. If mortgage rates decrease in the second half of this year, expect home sales to increase across the country due to strong income growth, healthy inventory, and a record-high number of jobs.”
The supply situation has improved, and the market is more in balance. Inventory hit 1.36 million units, the highest since 2019. That said, inventory is still roughly 21% below pre-pandemic levels. “The shift to a ‘neutral’ market is significant, but it shouldn’t be mistaken for a universally cool or easy market for buyers,” Zillow Senior Economist Kara Ng said. “While negotiating power is more balanced, the affordability crisis remains a high barrier to entry, especially for first-time buyers. Until we see a more meaningful improvement in purchasing power, this newfound balance will primarily benefit more well-off buyers.”
The Trump Administration is considering reducing or eliminating capital gains taxes on home sales in order to boost the housing market. Currently, people selling their primary residence can exclude the first $250,000 from capital gains taxes ($500,000 for couples) but this number is not tied to inflation and hasn’t been updated since introduced in 1997.
Note this would only affect primary residences – investors will still pay the tax.
The Trump Administration has a long list of candidates to replace Jerome Powell. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the Administration is in no hurry to announce a replacement. Some of the names being considered are Kevin Warsh, Chris Waller, and Kevin Hassett.
In an interview, Scott Bessent reiterated the statement that Trump has no intentions of firing Jerome Powell.
Filed under: Economy |
All Things in Moderation 
It takes a heart of stone not to laugh.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/consul-warning-mexico-united-states-alligator-alcatraz
Obviously they’d be safer in Juarez or Tijuana.
LikeLike
I remember this and it fell out of the news pretty rapidly.
LikeLike
Ok, this is interesting.
https://x.com/geiger_capital/status/1949626014906163511?s=46&t=vSGsUlnc4rLxcUf7zfUiHg
LikeLike
Trump called bullshit on the use of “health and safety” regulations to block US imports.
LikeLike
NYT and it’s pithy turns of phrase:
“There’s a Name for What Trump Is Doing. Juan Crow.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/opinion/trump-juan-crow-birther-race.html
LikeLike
we must admit that these are acts in a feature presentation of neo-Confederate revanchism targeting brown and Black people. The targeting of the undocumented has a name, after all, based in ugly history and shameful tradition: Juan Crow.
And yet the majority of Americans, including a majority of Hispanics, support mass deportation.
LikeLike
read like a nightmare mash-up of Guantánamo Bay and American mass incarceration: freezing, overcrowded facilities; routine denial of medical treatment; shackling the hands and wrists of detainees; feeding detainees meager amounts of rotting food or forcing them to eat it “like dogs,” with their hands behind their backs; forcing detainees to sleep on concrete floors.
Gee, this sounds bad! If only the detainees could volunteer for something that would result in their release, rather than suffering such a hell. Hopefully they’re telling people from their home countries about this nightmare, racist hellhole so they don’t make a mistake and come here.
LikeLike
Dammit, they’re not convicted!
The senior adviser Stephen Miller routinely conflates immigrants with criminality even though the majority of those detained by ICE have no criminal convictions or have committed no violent offenses..
It should take a conviction of a very serious criminal offense before it’s allowed to deport our slave, er, immigrants workers. If a few broken eggs are the price we pay for cheap strawberries and nannies,well…
If an illegal defrauds people and/or the government, well, it’s a wash since it’s not violent!
Also, it’s been 5 or 6 paragraphs and they haven’t mentioned that immigrants have a lower crime rate than native born. They’re slipping!
LikeLike
This is good as caucasians here illegally are not deported.
While the courts continue to block Mr. Trump’s attempt to withhold U.S. birthright citizenship to children in 28 states, that is just one effort by his administration to redefine U.S. citizenship along racial lines.
LikeLike
A classic of the genre.
Mr. Trump is best understood as the nation’s first white president. His election was a repudiation of the legacy of President Obama. This was a man whose path to the presidency started with his notorious birther crusade against Mr. Obama.
Woodrow Wilson was unavailable for comment on who was the first “white” President.
LikeLike
I don’t know if anyone follows professional gadfly, Jarvis, on X. Or if you’ve followed the Sidney Sweeney / American Eagle / Nazi controversy, but this thread brilliantly ties it all together.
wheels within wheels.
LikeLike
This was funny:
https://substack.com/@richardhanania/note/c-139796896
LikeLike
And even the Marxists get it:
https://substack.com/@freddiedeboer/note/c-139940914
LikeLike
The left fears attractive white women, or more precisely, idealized, traditional beauty. One reason why is the AWFL’s that make up a substantial part of their base and another is the unmarried females that make up another large part of the constituency.
LikeLike
I think there are two things going on.
Now that ESG is largely done and the Twitter Mob is no longer anything to fear, things are returning to normal.
God help the AWFLs and drama club kids if they replace straight white men as the bottom of the cultural totem pole. It will be a sight to behold.
LikeLike
God help the AWFLs and drama club kids if they replace straight white men as the bottom of the cultural totem pole. It will be a sight to behold
As long as they make up the central core of the Democratic Party, they will continue to stay above white dudes. The thing is though, their AWFL’s) influence outside of the Democratic Party is near zero, and that, I think, is the Trump effect along with free porn. Dude’s are capable of using alternatives to actual women for sexual release. It’s starting to dawn on some lefty women that men have realized that they need women like a fish needs a bicycle, which is your quote, if I’m not mistaken.
It’s an interesting new dynamic that wouldn’t have predicted but should have seen coming (sorry!) with the dawn of free, easy to access porn. At some point, and maybe we’re near it, there will be capitulation.
LikeLike
I honestly don’t think porn is the big causative factor here, so much as it is a beneficiary. Western and in particular American culture has building up to our current pinnacle of Girl Boss culture for years. We’ve been teaching women that they don’t need no man, that men are the source of all evil, they they are perfect the way they are and should never do anything to change anything about themselves or improve in any way, and that it’s sexist to suggest maybe they aren’t inherently and effortlessly perfect.
Women in the aggregate aren’t exactly a great addition to a man’s life because they come into as queens, waiting to be served, with a list of demands yet no offerings except maybe sex but then again it might be rape, “I’ll figure that part out later. Especially if you piss me off.”
Porn benefits because so many real women are self-evidently awful because that’s what our culture has taught them to be, and role models of femininity and women working with men and supporting men and admiring men … role models like that have been burned from the culture.
LikeLike
We will see. There is still a powerful segment of the culture trying to maintain the precious status quo. To everybody’s detriment including their own, but if they were good at thinking we never would have gone down this road in the first place.
LikeLike
Human culture has existed for thousands of years and women still can’t figure out that attitude and effort count as much as looks. A lot of this TikTok “Sydney Sweeney is a Nazi” lunatics are first and foremost repellant because they are hateful, bitter narcissists. Not because they are physically unattractive. Though most of them are, attitude and calibrated expectations helps solve for that.
The problem is the culture tells every nasty, negative, self-centered twat that she’s a 10, she deserves a Brad Pitt who makes 7 figures and treats her like a queen. These are not realistic expectations for 99% of women. And they will never have a satisfying romantic relationships as long as they subscribe to said expectations.
LikeLike
Interesting points. Ultimately, we’ve been doing women a disservice by emphasizing romantic love for the last two centuries. For almost the entirety of human history, romantic love wasn’t ever a serious consideration for a mate and I do not see how its emphasis has improved things for the better.
LikeLike
Good read:
The Fist Went Up
a reflection on courage
Holly MathNerd
Jul 30, 2025
https://hollymathnerd.substack.com/p/the-fist-went-up
LikeLike
This rings true:
https://www.natesilver.net/p/is-epstein-the-new-russiagate
LikeLike
The trouble for the left is that after the Russian Collusion Hoax, “very fine people” hoax, etc. that people on the right assume the democrats and the media are lying when it comes to Trump.
And since they don’t have the energy to figure out precisely where the lie lives, the story dies on the vine because it just turns into a bunch of lefties hyperventilating on news networks Trump voters don’t watch in the first place.
LikeLike
Funny:
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/into-the-abyss-trumps-bizarro-new
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good interview with a DOGE member in the State Department.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/opinion/doge-foreign-aid-jeremy-lewin.html
LikeLike