Category Archives: Real estate

New Technologies to Get Around Old Laws: Algorithms Being Used to Evade Antitrust Rules, Fix Prices and Worse

Is organizing a price-fixing cartel still illegal if an algorithm tells you to do it?

Prices of New Houses Drop Further, -18% Year-Over-Year, Sales Drop, High Inventories Rise Further, Supply Jumps

More unhappy news on the residential real estate front: lotta unsold houses out there!

The Environmental Impact of Housing and Heating

Good news on the climate change front: some easy fixes to housing would have an impact.

Russia, China Unite Against US Empire

Michael Hudson on China’s wobbles, Russia-China cooperation, the revolt against colonialism and neoliberalism, and the conflict in Gaza.

WSJ’s Greg Ip Discusses China Crisis Risk

Fed whisperer Greg Ip expresses cautious concern about China, based on the latest IMF forecasts.

30-Year Treasury Yield Spikes Past 5%, 30-Year Mortgage Rates Hit 8%, Mortgage Applications Plunge

Treasury bond bloodbath, housing Market in deep-freeze, as delusions fade.

The Increasing Financialization of Germany

The FIRE sector capitalizes on Germany’s industrial decline as government diverts money from social programs to military.

US Home Insurers Are Leaving Climate Risk Areas. We Need Affordable Housing Now

When the US housing crisis meets the looming insurance crisis, only government intervention will avert catastrophe.

Hot Temperatures: A New Player in Housing Markets

Identifying a new source of climate change housing price risk: heat, as in too much.

Hoisted from Comments: China’s Unsustainable, Unbalanced Growth Model and Its Current Economic Wobbles

Musings on the routes for China out of its economic problems and whether China will actually take them.

China Schizophrenia: Jake Sullivan Makes Demands, Press Fulminates Its Ambitions as While Overhyping Current Economic Wobbles

The West’s discomfort over China’s influence and economic stature is sometimes a bit too obvious.

Private Equity on Campus: Why College Students Are Sleeping in Cars

College students are still unable to find housing despite enrollment dropping since the start of the pandemic, and a major price-fixing lawsuit against corporate landlords sheds light on why.

The Rise of Private Cops: How Not to Tackle Homelessness

Why a story on the abuse of private power, here a security guard beating up the homeless on public property, does not go far enough.

Quelle Surprise! High Fee “Alternative Investments” Produce Serious “Negative Alpha” as in Underperformance as Managers Get Rich

In his latest paper, investment expert Richard Ennis continues showing how alternative investments destroy value.