Wednesday, June 24, 2026
As long as Trump doesn't veto the damn thing, the Uniparty's housing bill will become law in 10 days without his signature
But he will be remembered negatively for it in November either way.
Democrats who want to impeach the president will include it prominently in their campaigns against him.
Throwing a fit over this is about as smart as attacking Iran without a plan to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.
We call that just another Wednesday in America
France suffers major power outage as Europe sizzles in record-breaking heat
... A heat-related incident left around 68,000 homes without electricity in western France, according to the prefecture in the coastal department of Finistere. ...
This housing bill will not help people become homeowners by freeing up existing supply
House passes affordable housing bill, sends it to Trump’s desk
The U.S. House voted Tuesday night 358-32 in favor of a sprawling housing package designed to lower costs for homebuyers and increase supply. ...
The broad bi-partisan support for the bill tells you it won't do much for very many people anytime soon.
But expect the politicians to brag on it as silly season ramps up.
A key provision of the bill caps institutional investor ownership of single family homes at 350 from here on out.
Investors already owning single family homes, however, at whatever level, are grandfathered in. Blackstone, for example, owns approximately 58k such homes. It is thus prevented from buying number 58,001 under the bill.
That means that the approximately 530k+ homes currently owned by institutions, which is only about 4% of the single family housing rental pie, will not be forcibly sold into the market.
About 87% of the pie is individual investors who own in the neighborhood of 1-5 homes. There will be no change mandated there either, which is where most of the available single family housing stock is.
There are 46.4 million renter-occupied housing units in the United States in the first quarter. Of those, approximately 11.3 million are single family homes. That means that the number of owners of those rental homes ranges roughly between 9.8 million and 2 million individual investors, probably living in a rich suburb right near you.
The bill does prevent umbrella companies from owning multiple small entities created by individual investors to beat the 350 cap, with stiff penalties, so that is good.
The problem is this bill entrenches the status quo of the rich preying on both ends of the housing spectrum.
Mobile homes in parks are not considered single family homes under the bill. They are considered multi-unit commercial real estate. Private equity investors are notorious for buying up these parks full of affordable housing and jacking up lot rents on approximately 4.3 million homesites to the moon. Up to 12 million mostly low income Americans live in such parks.
The bill eliminates the mobile chassis rule for new manufactured homes, marginally reducing their cost. But imagine parking one in one of those parks and being unable to move it while the landlord holds a rent gun to your head. There are other provisions in the bill to help these existing park owners, and the mobile home owners who live there to borrow more to pay the greedy bastards.
11.3 million hostages to the rich on the front end, 12 million on the ass end.
The bill had passed in the U.S. Senate 85-5 on Monday.
Since the beginning of the 21st century in the United States, growth of renter-occupied housing continues in the ascendant while growth of owner-occupied housing continues south.
We still live with the deleterious effects of the Great Recession, when more than 6 million residences were completely foreclosed in the United States, and this is the best our elected representatives can do almost two decades on.
Congress is already getting Mamdanied as this goes to Trump for his signature.
When electing a socialist mayor has weightier consequences than many people had first imagined
Three New York Democrats backed by Mamdani win House seat primaries; 2 incumbents lose
... Brad Lander defeated incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman in the 10th District; Darializa Avila Chevalier bested Rep. Adriano Espaillat in the 13th District; and Claire Valdez won the primary for the 7th District, where Rep. Nydia Velázquez is not seeking reelection. ...
The Democratic Socialists of America organization backed Chevalier and Valdez.
A year ago, the DSA’s efforts helped Mamdani stun the local and national political world by soundly defeating former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic mayoral primary, and months later in the general election.
“It’s not just a question of electing more Democrats. It’s a question of electing better Democrats,” Mamdani said Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. ...
Tuesday, June 23, 2026
Middle East tanker transits June 16-22, 2026: Strait of Hormuz 7.6/day, Bab-el-Mandeb Strait 17.1/day
SoH E: 3.6/day
SoH W: 4.0/day
BAM SE: 7.3/day
BAM NW: 9.9/day
The main takeaway from this recent very granular chart of Strait of Hormuz tanker transits is that 14 total transits both ways on the most recent day observed is not 70 as at the beginning of the year
For June 18-20, JMIC Update 061 had 30 total tanker transits whereas this Bloomberg guy has just 24.
Traitor Trump gives aid to the Axis of Evil by unlocking Iranian crude oil, 90% of which is normally purchased by the Chicoms
U.S. issues sweeping Iran oil sanctions waivers, unlocking billions in revenue for Tehran
The U.S. has issued a sweeping rollback of sanctions on Iranian oil, allowing dollar-denominated trade for the first time in more than four decades ...
The U.S. Treasury on Monday issued a wide-ranging 60-day exemption allowing Iran to produce and sell crude oil, petrochemical and petroleum products in U.S. dollars through Aug. 21. ...
The move on Monday marks the most sweeping rollback of American oil sanctions against Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, reversing years of pressure designed to cripple Iran’s economy, and is expected to deliver billions in oil revenue for the Iranian regime. ...
U.S. President Donald Trump defended the lifting of the sanctions, saying on Monday that any oil profits were meant for Iran to purchase American agricultural goods, rather than rebuild its military. ...
“With dollar clearing now authorized, expect China to accelerate purchases aggressively,” said Maleki. Chinese buyers, in the past, have settled transactions through opaque channels to avoid secondary U.S. sanctions exposure. ...
He expects a rapid storage “top-off cycle” under which Chinese buyers could rush to replenish stockpiles before the exemption expires in August.
China currently purchases roughly 90% of Iran’s oil exports, with teapots accounting for the bulk of China’s imports. The country’s crude imports shrank by an unprecedented 4.8 million barrels per day (mbd) between February and May — a steeper drop than the 4 mbd decline seen during the depths of the pandemic in the second half of 2020, according to JPMorgan. ...
Iran will likely use this 60-day window to repair war-damaged oil facilities and lock in longer-term contracts with Chinese buyers, said Michael Feller, chief strategist at Geopolitical Strategy. “This will be a huge boost to Iran, both to its economy and its sense of victory.”
Monday, June 22, 2026
Disgusting Trump is so desperate for oil he's now importing oil from the terrorist enemy to the United States, something we haven't done in quantity since the 1979 Iranian Revolution
The max was 6k bpd in 2021 of petroleum and petroleum liquids, the equivalent of 2.2 million barrels, slightly more than one VLCC can carry.
What's next, imports from Russia?
Treasury Department authorizes Iranian oil sales through August
... The authorization allows the import of Iranian oil and refined products into the U.S.
... The authorization allows the import of Iranian oil and refined products into the U.S. Payment can be made to Tehran in dollars. The license expires Aug. 21, unless it’s renewed. ...
Oil prices fall after U.S. authorizes Iranian crude sales
Trump actually started the ball rolling during the pandemic in 2020.
He bought some petroleum products from Iran in October 2020 after the collapse in oil demand crashed prices of WTI to -$37/barrel in April.
Biden made purchases in March 2021, January 2022, and in 2023 from August to October.
The homeownership rate soared to 68.8% in 2006 after nearly twenty years of Alan Greenspan at the Fed
The rate when he began as Fed chairman was 64% in 1987, and again in 1990 and 1994, before taking off during the Clinton-Gingrich era.
Supporting the high homeownership rate was full time employment on an average annual basis north of 50% of population for twenty-three consecutive years 1986-2008.
We call it The Lost World.
Core pce inflation remained high but falling during Greenspan's first seven years, but stayed below the trend he helped to create for the remaining thirteen
PCEPILFE fell to 2.23% yoy in 1994 and as low as 1.27% by 1998 even as the Fed Funds Effective Rate (DFF) averaged 5.49% for four years 1995-1998.
Greenspan's observed "irrational exuberance" in stocks certainly wasn't caused by low interest rate policy. By today's standards his policy was hawkish even as the market formed a bubble.
His career core pce inflation performance averaged 2.46% yoy.
It is difficult to imagine today's world being at all patient enough to tolerate Alan Greenspan, especially the Alan Greenspan of 1987-1990 when DFF averaged 7.89%.
He would be run out of town like Ben Bernanke and Jerome Powell, neither of whom arguably were in office long enough to really judge fairly by comparison with Alan Greenspan and both of whom were shabbily treated by Obama and Trump.
Trump's tech-bro tyranny is censoring Trump's critics
Musk Suspends X Accounts Criticizing JD Vance...
I can confirm from personal experience this weekend that this is true after being unaccountably disconnected multiple times just out of the blue and forced to log back in, only to have that process throttled as well.
AMAZON, GOODREADS restrict reviews of Vance book after savage critiques...
He's killing the ducklings, he's killing the offspring of the wildlife that lives there
Dead duck found floating in Trump's new Reflecting Pool...
A DEAD duckling has been found floating in Donald Trump’s troubled new
Reflecting Pool – just days after workers dumped bleach-like chemicals
into the water following its $14million revamp.
... The sad discovery comes just days after workers were photographed pouring large bottles of hydrogen peroxide into the pool in a bid to tackle the growing algae problem, TMZ reported.
Hydrogen peroxide is generally considered safer than chlorine bleach because it breaks down in water – but high concentrations can pose a risk to ducks and other birds. ...
Middle East tanker transits June 14-20, 2026: Strait of Hormuz 5.4/day, Bab-el-Mandeb Strait 16.7/day
Tanker transits through the Strait of Hormuz would be normal if they were more like 70 per day total, in and out. This would be out of ~138 total transits, which is the normal historical average including also cargo/bulk/etc. vessels as stated in the latest JMIC Update 061.
We are nowhere close to that after Trump's so-called peace deal with Iran.
People who think the world isn't still headed to an oil supply crisis don't know what they're talking about.
SoH E: 2.6/day; 4.3/day June 18-20 (lol get real)
BAM SE: 7.7/day
The Maestro is dead, long live The Maestro
Greenspan had the main ideas right:
Low inflation over full employment, because inflation is the worst tax on the people;
And broad property ownership as the foundation supporting the American economy and securing the consent of the governed.
During his nearly 20-year tenure, the Federal Funds Effective Rate averaged 4.87%.
This is a really good look at Greenspan's career from Marty Steinberg at CNBC. It is one of the best reads I've had at CNBC in a long time.
Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Fed, dies at age 100
... Throughout, he focused on fighting inflation over promoting full employment. His supporters say he presided over the longest economic expansion in U.S. history, but critics said Greenspan’s low interest rate policies set the stage for the housing bubble that burst into the Great Recession a year after his successor, Ben Bernanke, took the Fed helm.
... in his best-selling memoir “The Age of Turbulence,” he defended the low-rate policy, which encouraged people to buy homes: “I believed then, as now, that the benefits of broadened homeownership are worth the risk. Protection of property rights, so critical to a market economy, requires a critical mass of owners to sustain political support.” ...
Two tier Keir calls it quits after the biggest Labour victory in decades in July 2024, had said he wouldn't and would fight
Joe Biden was once king of the heap, too, until his enemies to the left pushed him off.
That's the story in the UK, too, which CNBC doesn't tell you.
Socialist Andy Burnham led the rebellion against Starmer from within the Labour Party.
Burnham is a self-described enemy of British nationalism.
UK PM Starmer resigns as Britain faces its seventh leader in 10 years
... Keir Starmer’s resignation comes almost 10 years to the day since the U.K. voted to leave the European Union. His successor will be the country’s seventh leader in that period, underscoring how political and economic turmoil continue to unsettle British politics long after the Brexit process was concluded.
... Starmer’s government was ultimately weakened by dwindling poll ratings, Labour infighting and growing public frustration over its failure to deliver quickly on growth and the cost of living. ...
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