The Establishment Finally Admits: Homes Are Unaffordable
This is patently obvious to all but the least observant among us. As home costs go up, it’s more difficult to save enough for a down payment, and with interest rates sky high and rental prices climbing, “the American Dream” is becoming less about the entrepreneurial spirit and more about inheriting well.
“[I]n nearly half of metro areas, buyers must make more than $100,000 to afford a median-priced home; in 2021, that was the case in only 11% of markets,” the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies found.
It’s nice that NPR decided to blow a whistle and alert their audience of upper-crust Democrat boomers that younger Americans are deeply demoralized by the economy. However! As my colleague John Nolte noted today at Breitbart News, government media couldn’t bring themselves to blame The Big Guy and Bidenomics. This is silly on their part because it’s the most wishful of thinking if they believe that American voters won’t put two and two together.
It was, after all, Joe Biden who ballooned inflation with his excessive spending, open borders, and deliberate undercutting our own energy sector, among other disastrous economic policies.
We also got news Thursday that housing starts are now at a four-year low. It should go without saying given that there is no end in sight to high financing costs; it’s a bold move to start a new project right now.
American Socialism: Dawn of Luxury Homelessness
It’s serendipitous that on the day we learned that NPR is finally aware of the devastation Biden has wrought on our economy, we discovered that Los Angeles is building luxury homeless shelters. The “shelter,” a 278 unit-19-story high rise in downtown, includes “a gym, art room, music room, computer room, and library.” If that sounds expensive, that’s because it is. In fact, the $600,000 per unit price tag, all funded by taxpayers, is higher than the median price for a condominium in L.A.
Not to get too dark, but this does seem like a test run for the dystopian socialist future where A.I. has replaced 80 percent of the jobs and made a fraction of oligarchs fabulously wealthy while the rest of us live off of their semi-luxurious handouts.
We own nothing and will be happy… or so they hope.
During the pandemic, the government paid many of us to stay home and not work. The tax rate for many Americans is above 50 percent of their income (if you include federal, state, sales, property, etc.). Now this. Is it even a debate whether or not this is socialism?
Interpreting Jobless Claims
The number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits came in at 238,000, which is a tad better than the 243,000 number from last week; that number was a ten-month high. These numbers suggest that there are substantial levels of layoffs right now, which indicates the economy might be weakening. The median forecast was slightly lower at 235,000 jobs.
Philly Fed Index Declines
The manufacturing sector in the mid-Atlantic region general activity index fell by 3 points to 1.3 in June. Forecasters surveyed by the Wall Street Journal anticipated a +5.0 reading. This is the fifth month of positive Philly Fed numbers, but it does show that growth is marginal. The unexpected slowdown no doubt is tied to the slumping shipping index, which plunged to -7.2. The Philly Fed suggested that we ought not count on much growth in these indicators this year.
A Bittersweet Programming Note
We end this Breitbart Business Digest on a bittersweet note: we will be on hiatus tomorrow because John Carney is on vacation, and I’m headed to Santa Barbara to deliver a speech for Young America’s Foundation titled “Lessons for a Young Conservative.” We’ll carry the speech on Breitbart.com on Saturday at 5:30pm ET/2:30pm PT. Check it out! John will be back in the captain’s chair Monday.
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