What are yall seeing?

a reply to: NorthOfStuff

Other than that, off we go back into lockdowns again because the unvaxed hoards wrecked everything.

5/10 trolling job...bravo

a reply to: Mandroid7

Id like to hear more on the real estate angle of you could indulge.

Where I'm at, west michigan, the market is insane. Home doubling even tripling in market value in 3 years. Bidding wars etc.

Who's buying these? Who's actually risking the capital in a clear bubble market?

Some sources point at Blackrock and that angle makes sense but the scale were seeing, their exposure must be past the point of risk=reward. Again, in an obvious bubble market. What are the plebs like myself not seeing here?

Well, you, me, MSB and Chief are all about an hour or two's drive apart, but maybe that kind of triangulated reporting area can help others watching prices in the area, if need be it. Having said that, I'll bite.

originally posted by: JinMI
Id like some anecdotes to accompany mine. No need to establish your location, region is fine.

I'm seeing extended shipping times on all my Prime orders.

I haven't ordered anything from Amazon in probably two months now, but it took over a week to get it.

It was Timothy hay for the guinea pigs, I couldn't fricking find any in town for a brief bit. By the time it got here, it was restocked in stores anyway, WTF.

Subjectively large fluctuations in fuel prices and goods at the fuel stations. Coffee, snacks etc

Yep, we've noticed the gas can go from $3.05 to pushing $3.20 overnight and back again the next day.
Not sure about the gas station coffee & snacks, we don't usually get those.

The few small towns around me are gutted of small business.

I've noticed some of the tiny towns outside the "highway ring" here are still struggling to keep up. I feel real damn bad for them, the big corporations got plenty of help just via funneling business their way. Then they dipped into the government funds. Assholes.

The larger chains are having restocking issues if they have product at all.

Yep, I've noticed we're having less options for brands of plain pellet feed for the guineas.

Most everywhere that is still open is hiring.

That may be debatable. There's signs and listings everywhere indeed, but I'm starting to hear from neighbors, and our kids' friends' parents, that the pickens are slim, & seem to be more symbolic than genuine. One of the dads has been lamenting for two weeks about zero recontacts after almost 20 applications (he's gunning for a better paying job)
Evidently, even the staffing/headhunter agencies don't' have much to offer. That's a pretty bad sign, means there's less than advertised out there.


Considering that, I'm willing to wager that we're being BS'd on the stability of the job market (at least in MI) with pleas for applicants out one side of the mouth, and reluctance to ACTUALLY hire them out the other side. I think there's certainly potential for corporate businesses, at minimum, to milk the crap out of their skeleton staffed shifts, for profit. Nothing else makes sense if it's as hard to snag a new job as folks are starting to say..

a reply to: TheMirrorSelf

So my question to you MDDoxs is this, what can the common man expect to see so far as prices go? I will be leaving for the road soon, so I was wondering where you saw gas prices and food prices going.

In the short term for manufactured goods, hopefully none, just longer shipping times. I anticipate that we will overcome these challenges eventually, since expedited deliveries are the new way of doing business. i would not worry.

As it relates to food prices, I also dont anticipate any issues here right now since a significant amount in produced domestically. Though I am not an expert here, I am more familiar with manufactured goods. Gas prices will stay flat in my opinion, the USA is still sustaining a lot itself.

To sum up, I would not expect a major hit to your pocket book in the next 6 months, but beyond that we may have to reevaluate.

a reply to: JinMI

Where I'm at, west michigan, the market is insane. Home doubling even tripling in market value in 3 years. Bidding wars etc.

I’m across the pond from you, 3 bedrooms are going for 700K, with unfinished basements, and the most basic of finishes. It’s insane!

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: JinMI

Where I'm at, west michigan, the market is insane. Home doubling even tripling in market value in 3 years. Bidding wars etc.

I’m across the pond from you, 3 bedrooms are going for 700K, with unfinished basements, and the most basic of finishes. It’s insane!

That reminds me of the inverse that happened back after '08. Back in FL, after '08 depressed the crap out of our neighborhood's home values, a house on nearly a full acre with an in-ground heated pool, 3-stall detached garage AND a Mother-In-Law bungalow on it was up for sale for over 3 years, bottoming out at $150k.

I think it sold in '12, for $800k. At the time, it's market value was $500k. Talk about a bidding war, eh?

It sure seems like we're heading to the reverse at full speed, doesn't it? The expensive spreads lost a lot of value (granted, they recovered) back then, but today, the cheaper, affordable houses are going for excessive amounts. It's messed up & then some.

Southern California here... We had our fair share of crap before the crapstorm even started. I live in a beach community and I can see 20-30 container ships lined up south of the port on any given day. It's been this way since the pandemic started. Prices are ridiculous for everything across the board; gasoline, food, housing, taxes, more taxes, and just cost of living in general. Shortages in stores but just here and there Increasingly more and more homeless and not just the druggies, many with severe mental health issues. Hot summer, and this crap about drought (it's a freaking desert for gawds sake) and water shortages. Fires, and people's fuses on fire about not much of anything. A huge flock of brainwashed people wandering around waiting for better days, with masks on and just a generally dismal vibe everywhere you go. A recall election that's already been fixed with a huge mail in ballot campaign; crime on the rise, felons released during the pandemic raping and killing. More traffic and MORE TRAFFIC. Road construction everywhere that will entertain yet MORE TRAFFIC. If it all sounds negative, well maybe I have a bad attitude. I love it here and truthfully California isn't a bad place to live most of the time. But it's in decay, rapid, spiraling decay - what I've come to call anti-gentrification and frankly there's an agenda here with these psychotic politicians, I just can't figure out what the end game is. On the bright side, it was a beautiful day. I can see all the sh!t around me but I have etched out a little rose garden for myself and those I love and for now we'll just keep the blinders on, the powder dry, the bags packed and the gas tank full for the INEVITABLE day in the future.

a reply to: Nyiah

You have a PM and for hay, feed etc, you're gonna need to go out of town. Especially if you want to save some cash.

On the jobs mention, I've changed jobs 3 times in the past 2 years for more money. That is in the machinist field.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: JinMI

Where I'm at, west michigan, the market is insane. Home doubling even tripling in market value in 3 years. Bidding wars etc.

I’m across the pond from you, 3 bedrooms are going for 700K, with unfinished basements, and the most basic of finishes. It’s insane!

Urban im guessing? Maybe these larger holders are looking to rent for top roi. Maybe pricing middle class USA out, well further reinforce the serf class.

a reply to: odd1out

If you're unlucky enough not to save anything, you are taxed 40 plus percent of your income.

Its only going up as inflation escalates

a reply to: JAGStorm

Why are there lots of jobs advertised when the economy is collapsing? Has anyone actually tried to get one of these jobs?

originally posted by: anonentity
a reply to: JAGStorm

Why are there lots of jobs advertised when the economy is collapsing? Has anyone actually tried to get one of these jobs?

There is something weird going on for sure. Some of these jobs are real, and some aren’t.
I see a lot of people looking for help, childcare, elder care, landscape, cleaning and there just aren’t the bodies to do those things.

So what is going to happen? Afghan refugee as the lower rung workers? Mexicans? Other international folks? Robots?

Pennsylvania here. There's a little Italian place I get a sub at every Monday. I didn't know if they were open yesterday or not so I went today instead. Anyway, they had a sign up on the front of the register area saying something about how they had to increase the price of some of the items due to meat shortages or something along those lines.

Sorry that was sarcasm.

We had our summer break and now the unvaxed are taking the heat for spreading the delta. Restrictions are on their way back in here in Alberta and by Christmas we will be locking down again. OMHO

originally posted by: Mandroid7
a reply to: NorthOfStuff

Other than that, off we go back into lockdowns again because the unvaxed hoards wrecked everything.

5/10 trolling job...bravo

It was sarcasm. Slipped a disk and on some pain meds. I should probably do more reading and less posting tonight.

NW Mexico. Everything seems normal here. Store shelves are stocks, nothing lacking as far as can tell. Fresh produce is abundant and we just broke a two-year drought, so gardens are looking good.

Prices are going up. Friends in the country on limited income worried. I pointed out to a neighbor that her parents (now in their eighties) never worried about the price of lard or corn flour or milk because they produced their own, and we might have to revert back to that.

Seeing pretty much all those issues here in my rural part of Australia. Small businesses seem to be really struggling and with some truckers recently striking we are seeing food shortages in some areas. Inflation is also causing fast rising prices in many sectors. When people have a lot of free time and a lot of free money they buy a lot of stuff, but not enough people are actually working to produce the things people want. This is one of the main reasons excessive socialism always leads to poverty instead of wealth.

originally posted by: JinMI
a reply to: NorthOfStuff

Other than that, off we go back into lockdowns again because the unvaxed hoards wrecked everything.

Uhhh, what?

Don't feed the trolls.

Nobody is really talking about how the fed is moving to end quantitative easing and the ramifications that will have. Here's a couple articles from mid June and July about it....

Since the last week of April, the Fed has purchased $311 billion of securities to stimulate the economy, but during this same period, the Fed has absorbed $750 billion from the financial markets, so over $400 billion net was removed from the economy. There is no conceivable economic benefit from these combined actions.

www.nationalreview.com...

www.reuters.com...

originally posted by: JinMI
a reply to: Mandroid7

Id like to hear more on the real estate angle of you could indulge.

Where I'm at, west michigan, the market is insane. Home doubling even tripling in market value in 3 years. Bidding wars etc.

Who's buying these? Who's actually risking the capital in a clear bubble market?

The housing market in Australia right now is crazy, there's not much available, and what is available are going for crazy prices. I've looked into a little a bit and apparently a large part of the reason is due to a lack of new houses being built during lock-downs, and rising prices materials used to build houses, plus the rising costs of shipping the materials internationally.