DONALD TRUMP’S CRACKDOWN ON H1B VISA ABUSE SENDS DALLAS HOME PRICES WAY DOWN
Donald Trump’s H-1B clampdown is cooling the Texas suburbs, and other parts of the country — and that may be the point.
Indian tech workers once turbocharged home prices north of Dallas. Now they’re gone — and a housing correction is already underway.
For years, the suburbs north of Dallas were ground zero for one of the most extraordinary housing booms in America. Subdivisions multiplied. Prices soared. Builders couldn’t put up homes fast enough.
The engine behind it all was a wave of Indian-born H-1B visa workers flooding into high-tech jobs along a corporate corridor that attracted more company headquarters relocations than anywhere else in the country between 2018 and today, according to real estate firm CBRE Group.
Full article:
https://t.co/oS1yeOLVk3
The US government is becoming increasingly dependent on private investors to finance its growing debt burden:
Privately held US Treasury debt maturing within 1 year is up to a record $8.3 trillion.
This figure has DOUBLED over the last 5 years, reflecting the government's growing reliance on short-term financing from private investors.
As more debt shifts into Treasury bills, a larger amount must be refinanced every year, leaving borrowing costs increasingly sensitive to interest rates and investor demand.
At the same time, foreign central banks are reducing their share of Treasury holdings, making private investors absorb a larger portion of new issuances.
As a result, the Treasury market is becoming increasingly dependent on investor demand and liquidity conditions rather than the stable long-term buyers that have traditionally anchored it.
With US public debt at an all-time high, even modest disruptions in funding markets could have an outsized impact on borrowing costs.
Treasury refinancing risks are intensifying.
Government borrowing is taxation deferred. Every deficit dollar must eventually be repaid through higher taxes, inflation, or default. Politicians prefer debt because the bill arrives after the next election. The cost doesn't disappear — it compounds.
It's time to recognize that prices have essentially doubled since 2019, regardless of what the CPI says. Construct an index based on actual prices without myriad adjustments and this is what it shows. Now think about your income with a 50% loss of purchasing power.
Another policy mistake in the making: hiking into a temporary energy spike won’t fix it, just as commodities and freight are already correcting, but it will crush families and businesses still suffering the inflation created by 2020–24 central bank excess.
via Bloomberg
We are not even close to being prepared for all the new energy demand.....
data centers are "unpredictable and potentially destabilizing force on grids already under pressure from rising demand" >>>
Texas grid flags risks as data centers, crypto sites fail voltage tests
Several large data centers and crypto facilities planning to connect to the Texas power grid ahead of peak summer demand have failed key reliability tests, raising the risk of power outages just as electricity use hits its seasonal high, according to the state grid operator.
The rapid expansion of data centers processing vast amounts of data for artificial intelligence and crypto mining is straining power grids across the United States.
Unlike traditional industrial customers, which tend to draw electricity steadily and predictably, data centers are engineered to cut their connection to the grid at the first sign of trouble to protect their equipment and keep services running. That makes them an unpredictable and potentially destabilizing force on grids already under pressure from rising demand. (Reuters)
BREAKING: Global central banks acquired +17 tonnes of gold in April, the 2nd monthly purchase this year.
This marks a sharp reversal from March, when central banks sold -30 tonnes of gold driven by Turkey and Russia.
Poland led purchases at +14 tonnes, bringing its year-to-date total to +45 tonnes, with gold reserves now at 595 tonnes.
China added +8 tonnes, the biggest monthly addition since December 2024, bringing official gold reserves to a record 2,322 tonnes, or ~9% of total reserves.
China has now purchased gold for 18 consecutive months.
Central bank demand for gold remains incredibly strong.
If you sleep 5 hours per night and die at age 75, you'll still have spent just as many years awake as a person who sleeps 8 hours per night and dies at age 89.
Anyone else notice that when a bill is beneficial to US, it takes hearing after hearing and infinite committee meetings to maybe pass the house
But when it's for Israel or Ukraine, it's passed before any of us even knew there was a bill
"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others… Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign."
- J.S. Mill
There are two types of people right now:
1. Those who think they'll "buy the dip" during a 35% market crash.
2. Those who remember what a real crash actually feels like in your chest.
Logically, buying the dip is easy.
Emotionally, watching your net worth evaporate isn’t.