by Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse Blog:
Many experts are now warning that we could see the housing market and the commercial real estate market simultaneously crash in 2023. If that were to happen, it would put an extreme amount of stress on our financial system. The only way we will avoid such a fate is if the Federal Reserve starts reducing interest rates. Unfortunately, that isn’t going to happen. In fact, officials at the Federal Reserve keep telling us that interest rates are going to keep going up. This is literally a suicidal course of action, because higher rates are going to absolutely crush the economy.
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If you doubt this, just consider what is already happening.
According to a new Alignable survey that was just released, 41 percent of all small business owners in the United States could not pay rent in November…
Due to high inflation, reduced consumer spending, higher rents and other economic pressures, U.S.-based small business owners’ rent problems just escalated to new heights nationally this month, based on Alignable’s November Rent Poll of 6,326 small business owners taken from 11/19/22 to 11/22/22.
Unfortunately, 41% of U.S.-based small business owners report that they could not pay their rent in full and on time in November, a new record for 2022. Making matters worse, this occurred during a quarter when more money should be coming in and rent delinquency rates should be decreasing. But so far this quarter, the opposite has been true.
In September, that same survey found that 30 percent of all small business owners could not pay rent.
Many were deeply alarmed by that figure, and then it jumped up to 37 percent in October.
Now we are at 41 percent, and if there is any time when small business owners should be able to pay rent it is during the holiday season.
When commercial real estate tenants cannot pay rent, it inevitably has a domino effect.
It appears that we will soon have millions of empty commercial spaces all over the nation, and many owners will soon be unable to make loan payments because sufficient rent money is not coming in.
If the Federal Reserve insists on raising rates even higher, I anticipate that we will eventually be facing a commercial real estate crash of unprecedented size and scope.
Meanwhile, the implosion of the housing market continues to pick up speed.
Existing home sales have now declined for nine months in a row, and the median price of a home in the U.S. has now fallen by about 7 percent.
Sadly, many experts are now warning that things will only get worse in the months ahead. Here is one example…
“In one line: Collapse in prices is coming,” wrote Kieran Clancy, senior U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
I told my readers that this would happen if the Federal Reserve aggressively hiked interest rates.
Of course home prices could soon fall a lot more. In fact, Pantheon is projecting that they could ultimately fall by a total of 20 percent from the peak…
Pantheon estimates that existing home prices will keep falling, ultimately dropping by about 20% from their June peak of around $414,000.
If you are planning to sell a home, I would try to do it as quickly as possible before prices go way down.
Meanwhile, another troubled cryptocurrency firm has just filed for bankruptcy…
Distressed crypto firm BlockFi has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey following the implosion of putative acquirer FTX.
So why is BlockFi in so much trouble?
Well, the truth is that there are a lot of reasons, but one of the biggest is the fact that they loaned 275 million dollars to FTX that will never be repaid…
In the filing, the company listed an outstanding $275 million loan to FTX US, the American arm of Sam Bankman-Fried’s now-bankrupt empire.
I warned my readers that FTX would not be the last domino to fall.
And now another one has tumbled over.
Needless to say, there will be many more, because FTX “has more than 1 million creditors”…
In a matter of days, FTX went from a $32 billion valuation to bankruptcy as liquidity dried up, customers demanded withdrawals and rival exchange Binance ripped up its nonbinding agreement to buy the company. Gross negligence has since been exposed. Ray added that a “substantial portion” of assets held with FTX may be “missing or stolen.”
FTX has more than 1 million creditors, according to updated bankruptcy filings, hinting at the huge impact of its collapse on crypto traders and other counterparties with ties to Bankman-Fried’s empire.
FTX was just one giant Ponzi scheme, but of course the entire system is just one giant Ponzi scheme.
The entire thing is eventually coming down, and a lot of prominent voices are trying to sound the alarm about this.
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