$10K Migrant Prepaid Cards, New 500 Sanctions Following Navalny's Death and Europe's War Time Economies
Key Events and News for the Week Ended February 23, 2024
Domestic Events:
Mortgage rates increased this week.
According to Freddie Mac, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.90% vs 6.77% last week.
15-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.29%, up from last week when they averaged 6.12%.
Despite elevated interest rates, existing home sales increased in January: an increase of 3.1% to 4.00M vs. 3.96M consensus.
Additionally, the median home sales price increased 5.1% to $379,100 on a year over year basis. This marks the seventh month of price gains.
The Biden administration forgave $1.2 billion in student loans for approximately 153,000 borrowers.
The U.S. Department of Education reported that a total of $138 billion in student loan debt has been forgiven so far by the Biden administration.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams decided to issue prepaid debit cards of up to $10,000 in taxpayer funds to illegal immigrants - no ID check or fraud controls. Reportedly, migrant family of four could get up to $15, 200 per year of taxpayer cash, while a single migrant could receive up to $345 per month.
Moreover, Adams approved (without a bid!) the $53 million contract debit card project with a questionable third party New Jersey-based private firm, Mobility Capital Finance.
The $53 million contract reviewed by CBS New York gives Mobility Capital Finance lots of fees for services, including:
A $125,000 one-time set-up fee,
$250,000 in annual management fees,
And fees based on how much money is distributed to migrants -- $1.5 million for the first $50 million handed out, and $2.5 million for the next $100 million.
Effectively, millions in taxpayer funds will be distributed by a third party entity to migrants without any controls or oversight.
The former IMF chief economist, Oliver Blanchard, warned of a looming fiscal crisis in the United States.
I discussed the details in a recent video available on YouTube and Rumble.
Delinquencies on commercial real estate loans held by the US banks have been increasing. Since the Federal Reserve is set to keep rates unchanged until mid-2024 (the first rate cut is likely to be in June) a systemic credit event is becoming increasingly likely.
There is more than $900 billion of debt on US commercial and multifamily real estate that will have to be refinanced this year. An asset management firm, Marathon Asset Management, warned that small to mid size banks are moving towards 8-10% default rates in their commercial real estate loan portfolios.
After recent declines in property values following higher interest rates and adoption of hybrid working patterns about 14% of all loans and 44% of office loans appear to be in a “negative equity” where their current property values are less than the outstanding loan balances
I discussed the details in a recent video available on YouTube and Rumble.
International Events:
Although the main stream media is completely silent about this…
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to World Affairs in Context to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.