Who Holds the $1.65 Trillion of Apartment Building Debt amid Eviction Bans and Plunging Occupancy Rates at High Rises? by Wolf Richter • Dec 18, 2020 • 186 Comments You guessed it: For over half of it, taxpayers are on the hook. Time to take a look.
Biggest Share Buyback Queens in Q3: Tech and Buffett. The Banks Are Gone. But Share Buybacks Plunged 42% YoY by Wolf Richter • Dec 17, 2020 • 151 Comments Funded with debt: Share buybacks totaled $5 trillion since 2012. Over same period, corporate debt soared by $4.5 trillion.
As Short-Term Renters & Immigration Fizzle, and People Move Out to “Work from Somewhere Else,” London Apartment Vacancies Soar, Rents Drop by Nick Corbishley • Dec 17, 2020 • 57 Comments “Unprecedented space across the West End”: REIT Shaftesbury PLC grapples with a new reality.
Where Americans Splurged & Where They Cut Back in 13 Whiplash-Charts by Wolf Richter • Dec 16, 2020 • 149 Comments Stimulus Fatigue sets in. Second month of declining retail sales in a row. But online sales eked out a new record, if barely.
Congress to Pass $17 Billion Bailout of Airline Shareholders & Bondholders, to Top Off Prior Bailout. Industry Applauds, Airline Stocks Jump by Wolf Richter • Dec 15, 2020 • 161 Comments Top 4 airlines burned $45 billion on share buybacks since 2012. If airlines run out of money, Chapter 11 bankruptcy works. Airlines proved it.
California “Techsodus”: Tech Companies, Billionaires, Millionaires, Tech Employees Flee San Francisco & Silicon Valley by Wolf Richter • Dec 14, 2020 • 253 Comments And we coined “Management by Zooming Around.” Which is what Oracle’s Larry Ellison is doing.
Bracing for Impact: My View as British Expat Just Before Brexit by Nick Corbishley • Dec 14, 2020 • 104 Comments None of the gloomiest predictions of how a Hard Brexit could impact UK expats in the EU has come to pass. But there are complications.
Tesla, Quadruple-WTF Chart of the Year: It Should Just Sell Shares on Autopilot at Huge Prices and Exit Sordid Business of Making Cars by Wolf Richter • Dec 12, 2020 • 274 Comments Global market share of 1%. But market cap = combined total of Toyota, Volkswagen, Daimler, GM, BMW, Honda, Ford. Raised $10 billion in three months by selling shares.
Update on the Fed’s QE by Wolf Richter • Dec 11, 2020 • 120 Comments No Wonder the Cry Babies on Wall Street are clamoring for more. Five SPVs, already on ice, will expire on December 31.
For HSBC, Life Gets Very Complicated in Hong Kong & China, its Number One Market, as China Tightens the Screws by Nick Corbishley • Dec 11, 2020 • 41 Comments Amid concerns China’s authorities are using the account seizures to crack down on dissent.
