38 Comments

My opinion about who RFK will take more votes from is: Who cares?

Since he's a serious candidate for President, it doesn't matter; his obvious goal is to get more votes than both!

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"Kennedy is the only major candidate talking about the economic and cultural fallout from the government’s catastrophic Covid era overreach and has made it central to his campaign."

To me the fallout touches too many lives. The laptop class with the luxury to live in denial are a small, disconnected minority & no amount of denial will undo the carnage that continues.

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Guaranteeing low mortgage rates for homebuyers will make the affordable housing crisis worse by boosting demand, bringing it forward, and enabling home sellers to command a premium. I like RFK Jr. but that policy is an economic dud. He needs better advisors. I'll volunteer!

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Home sellers can only command what people will pay. Eliminate the investors and the market reins itself in. Any premium would be minimual based on that concern.

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Yeah, but if buyers have artificially low interest rates, they can afford more hence the market will be artificially inflated still. It doesn’t make sense.

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Low interest rates for everybody would have that effect (to an extent) but low interest rates for one group of people doesn't. The market really isnt that simplistic. Add insurance and rate valuations and it really governs itself. Most people dont pay a premium for a house their insurance company won't cover at that amount and there are enough buyers out there with that mindset to keep the house prices in check. It all comes down to what the house is worth to rebuild and the land it is sitting on, not what the interest rate is.

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Fiddling with mortgage terms absolutely distorts the housing market. All the Canadian government did back in 2006 was allow 40 year mortgages and it set off a massive buying spree since more people could qualify. This pushed prices sky high and caused a massive bubble that is hurting Canadians to this day, despite the government reversing that decision.

Low rates for people who want to buy a home when the cost of money for all other purposes is increasing every quarter will absolutely set off a huge buying spree. I’d be the first in line to get myself a cheap mortgage and use that inevitable bubble to leverage for more cheap mortgages. People aren’t dumb and this policy is ripe for both abuse and unintended consequences.

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Changing to forty years mortgage rates is a much bigger change than allowing first home owners a lower interest rate. A change of 10 years in your repayment schedule is a massive change. Allowing first home owners into the market is allowing the group most likely to be cautious and already laden with debts such as college fees, car loans, business loans. Most schemes of this nature will cap the house prices at a set amount so it only ever effects the lower priced houses in the suburbs and as soon as the sale price goes above that set amount the scheme no longer applies. These sort of first home owner schemes are in place all over the western world (and possibly other places as well) and the real estate market has not crashed or boomed in any of those settings. Barron Trump wouldnt qualify for the scheme because his circumstances eliminate him based on the criteria to qualify. You can be first in line but the people and departments designing the scheme have seen your type for decades and know how to stop your plans dead in their tracks.

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Anyone who has taken Econ 101 knows if you boost demand without increasing supply, the price goes up. RFK Jr. needs to focus on increasing the supply of housing, which is the real problem, not subsidizing aspirational homeowners. Abolish zoning and get the NIMBYs out of the way so that more housing can be built and cities can densify. I know he's opposed to suburban sprawl so he should focus on that.

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The reason that the interest rates are so high is because the bad behavior of the elite. They still deserve to pay the high interest rates and the common person should be relieved of that burden.

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Thank both of you for this back-and-forth. It was very informative for those of us less informed on this topic!

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"Boosting demand"? But even if you have low mortgage rates, that doesn't mean that there's gonna be the money there to lend. Investors may have other priorities if they can't get a high rate of return.. Just spitballing, but what if you couldnt get loans at any interest rate at all? The mortgage industry was just a service business like anything else: they lent money, and they charged a fee for doing that related to the amount of labor involved in processing the loan? That was the solution of the prophets of the old Testament and the church Fathers up through Bernardine of Siena and Savonarola who was murdered by the monied interests.

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Thank you.

DNC criminal cabal has completely left its Democrat base and now supports wars, censorship and crimes of Big Pharma.

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For the love of all that's holy, will you people STOP getting your economic information from neoliberals. Mr. Kennedy will NEED fiat currency if he has any intention of making good on his goals, and unless and until he and his campaign advisors understand the influx of it in the form of the COVID payments IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE HIGH COST OF ANYTHING they're all just repeating the same misinformation that's kept the oligarchs and plutocrats in control for most of the country's history.

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Fiat currency is all the world has, get over it, there will never be enough precious metals for use in economics.

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The US hasn't used gold to back its currency since 1971. The point of fiat currency is that it's backed by the sovereign country's entire body of resources, including its labor force. The reason you see neoliberals screaming for a return to the gold standard is that it flatly benefits the wealthy at the expense of everyone else.

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He’s not trying to completely fiat currency. From what I understand, Bitcoin would limit fractional lending only to some degree, and inject some must needed discipline into the market.

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In the last election, my mom was going to vote for Biden and I was going to vote for Trump. But I was able to convince my mom to vote for Jo Jorgensen along with me so that we wouldnt have to vote for either Biden or Trump. This arrangement mathematically made it so our votes did not get "thrown away" by voting for Jorgensen . If Kennedy can get that message out: collaborate with someone who shares your distaste for both parties and both candidates the parties are preparing to offer but would prefer the other candidate than yourself, and vote for Kennedy -- I think he can get a lot more people voting for him. My mom dislikes Trump more than Biden. I dislike Biden more than Trump. At this juncture, I plan on talking to her and asking her to join me in voting for Kennedy. If some other third candidate comes about that I want to win and has a decent chance to win, maybe I will ask to her vote for them, but Kennedy is at this moment that candidate. If people who might vote for Kennedy look for people "on the other side" who might make a deal, it could be very helpful.

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Except that Trump is anything but a RINO, and he is not a politician

So your Mom is a normie. There are many but their numbers dwarfed but those who understand exactly what is happening...

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Support for Third U.S. Political Party Up to 63%, Highest in Poll History

BY JEFFREY M. JONES

https://news.gallup.com/poll/512135/support-third-political-party.aspx

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Kennedy is the only candidate who will make the regulatory agencies, specifically the Food & Drug

Administration and Federal Communications Commission place the PUBLIC INTEREST above those that they are supposed to regulate. In order for a market economy to work in the public interest, this is essential. Crony capitalism is behind most of our problems.

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nah, they need to be dismantled, not possible to fix it from within

There is exactly no evidence that it is only a few bad apples.

It is the whole bushel...

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His inability to define BlackRock/The City of London THE ENEMY OF ALL HUMANITY/CRIMINAL AGAINST HUMANITY...Impossible to support him.

MUST BUILD WALL...As, it's the only protection for the innocent humans, babies and small children being trafficked across the border as they're too small to get over the wall and adults are forced to go to Legal Ports of Entry where they are rescued.

MUST ADOPT a far advanced moderation towards ending 'Murder in the Womb'...MURDERING BABIES IS NOT AN ACT OF AN ADVANCED SOCIETY. Beyond 6 weeks, the zygote has become a fetus and FEELS THE PAIN OF BEING RIPPED APART. Adults MUST once again be practice SELF DISCIPLINE with sexuality and ACCEPT REPOSIBILITY FOR PREGNANCY by at least bringing children to term and to give birth.

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"............Perhaps the area of greatest concern to Americans is the government and corporate assault on the First Amendment right to free speech.........."

I'm not sure I agree with that statement. The focus by the current government (and mainstream media) on "disinformation" has done just the opposite so that more Americans want to limit free speech. Additionally, the interference in the 2020 election by the "deep state" was supported by many of not most democrats to prevent the election of Trump i.e., undermine democracy to save it!

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Oct 9, 2023·edited Oct 9, 2023

If it is not the "area of greatest concern to Americans," the government and corporate assault on the First Amendment right to free speech SHOULD BE their greatest concern. The First Amendment is paramount to the survival of our republic and the Constitution on which it was founded. I will never vote for a candidate - for any office - who is not a vocal free speech absolutist.

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Fantastic piece thanks! This will help us more effectively proselytize on social media for sure.

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People that are devoted to Trump would rather die than even consider anyone else! It was the same way back in 2016 which is how you knew Hillary didn't stand a chance but even far greater now! That said contrary to what the media proclaims Biden is polling at 20% and perhaps even less. That's just common sense but also stated by Martin Armstrong. So of course RFK would gain the Democratic vote! The other side of that coin is running someone else which is rumored to be Hillary! The bad news being, if you think they corrupted the last election you ain't see nothing yet because they'll claim and blame Trumps loss on RFK and the votes he stole which is of course bullshit but then again so was Biden amassing more votes than Obama etc. That's how she plans on doing it!

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The WSJ is the fake news. Please comprehend that fact. The lie and obfuscate, they are nearly finished... No one is keeping informed by taking programming from the fake news...

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The Wall Street Journal editorialized today that the ouster of Kevin McCarthy spells doom for the Trump wing of the republican party. Which means in the short run doom for the republican party altogether. However, it's not like independent voters are going to suddenly warm to Biden. Looks like a big opening for a RFK was just handed to him by Matt Gaetz and his ragtag crew.

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Accurate assessment is impossible by referencing the WSJ. Trump and patriot Gaetz got rid of a RINO, you should be delighted instead of parroting talking points...

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Just wait and see what their careless maneuver gets them next. Doesn't really matter to me. I don't support either major party. Been registered independent all my life and glad to finally have a viable independent candidate to vote for

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Same for me. 2024 might just be the year for an independent to win.

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Politicians commonly evade responsibility for their actions by replacement of arguments on behalf of the public policies that they advocate by pontifications, for unlike arguments, pontifications cannot be checked for accuracy. This being the case, it would be well if Mr. Kennedy were to set himself apart from run of the mill politicians by making arguments rather than pontifications.

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RFK jr needs to seriously consider the synergies he could bring to the Trump ticket and then have 8 years of his own presidency. This is the only way to clean out the swamp creatures. Make it clear to them that the same old process of lying isn’t going to work

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Trump is NOT a leader, he is a sad, unhappy failure of a man. Kennedy is a real leader.

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