Chaganomics

New piece by Chad in The European Conservative

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/jCziUdDSpDmAvubi/?mibextid=qi2Omg

Clueless Politicians Fuel Europe-Wide Rebellion Leftists should stop the name-calling and work with the right-wing to focus on real-life issues.

From our friends at The European Conservative

New Right-Wing Party To Create French ‘Union of the Rights’ The Les Républicains party, unable to choose between the centre and the Right, is effectively defunct and must make way for a new political project.

From our friends - Atlantic Playbook

Now is the Time for American Conservatives and Independents to Lead the Charge in Protecting Nature

Now is the Time for American Conservatives and Independents to Lead the Charge in Protecting Nature Environmentalism has, unfortunately, become a highly partisan issue.

Late-Stage Capitalism Is Not Real
Just another Marxist (progressive) theory...

https://www.atlanticplaybook.com/p/late-stage-capitalism-is-not-real

Where is venture capital investment happening in America?

New podcast episode featuring NBA referee Ken Mauer.

Ken is one of three NBA Referees to work for over 36 years.

One of only four referees to work in five different decades. One of only seven referees to work over 2,000 regular season NBA games. Kenny has officiated over 200 NBA Playoff games and 19 NBA Finals games to date.

In October 2022, Ken Mauer was terminated due to his religious exemption being denied. This episode discusses Kenny's situation.

You can donate to his cause here: https://www.givesendgo.com/kennymauer

Fox News - https://www.foxnews.com/media/fired-nba-referees-attorney-slam-league-sham-process-religious-covid-vaccine-exemptions

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2127142/14464603

Populists Surge Ahead of June Elections

Chad's latest for The European Conservative

Last November, Geert Wilders’ party PVV (Party for Freedom) won 37 out of 150 parliamentary seats in the Netherlands elections. PVV had previously held 16 seats. Now, Wilders is poised to become the country’s next prime minister. This result is one of the European Union’s worst nightmare scenarios.

It’s not just the Netherlands. Forecasts show that nationalist parties are surging in Finland, France, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Cyprus. As Nigel Farage recently said in The Telegraph, “UKIP and the Brexit Party were ahead of their time. The populist surge that we will see in the European elections next spring will mark the beginning of the end of the EU in its current centralized form.”

There is also a sea change in voting patterns, with younger voters joining the European nationalism movement. Populist right-wing parties in Italy, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Bulgaria have substantial backing from younger voters. In France and Spain, the youth have shifted away from centrist parties and are now supporting either the far Left or the far Right. This trend is also noticeable in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, and Denmark.

Reasons for this shift to the right include concerns about the unadulterated mass migration of low-skilled workers, a refusal to criminalize Islamic radicalization, a surge in crime, an increase in cultural relativism, widespread budgetary corruption, anti-farming legislation, waning support for the Ukraine war, anxieties about the Green New Deal, and countless other grievances. To put it mildly, most agree that centrist parties across Europe have failed.

Populists Surge Ahead of June Elections The progressive ivory tower of the EU is at risk of tumbling.

Have We Seen The Worst In The Housing Market?
The Epoch Times
By Chadwick Hagan
Jan 23, 2024

As soon as the Fed started raising rates, I expected to see a housing market correction. Luckily, this never happened. I believe asset managers like BlackRock - who have been buying up the housing supply - have buoyed housing demand and stabilized prices. This has also caused average rental rates across America to skyrocket.

December 2023 was the worst for home sales since 1995, but according to a January 18th report from Fannie Mae, the situation is improving. The report from the Fannie Mae Economic and Strategic Research Group stated: "The housing market is expected to begin a gradual return to a more normal balance in 2024, following years of significant oscillations in mortgage rates and divergences of key housing market measures from their historical, pre-pandemic relationships.”

I’ve been curious about the mortgage market, so I spoke with a well-known Atlanta-based mortgage specialist - Mike Rishel - about the market. Here is what he said:

Chad: How is the mortgage market right now? With rates going from historic lows - the 15-year mortgage rate was at 2.19 percent, and the 30-year rate was at 2.73 percent in February of 2021 - to very high rates, the situation seems dire.

Mike Rishel: We are excited because rates have come down enough in the past two months to stir up the business. I have more pre-qualified buyers from applications taken in the past two months than in the previous six months.

Read the full article below
The Epoch Times
https://link.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/business/have-we-seen-the-worst-in-the-housing-market-5572101?utm_source=andshare

Have We Seen the Worst in the Housing Market? Mortgages have become more affordable but they are still more expensive than in all of 2022.

Post from our econ/political site, Atlantic Playbook

https://atlanticplaybook.substack.com/p/desantis-is-officially-out-and-hes

Remember when debt was bad?

Once upon a time, being in debt up to your eyeballs was bad. Years back, I remember chatter and gossip about people and companies burdened by debt. Nowadays, this has changed; no such shame exists. Debt is now considered a meaningful way to achieve growth, partly because of the long period of low interest rates. During this time, you often heard the term “free money.”

Debt surrounds us, whether by debt-laden companies teetering on bankruptcy, consumers’ household finances being consumed by high-interest credit, or the federal government overloading on debt. Debt is now part of our culture. America is a debt-driven economy within all aspects of life.

https://link.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/business/remember-when-being-in-debt-was-bad-5564108?utm_source=ref_share&utm_campaign=app-cc



The Epoch Times

Remember When Being in Debt Was Bad? Business & MarketsBusiness ColumnistsRemember When Being in Debt Was Bad?US$100 bills are shown in a picture taken on Dec. 7, 2021. (Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images)By Chadwick Hagan1/12/2024Updated: 1/12/2024Print0:00CommentaryOnce upon a time, being in debt up to your eyeballs was bad. Years back,....

2024 Election Map Forecast

https://www.chaganomics.com/2024/01/2024-election-forecast-map.html

2024 Election Forecast Map 2024 Election Forecast Map

State’s Begin Fight To Remove Trump From Ballot

From chadhagan.com

First off, I’m not a Trump apologist. That said, here is my take on the state ballot snafu.

States hoping to disqualify former President Donald Trump from the ballot have created a tsunami of controversy and debate in political circles.

In Colorado, the court’s move to disqualify former President Donald Trump from holding office under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is rife with errors.

Perhaps this is why Colorado’s Secretary of State has thrown this up to SCOTUS.

The rationale of the misguided is Trump’s alleged involvement in the U.S. Capitol attack on January 6th, 2021, where his supporters stormed the Capitol building in protest of the presidential election results.

At the moment Colorado and Maine are attempting to hold Trump responsible for his personal actions during the protest and has deemed his actions to be an insurrection, no court has convicted Trump of engaging in insurrection or rebellion.

If you remember, he was acquitted of that charge in his second impeachment by the Senate.

Heritage Foundation election law expert Hans von Spakovsky has pointed out that Section 3 of the 14 Amendment strictly applies to individuals who were previously members of Congress, officers of the United States, or state officials. Elected individuals, such as the President and Vice President, do not fall under the ambit of Section 3.

And Jed Babbin, editor of the American Spectator, stated: “to be consistent with Section 3 in that a disqualification can only be based on a judicial finding or verdict that a person has engaged in an insurrection or rebellion against the United States or given aid and comfort to its enemies. Trump, having never been convicted of such an offense, cannot be barred from the Colorado — or any other states’ — ballots on the basis of Section 3.”

At the very least, by disqualifying a former President without a conviction, the court is showing that they are more than willing to rob voters of their right to choose who becomes the next President.

Still, it is hard to take partisan shots seriously – even from a state supreme court.

Perhaps even more ironic is the disregard of the First Amendment by disqualifying Trump based on his January 6th speech.

There is no need for additional attacks on the cornerstones of American democracy.

Free speech should be protected at all costs. So should the rule of law. Yet here, the 14th Amendment, meant to ensure equal protection under the law for all citizens, has been twisted to disqualify a former president without a conviction.

I’m quite confused by all of this. Not only are they giving Trump more power and setting him up to look like the ultimate underdog, but these states, and by association the Democrats, are now the ones perceived to have undermined the process of democracy- something Democrats have long blamed Republicans for.

Let’s hope for a swift demise by the U.S. Supreme Court. We don’t want this to reverberate across all the blue states and become de rigueur for future elections. No matter the temptation, let’s keep America free from banana republic strategies.

https://chadhagan.com/2023/12/29/states-begin-fight-to-remove-trump-from-ballot/

State’s Begin Fight To Remove Trump From Ballot First off, I’m not a Trump apologist. That said, here is my take on the state ballot snafu. States hoping to disqualify former President Donald Trump from the ballot have created a tsunami of…