Stephen Punwasi 🏚️📉🐈☃️ Profile picture
Finance & tech guy. Co-founder @BetterDwelling. You’ve probably read something I wrote.
eDo Profile picture Mary 💉💉💉I stand with Ukraine 🇺🇦 Profile picture Neil Profile picture Sudhir M Profile picture adrifter Profile picture 14 subscribed
Sep 6 12 tweets 3 min read
Okay, 🇨🇦. I need you to look past the left vs right BS for a sec. You don't understand how hard you're being screwed.

In a few tweets, you'll understand gov finance better than most politicians. You'll also see how f*cked up Ontario's corner store liquor deal is.

<thread>🧵👇 2/ Rushing the deal means taxpayers will shoulder an initial bill of $1b.

If paid in cash, that tax revenue is equivalent to 111k families working for a year. Imagine the whole city of Windsor going to work for a year. All to pay that bill.

But ON is broke, it has little cash.
Aug 16 16 tweets 6 min read
The kids are not alright.

By isolating children from socialization for months, countries like 🇨🇦 may have inadvertently produced a generation of tiny psychopaths.

Let's talk about the research on early childhood development. We have no idea what's coming.

<thread> 🧵👇


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2/ Prosocial behavior is voluntary behavior we demonstrate towards others. Acts of kindness, compassion, etc.

It's why you help an elderly stranger with a heavy package. It's why you give money to the homeless.

It's the stuff we do that we can only explain as the "right" thing.
Aug 7 18 tweets 3 min read
High home prices will come down if more is built. Simple supply & demand, right?

That’s one of the biggest lies ever repeated.

Let’s talk about home prices, monetary policy, and how greasy f*cks tricked the normies into advocating for their own exploitation.

<thread> 🧵👇 2/ first, let’s clarify something about monetary policy. The central bank exists to control the decay of money, aka inflation.

The key policy rate is their primary tool, influencing other lending rates. If inflation is below target, they’ll lower rates to stimulate borrowing.
Jul 31 12 tweets 3 min read
🇨🇦’s rolling out 30-year mortgages to “help” first-time buyers get a home.

This is actually a form of liquidity injection called capital cushioning.

It’s not about affordability. A similar plan was used by the 🇺🇸 during the financial crisis. Is this a crisis? 🤔

<thread> 🧵👇 2/ first off, let’s fix what you’ve been told about the 🇺🇸 housing bubble.

a common myth is poor people with subprime credit f*cked up. In reality, poor people have nowhere else to go so they paid their bills through negative equity.

When you’re poor, everyday is a recession.
Jul 30 23 tweets 6 min read
🇨🇦’s financial system may be just weeks away from a crisis.

It’s probably more lucrative to not explain this to you normies, but f*ck it—no one’s going to change the trajectory.

Let’s talk about 🇨🇦’s upcoming credit crunch. But first, a primer on credit.

<thread> 🧵👇 2/ some people assume the central bank just picks an interest rate. Nope, credit is based on supply & demand.

When supply exceeds demand, costs falls. If everyone wants to lend you money, you don’t pay a lot. That’s why Zuck’s mortgage is only 1%.

The opposite is also true.
Jul 19 9 tweets 3 min read
Fun fact: 🇨🇦 issues student visas to anyone with a few bucks.

Here’s a quick thread on the hundreds of criminals that organized crime groups set up in 🇨🇦 using student visas.

<thread> 🧵👇 2/ 🇺🇸’s DEA claims El Chapo made $3m/day in 🇨🇦 prior to his arrest, and they were surprised by how “deep infiltration” was.

His point man in 🇨🇦? Jesus Herrera Esperanza, aka Hondo—a “student” in 🇨🇦. No one knows where Hondo is these days. Image
Jun 26 18 tweets 4 min read
Most people don't understand how interest rates, population growth, and immigration are related.

Let's fix that with a quick thread.

<thread> 🧵👇 2/ A central bank's purpose is to control the decay of money, aka inflation.

If inflation is low, they cut rates to stimulate consumption by lowering the cost of borrowing. Since debt is your future income used today, this creates demand w/the goal of overrunning supply.
May 16 15 tweets 6 min read
Families in 🇨🇦 work *really* hard to survive.

Policymakers don’t appreciate that fact, when they’re spending years of your labor with a stroke of a pen.

They spend so much, people have a hard time fully comprehending these numbers.

Let’s put it in context.

<thread> 🧵👇 2/ I constantly hear politicians & their minions say, “it’s only a million/billion,” like they made that last week at the race track.

In reality, the median household paid $9.3k in income taxes in 2022, and worked their ass off to do it.

How many had their cash incinerated?
May 5 17 tweets 4 min read
People in 🇨🇦 are historically very accepting of immigrants & the country's generous immigration policies.

Now they're sounding more split. Unfortunately, a lot of well-intended people are being exploited by predators to adopt their opinions.

<thread> 🧵👇 2/ Historically, 🇨🇦's post-war immigration policy was extremely successful. That's because it generally focused on people who were:

- hard-working: often only leaving their home due to political or economic downturns;

- talented: academics & skilled labor;
Apr 21 9 tweets 2 min read
Why is every politician discussing their aggressive plan for affordable housing?

… even the ones you know don’t care about it?

Well, they hijacked the term and weaponized it against the people who need it. Here’s how.

<thread> 🧵👇 2/ in 🇨🇦, the term affordable housing now means a rental that’s 1/3 the median household income.

First off, a third of income isn’t really affordable. A third of income is the max allowable payment a mortgage borrower can accept before they’re considered too risky of a payer.
Apr 17 15 tweets 4 min read
Hoping for lower mortgage rates?

Central banks are saying the era of low rates are over & you might agree if you knew how we got there.

Let's talk about the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, your mortgage rate, and China. Seriously.

<thread> 🧵👇 2/ First off, it's important to remember interest rates are relative to inflation.

Inflation is different in every country but one currency influences them all—the global reserve, aka the 🇺🇸 dollar.

The global reserve is extremely important for conducting trade.
Jan 24 9 tweets 2 min read
About 80% of Singapore’s population is housed in public housing, but not the kind in the West.

Low income families & young couples to high income bankers and business people live in them.

They’re incredibly affordable. How? Only citizens can live in them.

<thread> 🧵👇 2/ Singapore’s public housing scheme is run by its Housing & Development Board (HDB), and public housing is appropriately called HDB flats.

Rather than auctioning off all gov land to private companies, the gov develops the land and sells 99-year leases for the units.
Oct 24, 2023 18 tweets 5 min read
Higher property taxes. Higher home prices. Disregard of basic real estate education.

Let's talk about how you were sold into advocating for those issues against your own interest, by politicians pushing for broad zoning deregulation.

<thread> 🧵👇 2/ First, let's discuss that we need more housing & governments supportive of building more homes.

However, we also need to discuss how lobbyists & politicians in the deep pockets of developers, intentionally conflated the need for more housing with deregulation.
Oct 18, 2023 9 tweets 2 min read
Let’s talk about how AirBNB helped drive rents & home prices higher.

Most people think 1 or 2 points can’t influence a market. They’ve likely never worked at a hedge fund.

<thread> 🧵👇 2/ It’s not about the total market, but liquidity.

Stock prices aren’t based on every unit trading. They’re based on the last trade.

Every trade executed at or above the last trade reinforces a value.
Sep 30, 2023 4 tweets 1 min read
Dear capitalists,

If your house is your largest asset, you aren’t a capitalist.

The banker that lent you the mortgage is a capitalist. You’re the means of production they own—labor that generates their wealth. The term capitalist originally described a person w/ significant capital used as the means of production.

If you still think you’re a capitalist, why stop there? You can also be a sea pirate without ever setting foot on a boat or a race car driver that’s never driven a car.
Sep 29, 2023 12 tweets 3 min read
I don’t get angry often, but I’m at a level I haven’t been at in a long time and you’re about to join me.

It’s about exhaustive bureaucracy, and dozens of officers with drones raiding a wildlife rehab facility I volunteer with.

Yes, a wildlife rehab facility.

<thread> 🧵👇 2/ if you’re from Greater Toronto, you probably know Mally’s— Ontario’s only licensed raccoon rehab facility.

Calling 311 results in euthanizing, so even the gov suggests them.

It runs on a shoestring budget & is funded entirely by donors.
Sep 15, 2023 18 tweets 4 min read
My blood's boiling & you're about to feel the same way.

It's 🇨🇦's international students. Not them, but the diabolical, complex, & unimaginal scheme to fuel 🇨🇦's growth.

Here's how 🇨🇦 manufactured an exploitation machine & sold it as social good.

<thread> 🧵👇 2/ 🇨🇦 has always embraced international students, & the money they bring. They pay A LOT.

Domestic tuition at UBC or U of T is ~$7k, but ~$60k for those on a study permit.

Naturally, this skews the crowd towards a well-heeled demographic. That changed in 2019.
Feb 23, 2023 13 tweets 3 min read
Fun fact: Adam Smith, the godfather of capitalism, advocated for aggressive land taxation. Otherwise, feudalists will drain productivity from society & hinder progress.

So feudalists called themselves capitalists & convinced the schmucks they should tax their labor instead. 🧵👇 twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 2/ A few important lessons in that brief tweet.

The first is how an issue is reframed by those who capture the system.

"Affordable" housing is my favorite example. It's arbitrarily defined as a third of your income in the West. Not the case prior to the 2000s.
Feb 10, 2023 10 tweets 2 min read
In the 50s & 60s, grieving moms accused hospitals of stealing their recently deceased infants.

It occurred at such a wide scale in Australia, England, & the EU—they thought moms were hallucinating to cope with the ptsd.

It wasn’t. They were right.

<thread> 🧵👇 2/ Some moms said the infant’s corpse was missing limbs.

Imagine finding your recently diseased child & its legs were removed?

If you told anyone, they would think you were having a mental health crisis. That’s what the 🇺🇸 Atomic Energy Commission counted on. Seriously.
Jan 23, 2023 5 tweets 1 min read
🇨🇦’s totally not recognizable:

- pharmacy shelves are empty

- mobile phone stores are locked & require ID

- tent cities everywhere

- payday loan stores have lines like sneaker launches

- only 10% of the population could afford housing at if they had to pay market I’m happy about being able to get an all plant-based sandwich at @7ElevenCanada though, so there’s that.
Jan 17, 2023 11 tweets 3 min read
🇨🇦 & 🇺🇸 made big changes to how they’ll report inflation.

Inflation will be chronically underreport going forward, and it will amplify inequality in these countries.

<thread> 🧵👇 2/ first off, inflation is measured with a basket. Think of it like a shopping cart but it has thousands of goods & services, including your rent.

Each item is assigned a weight depending on the share of income a household typically spends.