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.

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.

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?

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;

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

🇨🇦’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.

🇨🇦 & 🇺🇸 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.

Even if central banks didn't raise interest rates, a recession is coming.

People understand what real GDP means, but they often don't make the connection. Let's do that quickly.

<thread> 🧵👇 2. Real GDP means it's inflation-adjusted. Let's say GDP rises 10 points and inflation is 5 points, you have 5 points of real growth.

Super straightforward, right? Look at you, you're already more knowledgeable than most policymakers. Let's put a pin in GDP & talk about wages.

🇨🇦’s “major housing” announcement was $500 to pay your rent?

That’s just 2 months of the *increase* some tenants were hit.

… so really the announcement is that the landlords in government are getting $500 for each tenant. Score! 😬😂

#cdnpoli #VanRe 2. Also only applies to a person that makes less than minimum wage (less than $20k/year), or families that make less than $30k.

With the average rent of $2k for a 2 bedroom, those families would have $8k left after paying rent…

Wow. The gov is more delusional than I thought.

Quick, while the normies are sleeping.

Let’s talk about the string of uber rich people that have suddenly committed suicide or died under odd circumstances.

<thread> 🧵👇 2. Alexander Tyulyakov, 61, former head of Russia’s Gazprom corporate security.

Witnesses say he had signs of being beaten the night before Ukraine was invaded. The day of the invasion he “hung himself.”

By itself, not that weird. But, it’s a little weirder than that…

Most Toronto street fight ever

✅ random construction materials

✅ Kensington market

✅ Shoppers Drug Mart employee

✅ Random road pylons for no apparent reason

Just missing a raccoon and a 400 sqft condo with combination kitchen-bathroom.

Pro tip: if you challenge someone who picks up a super long stick and starts holding it like an odachi, you just picked the wrong person to duel.

It’s funny how many people in the West go to Tokyo for vacation, and then think their city needs to be like it.

Tokyo is an example of a real estate bubble that resulted in the systemic failure of a country.

Literally two generations were screwed & can’t imagine having kids. 2. Japan is a very lovely place & an incredible culture.

Their government is an example of manipulated data to the point no one understands why things don’t work, they just don’t.

They, much like Canada, has a reputation for being squeaky clean because how they “collect” data.

https://twitter.com/StephenPunwasi/status/1318001739757477888