Bloggers note: No way was this going to be posted the day I sent it to William due to an earlier blog submission. Any changes after today will create a retraction to this story.
The day didn’t start well as a woman was killed by ICE Agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I will state I am never happy to hear anyone getting killed by authorities. There is more to this story, I am sure. If the ICE agent was in the wrong throw the book at him; however, I have a sneaky suspicion the person no longer with us was no saint in the matter.
On to the good parts.
First Trump is going to ban defense corporations from using government funds to buy back stock and pay dividends unless they make serious changes to manufacturing capacity and research. Here is some info below….
President Donald Trump said he would move to block U.S. defense contractors from paying dividends or repurchasing shares unless they significantly increase spending on manufacturing capacity and research, remarks that sent shares of major arms makers lower.
In a social media post Wednesday, Trump also called for sharp limits on executive compensation at defense companies, saying pay should be capped at $5 million until firms construct what he described as “NEW and MODERN Production Plants.” He argued that contractors are failing to produce and maintain military equipment quickly enough.
Defense companies “are currently issuing massive Dividends to their Shareholders and massive Stock Buybacks, at the expense and detriment of investing in Plants and Equipment,” Trump wrote. “This situation will no longer be allowed or tolerated!”
Folks to put it lightly, this needs to happen, and I hope it does. By no means am I insinuating that we should be stockpiling for war, we do need increased capacity to build war machines faster and more efficiently. The bottom line is that times are far different from fifteen years ago. We must be vigilant that war could break out in the not-too-distant future. Folks, the 90-day people amongst us will be angry but why should our taxpayer dollars go towards bloated executive compensation, stock buybacks, and dividends? That tells me we are being grossly overcharged. Why is it that everything to the older generation must be based on the almighty dollar and how big my bank account is? To be clear, I am not saying, and neither is Trump, they shouldn’t be allowed to make money, but look at the profits these companies are churning out.
More from Hegseth…
The criticism fits a broader theme of the Trump administration’s approach to the defense industry. In November, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth criticized what he described as a slow and inefficient procurement system, arguing that weapons programs are often over budget, delivered years late and sometimes outdated by the time they reach the field.
Over budget, years late, and obsolete is not going to win too many wars.
The second thing is he wants to ban private equity/institutional investors from buying homes.
President Donald Trump said he would ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes in an effort to ease the affordability crisis that’s plaguing the housing market.
“For a very long time, buying and owning a home was considered the pinnacle of the American Dream,” Trump said in a Jan. 7 post on the social media site Truth Social. “I am immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes, and I will be calling on Congress to codify it. People live in homes, not corporations.”
Institutional investors, such as Blackstone, have been reliably buying and renting out single-family homes since the 2008 financial crisis locked many Americans out of the mortgage market.
First-time homebuyers are suffering as housing has remained scarce and increasingly expensive. They made up a record-low share of all buyers in the most recent year, and the average age of a first-time buyer jumped to 40, according to an industry analysis.
Folks, I just turned 40. I have owned my home for over 10 years. I cannot fathom not being a homeowner until this age … but … the older generation has made it their mission to make it so my generation and the ones below it will never own a home. They started allowing these large corporations to buy homes with the only intention being to rent them out. In some places, like near Atlanta, entire communities are owned by these firms. They rent them out at top market rate, and when they are able, the rent is “raised to current market standards” regardless of their relationship with the tenant. Wouldn’t it make more sense to keep the rent increases manageable for a tenant you like, that will maybe take care of the property or at least not let it get run down? I would think so. As a result, it’s a “turn and burn” scenario for the renter. One of these outfits, Invitation Homes, bought a home about 5 doors down from me. The tenant has turned over 3 times in a 26-month period, and it currently sits unoccupied. The tenants also left a lot to be desired; the first was three generations of a Filipino family that moved in. Nothing against any race, but wouldn’t you consider it a bad sign 3 families are required to make rent each month? They quasi converted the garage into living quarters for the youngest family of 3. They lasted the longest. Next was a young Hispanic family, that lasted about 8 months. The last was a young black couple, they lasted about 2 months. In regard to the black couple, it sounded like the marriage was on ice and that was likely the reason for the short stay. As I note, it has sat vacant for about 5 months now. I predict it will sit for a while. The corporation can likely use the vacancy as some kind of write off, and they likely have the attitude of the 90-day guy and say “why take less than what we think its worth?”
The other big problem, first time and even not first-time homebuyers normally have a liquidity issue., They need to get the money together for the downpayment and sometimes have other contingencies … Selling their current home (if not a first-time home buyer). These corporations have none, their only ask is “where do we wire the money.”
These are both very good policies, with the second being probably my favorite of his term so far. Keep it up!
Chief
Oh, wait until I tell you about the healthcare issue in this country. BTW it ain’t Obamacare.