This story first appeared at ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
In other words hold your breath in short burst.
As for Kushner tenants…they are pushed out to give way to luxury condo buyers…
Meanwhile…behind the scenes…Kushner has now “taken charge” of Covid response…
Just great -NOT - not only do we have to deal with Trump’s greedy and vulturistic family & cronies, now there is new group…Kushner family & cronies to add to the Trump Swamp for their profiting-in-steroids amidst a pandenim 
!
Will Congress please put a stop to these reprehensible corruption & profiteering?
“Just leave the briefcase on the floor.”
Unleaded gasoline future contracts were trading at fifty five cents yesterday. Gasoline has not been falling fast enough at the pump. The price per gallon for most of the states should be about $1.10- $1.15 per gallon. Sure, there have been a few places that dropped below one buck, but they are the exception, not the rule. Crude oil took a huge spike today. Brent closed at slightly under twenty five bucks yesterday and surged to slightly over $36.00 bucks today. It has since dropped back into the 29-30 dollar range. I’m afraid we will never see the lower prices we should have been experiencing at the pump.
Seems to me that any landlord offered mortgage forbearance on their rental properties should be required to notify their tenants that they can but don’t need to make rent payments for the duration of the forbearance, except perhaps a small amount (where possible) to cover utilities and maintenance. Otherwise such landlords would be pocketing the differential and potentially using it to purchase other properties, especially distressed ones, or investing it elsewhere. You’d still owe the rent, just not right now. I can only imagine how much profiteering will happen during all this. Billions.
Cheapest I’ve seen around here, Queens/Nassau NY, is just over $2/gal. Several days ago I filled just under half a tank at $2.10/gal (minus $0.15 using some Shell rewards I had). But prices are always somewhat lower here for whatever reasons, most likely a combination of high gas taxes (a GOOD thing), and the NYC region being more expensive for most things. I bet it’s already down to nearly $1.50/gal some places, like TX & OK. In a way it’s good that prices haven’t dipped to $1/gal yet, as that would encourage lots of unnecessary driving, but to keep prices from getting that low, a temporary $0.50-$1.00/gal federal gas tax might make sense, the proceeds to go towards paying down those $1200 checks and emergency relief. Fat chance, though.
MY landlord has not said anything yet, but I was able to pay rent fine this month so they may just be waiting. What I am hearing from my service worker friends is extreme distress particular over what happens when the ban on eviction eventually lifts and what do they owe and by when.
The short version is even if they can return to their jobs say by mid summer and IF those jobs immediately paid the same as they did before the crisis (they wont!) people who live paycheck to paycheck will not be able to pay the back rent they owe for years. Just for and example if someone working a service job paid say $900 a month in rent but only clears $300 a month after bills that means come return to work they may owe $3600 to their landlords (if they can’t work for 4 months a real possibility). That comes out to 12 months of all their disposable income going to pay off the past rent. A whole year of no money for anything other than rent, bills and past rent. It’s basically a year of indentured servitude to their landlords. And that is IF income returns to normal right away, but it won’t.
This is a crisis well beyond what most people are considering coming for the working poor.
The USA took the exact WRONG COURSE on this financial crisis, choosing (because the Republicans would not HEAR of anything else) to let people be laid off, fired, and furloughed and deal with it at the State Unemployment Level.
In Europe and the UK they took the other, more rational route. Understanding that “your pay is my income, and my income is your pay” the governments have stepped in to Underwrite PAYROLLS for companies on the agreement that they do not fire, lay off, or furlough workers. That way the money keeps flowing, and the businesses can keep employing people.
BUT, in the US, workers are viewed by the Board Rooms as necessary evils to be reduced and if possible, (like Uber and the “Gig” economy tried to do) eliminated altogether, so we took the WRONG ROUTE and it will come back to bite us in the ass.
The Democrats wanted to go the “Pay Underwriting” support route, but the Republicans would not even consider it.
Thanks assholes.
I have a sinking feeling equity funds and their ilk will be buying more homes if foreclosures become an issue. They were the largest buyers of homes during the housing crash in 2009-2014.
I think it’s pretty obvious now who the new unelected president is. He and Ivanka know the truth about Dementia Donnie and are working to tie up any loose before they consolidate power in November.
Yep, in America a crisis is just another opportunity for further concentration of wealth.