I Told You So - 25 February 2025

As soon as shitler and muskrat^©dugugotw started with the 'probationary' firings, my time in DC lit up in my lower brain stem memory. While it is true that something on the order of 4/5 of Federal employment is outside the DC area, it appears right now that the nationwide total is about 30,000. If we add in the 'deferred resignations' of 75,000, it all adds up to a bunch. Now, let's say that only 20% of the total are in the DC metro, what's likely to happen to all those mortgages?

Today's NYT has some reporting on that.

"Even on unemployment," said Mr. McKenzie, 27, who worked as a community engagement specialist, "I'm not going to be able to make my mortgage payment."

Well, no shit Sherlock. You and may be 20,000 others. That'll put a kink to house prices in the DC Metro. Boy howdy. The cavalry will come to the rescue; well, sort of. In other similar situations private equity has slurped up the surplus, and turned them in high priced rentals. Just what the recent MAGAnaut crusader didn't expect in order to hobnob, if not with shitler and muskrat^©dugugotw themselves, but at least some high level acolytes. All those MAGAnaut crusaders will, if they have more than just a primitive brain stem in their skulls, discover that they're just more cannon fodder in the Evangelical Reactionary Radical Retrograde Right Wingnuts' war on progress.

The effect of the layoffs has been palpable, especially in the Washington area, where there are more than 300,000 federal government employees. Rumors have swirled that the firings are causing the area's housing market to crash after videos began circulating on social media.

And, yes, it's likely too soon to see the tsunami of foreclosures, and some hope, lowball sales to kick in. But kick in they will.

Cruelty is the point, after all, they're all just lazy bureaucrats. No such folk exist in the private sector, as we all know.