The New “What did you do with your Z today” (with off topic replies)

vtec to vvel

A common misconception. FWIW, greed may be a factor, but not as big as people think, esp. now with sky-high interest rates.

We are at the tail-end of COVID, but global supply and supply chain issues still linger, esp. chips/semiconductors with the war in Ukraine (Neon gas is required for production of these and Ukraine supplies up to 70% of the global supply of this).

Then, you have the interest rate increase factor, in which we've had 14 consecutives raises up until a pause recently (but more expected to come), 4 of them being 75 bps and the others at 50 bps, when the typical raise is 25 bps.

Not a good recipe. Short supply, increasing rates excessively, and taking out the money supply in the economy (quantitative tightening), you should expect for prices to stay high and steady. With high interest rates, you have MUCH less qualified borrowers, which theoretically should lower pricing, BUT, you still have the supply issue to deal with.

IMO, you shouldn't expect pricing to cool anytime soon.

__________________
Don't like what I post? Too bad. I really don't give a sh!t