GEN Z is Getting Screwed and Why President Trump’s Poll Numbers Are at RECORD LOWS! (Fourth Turning)

November 13, 2025

I’d encourage you to read James Howard Kunstler’s latest Friday post,

Kunstler Friday: Winter Storm Warning – the country is seething with pissed-off citizens

and listen to Mark Mitchell of Rasmussen tell you why President Trump’s poll numbers are at record lows.

DO OR DIE: Smash the oligarchy, pop the real estate bubble, indict deep state criminals and revoke student visas

After doing so, you’ll see why Gen Z, the next Greatest Generation, will be tasked with cleaning up the mess the boomers have left them, i.e. the Fourth Turning, which you can learn about by watching the interview with Neil Howe here,

Neil Howe: The Fourth Turning Is Now Raging…And It’s Gone Global

The Greatest Housing Bubble of All Time Must Be Popped

Lost in the great political divide in our nation and the class struggles faced by the generations following World War Two is the curse of our debt-based monetary system. We won’t fix the housing affordability crisis without popping the real estate bubble first.

I knew we were in trouble in 1982, when the national debt crossed one trillion dollars. I graduated in 1979 with a degree in finance, before the world of finance became a scientific monstrosity of mortgage-backed securities, derivatives and quantitative easing.

At the time, the Federal Reserve banks were preparing to securitize the development of China and it’s when I became a “gold bug”. I know what money is, and what it isn’t, and although I couldn’t afford to buy any gold in 1982, I saved as much as I could knowing that someday I might need to buy some. The high price of gold today is a waypoint on the road to financial disaster.

Gold flashing more warning signs: more inflation, global debt crisis and the end of the dollar empire

In spite of all my understanding about money, I financed my first house at 13% in 1984 on the heels of twin recessions in 1982 and 1983, after Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volker popped the housing bubble of the 70’s when the annual inflation rate was easily 10% per year. At one point, the interest rate on a 30-year FHA loan was 17%!

Still, I knew where we were headed, and I bought the house and ultimately refinanced it at 9% and I was thrilled! With each passing year, I watched the national debt grow and grow, and interest rates continued to drop. Shortly after the Great Financial Crisis of 2009, interest rates were down to zero, so it took 40 years for the interest rates to reach the limit of zero. Oh my God!

Would you rather buy a $462,000 house financed at 3% interest, or the very same house for $100,000 at 10% interest? By now you might guess that it’s the compound interest formula that haunted me all these years, and we’ve reached the limits of both the maximum in housing prices and minimum of interest rates.

The economy can’t support the construction of new, affordable housing stock at these price levels, even when interest rates are zero. And there’s not a damn thing that President Donald Trump can or will do about fixing the real underlying problem, that being the affordability crisis.

Housing affordability won’t be solved by lowering interest rates because prices will go even higher. Wages won’t keep up with inflation, and unemployment will rise, especially with AI and robotics about to disrupt everything for the working and professional classes. Lowering the interest rate won’t cure rising unemployment due to AI or robotics.

Pop the Housing Bubble

The Federal Reserve should raise interest rates quickly, pop the housing bubble, while congress must change the tax treatment for rental housing so that speculation in seasonal rentals and second homes, as well as foreign ownership of America’s housing stock, becomes cost prohibitive and not a tax benefit for the rentier class or foreign investors.

In case you’re wondering, the tax benefits for second homes are as follows:

Deducting mortgage interest on your federal income taxes.
Deducting property taxes based on the assessed value of the home.
Deducting interest on home equity debt.
Potential capital gains exclusion.
Income from renting out the second home can be tax-free if rented for 14 days or fewer in a year.

Raising interest rates will benefit savers, many of whom are retired, own their homes free and clear, and plan to live in their homes for the rest of their lives.

As the boomers pass on, more housing stock will become available. Home builders will “buy down” rates for young buyers that want to start a family. Systemic and regulatory changes that force inefficient and costly solar systems to be added to the cost of construction would be optional not a mandate.

I won’t speculate on what happens to the bond market in the short term other than to say you’re going to have to hold long term notes and bonds, or you’ll take a beating if you sell. Raising interest rates will attract demand for new issuance of long-term Treasury notes as well as commercial paper. Municipal bonds won’t be issued when rates are high, and that’s a good thing if you’re a taxpayer living in the cities. Most institutional owners of notes will hold to maturity, so bond prices won’t matter unless you’re a bank or a foreign sovereign wealth fund trying to move away from the dollar’s reserve status.

It shouldn’t be the case that young people, aka Gen Z or the Millennials, should be expected to borrow tens of thousands of dollars to go to college, and then be expected to sign a 50-year mortgage to buy a $462,000 house in order to raise a family, but here we are.

Interest rates need to go up not down. Either way, it’s inevitable. The housing bubble will pop with or without the Fed’s intervention. And then there’s that Fourth Turning thing…