housing-bubble
Conventional Idiocy Takes Hold Again
It’s been another stellar week on Wall Street. Good news came from the housing front (prices rose for the first time in almost three years) and the labor market (the number of continuing jobless claims fell to the lowest level since the middle of April). And the profits reported by many large tech firms [...]
Mortgage Rescue Fails Miserably
The real estate market is still in very bad shape. The relentless slide in home prices that started after the housing bubble burst is wreaking havoc on recovery efforts aimed at stabilizing the real estate market. According to Bloomberg.com, 20.4 million of America’s 93 million homes (which encompasses houses, condos and co-ops) are saddled with [...]
What the Financial Pundits are Missing
As the stock market reaches positive territory for the year, and the pundits who were teetering on the ledges of their over-priced office suites scream for joy that the worst is over, the very real problems that face the U.S. economy have not gone away – they are just being ignored.
I found several useful articles [...]
Where did America’s Wealth go?
Where did America’s wealth go? That is the question being asked from Washington state to Washington DC. The Federal Reserve reported yesterday that U.S. household net worth plummeted by $11.2 trillion, equivalent to a loss of close to 18 percent, during 2008. Household net worth – which is assets owned minus liabilities owed – of [...]
Stop Digging! – A Criticism of Economic Stimulus
Over the past two decades, the U.S. has shifted from a nation of producers and savers to one of shoppers and spendthrifts. Now, our collective recklessness is plunging our economy into its darkest period since the Great Depression. It’s time for politicians to create policies that promote fiscal responsibility as opposed to ones that encourage [...]
Housing market is barely breathing
12.16.08- The housing market is barely breathing. According to Marketwatch.com, housing starts plunged 47% in the past year, down 73% from the housing bubble’s frothiest days. And building permits plummeted 48% in the past year, off 72% from the peak of real estate lunacy. There’s still a glut of unsold McMansions, and foreclosures are rising. [...]
The Lending Tree
The Lending Tree grew from a mere sapling just after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 into a giant monster that blocked out the sun, eventually toppling under its own girth, crushing the borrowed possessions in the home that it shared a lawn with.
The reason I mention 9/11 is that Americatown went into a short and [...]
Banks Bounce Back from the Dead
Bank shares are back in style. Even after staggering losses were announced by the likes of Wachovia, which registered a $8.9 billion loss in the second quarter, and Washington Mutual, which posted a $3.3 billion stain of red ink in the same period, their shares traded up by 27 percent and 6 percent, respectively.
The share [...]
Six Months of Job Losses and the Credit Bubble
Poof! That was the sound of approximately 62,000 jobs vanishing from the U.S. economy last month. June marks the sixth straight month of job losses. As for the month of May’s half percentage point spike in the unemployment rate to 5.5 percent – it stayed the same for June as well. Whaddya know? That huge [...]
Market Meets Reality
The stock market met reality yesterday – it did not go well. Record high oil prices and a warning about inflation form the Federal Reserve smacked sobriety into U.S. investors. Oil traded at $135 a barrel and the minutes from the Fed’s late April policy meeting implied that further interest rate cuts are unlikely [...]
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