Comments on: It Wasn’t Me. 3 New Trends: The Housing Lawsuits Begin, Prevention, and Story Telling.

By: Christiane Wyckoff

Christiane Wyckoff — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 14:54:54 +0000

Are their short sale charts for other areas of the country too? and if so, where would I find that information?
I read the lawyers letter from 1930s. Quite telling…almost Nostradamus-like!
Instead of laying blame, I wish that discussions could address what we can do about solving the problem. Americans are good at getting themselves into problems BUT also ingenious at getting out of them. There will be some who profit tremendously from this situation. When opportunity knocks it might as well be us who answers…

By: t gorman

t gorman — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 06:47:18 +0000

@Malcolm,
So what we have left after the dust settles that you’re so anxious for is failed capitalism because the truth is the American Dream for many will be a fantasy in our low paying, inflationary, rental society. See the whole thing was hyped to work for years and because of a ‘race to the bottom’ for peon wages and sewatshop jobs, the middle class here got shafted by corporate capitalistic globalization. Now we have the true state of things…economic uncertainty, more unemployment, and a Welfare State coming with no welfare in the coffers. Say thanks also to the private Fed for orchestrating this collapse. Let it all fall down where it really lies…the contradictions of the financialization stage of late capitalism. Wake up.

By: Christiane Wyckoff

Christiane Wyckoff — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:45:11 +0000

It is not surprising that the lawsuits and finger pointing are starting to escalate. That is human nature. I question who exactly is going to be purchasing all of this excess inventory? In many areas of the country there are 10-12 months worth of homes available? Will easing credit be enough? I doubt it. Where will the buyers come from? Overseas? Will we begin to see Southern California, Florida, Phoenix, and Las Vegas bought up by foreigners capitalizing on a lower dollar? What about solving our illegal alien population at the same time by selling them homes in the high foreclosure parts of the country? Can you see the ad? Become a US citizen and get you dream house all at the same time!
Ok, a little far fetched…but seriously, who is going to buy the inventory?

By: drhousingbubble

drhousingbubble — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 19:17:32 +0000

@Ron and Doug,

I agree that some of the boost in oil prices has a direct connection with the declining dollar. In fact, I think that with gold at $800 an ounce and oil nearing $100 before the winter cold season, the Fed had to temper their language. They threw the market the .25 basis point bone but realize that inflation is occurring even if the BLS data doesn’t show it. I would even argue that a large part of the current stock market year gains are based on the declining dollar since many companies are multi-national and global thus providing a hedge against the falling dollar.

By: doug r

doug r — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 18:29:08 +0000

Some of that oil price is due to the sinking US dollar. Over the past year, Euro vs US$ has gone from 1.28 to 1.45, Canadian $ vs US$ has gone from 0.88 (and as low as 0.85 in Feb) to 1.07-beating the previous record from 1957. That’s a 13% decrease in value vs one and 21% decrease vs the other. Granted, a fair amount of the Canadian dollar value is based on speculators buying, but some of that is based on higher commodity prices, kind of a vicious circle, as it were. Still, even $83.52 is comparable to the historically high prices of the early 1980’s.