I should know

Ten Comments on Housing

Danish Dude wrote: “If you live in Paris, do you want to own a vacation place 6 time zones and 8 hours of flight-time away in Miami - or take the TGV to southern France? The food is better there, too.”

While I am not agreeing or disagreeing with most of your comments, I would ask you this; would you call it unlikely and a bad investment for somebody on the Eastern seaboard of America to have purchased real estate (second home or rental property) in Hawaii 5 or 10 years ago; we are 6 timezones away? I would neither call that possibility unlikely or imprudent. Also, food in Hawaii is not nearly as good as food in New York City, Washington DC, or Miami Florida.

Bear's Gone - Is Lehman Next?

Lehman has stying power; yes, they made some BIg MBS mistakes but have written down the value by almost 100%. They'll continue to get slapped around but will survive this and be stronger for it in '09 and going forward.