Danial Magid

Yet Another Problem With Falling Home Prices

Zubin, short and to the point. Very good.

I disagree with your comment "The reasons for this are not clearly understood." I think it's obvious that one who is underwater can not sell a home due to the financial burden that one may incur under such circumstances. Most of those people were likely to put a minimal downpayment, with a drop in price, they are now very limited in their choices.

Nevertheless, you have posted many problems that do arise due this unfortunate situation. Live and learn.

Housing Bust Blame Game

Who to blame? Supply and Demand, Fear and Greed. Fundamentals were ripe and prices went up.

Barry, thanks for the links and your article. They are all good, but none are going to help change the current situation. What nature doesn't do, time will.

The real problem is that most americans can't afford to buy an average home in their respective communities and still afford necessities and possibly have some money left over for discretionary spending. I say, give it another 3-5 years, the dust will settle, and another greed and demand process will start. It's all cyclical.

28/36- Why House Prices Must Fall

Bob,

Very good summary of the citizens situation. The numbers may not reflect the entire US population, and the "local economies', but it definitely puts the picture in perspective.

-Danial

Fuel Efficiency vs. Fuel Substitution: Grid Power Instead of Gasoline

BTW, great work on the investment taken on in Israel.

This could easily be migrated to the rest of the World, especially here in the US. Most families have at least one car that is being used purely to travel back and forth from work. Imagine if 10% of the US population could use a similar technology to the one used in Israel, whereby gas stations in metropolitan areas have those batteries, in case a driver runs low on power on the way back from work.

-DanialM

Fuel Efficiency vs. Fuel Substitution: Grid Power Instead of Gasoline

Jim,

You said "Clearly, they are a means to greater fuel efficiency. They do nothing to eliminate our dependency on petroleum; they only make our fuels go further." I agree partially with this comment.

Throughout history, innovations lead to better innovations. I do believe that eventually we will find alternative ways to petroleum, may be even a substitute. The advantage/importance of using those batteries is that we will not be as dependent as we currently are on petroleum, simply becuase as more and more people use different energy sources, we are alleviating the dependency on any one source of energy. Therefore, that should reduce the cost at the pump as demand dwindles.

On the other side of energy producing, enrgy consuming relates back to innovation, with time - I am sure there will be new technologies that will use a lower amount of energy, so when you sum innovations on both ends, we are headed in the right direction towards *potentially* eliminiating our dependency on petroleum.

Cheers,
Danial

Corporate-Friendly iPhone Could Challenge BlackBerry - Barron's

J Lazerow - THANK YOU FOR THIS GERAT TIP. I wish the Verizon customer service knew about this! I actually needed that feature for name directories when calling a corporate phone.

Cheers,
Danial

Can the Fed Really Afford to Cut Another 50-75 Points?

Promod, you got good points in your post, but we must not forget that the FDIC is insuring many depositors, the banks are reporting losses, and if their losses get too large, they'll become insolvent, and the FDIC will get stuck paying lots of depositors a lot of money which will cause our debt/deficit even more troubles. The only purpose for the rate drop is really to save the banks from becoming insolvent.

At this point, obviously, the rate cuts don't propegate to the small person, so I don't think we'll see much effect with any more rate drops. I am all for saving the banks.

Lilguy has put it nicely, "find a more direct way to reach worthy borrowers without going through the money center banks, which are nothing but a financial black hole", the question is easy, the answer is a bit harder to find as so many people have enjoyed borrowing cheap money over the past few years. Live and learn, we'll live, hopefully we'll learn..

Corporate-Friendly iPhone Could Challenge BlackBerry - Barron's

I have used various models of the Treo, although it was a nice phone with many features, it never forwent rebooting erratically, and failing miserably when asked to perform. I have recently started using the Blackberry (World Edition) and I have never again had a problem, although it does have its flaws too, no dial pad, or at least, I couldn't find it, and keys are too small to use. I have found the IPhone a great tool with the user in mind. The interface is well understood and easy to use. I don't care much for AAPL products, but they merit recognition and I believe once the IPhone targets the corporate world, AAPL will become a serious comptitor to RIMM.

Kudos to both companies for enriching our lives with functional products.

Recession Talk Has Gone From 'If' to 'How Bad'

Ray,
Great article. I really don't need to follow any posted inflation stats. All I need to do, is go to the market and see how much I pay for groceries vs. how much I paid for them 2,3,4 and 5 years ago. We are certainly experiencing a higher than normal/healthy inflation! The stimulus package will surely not help, but at least it puts a little money in people's bags, so they can sleep better for the next 4 months.. awaiting the check :) The real problem is with affordability and disposable income. Until those home prices drop significantly, consumers hands will be tied and as we can already observe, low funds rate does nothing for consumers, it is simply out there to help banks stave off a bankruptcy.

Empirically, speaking to friends, I have noticed that DINKS (double income no kids) can't even tell that most consumers are in rough waters.

Well written, Ray.