keithp

Ex-FDIC Chairman Calls for Creative Destruction

More accurately, these are "prescribed burns" to elminiate "proscribed material". They are actually _old_ techniques (with a recent resurgence).

Alan Greenspan Responds to His Critics

""All you had to do in 2004 or 2005 to be absolutely convinced ...was to stop by a few mortgage broker offices or visit a few real estate agents or talk to a few of the many thousands of aspiring homeowners."

Yes, that sounds like a very sophisticated model - talking to non-random highly invested parties. I can't imagine why Greenspan missed that approach - it's so repeatable, predictable, and scaleable.

Quick Graphical Look at Global House-Price Declines

The graph does not match the text. The text says "In a few countries - the United States and Ireland - house prices have fallen during the past year". They do a lousy job of captioning the chart, but it appears that they are charting year-to-year price changes. So...the only currently declining _prices_ are indeed the US and Ireland. It would be more correct to say that the rate of price _increases_ has declined significantly - starting with AU/UK in 2002/2003, and in the US in 2005. If the graph were not inflation-adjusted, then you could probably include Denmark and Spain.

How Ivory Tower Economists Created the Housing Bubble

Well-reasoned relationship between price / rent, but misses the fact that "all real estate is local". In economically depressed areas, as prices fall rents won't rise because people (most particularly renters) will leave the area for the more economically active areas. Putting increased downward pressure on prices, but there you have it - the demand is for housing where the jobs are less than it is for jobs where the houses are.