emily x

Worst Housing Number in Decades: What Is the Wall Street Media Smoking?

"Another point to be made is how the media is trying so hard to support the current administration."

Clearly you've not been watching CNBC!

The Leading Cause of Personal Bankruptcy

Reading this, I wonder why I'm bothering to throw so much of my hard-earned money into health insurance (I have one of those university jobs that provides it) if they'd cancel me should I get seriously ill. I'm in good health and take no drugs. Maybe I'll just start saving those funds and collect the interest (or dividends!) myself, instead of giving it to Blue Cross. That seems to be the only card the American "consumer" (weren't we once the American people?) has left -- withhold the funds.

Does Bad Economic Policy Lead to Greater Financial Regulation?

I agree that the economic policy (if you can call it that) of the last 8 years has "created incentives for undisciplined behavior" (to say the least). But it looks to me like the slide in the value of the dollar is the result of several forces coming together, the main one being the administration's desire to make, or allow, the dollar go as low as possible. Far from being the result other nations' losing faith in us, the extremely weak dollar is very much a feature of current republican economic policy. It's a cause, not an effect.

Is It Different This Time? Comparison To 1997

I don't know that LTCM is necessarily the comparison, tho everyone seems to be making it. What's going on now seems to have much bigger tentacles. Maybe the dot-com bust that started in March 2000 is a better analogy. Then, like now, a lot of people bought a lot of stuff they didn't really know the value of, and used borrowed money to do it. Then, when conditions inevitably change, there's this sudden unmasking of risky investments that many people apparently thought were safe -- or at least that they could get out of in time -- and then the crash. It's like that scene in "Casablanca" -- "I am shocked, shocked! to find gambling going on here!" Bottom line, when times are good and credit is available, people will use it to buy stuff they probably can't afford. If the Fed actually cuts rates this fall, it will help. But still, it looks like we're in for more pain in the months ahead.

Irrational Exuberance Got Buried Yesterday: Now What?

"The Chinese don't have to sell. They just have to stop buying more US debt to show the USA that a debtor is never in the position do dictate terms unilaterally." -- True, but like everything in the vast new global economy, it works at least 2 ways: China also has to be concerned about a backlash against poor quality/dangerous products from her biggest customer -- us.

What's strange is how often we've been here before, with gigantic debt suddenly being called in and nobody actually having the cash. What happened to that "huge amount of liquidity" that's supposedly been "sloshing around the globe" lately, according to the wise folks on CNBC? I guess if history teaches us anything, it's that history doesn't teach us anything!

President Bush Envisions a Soft Landing — What Does He Know?

"It is notable that the president does not see any problems with the lack of fiscal discipline that has roughly doubled US debt during his reign." -- Of course not. Because to him and almost every other republican, it's not a lack of fiscal discipline -- it's a phenomenal growth strategy that has been "working" (with one 8-year exception) ever since Reagan was first inaugurated. All hail.

Why Did the Market Act Like Bernanke Said Something New?

Amen! My theory is b/c he made the speech so early, it seemed extra important. When I saw him on TV first thing in the morning, with a "breaking news" banner, I just went "Uh-oh -- what now? This can't be good..." And even tho he wasn't *saying* anything distressing, by then I was convinced it was bad news!

I think in the future, Mr. Bernanke should present his comments from a beach chair, under a palm tree, with a cool drink in his hand and the waves gently cascading behind him. That would be the "good news" or "no bad news" scenario. If it is bad news, then he should deliver the speech from a plunging rollercoaster, or maybe having jumped out of a plane, just before he pulls the parachute (or if it's *really* bad - no parachute!). That way there would be no mistaking what he's trying to "signal."