Dabbio

As More Homes Fall Underwater, Trapped Americans Cannot Migrate

See also the prescient article in the May 2006 issue of Harper's Magazine, "The New Road to Serfdom: An Illustrated Guide to the Coming Real Estate Collapse," unfortunately now only available to subscribers. It had a little icon on major sub-sections showing a person chained to his house.

www.harpers.org/archiv...

I might be able to bootleg you a PDF copy.

Getting the Real Estate Crisis Right

I still see single sector thinking dominant. Look, consumption and employment are critically tied into housing. It was housing, cheap Chinese imports, and easy consumer credit that fueled the consumption binge. Now, we are going to see it work in reverse. (Except, let's hope the Chinese don't raise prices.) Even if people don't sell their houses, they are going to HAVE to cut back on consumption to make the higher payments. This is going to seriously impact profits and employment. And then people are going to HAVE to sell their houses. See where this leads?