United States Heading towards a Depression?

Yeah, whereas with the tech bubble, people only had to go back to the abacus and pen and paper role playing games.

No doubt. Bernanke should have Volcker on speed dial. This is a guy who lived it, survived it and got everyone through.

Although government deficit defense spending did help create new jobs in the short term. Reaganomics was horrible.

 

Bernanke better start dialing Volcker real quick.

U.S. import prices rose 1.7 percent in January and prices for imported food, feeds and beverages increased 3.1 in January

The year-to-year rise in import prices was 13.7 percent, the biggest 12-month change since 1982 when the department began tracking this data.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080215/bs_nm/usa_economy_imports_dc;_ylt=Ahh2bWlwG.6mmABsHunyz.WyBhIF

The House was controlled by the Democrats and the only way to get what he wanted was to let the democrats spend.

 

The failing of the auction rate market lately just shows how illiquid the banks are, and if they can't support this market then housing is in for some trouble.

 

There's a long way to go down. Housing prices are still at 2005 bubble levels.

 

Always good news:
Dollar Has Biggest Weekly Loss in 2008 on Signs Growth Slowing

 

The Fed is backing itself into a corner with interest rate cuts to support the housing bubble.

Most countries are experiencing high inflation and raising rates. I see in the link that Sweden has raised rates to 4.25% and he Krona is raising.

The lower dollar is feeding on itself. Higher import prices are fueling inflation and the inflation is weakening the dollar.

At some point after the election the Fed will have to raise interest rates and the housing bubble will pop.

 

The best thing for the housing market is to let the bubble burst. You'll see a faster rebound when all the bad debtors are gone.. Raise rate, let bubble burst, then lower rates...

 

I wish it were that simple. The tax rebate bill includes a provision that freddie mac and fannie mae can increase their lending limits to $724,000.

 

There was some talk the other day that the tax rebate are supposed to encourage consumer spending in the public sector, though the study showed that most Americans would likely use that money to pay down debt.

The best place to freeze interest rates if you want to help Americans is on Credit card debt. Freeze it at 1 over prime, and make it illegal to go to cosa nostra levels like 30% or more.

Home foreclosures are occurring because people bought more home than they could afford, not because of GWB being president.. I think once people start to realize that, perhaps so too can the President, and maybe he will stop pandering to all these losers that want, want, and want..

 

I'm thinking that it's not some much that they bought more than what they could afford but they paid far to much what the property was worth.

The subprime lenders were completely irresponsible. The appraisals were bogus and in many cases there was no down payment on the loan.

 

It's a combination of factors, either way, I do not think the over valuation of homes played as much into a new home purchase as it did for people that bought a home with no money down, then re-fi'd after 1 year and took out more equity than they had in the home with interest only pay backs....

People learned this live beyond your means philosophy during the Clinton years.. Couple this with all the cc debt and other live beyond your means life styles created by those 8 years, and here we are....

 

The stock market bubble ran wild under Clinton and it's true that people learned this live beyond your means philosophy during the Clinton years. It's was pretty common to borrow against 401K plans just like people not take equity out of their homes.

 

so many people in south florida where buying with little or no money down, all the lenders had to do was make people have 10-20% deposit and it eliminated a huge section of buyers

one a funny side note, also in south florida there are tons of money back at closing scams, which puff up the sales prices, like you would have a house for 200k, I would borrow saying the house was worth 250k, so then at closing I would put 50k in pocket.

They actually had rings of people doing this with people recently released from prison, they would get money back at closing, then they would rent the property out for a few months until the banks foreclosed on it

 

that blows

 

So we have had two straight back to back family's perpetuating this behavior. Let's not let one of them back in again... For the love of God!!!

 

We don't need a closet Muslim either... So I guess we will be stuck with McCain...

I'll support McCain based on his VP choice. If he choose Rice or Huckabee, I will gladly jump on that bandwagon.

 

Don't be fooled...