From Houston comes word that more and more Americans - already the hardest working race on the planet - are giving up old-fashioned vacations. Either they don't want them...or they can't afford them. And even when they do go off for a while, they take their portable phone and portable computer with them so they can keep up with work while they're away.
And now oil prices are rising again. They're just pennies away from the record high set last August...and Goldman says a barrel of oil may go to US$95.
Meanwhile, analysts are now projecting that the housing slump could last for years - that there is a 'second wave' of housing hurt coming our way.
Our friend and colleague, Porter Stansberry reports:
"The number of US home foreclosures rose 87% in June year over year. There were 164,644 loan default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repressions, led by California, Florida, Ohio, and Michigan. If you assume that each of these homes is worth the median US home price, that's US$36 billion in defaults. And if you assume the banks, hedge funds, and bond managers that own these debts will recover 75% of this value, that's an estimated US$9 billion in losses...in one month."
"We're trying to sell our old house in Maryland," said an associate in Baltimore, "because we bought a new house and have already moved in. Right now, we're paying two mortgages, so we want to get rid of the old place as soon as possible. So far, we've had a few people look at it. And we've actually had a couple of offers...but they were both contingent on the buyers being able to sell their houses. So we looked on the Internet to find out what the odds of them being able to sell quickly really were...and we found, in both cases, that they were trying to sell houses in areas where there were hundreds of houses just like theirs for sale. It didn't look good for them...and it doesn't look good for us. For us it's not too much of a problem, because we bought our house many years ago. We have a lot of equity and a small mortgage. But I don't know what other people do in this situation..."
We don't know either...but, as always, we'll find out.
Bill Bonner
The Daily Reckoning Australia
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About the Author
Best-selling investment author Bill Bonner is the founder and president of Agora Publishing, one of the world's most successful consumer newsletter companies. Owner of both Fleet Street Publications and MoneyWeek magazine in the UK, he is also author of the free daily e-mail The Daily Reckoning.
Comment by TechnoFreak on 18 July 2007:
And then there is the Ford engine plant in Geelong Victoria that is to be closed.....why?
a choice was made about 10 years ago to run with the typical Aussie 6 and V8 as the main engine to drive the Australian public to and from work at.....40km/h.
The engines are too big
Well I remember the fight for the premier motorsport code, the European based 2ltr class against the great Aussie V8. The latter was chosen and that sealed the fate of both Holden and Ford in Australia (as well as globally).
It was obvious to any good engineer that the V8 was dead back then and yet they kept it on life support and made it one of the staple components of the great Australian dream....and now it has failed, again!!
Well, best of luck to Ford Australia and Holden Australia as they try to catch up with the rest of the world.
BTW, I seriously cant remember when I last filled up my Diesel Turbo...seriously, I think it was about 5 weeks (and 600km) ago?? But I am not sure...
Yes, I went the European way and never looked back.