The US economy has come back to output levels of ’07. But this feeble rebound not only holds the title of “weakest post-war recovery ever,” it also shows that something else is going on. Most economists have no idea what. So, they just think this “recovery” is unusually slow.
January 31st, 2012 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | ContinuedAll Posts Tagged With: "housing bubble"
Welcome to the House of Debt
Aussies have bid up the price of houses to absurd levels using debt. The debt that the mainstream will tell you doesn’t matter. But it does.
December 10th, 2011 | Nickolai Hubble | 4 comments | Continued
The Staying Power of Debt
It doesn’t matter what you say…too much debt is too much debt. And someone will have to pay for it.
All of the crisis and hoopla of the last 4 years has been just an attempt to avoid facing up to reality. Christmas comes but once a year…but investors have looked under the tree every day…hoping Santa paid an un-announced visit.
November 30th, 2011 | Bill Bonner | 3 comments | Continued
ETFs as a Resource Investment
In America, you’ll find two new exchange traded funds (ETF) linked to commodities. Global X Funds has launched an ETF for tracking sliver miners (NYSE:SIL) and an ETF for tracking global copper miners (NYSE:COPX). From our very cursory, the main rationale for both funds is higher demand for industrial metals, which more or less implies a recovery in the global economy.
April 21st, 2010 | Dan Denning | 0 comments | Continued
Australia’s Banks Have to Compete in That Global Capital Market
“The quality of banks’ housing loan portfolios has proven to be very high by international standards, notwithstanding a modest increase in loan arrears. There has been a more significant deterioration in the quality of banks’ business loan portfolios, particularly for commercial property, and this remains an area to watch closely in the period ahead. Nonetheless, recent indications are that banks’ overall loan losses may have peaked…
March 26th, 2010 | Dan Denning | 7 comments | Continued
Majority of Australians Believe House Prices Will Rise in Next Twelve Months
Now you have to assume a lot of income growth from here for affordability to remain the same with house prices at those levels. Or you’d have to assume much lower interest rates. That would be a stupid assumption, though, given that interest rates are headed up at the moment…
January 25th, 2010 | Dan Denning | 293 comments | Continued
The Fight Between Greed and Fear, Boom and Bust, Expansion and Contraction
This is a fight that goes on all the time. But it is usually kind of a ‘cold war.’ Years go by without much activity. Stocks meander. A few companies go bust. A few boom.
January 12th, 2010 | Bill Bonner | 1 comment | Continued
Gold in the Next Stage of a Bull Market
Gold is on track for its best monthly performance in a decade. The money metal reached $1,180 earlier this week, another all-time high.
November 30th, 2009 | Addison Wiggin | 1 comment | Continued
The Long Emergency
The reason behind this mass delusion is not hard to find: it’s based on wishing, especially the wish to retain all the comforts, conveniences, luxuries, and leisure that had become normal in American life. These are now ebbing away in big gobs for most of the population…
August 5th, 2009 | James Howard Kunstler | 2 comments | Continued
American Banking System is a Branch of the Federal Government
You probably know the old Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.” I heard it first 30 years ago from an economics professor – my mentor, in fact. He was lecturing about the problems Austrian economic models predict when banking is controlled by government.
July 8th, 2009 | Patrick Cox | 1 comment | Continued
The Failed Intervention: A Morality Play in Three Parts
LS (Unwitting Speculator #1) is closing on a house the following day. Mere hours stand between her and the single biggest financial transaction of her young life. Can those stalwart pessimists (Renters #1, #2 and #3) lash her to the mast in time to save her from the Siren’s tantalizing tune? We shall see, dear reader… below…
April 20th, 2009 | Addison Wiggin | 0 comments | Continued
Lower Bond Yields by Any Means Necessary
The benefits of merely mentioning the strategy started showing up right away. Yields were down and prices were up as traders loaded into U.S. bonds. All aboard the Fed’s Bond Yield Express! Destination Zero! You can see below that the current yield curve is more of an on-ramp. And the only reason it looks moderately curvy is the scale on the y-axis. Read on…
December 17th, 2008 | Dan Denning | 0 comments | Continued
The housing bubble caused big increases in nominal GDP
A correction is always equal and opposite to the claptrap that preceded it. The housing hallucination was a whopper…
August 6th, 2008 | Bill Bonner | 4 comments | Continued
Wiping the World’s Greatest Credit Bubble From History
One action alone won’t solve it – not even if that one action does come from Warren Buffett. Or the White House. Or the Federal Reserve. But altogether? And what if we throw in an extra $3.3 trillion of foreign government finance, pouring out of the oil- and export-rich sovereign wealth funds of Arabia and Asia? Might that be enough to wipe the world’s greatest-ever credit bubble from history?
February 14th, 2008 | Adrian Ash | 3 comments | Continued
