Don’t Fight the Fed — Housing Edition “I am still aware of the inorganic nature of the improvement [in housing], but the key takeaway is a) US housing market down 35% eventually stabilizes; 2) do not under-estimate the ability of a determined Central Bank to impact any specific market it chooses.” –Barry Ritholtz, “Mea Culpas...Read More
S&P Case-Shiller: ‘Home Prices Rose 1.3% in April’ It’s well-known that various housing market cheerleaders (the National Association of Realtors; your friendly local Realtor?) have a tendency to put a positive spin on housing sales statistics. But, prominent housing bears tend to do the opposite (would that qualify as “backspin??”). Exhibit A: Barry Ritholtz’s take...Read More
“Do Deflated Bubbles Always Overshoot?” Cont. The Green Bay Packers never lost a game. They just ran out of time. –Vince Lombardi If you missed my tête-à -tête last week with Barry Ritholtz (“Why the Housing Bears are Bearish“), let me summarize: Mr. Ritholtz wrote that, even after a 35% drop from the peak nationally, housing...Read More
“Post-Bubble Price Behavior” If you don’t track financial blogs, the Op-Ed pages of The Wall Street Journal, etc. on the state of the housing market, allow me to summarize what the bears are currently saying (my paraphrase): “Yes, after a 35% price drop nationally, the air has been let out of the housing bubble. And...Read More
My Favorite Post of the Year (So Far) Those who talk, don’t know. And those who know . . . don’t talk. –Lao Tzu Better to keep your mouth shut, and let people think you’re an idiot, then open it and remove all doubt. –Mark Twain What’s going to happen in 2012? Hell if I...Read More
It’s been said “there are no atheists in foxholes.” Apparently, the economic equivalent is “there are no true Free Marketers during depressions,” either . . . –Barry Ritholtz, The Big Picture Regular readers know I’m a big fan of blogger (and fellow former attorney) Barry Ritholtz (“The Big Picture”). Quotes like the one above are...Read More
