Obama Exits, Stage Right Left As the 2016 stock market rout deepens (the Dow is down over 400 pts. so far this am), shell-shocked investors are all wondering: when will the pain stop? Unfortunately, it’s not clear to me that it will be anytime soon. That’s because markets hate uncertainty, and the biggest uncertainty hovering...Read More
China’s Chickens Come Home to Roost** or, Is the Opposite of the “Wealth Effect” the “Poverty Effect??” Normally, I tell prospective home Buyers and Sellers to tune out “macro” factors like the broader economy, (un)employment, etc. and instead focus on “micro” factors affecting the specific property they want to buy or sell. So, forget about...Read More
“Why Isn’t My House Selling If the Market’s So Hot?!?” If you estimate — as most Realtors do — that the mainstream media (“MSM”) lags the housing market by 3-4 months, what do you suppose the real estate headline(s) will be in early 2014? That Buyers have become scarcer and more cautious. That’s particularly the...Read More
“The Six Week Status Quo?” Just because I don’t predict what’s going to happen in the stock market doesn’t mean I don’t attempt to analyse it. So, here’s my (short-term) analysis: The #1 problem vexing the stock market is the Eurozone crisis. Europe — or at least its decision-making VIP-types — famously go on vacation...Read More
What is making people miserable? No one knows. I don’t mean that no one knows the answer to this question. I mean that the answer to this question is that no one knows ” and not knowing is making us sick. –Daniel Gilbert, “What You Don’t Know Makes You Nervous“; The NY Times (5/21/09) Gilbert,...Read More