Watch the following videos and then compare and contrast them. The first one is Peter Schiff debating Arther Laffer about the state of the economy prior to the collapse of the housing industry. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfascZSTU4o"]YouTube - 8/28/2006-Peter Schiff Predicts The US Economic Collapse With Unbelievable Accuracy[/ame] The second one is the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke giving his opinion on the state of the housing industry prior to its collapse. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INmqvibv4UU"]YouTube - Bernanke Was Wrong[/ame] What do you think?
That Bernanke is an idiot and Schiff is the gorilla in the room with asperger syndrome who no one wants to listen to, moreso because of his aspergers than the fact he's a gorilla.
Given what has occurred, Art Laffer lost the debate to Peter Schiff, however, I would contend that "You ain't seen nothin' yet". The "recession" in 2008-9 was simply an acknowledgement that the path is unsustainable. NOTHING HAS CHANGED. The US government is still going to have a 1.5 trillion dollar deficit under the most optimistic estimate this year. Millions of deadbeats are still living in houses that they can not afford and sympathetic moron politicians (i.e. Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania) think that they should simply be given the house. The day of reckoning is near - stock up on water, guns, ammo and canned food.
Michelle Caruso-Cabrera is definitely the hottest woman on CNBC. I would put Melissa Francis at second and Erin Burnett at third.
More people losin' their homes than during the Depression... Study: Housing Collapse Steeper Than During Great Depression June 15, 2011 | The author of a study claiming the U.S. housing collapse is now worse than during the Great Depression warned Wednesday that the market likely will continue to fall for the rest of the year before going stagnant.
The crisis in residential real estate has been prolonged by Obama's policies. It will be years before the market can turn around.
Slowing down the housing crash has had many benefits for the economy, the businesses, and the ordinary people trying to live their lives. Large scale, fast collapse is deadly and causes a lot of damage of its own in the resulting fear, panic, and dislocation. There is a real advantage to hitting an economic brick wall at 30 MPH instead of 70 MPH. There are many more survivors.
Short sharp pain that destroys a comparatively few lives is preferable to prolonged agony that spreads far and wide. The HARP and HAMP programs set up by Obama failed. Because they failed the mortgage foreclosure problem has not been solved. Instead it has delayed the reckoning that is now working its way through the market.
Indeed the reckoning is working its way through the market. But how would a massive sudden crash destroy "fewer lives"? Panics and millions of suddenly homeless people, a thousand banks crashing in one weekend with no one to take them over so everyone loses EVERYTHING on deposit instead instead of over a couple years, companies evaporating overnight instead of having a chance to sell out, and much more, would cause as much NEW damage as the old problems themselves.
