Archive for January 17, 2009
I can hardly wait to see how the Manning brothers do tomorrow
Best line of late night
“Everybody was okay. The pilot did a terrific job of landing the aircraft. The passengers did what panicking people rarely do – they helped each other out.
“Back in coach, in the middle of all the chaos, people were lending total strangers the $10 life jacket fee.”
Jimmy Kimmel
January 17th
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is 45 today.
Still Missing the Housing Bubble
Americans lost $8 trillion in home equity over the past few years (and another $7 trillion in stock value last year). No wonder we aren’t spending money like we were. Many that write or talk about the economy seem oblivious to this rather basic fact.
The Washington Post, which was famous for relying on David Lereah, the chief economist of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), as its main expert on housing (also the author of Why the Housing Boom Will Not Bust and How You Can Profit from It), is still missing the housing bubble.
An article that discusses aspects of the bubble and how it has hit a family in California refers to the “mortgage mess.” Of course the mortgage mess is secondary. The problem stems from the fact that prices became hugely inflated and have now crashed. If house prices had followed a normal pattern of rising in step with inflation, the problems presented by the bad mortgages issued during this period would be relatively minor.
. . .
Two quick followups about the airplane in the Hudson
Nothing much new here from James Fallows, but interesting reading all the same.
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