The American Contagion

[profette_IHB]

This article from the <em>NY Times </em>includes some nice chart pr0n, too.



"DUBLIN ? The collapse of the housing bubble in the United States is mutating into a global phenomenon, with real estate prices swooning from the Irish countryside and the Spanish coast to Baltic seaports and even parts of northern India.



This synchronized global slowdown, which has become increasingly stark in recent months, is hobbling economic growth worldwide, affecting not just homes but jobs as well.



In Ireland, Spain, Britain and elsewhere, housing markets that soared over the last decade are falling back to earth. Property analysts predict that some countries, like this one, will face an even more wrenching adjustment than that of the United States, including the possibility that the downturn could become a wholesale collapse..." <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/business/worldbusiness/14real.html?_r=1&hp&oref;=slogin">MORE</a>

 

[Nude_IHB]

I love that they cast it as "American contagion", like lending money to people (who can't pay it back) so they can bid up the price on houses (that they never could afford normally) is some new and uniquely American problem. :blank:

 

[Irvine Soul Brother_IHB]

[quote author="Nude" date=1208218414]I love that they cast it as "American contagion", like lending money to people (who can't pay it back) so they can bid up the price on houses (that they never could afford normally) is some new and uniquely American problem. :blank:</blockquote>


As a red blooded American I resemble that! We invented greed here in the US and A, and other people are trying to get in on it!

 

[Anonymous_IHB]

Click on their chart on the left - it rather conflicts with the article title - the other countires are more real estate mad than the US, they just took longer to start falling...



Which is why I don't buy the "exports will save the US" thing. Who's going to be buying?

 

[IrvineRenter_IHB]

Stiglitz: The subprime problem just beginning!



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This is a great video I found over at Calculated Risk. Nobel Prize winning economist provides a great explanation of what we are facing.

 

[alan_IHB]

I don't know IR..... too much doom and gloom and world coming to and end stuff..



Next you will need links to online Prozac and suicide hot-lines. You might even be sued for contributing to someones suicide. Better remain anonymous.



What I do like about what Stiglitz says is that too much of corporate profits have come from finance. It used to be you made money by actually making something and adding value to it. Finance adds no value but scams off 30% or more from the transaction and results in obscene fee for wall street investment types. I really wish the politicos would start harping on this and regulate wall street back. Hillary scares me the most because she is most in bed with wall street and she's from NY.