Home on the bear market range – the United States will face a 10 to 15 year real estate bear market. Hard to believe but we are already 5 years into this economic trend. The failure of Quantitative Easing in Japan.
Can Americans cope with a 10 to 15 year bear market in real estate? On this front I have good news, and bad news. The bad news is that we are likely to face at least a 10 year bear market in real estate thanks to a lost decade in household income and the continued [...]
The financial tipping point of peak debt – Total credit market debt owed increased from $28 trillion in 2001 to over $52 trillion in 2011. Household debt contracting while Fed juices up the banking sector with more debt.
At the dark heart of our financial dilemma is debt. Too much debt was used to bolster households during the real estate bubble and now too much debt is being used by the government to bail out the financial sector. Is there a tipping point in the amount of debt the American economy can shoulder? [...]
Student loan shark industry – total revolving debt contracts during recession while student loan debt increases by a stunning 80 percent on an annual basis. A college degree for working at McDonald’s?
College sticker shock is probably stunning many parents as college aged students now sign their intent to register at thousands of schools across the country. You can almost feel the panic when Johnny or Suzie tells mommy and daddy she is going to University of Break the Bank while they watch their home equity plummet. [...]
Low wage capitalism – Newly added jobs are coming from lower paying sectors while productivity increases and profits filter to the top of the economic class. 3,500,000 high-wage jobs lost during recession and only 179,000 have been added so far.
One of the most troubling aspects of this “recovery” is how it is being achieved. We keep hearing about the wonderful Wall Street recovery yet a large portion of this is being created by extracting productivity from workers and stifling wages. Obviously if you scare the working and middle class and give them no job [...]
Casino economics and tax myths – media forgets that people pay sales, property, Social Security, and Medicare taxes. How the financial class robs from the American people legally.
As tax day passes us by, many in the public are realizing that the extremely wealthy especially in the financial industry know something they don’t. What they are finding is that the financial industry has access to massive government bailouts and in many cases does not pay their fair share of taxes. Like Atlas holding [...]
Meet the new financial boss, same as the old financial boss – Commercial real estate bailout implicates Federal Reserve as Fed balance sheet balloons to $2.7 trillion. CRE values down $3 trillion from their 2008 peak.
Commercial real estate (CRE) is still benefitting from a large shadow bailout by the Federal Reserve. This isn’t some secretive move since the Fed actually publishes data on this and is available to anyone in the public with a desire to shuffle through the mounds of information. There has been virtually no media coverage on [...]
Banks gone wild – The temporarily embarrassed millionaire syndrome. Bailout recipient JP Morgan Chase pays CEO what amounts to 843 times the median US household income.
It is a fascinating case study in human psychology that one of the top contenders for President is Donald Trump, a man who makes a living at least on his show by firing people. You would think that many Americans would want someone that hires people given our current economic predicament. Put aside the antics [...]
The housing gamble: What if home prices remained stagnant until 2020? 6 charts laying out the argument for stagnant or declining home prices for another 10 years. Peak in dual income households, home prices still inflated relative to incomes, Federal Reserve unable to hold mortgage rates low forever.
What would happen if home prices remain stagnant for another decade? It is hard to imagine that the cornerstone of the American dream would somehow become a bad investment for the next decade. For decades every generation was conditioned into believing that housing was the best investment a family could make. For many it provided [...]
The new Gilded Age – The psychology behind the aspirational rich in America and how people allow banks to swindle their financial security away.
A couple of weeks ago a survey of the ultra-rich by Fidelity Investments showed that most of these millionaires did not feel rich unless they had $7.5 million. Keep in mind that one out of three Americans do not have one penny to their name, not even stashed in the beat up mattress. It is [...]
No quantitative easing for oil – The Federal Reserve can digitally print money into existence but this does not create more oil. Federal Reserve has a comic book section?
The Federal Reserve continues to support a flawed banking system that has ignored the urgent calls for reform in spite of the greatest financial collapse since the Great Depression. Bankers and fellow politicians understand that each day that passes without serious reform allows one more day for the painful memories of 2007, 2008 and 2009 [...]
