patrick.net

Correct me if I'm wrong, but one was new homes and the other was existing homes. The only reason for the jump is that the rate of sales was so LOW in Jan. So, yes, they are playing the game of psychological sttistics...literally twisting the data to fit their scenario.

Linda in La La Land,

I think X was referring to the WAY it was "portrayed". I actually had to toggle back and forth between a couple of different articles to make sure I had read it correctly (due in large part to cold medications). As SQT said, the avg. joe sixpack probably won't go to those pains.

what is your take on precious metal. do you think that there is already a bubble in metal. I know nothing about metal. it just seem like real inflation is going to kill cash and there is no other places..

Honestly, I have no idea. Precious metal is only a belief system, just like fiat currency is a belief system. It is all about mass psychology. However, if and when the credit/housing bubble goes bust, will people go for something with more _perceived_ safety?

Note to Randy H, Robert Cote, etc.,

Let me repeat:

IN NO WAY DO I FEEL THAT RED CHINA WITH ALL ITS ANTI-COMPETITIVE, ANTI-FREE MARKET CORRUPTION, GOVERNMENT MONOPOLIES, PROTECTIONISM, LACK OF RESPECT FOR HUMAN AND PROPERTY RIGHTS, ETC., ETC. IS IN ANY POSITION TO BE CRITICIZING THE U.S. NOR AM I ADVOCATING MODELING OUR HOUSING OR FINANCIAL MARKETS AFTER CHINA'S.

Like I already said to Owneroccupier,

"This is why I was so shocked by this article and thought it deserved notice. Like I said, the article just struck me as so bizarro and comically ironic. Here I’ve been criticizing the GSEs for creating systemic risk (and for their “too big to fail” implicit taxpayer guarantees) here for months. And then the LAST country I’d ever expect to agree with me does (indirectly anyway).

Note the comments about Sudan & Saudi Arabia? Comedy/irony/satire… get it?"

SFWoman,

I have heard more than a few similar observations from those in the know regarding China. I know that the IBs, PEs, and VCs are all recruiting heavily for financial talent to work in Shanghai often with a large SF component. I also know that the pay is astronomical. They are extremely selective about who they put into such roles though. Fluency in Mandarin and English, command of Chinese business culture, and usually Chinese ethnicity are usually required and non-negotiable. I love reading the open positions on glocap.com where they try to artfully signal that they will only consider ethnic Chinese for these positions. Usually it's veiled as something like (on the questionnaire you have to fill out to apply) "What are your specific family ties to mainland China?"

Shit, has everyone here lost his sense of irony/humor??

HARM,

It's all good. I was just trying to spout my typical "don't worry about China too much" diatribe before people launched into the typical doomsday predictions for the US economy. I do find great tragic comedy in China's posturing. However, it is probably timed to coincide with Congress' annual "beat up the RMB peg" theatre.

her irony/humor

@newsfreak,

Ahh... the old "which gender do I use" pronoun issue. That's the problem with English --there's no truly gender neutral singular pronoun, aside from the awkward (and inappropriate) "its", or "their", his/her, s/he. The rule when I was in grammar school was to always use the male pronoun, but that was back during prehistory/pre-PC.

Oops --forgot "one's".

Freddie Mac CFO resigns, shares fall
Wed Mar 22, 2006 11:26 AM ET

By Ed Leefeldt
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Martin Baumann, the respected chief financial officer of Freddie Mac (FRE.N: Quote, Profile, Research), has resigned less than three years after taking the job at the second-largest U.S. mortgage funding company, which is still recovering from an accounting scandal.

On March 10 Freddie Mac said it would delay until May the release of its quarterly and full-year financial results in order to implement an accounting change. It said it would hold a conference call with investors on March 30 to discuss this.

Japan is certainly doing some interesting things, and politically they are unaligned with either India or China. They also have an interesting relationship to Israel, as having almost no muslim demographic.

Best beef in the world too! Their seafoods are also top notch.

you Kalis care obsessed with food. I have no such obsesssion. As long as it was grown by mexicans, its ok.

Actually, it is just me.

The main reason Japan has better food in general is that they are willing to pay premium for quality.

what about Bacon Avocado? MARINA IS PRIME.

How much bacon avocado can you eat? Two portions and you are probably sicked-out.

Food (meals) should be designed to leave you in a balanced and harmonic state. So lobster-and-watercress is probably a better idea. Prawns-and-grapefruit should be great too.

DinOr
Yes, I was clear as to what Surfer X was saying. And I agree with him...the realtors twist stats to the point that their message essentially becomes a lie. Damn them! Scoundrels!
Yes, the realturds suck and are contributing the demise of the recent home purchaser by weaving lies about what is really happening.
BTW, Surfer X, some of your posts in the past are my favorite posts on this blog. I love how you tell it like it is...as crudely as you want...no holds barred rants. The world needs more of that...The God awful honest truth. And the outrage :)

but will April be the cruelest month?

Unreal estates,
Under the brown fog of a spring noon.

@Linda in LA-LA-LAND

I'm actually 37% less offensive in person.

All the hype about Iranian Oil Bourses was for nothing. I read they have postponed it as part of their 5 yr plan to somewhere in the middle of this year and that they wont start trading oil but something else. Seems like all the threatening has finally paid off, damn iranians without proper back bones. I wanted to see how it would have played out when all the other countries start to dump their dollar reserves for Euros but then there are not enough Euros to go around. Will have to be a tight demand supply chain.
Also read Germany and China is in surplus while US is in deficit and thats how the balance sheet is balanced all over the world. No wonder so many BMW's and Mercs on the road and Walmarts springing up like crazy.

@SFWoman,

Why do you hate Amerika?

HARM, are you suggesting that SFWoman is a "fifth columnist"? :-O

@Peter P,

No, not all. Perhaps I didn't express my thoughts clearly. I just feel that unpatriotic people like her are destroying the social fabric of this country --that's all. Sorry for any confusion. ;-)

HOMO AMERICANUS: therefore more food means it will be more harmonic.

I have this "never-ending meal" idea in mind. If we carefully size the portion and time the arrival of each course, an infinite meal can become a possibility. Of course, there needs to be bathroom and napping breaks between courses.

No, not all. Perhaps I didn’t express my thoughts clearly. I just feel that unpatriotic people like her are destroying the social fabric of this country –that’s all. Sorry for any confusion.

Oh no! What are we going to do?

Fortunately, work will make us free. ;)

@Hymie,
I am not good at stocks either but when you say you are dumping stocks - you mean you are selling them at cheaper price than what you bought it for but there has to be someone out there to buy it at that cheaper price - or else how are you selling it ? So there is someone out there that thinks that that stock has some value at that cheap low price and will buy and hold on to it till it increases in value.
So stocks and RE are the same.

Of course real estate can only go up. Are you attempting to destroy everything we stand for? They make no more land.

Right. I am glad that you see the light. Every bubblehead is a fifth columnist. ;)

This is already happening. Have you eaten at MM (Michael Minna) in the St. Francis?

I will try...

Is it better than Gary Danko's and/or Silks? But I believe most tasting menus last only a few hours. Perhaps we need to introduce multi-day tasting menus.

@Davis_renter,

Out of moderation.

I just love this double-speak

California had more unsold homes in February than at any other time in the past eight years, as sales of existing houses slowed further with rising mortgage rates and high prices, according to a report released on Thursday.

"There are a lot of people who can't afford to buy at today's prices," said John Burns, an Irvine, California-based consultant to home builders. "It looks to me like the market is headed for a soft landing."

Ok, lets shift the order a bit,

The inventory of unsold homes rose to a 6.7-month supply last month. "There are a lot of people who can't afford to buy at today's prices," said John Burns, an Irvine, California-based consultant to home builders. California had more unsold homes in February than at any other time in the past eight years, as sales of existing houses slowed further with rising mortgage rates and high prices. "It looks to me like the market is headed for a soft landing."

No actually it looks like your soon to get your ass handed to you.

-your
+you're

SFWoman, do you know of a good place to have High Tea in the city?

SFWoman,

Juku is not a real person. Nor are his aliases.

It is an automated NLP using such sophisticated AI algorithms that it is almost entirely indistinguishable from a knee-jerk, jingoistic, reactionary demagogue ideologue. I actually have my suspicions that it was developed by Felwesh, who derived it as a complex Bayesian network one weekend when he was attempting to disprove the utility of Neural Networks. However, Peter P and I have developed Genetic Algorithms which carefully select testing parameters and are able to see through Fewlesh's evil blogbots.

The battle only now just begun.

NLP = neuro-linguistic programming?

Surfer-X
Does that mean you're 67%more offensive while blogging??? :)
BTW, I've never actually found you offensive...though the day is young!

NLP = Natural Language Processing/Processor, but I like yours too.

How about NLP^2?

It would be a bot using Natural Language Processing and Neuro Linguistic Programming to brainwash people.

Does that mean you’re 67%more offensive while blogging???

No, just 37% less offensive in person*

*Note: not investment advice.

OK, now, when I lived in London ‘High Tea’ wasn’t the sandwich/scone clotted cream thing we think about here. It was a children’s supper at about 5:00 and consisted of fish fingers or a sausage and beans, or something like that.

Yes, I have watched a documentary about that a while ago.

I do like rich and heavy food occasionally and I do like fish fingers. ;)

It’s like golf, fun, but who has the time?

Now I hate golf. Can't hit anything at all recently.

Wow, do you mean I have entered a battle with an evil robot? I hope my training will enable me to prevail.

I am sure the evil robot uses evolutionary algorithms. Your training in microbiology will come in handy.

I can have a heavy dinner only once every a few weeks.

On the other hand, scones are not that difficult to prepare yourself anyway. The key is Devonshire cream (or any cream with 50% fat ;) ) which is readily available.

Molecular biology. Sheesh.

My bad. I am very ignorant in science.

@Hymie
I didnt have stocks during the stock bubble burst but I am thinking, did we have the same scenario where people were trying to unload their accumulated tech stocks during the beginning of the crash but they couldnt find buyers and had to hold on it and watch while the value went down ?
I do agree that stocks tend to trade faster because it is a much smaller asset compared to a RE and also because of the advances in Tech.