patrick.net

DinOR,

People could devote 99% of their income towards whatever they want and spend less on everything else. If they did spend 50%+ on housing, that probably means they're spending less on vacations and restaurants and movies, so you can optimize your personal expenditures to take advantage of less crowded entertainment and eating venues.

In the long run, housing should fall, when people realize they can't afford to retire or visit the dentist unless they get rid of the McMansion albotross.

"can't afford to retire or visit the dentist" Funny!

I suppose the reason I've tread lightly here is b/c we have been through much of this before and I'd prefer to steer clear of those "values" arguments.

If I inherited a cool mil. I doubt seriously a dime would find it's way into RE. That's just me. Many would decide to go ahead and get the home they want cash out right. That's fine too. Clearly though at some point balance and common sense has to enter in the equation if only to keep the lights on and "body and soul together".

RE: Horse Slaughtering

I think it has gone too far. What is wrong with horse slaughtering? Soon enough we will all be forced into becoming vegetarians.

The nonsense must stop here.

I think vegetarian fundamentalism and animal right extremism are becoming dangerous religions.

“Just like it took the stupidest buyers at the top, at the start of the decline the stupidest buyers will get the first deals. We need to run out of stupid buyers yet again before the deals reveal.”

This assumes that everyone is optimizing utility by the same objective function.

That assumption is false. Some people actually buy homes to live in and increase their quality of life. Those people are not "stupid" if they buy earlier than other people, regardless of price direction. In fact, many people will be "stupid" for waiting too long, even if they save some money.

Money is not an objective function.

I am truly worried about our future in the hands of those who think animals have more rights than humans.

How can we fight back?

Animals have the same rights as people. No one is denying them the opportunity to vote. Alright. Show of hands…. err show of appendages… who thinks we should eat Smith? Zero. okay, who thinks we should eat Ahi the lovely deep pink tuna? Motion carries. Quorum adjourned to the grille.

LOL!

I think the meat industry should lobby harder though. We are at the top of a slippery slope.

I hate cooking for vegetarian friends. I cannot cook vegetables without chicken broth!

On the way up it is important to have a supply of stupid but on the way down you need to be the one buyer left standing

There are inevitably people who bought near the top, perhaps even a few at the absolute top, who are not "stupid" when viewed versus their utility function. In a market such as this supply & demand fail as primary analysis because every participant, on both curves, has a different elasticity.

Animals would eat you if they evolved the teeth and stomach and cutleries for it.

I wouldn't oppose vat grown meat though, as long as it tastes good.

Animals would eat you if they evolved the teeth and stomach and cutleries for it.

Very true. There are no laws in the Animal Kingdom against slaughtering humans.

I wouldn’t oppose vat grown meat though, as long as it tastes good.

I agree. But we should never ban meat.

Some open space preserve people actually approached us for support. They said they wanted to force vertical development. No support from me!

Once we allow/encourage vertical development and fix the urban environment there will be less sprawl as a result. Banning development will not work.

I should have told them that I would support building condos in Yosemite.

The answer is genetically engineered, cloned meats for consumption.

*hides*

(someone did say we need to stir up more controversy around here, so I also propose the above be powered by breeder nuclear reactors)

Peter P,

2 rules.

Never invite vegans for dinner. If vegans show up uninvited, toss them a garden salad and a lemon juice vinagrette.

Spinach quiches for the rest.

I don't support factory farming though. They're unnecessarily cruel and polluting in my opinion, and the meat doesn't taste very good.

The answer is genetically engineered, cloned meats for consumption.

No need to hide.

I would support that. If cloned meat (cheap Kobe beef?) is available, there will be less demand on slaughtering animals. Problem solved.

Robert Coté Says:

Yeah, brutal and even Maria is piling on.

I'm picturing Maria piling it on... not a bad one.

Never invite vegans for dinner. If vegans show up uninvited, toss them a garden salad and a lemon juice vinagrette.

Perhaps a pasta with pine nuts, arugula and cherry tomato.

I can guarantee that it will happen, eventually. It's a question of time. In the future, people will pay a huge premium for "natural" food, whereas engineered food will provide mass sustenance. It will happen for pure economic reasons. Less pollution, greater safety, higher efficiency, and more reliability of product quality. There will probably be some zealots who will try to bomb the factories, but that's always the case with anything that works well.

newsfreak Says:

Or should the tombstone be wrapped in perigraniteel?

I think the tombstone in the graphic is granite already!

But back to the original post, technically, isn't the bubble still alive and well? The deflating/collapsing period of the bubble is still part of the bubble phenomenon, just the downside of it.

HARM-X Industries Ltd :

Cool. Thanks for the graphics.

CNBC women are the penultimate generation in the Bene Gesserit breeding program.

One of the questions unresolved from the BlogII party was; if cats had opposable thumbs would we be pets, food or sport?

All three. Cats are amazingly smart and/or "evil". One of our cats has "human" eyes. Very cute, yet scary at times.

Peter P Says:
September 7th, 2006 at 3:30 pm

"Perhaps a pasta with pine nuts, arugula and cherry tomato."

If you want them to come back...

If you want them to come back…

All right, I will scare them away by throwing in some crab meat.

Sprawl is good. Sprawl encourages biodiversity. Sprawl protects indeveloped spaces from the machinations of planners.

Perhaps. This is why we should let the market decide.

I think cats have made incredible strides in making us their pet, food (can opener), and sport even without opposable thumbs.

CNBC women are the penultimate generation in the Bene Gesserit breeding program.

Somehow, thinking of them as scifi witches doesn't make them any less attractive in my mind.

Peter P Says:

"All right, I will scare them away by throwing in some crab meat."

Perhaps a sea urchin dressing. You could claim you thought sea urchins were a vegetable.

You could claim you thought sea urchins were a vegetable.

You mean it is not? 8-O

SP,

The spice agony? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bene_Gesserit

I think the movement to force vegetarianism upon humanity is real. If we do not act we will soon face a crisis.

We are seriously being distracted from real issues like terrorism, diseases, and overpopulation.

Someone should start a Human First initiative.

long time lurker here ... first time posting.

thought I'll share what I read in Rob Black's blog: http://robblack.typepad.com/robblack/

>>
Real Estate . . . These days there are more ``home for sale'' signs then than at any other point in time since 1993. Most gauges are confirming that the housing market has hit the brakes and may be in a tailspin. Existing-home sales dropped a more-than-expected in July while new-home sales fell 22 percent from the same month last year. And construction spending fell the most in five years. Higher mortgage rates and affordability concerns have been the bogeymen in the current U.S. housing decline but little attention has been paid to the adjustable-rate mortgages. Those with adjustable-rate loans -- almost a quarter of all U.S. mortgages -- will face re-adjustments soon. That means higher monthly outlays. Some 1 million people may lose their homes when 60 percent of adjustable loans ratchet borrowing costs higher by the end of 2006. Those at greatest risk are typically credit-challenged, carry high-cost, sub-prime adjustable loans and are mostly black or Hispanic. For the record, these borrowers tend to be concentrated in all urban areas in California.

Home-price growth slowed during the second quarter from a year earlier in the sharpest three-month plunge on record since 1975 which indicates this year's housing slump is deepening. The quarterly slowdown came during the ``spring selling season,'' when about half of a year's home sales typically occur, suggesting the housing market may be slowing more rapidly than economists initially predicted.
>>

As a first course or appetizer? Ewwww. Not even with a solid grenache. I’m not even a fan of cheeses in the first salad but a heavy meat early on? No, humans should never be served before the red wine.

Hor D'oeuvres. :-D Just kidding.

Phoenix is coming undone.

I am truly worried about our future in the hands of those who think animals have more rights than humans.
How can we fight back?

Such people can be handled by "Stray Human Projects"; they can be caught, spayed/neutered, and released into the Kalahari or other wild area to live as nature intended.

(With apologies to the person who originally suggested this, in Another Place.)

The PETA people deserve just that. They make a mockery of themselves and discredit more reasonable efforts to improve animal quality of life via spay/neutering, shelters, humanely raising meats, and so on.

They should be locked in a cage with 20 or so rabid minxes.

Just to clarify. I am not entirely against vegetarianism as a religion. However, it should not be involuntarily forced upon others. Sadly, I see this as a trend.

Animal welfare should only be an after-thought at least until we archieve Utopia.

That’s a very, very common Science Fiction subtheme.

Culturing meat is already possible. It is just not economically feasible yet.

Do you suppose this guy still works at Channel 6?

Huh?

Isn’t that a little high? Even in the US most colleges don’t charge in the millions.

don't? won't?