patrick.net

German designs are even more durable than German cars.

Jimbo says: But the point I am trying to make is that our current economic conditions exacerbate that effect. I guess another way of thinking about it is that there is a surplus of cheap labor in the world right now, so of course the retuns on capital are higher. Maybe there is nothing that can be done about that, short of protectionism, which would be even worse in the long run.

There is nothing that the FED or the government can do about globalism. If we want to remain a world power, we must do two things. At a government level, we need to borrow a lot less and spend a lot less. On a personal level, we need to kick our consumer addictions to cheap electronics, clothes and other material goods. That's really where this thread has been going.

Look at China. Their savings rate is phenomenal, somewhere in the 40-50% range. You don't see them taking HELOCs to buy a damn Lexus or a second plasma screen TV. We need to return the U.S. to its economic roots---owning permanent productive resources like farms, timber land, mines and water. We should invest in companies that produce goods wanted elsewhere in the world, even as we reduce our own consumer tendencies. The U.S. has such influence in the world that if we reversed the trade deficit for a couple years, the effect would be tremendous.

Very nice synthesis Brand. I don't tend to say much when I agree, not much point to a "me too" post but yes, we seem to have lost our economic moorings. Someone will end up paying for this but unfortunately it probably won't be the ones responsible.

Let's speculate that the people who pay for it will be Gen X and onwards. It's not too late to get our act together, both personally and in government. Everybody has a vote.

A depression is clearly very possible. Not a certainty but it won't take much more to set it off. I have just driven across NM and I can tell you that most large parcels are for sale, and we saw REAL modern ghost towns.

justme: Was Greenspan looking out for Wall Street specifically, or the firms that American stocks represent? I think it's pretty easy for most investment teams to have a stellar day with this much liquidity sloshing around.

Perhaps a question for Randy H---is the stock market going to reverse its gains when the cheap money dries up? Do liquidity booms tend to stabilize at certain levels, or eventually retract?

Malcom: That's New Mexico. Who would want to buy huge parcels out in the middle of the desert? If it were huge parcels near populated areas, then I would be more curious.

I've wondered, was Albuquerque a real estate boom town? I heard it was going even crazier than Phoenix. It was going to be the next Silly Con Valley, according to certain publications.

LowlySmartRenter,

If you stick around long enough you will see everything discussed multiple times. There is really only so much you can say about real estate and watching the "bubble" collapse is liking watching paint dry.

Add to the fact that some of us seem to have Early Onset Alzheimers and can't remember that we already talked about something a short while back. :-D

We could always fall back on our default discussion, which is food. Find any good new sushi places Peter?

I want to talk about NYT's wedding announcement sections.

How about posting wedding announcements here and then have people predict the kind of house the couple will buy/rent/inherit.

How about posting wedding announcements here and then have people predict the kind of house the couple will buy/rent/inherit.

That would be interesting.

We could always fall back on our default discussion, which is food. Find any good new sushi places Peter?

There are a few new places in the Mountain View / Sunnyvale area. :)

I know your ideology tends you to believe this, but you don’t *really* believe this do you? Even under, say, feudalism?

I really do think so.

However, we should care only about our own standard of living, right? I do not care if rich people start having private space shuttles. So long as we are all moving forward, it is fine if our speeds are different.

http://www.02138mag.com/tribe/loves/1077.html

"Emily Sweeney and Lauralee Summer A.B. ’98...Lauralee is a high school English teacher who grew up on both coasts, as well as the author of the memoir Learning Joy from Dogs Without Collars (Simon & Schuster)...They knew things were different when Emily noticed that Lauralee was "well-spoken" and "really confident. I realized I had a crush on her.""

Perhaps an urban loft.

I doubt they can afford it by themselves, but maybe Ms. Harvard '98 has a rich daddy.

To balance things out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divorce_Court

Huh?

The girl in this blogs main picture could not look more happy.
She is debt free and riding in a convertable. What could be better?

It's kinda funny knowing that she is getting paid to give the most happiest facial expression she can muster and she is doing it quite well.

I only wish the pic included more cleavage, but that's just me. Then again, it would distract me from the main happy concept. I would get caught up in thinking about how nice her boobs would look if she would suddenly strip off her shirt and throw it up in the air. How's that for a mental image.
She's debt free and completely liberated. Let's see um shake baby. Yeah!!

i am going to thailand in 4 weeks. I will spend my summer in asia again, i hope my fudging roommates deposit all the rent they are supposed to while i am gone, and feed my dog :-) bangkok and shanghai have even worse realestate bubbles then here. You can rent a nice apartment conveniently located near skytrain (public transit) with maid service cable tv ect for 600 a month (short time... much cheaper if your staying a year), but buy a condo there is almost as much as phoenix.... go figure. shanghai is even worse... last time i stayed in a small but clean hotel for a month, only cost about 600 a month and the bed made, room cleaned every day, but an ok 2 bedroom condo would set me back well over 100thousand us...mind you that was a hotel; if i wanted a one year lease and had somebody chinese negotiate i could easily find an apartment for $400... the whole world has gone crazy... one girl i know in shanghai bought an apartment as an investment; but she doesn't rent it out because the rent would be so small its not worth the trouble... then why was the apartment so expensive? cause it will go up!!! go figure! I own 2 homes in phoenix, one is paid off, the other will be next year... I am kinda voting for the bubble/collaps; maybe i will kick myself for not selling at least one of the homes but what do i really care as long as they are rented? and rents seem to be going up at least where i am not out on the overbuilt fringes...

Look at China. Their savings rate is phenomenal, somewhere in the 40-50% range. You don’t see them taking HELOCs to buy a damn Lexus or a second plasma screen TV. We need to return the U.S. to its economic roots—owning permanent productive resources like farms, timber land, mines and water.

For now.

It's because all of the consumption of their output happens here, in our country. So, they can thank Walmart and us.

The powers that be have decided there that consumption is the best way to improve their nation! They're encouraging the build up of massive car production for internal consumption - and they expect that to lead to massive economic growth. Kinda like us in 1950's, sprawl, traffic, Pier 1, etc.

Give them about 65 years - they'll be screwed too.

It's because all of the consumprion of their output happens here, in our country.

I've seen this statement or ones with similar wording many times over the past few years and think it would be useful to know in better detail to what extent it's true.

There are others here far better qualified than I am to comment, but the last figure I saw cited for Chinese export to the US was 2005 when we made up something like 17% of their export trade. If that's correct - I can't find the citation now - we are far from being China's sole trading partner while at the same time remaining very important to them.

China has signalled a desire to diversify their investing to include non dollar denominated assets and have recently taken the steps necessary to act upon that intention. Though they have not said so explicitly, I have the impression they will continue to acquire US treasuries in quantities sufficient to avoid blame for triggering any significant upsets here.

I think it's pretty clear they wish to continue to encourage a brisk trade with the US marketplace at least as long as we continue to be an active market, but also and at the same time to protect themselves in the event trade with the US should begin to sour. In their position, I'd do the same.

iceberg_slim Says:

> I only wish the pic included more cleavage,
> but that’s just me.

Then GC Says:

> That Woman is awesome. cleavage is bad
> taste. And childish.

I think it depends on the woman… When I see fake boob bimbos like Anna Nichole and chunky Hispanic gals in the Mission (who often have more skin falling out over their belt then they have falling over their halter top) showing cleavage it grosses me out. Other woman can get away with a little cleavage like a hot thin tax attorney who might unbutton one more button than normal on her Ralph Lauren silk blouse and there is nothing hotter than a 5’10” athletic gal in high heels and a low cut evening gown giving everyone a little peek at her perfect 34Bs…

P.S. I still have not even seen a guess of what kind of car the debt free gal is in…

P.P.S. Asking about the car reminds me of a Paragon Products ad in this months Panorama magazine with a curvy blond. In the ad two guys are thinking about the blond and the third guy in thinking about a car…

P.S. I still have not even seen a guess of what kind of car the debt free gal is in…

I'm guessing a zero money down with a 2.2% APR for the first six months adjusting to 13.4%.

More wedding announcements:

http://tinyurl.com/2ujaxn

""Erick proposed via AOL instant messenger," says Starr, a cashier. "We originally met in a chat room about two years ago, so it was kind of appropriate.""

My prediction: They'll move into her momma's house. Their first kid will be born 4 months later. They'll have a big fight shortly thereafter. The groom will move back home "temporarily." Kid #2 will effectuate a reconcilation (no DNA testing please)...if they stick together long enough, they'll look like that Oakland gender ambiguous bubble-couple.

New thread: Why is Generation Y so lame?

I really do think so.

However, we should care only about our own standard of living, right? I do not care if rich people start having private space shuttles. So long as we are all moving forward, it is fine if our speeds are different.

Are you saying that class mobility is the same under Feudalism as in America today? I just can't believe you are claiming that, so I suspect you are saying something different. As someone who lived in The Projects and trailer parks while growing up and is upper middle class now, I kind of think class mobility is a cool thing. A born serf stayed a serf all his life in 1200 France.

Are you saying that the wealthy stayed wealthy in both societies? That is something I could imagine someone claiming, even though I think that is wrong too. It is pretty easy to find wealth that dissapates in a few generations, as well as people going the other way, though going from Poor to Rich (as you define it) in one generation is nigh impossible. I can't think of even one example.

Bap33

Amen brother!

Astrid,
You have the 3rd eye of a soothsayer regarding that newly married couple. "The Oakland gender ambiguous couple" still makes me laugh out loud. That was f-ing rich when they had to point out that he was the one on the left.

that shit was funny

bap33 quit sucking the paint can... and get out of the trailerpark. this blog is about housing save that crap for your next gay romp with your minuteman boyfriend

azrob & justme,

May I direct you to http://patrick.net/wp/?page_id=60

Don't read the whole thing, just start in the middle and look for exchanges btwn "sean who is not different sean" and bap33.

Believe me, you can't win over bap33.

Illegal aliens are only 4% of the total population of the United States. The idea that 4% could forceably incarcerate the other 96% is laughable, especially since the 96% hold all the high tech weaponry.

But I imagine it doesn't feel that way in Merced. I am against illegal immigration, too, but for different reasons than you Bap33. I think illegals depress the wages and working conditions of the rest of us, especially those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder. I am in favor of bringing in as many legal immigrants as we need to satisfy our labor demands.

You probably don't realize it, but your argument that illegals are a big source of pollution is one that is raging in the Sierra Club right now. There is a significant faction that believes that the Sierra Club should take a stand against all immigration because the average American immigrant uses up much more resources than he would have if he had stayed at home. I find this argument compelling, but not enough to convince me that we should choke off legal immigration. Not a Sierra Club member, but I pay attention to them.

justme,

Most posters weren't following it because it was on a sidebar thread. I followed it for a while because I found SwinDS to be an interesting and persuasive poster. The posts do illustrate that sometimes, there's just no arguing with folks.

Does everybody understand that the only thing that keeps that from happening is the fact we can keep arms?? If the libs had removed all guns from regular folks, then what would keep them illegals from gathering up entire towns and killing them or keeping them in work camps??

Well, that would be unconstitutional. We should still be able to keep black-powder muzzle-loaders. :)

Perhaps a hi-cap magazine will soon be defined as any magazine capable of holding more than one round.

Law-breaking illegals may have full-autos though. So watch out.

bap33:

Your postings serve to remind me why I live in a gated community, and send my children to private school: To only have interaction with your ilk in a blog, instead of seeing you in my normal life.

Tu eres nada mas que una racista de la clase baja, sin education, sin futuro. Que tristeza para ti saber que yo soy cien veces mas rico que tu...

I do not think bap33 is a racist. He hates law-breaking illegals. He is a just crime-hater like many of us. Crime must not pay.

The contribution of the Mexican community is a fact. The guest worker program will solve a lot of problems.

In that context, I believe "illegal" meant "illegally present."

Ok, ok... so “ILLEGAL MEXICAN” is a politically loaded (and technically innacurate) term. Let's run this through the 'ol BayAryan uber-liberal PC filter and...

...new politically acceptable term: "Documentation-challenged, unskilled, pre-unionized Latino-American guest worker".