Spring brings signs of hope and renewal — except in the housing market
Spring brings signs of hope and renewal — except in the housing market Barry Ritholtz Washington Post April 7, 10:02 AM ~~~ Ahhh, winter is finally over. Each year about this time, flowers push up through the soil, trees begin to bud — and the stories about a real estate recovery appear. Am I...
Fed Access for All !
Why should just banks have all the fun? Former FDIC Chair Sheila Bair proposes EVERYONE get access to the Fed window for free loans and 0% money. Her gleeful take: “Under my plan, each American household could borrow $10 million from the Fed at zero interest. The more conservative among us can take that money...
On shadow banking
It is important to distinguish between leveraged and unleveraged non-bank lenders, both investors and both implicitly “shadow banks”. Leveraged non-bank lenders are ultimately part of the regular banking system, not the shadow banking system. When a leveraged investor, such as a hedge fund, buys a loan directly or buys a bond (i.e. makes a loan),...
60 Minutes: Europe’s debt crisis
See also: 60 Minutes, An Imperfect Union: Europe’s debt crisis
Spring’s Eternal Optimism – except in Housing
> My Sunday Washington Post Business Section column is out. This morning, we look at the annual premature housing recovery. The print version had the full headline The eternal optimism of spring — except in housing; the online version had the longer Spring brings signs of hope and renewal — except in the housing market)....
The War Against Youth
Over at this month’s Esquire, they have a long diatribe titled The War Against Youth. Spread throughout the piece are these various graphics which I imagined would look better if we could assemble them into one long infographic. So we did — full graphic after the jump. > > Data: The War Against Youth Source:...
Home Affordability Reality Check (Part 2 of 5)
All this week, we will be looking at the Housing Recovery meme, challenging the assumptions and data that make up that argument. Yesterday, we began with Debunking the Housing Recovery Story (Part 1 of 5). Today we look at exactly how affordable homes are today, as well as the home buying public’s ability to afford...
Debunking the Housing Recovery Story (Part 1 of 5)
Ahhh, Spring is here. Each year around this time, the flowers push up through the soil, the trees begin to bud — and the Real Estate recovery stories start to appear. It is a perennial rite of Spring, not remotely slowed down by such niggling factors as consistently being wrong year after year, unsupported by...
Is Margin Debt Signalling a Top?
> Helaine Meisler discusses the role of margin debt in markets hitting a top: “Margin Debt tends to rise as markets rise. While there is no magic number that rings a bell at the top, you can see from the chart below that in the last decade once Margin Debt gets over $300 million we...
Pending Home Sales, Permits, Starts & Completions
I am stumped by the ongoing insistence that a turnaround in Housing is upon us. It simply is not in the data, as we saw sales of new homes fell 1.6%, plus or minus 23.9% (LOL). Despite unusually warm weather, we still saw a sequential monthly drop in New Home Sales. The weather is more...
