Posted on 09/20/2007 8:49:57 AM PDT by Hydroshock
Edited on 09/20/2007 10:12:24 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Fresh economic shocks on the scale of the current credit squeeze will occur if US house prices continue to fall, one of the country’s leading housing experts warned on Wednesday.
Robert Shiller, a Yale university economist, told a US congressional panel that he feared “the collapse of home prices might turn out to be the most severe since the Great Depression”.
“The decline in house prices stands to create future dislocations, like the credit crisis we have just seen,” he told the Senate’s joint economic committee.
The warning underlines an increasingly widespread view that the turmoil in financial markets and tightening lending conditions are early consequences of a slump in the US housing market that is gathering momentum.
Warning signs There were fresh signs of weakness ahead for the US housing sector as figures showed applications for building permits fell to a 12-year-low.
Housing starts also dropped to the lowest level since June 1995, declining 2.6 per cent to an annual rate of 1.331m units.
The decline in construction activity appeared to be spreading to the north-east, where starts were 38 per cent lower.
Patrick Newport, an economist at Global Insight, said: “The eye of the storm is just ahead.”
But investors were cheered by the prospect of future interest rate cuts, as consumer price figures suggested a moderate inflation trend.
The government’s consumer price index fell last month by 0.1 per cent as prices at the pump dropped by nearly 5 per cent.
Core prices increased by 0.2 per cent. But the annual underlying inflation rate edged down to a 17-month low of 2.1 per cent from 2.2 per cent.
Mini skirts? I pass through downtown San Francisco on a daily basis and I see a woman in a skirt MAYBE 2% of the time. I would say that 98 of every 100 women I see on a daily basis wear slacks or pants. Skirts and dresses died long, long ago. They may exist in the night club scene, which I never enjoyed.
But I could offer you a dollar for every woman you see in a skirt or a dress in downtown San Francisco and you by noon, you would be hurting for lunch money. Some in the tiny financial district, yes. Otherwise, the skirt is dead, let alone the mini skirt, unless you count all the guys in gay parades wearing dresses. ;-)
Don’t know when women quit wearing dresses, but that was about the only thing I liked about the 70s. I can remember young ladies (I ended the decade as a 21 year old) in very flattering sun dresses or other feminine outfits. Today, it is straight unisex. Young ladies dress like guys. Older ladies don’t dress much differently.
Who cares? The state of fashion is the least of my problems.
I do grieve for sloppy look today. I remember going to Las Vegas and seeing all the couples dressed like they were out for a night in Monte Carlo. Today, most look like slobs. Shorts, tank tops, flip flops, ripped jeans. Come as you are, I guess.
I don’t remember a “win” button. What was it?
What do you mean the rate cut isn’t working? The dollar is falling like a rock. It’s working great for those in gold, oil, or Euros. Of course, my cash pile just shrunk. :(
Not much of a plus if you and 50% of your neighbors are unemployed though.
A stable economy is a hallmark of a stable society.
Banana republics are ridden with economic instability.
I am hoping that Shiller is wrong. Dead wrong. The guy is smart and he knows the housing market. But he’s not the pope.
Thanks for the reminder. I was in high school and just barely remember. But I do remember mom complaining about the price of milk and stake going up from one day to the next. That was brutal. Nobody wants a return to those days.
“stake” was a lot cheaper then....
RE: skirts
Texas is different. A different country.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.