Posted on 12/27/2006 6:46:17 AM PST by Hydroshock
Small companies are growing but seeking money in places other than the stock market because of the onerous regulations of Sarbanes Oxley.
London and Hong Kong love SOX.
I'm suprised this wasn't written by Paul al-Krugman, he has prdicted 9 of the last 0 recessions.
Yeah. For a brief moment it looked like we might take a few first tentative steps toward controlling the Mexican border, but we're clearly back to an open borders policy. Housing has to boom in the long run, as we have another 40-60 million Mexicans to accommodate.
In the Bush economy, we can only dream about standing in soup lines.
Happy Holidays from your "friends" at CNN! All gloom and doom, all the time!
Heavens no. Don't delete it. It's the annual "Stormy Weather Predicted for the New year" story. It's traditional.
The so called logic behind that says a down turn in new homes and home sales will cause a down turn in furniture and appliance sales. Pundits believe that a down turn in housing sales will create a down turn in sales of construction and construction employment and that translates into recession.
That has not proven to be the case in other times. When home ownership reaches an all time high, as it is now, the owners of those homes start the process of remodeling and updating furniture and appliances. They redecorate and repair. New homes bought and furnished a few years ago need new carpeting, furniture and appliances. The predicted down turn in these industries never materializes.
Drive by a Home Depot or Lowes store and look at the number of cars in the parking lot. It will make my point.
Even low levels of inflation over a decade gives the home owner more disposable income to spend on other things. A house payment in 2000 may have taken 1/4 of the household income but today it will likely take no more than 18 percent.
For the most part their payments remain the same or they switch from variable rates to fixed rate mortgages. That tends to reduce their payments. But home payments as a percentave of income decrease over time. A home owner five years into a mortgage has mote money to spend on clothing, eating out, and other non necessities. They buy new cars, furnishing, and travel more.
The unemployment rate is very low. That means more people have money to spend. There are only two things one can do with money... spend it or save it. If it is saved then the savings institution loans it to someone who borrows to spend.
The argument that people will spend less on housing is interpreted to mean they will spend less on other things. That is just not true. When unemployment is low and wages are increasing, as is the current case, then people just spend their money on other things or save it.
And as I said earlier in this post, saving or investing just causes others to spend the saved or invested money.
Those who interpret a decline in housing dollars as a decline in the economy are not thinking clearly. It may very well cause an increase in unemployment in the construction industry, but that can only mean that employment will increase in other areas of the economy.
Follow the money. Unless you can show a decrease in the amount of disposable income, there will be no recession.
Actually this is the best news possible.
It's only when the MSM and therefor the convetional wisdom turns positive that we are headed for trouble, like in the late 1990's.
Let em spread doom and gloom it just means another awesome year.
When the MSM acknowleges that the economy WAS NOT "in a nosedive" or "the worst ever" or "teetering on the edge of a recession the last four years leading up to the election this year, then I will be inclined to debate the content of the CNN assertion on its merits.
Until then, life is too short to waste debating with stopped clocks like liberals and the MSM who are bound to be right twice a day, but who lack the accounability or the desire to be accountable for what they say.
Sales of new homes rose 3.4% in November which was better than expected. Online retail spending rose 26% over last year during the month of Dec. and energy prices are falling again. Yep, really stumbling...
Ordinarily I don't pay any attention to anything CNN has to say about anthing. However, since it will be the Party in power who will get the blame for a new recession, this story may actually contain some objectivity.
That confirms it, next year will be a very good one.
Hmm...CNN isn't causing any panic today. The Dow is up 80, November home sales were up big and oil is down to $60 and change.
Either CNN is smoking some really good crack, or they are warning us that the economy will crash after all the Dem tax increases.
Well one could make that statement at any point in time over the last 100 years.
Do you post stories from The Nation too?
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