China’s Ghost Cities
China is in the midst of a huge housing bubble. Their bubble currently measures 6% of GDP, which was the peak size of the bubble we just experienced in the US. Housing mania has been a global...
View ArticleDateline Report on China’s Ghost Cities
In a moment of uncanny timing yesterday, I ran across a link to a fabulous Dateline episode on the topic of China’s ghost cities in a new post by Mike Shedlock at Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis....
View ArticleSliding Into A Double Dip
Newly released statistics last week from Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller index show continued decline in national home prices, prompting the media to question once again if the housing market is...
View ArticleRap Battle: Keynes vs Hayek
John Maynard Keynes with the government crew; Hayek represents from the Austrian School; In a battle of principles now here engage; As tongues tie and fists fly in animal rage.
View ArticleSowing the Seeds of War
The United States is now in the midst of three wars... or maybe they're all just smaller parts of what is to become one big war. In any case, we have reason to be very concerned about where our...
View ArticleTen Cents a Dance
My credit card company just sent me a check! That's right. I don't pay them; they pay me... and they'll pay you too if you're willing to dance.
View ArticleHands Off the Housing Market!
How long do we have to wait for housing prices to return to an affordable level? I am incredibly frustrated by how slow the process is. Billions of tax dollars have been thrown at the housing market...
View ArticleCleaning Up the Meat Grinder
What happens when the people in charge of coming up with a solution to the banking crisis are the same people who created the banking crisis in the first place? Let's take a peak into the kitchen on...
View ArticleThe Roof is On Fire
Last month there was a story in the LA Times about a local artist who got into a bit of a row with officials over his inflammatory artistic vision. The guy was on the street working on an oil painting...
View ArticleCartoon Communism
After Obama's latest campaign fluffing effort - uh, I mean the jobs creation speech he delivered earlier this month - I thought it might be a good time to check out some alternative approaches to...
View ArticleOccupy Occupy Wall Street
There is a new group emerging amidst the throngs of the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York City. The OCCUPY Occupy Wall Street movement is still only very small, with only two members committed to...
View ArticleWhat The Seer Saw
Today we slide The Paper Boat onto the river of time itself, and let the encircling waters carry us backward to the year 1995. Barack Obama has just published "Dreams from My Father" as he prepares to...
View ArticlePredictions 2012
The Paper Boat returns to open waters, after an extended holiday tied up at dock. Happy New Year to all! Let’s take a moment to look back at the events of the past year, and then we’ll move on to see...
View ArticleBuy When They’re High – A Graphic
I ran across a great chart this morning that clearly illustrates how the best time to buy a home is when mortgage interest rates are high. This is important to understand in today's market, when the...
View ArticleGreece Burns
Here in Tinsel Town, Los Angeles, the headlines today are all about the Grammys and Whitney Houston's tragic but sadly unsurprisingly early demise. Meanwhile, across the sea the Greek parliment fiddles...
View ArticleEconomic Growth and Peak Energy Animated
Great news, everybody! The economy is growing again! I'm sure you've heard the sunny stories coming out of the media recently. Growth in the fourth quarter last year hit a 3 percent annualized rate....
View ArticleSpain Implodes
Last week Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, warned "Spain is facing an economic situation of extreme difficulty - I repeat: of extreme difficulty - and anyone who doesn't understand that is...
View ArticleThe Derivatives Time Bomb
We need to talk about derivatives. The market has grown so unfathomably vast, the global economy is at risk of massive damage should even a small percentage of contracts go sour. Its size and potential...
View ArticleHousing Bull Crap
A consensus seems to have formed in the press lately that the housing market has finally turned around and we are at last back in bull territory. I tend to believe that such analysis is in bull...
View ArticleForbes Shouts Out to The Paper Boat
The Paper Boat set out for a leisurely float about the harbor one sunny day in August, when it just disappeared. Some folks say something dark lay beneath the ocean's glassy surface that day, and the...
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