Archive - Jul 20, 2012 - Blog entry

Bulgaria speaks up in the euro fiasco. A balanced budget, growth, and an income tax rate of 10%?

Strength is fading. Parity is visible. Reform is the only option. European markets are tumbling and the euro has slipped to record lows against several major currencies. The market is in reaction mode responding Spain and Greece in the headlines.

So the end stage of neoliberalism threatens a Dark Age of poverty/immiseration – most characteristically, one of debt peonage. ~ Michael Hudson

The most corrupt moron of a Treasury Secretary the country has ever known...

10,000 baby boomers are retiring per day.  This two decade trend has only started but will certainly have an impact on the housing situation moving forward.  In most economic reports the boom and bust of the housing market was not factored into the equation.  Many boomers will downsize or sell as they age.  This is just a matter of demographics.  While trends are harder to predict, we know that 10,000 baby boomers will be retiring on a daily basis for well over a decade.  What does this do to housing?  The challenge we will face is that the younger home buying generation is less affluent and more in debt prior to purchasing a home.  Instead of growing households, we saw over 2 million young adults move back home to live with their parents.  So much for household formation taking up all that excess demand.  The recipe for the moment has been to constrain inventory and artificially push rates lower but this has done very little to increase actual financial security.  What happens when millions of baby boomers retire?

Time to panic? Or heading to the next whisky bar? Question is now what next? Somehow, we’ve been here before, but since then we had LTRO1, LTRO2, a (bank) bail-out, lots of European haggling and bickering… Hot Summer.

Long-time Slopers know that I have had a special place in my black heart for Chipotle Mexican Grill. How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways:

"You will understand what is happening is real and you will be glad that you are there to protect your family and save others and gloriously you will act with skill, ability, and confidence. Or you will doubt your ability, be overcome by fear, of no help to yourself or others...a sheep."

What's Ben gonna do?