Hey, on the positive side, LinkedIn is better off that Facebook. You see, Facebook will have to register the whole computer capable populace of the world to justify the Au plated, Goldman Goldilocks fairytale other wise known as marketing materials. LinkedIn will just have to grow revenues 300% or so for about about a decade to make this JPM/MS fairytale have a happy ending. No matter what, I betcha there will be a moral to these stories for investors, though!
Last night, I spent an interesting time with the esteemed and world reknown macro economist, entrepreneur, NYU professor and strategist, Dr. Nouriel Roubini. Nouriel is a very, very bright guy. He has to be, he agrees with many of my viewpoints :-) On a more serious note, this article is the first installment of the valuation of real world, real assets and properties that are actually up for sale. I plan to walk my readers through the potential absurdity that is investing in a bubble that has not finished popping.
Here’s my latest with Max Keiser discussing Goldman Sachs (remember, I was the first and original public Goldman Bear), the race to the bottom for the profligate three (or the Triumvirate of super states looking to crash the other two), the banks as the “new tobacco companies” and the accuracy of my call that banks are choking on Bernanke’s ZIRP flavored medicine… You just don’t hear this stuff in the mainstream, do ‘ya?
Anybody who has been following me since 2006 knows me to be a real estate bear. I was massively bullish from 2000 to 2005, after which I started selling off my investment assets. No, it wasn’t perfect timing, intellect, luck or a gift from God. It’s called a spreadsheet. Simply do the math and the truth will be self-evident!
"America Realist!" I really like the ring of that:-) Yesterday, I bluntly called out the European state of economic affairs as I saw them in “Liar, Liar, European Pants on Fire!” Today, I present the article published by Property EU, one of the leading real estate publications in Europe which illustrates much of my thoughts on the topic of how and why Europe is nowhere near out of its economic malaise, and more importantly how this may pull the value of real estate down. Well, you can use your imagination for the Lehman like results…
When I say that much of the EU is lying about their financial prospects and Greece (among other countries) will restructure or default, you may or may not listen (quite possibly to your detriment). When the ratings agencies (who are always accurate and timely) say restructuring is on the horizon (a year after me) and the head of the Euro-zone finance ministers finance ministers outright says 'Of course we're lying', then what do you do?
A amazing as Apple's growth was last quarter during the iPhone release on Verizon's network, Google's Android still gained market share and the two main Android handset vendors doubled and tripled Apple's handset growth. It's fair to say that Android is to Google in 2013 as Windows is to Microsoft in the '90s. Network effect, y'all hear?
As one of my readers noted, single family foreclosures have boosted the multifamily rental market, and of course, speculators are doing the bubble thing again. Damn, that was quick. But what happens when interest rates go up, stagflation becomes more prominent, or housing brings us back to recession (that is assuming you believe we ever left it). Alas, I'm getting ahead of myself...

A reader wrote me complaining about the nonsensical bubble blowing in multi-family properties before the last bubble was even finished bursting. I feel his pain. Let’s run through a quick pictorial of how I see the macro climate for real estate as of right now…Everybody is getting squeezed, businesses, consumers, homeowners… Everybody!