April 09, 2006

I'm back from Paris - what'd I miss?


By the way, that is one screwed up country.

Love the history, love the cafes, love the art, love the lifestyle, and just don't get the people. They're slowly ruining a great country with out of control immigration, lazy workers, confused lazy youth, pathetic socialist government and an anti-capitalist society.

20 to 40% unemployment among the under 25 set will cause that country to go up in flames (again). Oh, if you haven't been, or been recently, you can even see the decay versus just a year ago. The metro smells, graffiti has spread to the tourist areas, and yes, the people are even snottier than normal.

But housing prices? Sky-high. And gonna crash as their economy gets worse.

So that's Paris. Did Bush do anything stupid over the weekend? Anyone go to an open house? Did we see the beginnings of a market meltdown?

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

1. Banker says mortgages recommendations coming

2. Say this great film. Loose Change. It really helped me understand our current administration.
It details the scientific facts behind what really caused the WTC towers to collapse.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2023320890224991194&q=loose+change

Anonymous said...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?
docid=
-2023320890224991194&q=
loose+change

Anonymous said...

Did Bush do anything stupid over the weekend?

I don't think there was anything out of the ordinary.

Darth Cheney, on the other hand.

"US considers use of nuclear weapons against Iran"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060408/wl_mideast_afp/usirannuclearmilitary_060408061934;_ylt=AqlY12ndkAMMI.mG8QtKN2Ws0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-

Nuclear war in mideast.

(a) good
(b) bad

for real estate prices?

Anonymous said...

The lunatics took over the asylum while you were away.

Anonymous said...

That smell is just the French ripening as the weather heats up. It's always there, but less noticable in the cold, outdoors.

A few years ago a French journalist did a survey and discovered that the average French citizen used 1 (one) bar of soap in an entire year.

Anonymous said...

"Loose Change" is a hoax.

http://911research.wtc7.net/essays/green/loose_change.html

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/28609695/m/509000628731/p/2

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=000DA0E2-1E15-128A-9E1583414B7F0000&colID=13

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=000DA0E2-1E15-128A-9E1583414B7F0000&colID=13

Anonymous said...

I've been told our economy is in shambles compared to Europe. I don't even know of even one person who is unemployed here. If the government and public can just stop spending on credit like madmen, then maybe we can save ourselves.

Anonymous said...

interesting "Money masters" videos.
It opened my eyes to few things.
I fear some of the tactics used by FR/bankers in the past could be used again now or in the near future, especially that many current circumstances seem like a history-repeat of the old.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?
docid=4408935028560288440&pl=true

http://video.google.com/videoplay?
docid=6802938500605858947&pl=true

http://video.google.com/videoplay?
docid=3510313821923167501&pl=true

Anonymous said...

Nuclear war in mideast.

(a) good
(b) bad

for real estate prices?

============


Real estate prices in US may well be helped by more middle east turmoil. Look at US real estate prices post 9/11 -- straight up. Yes, interest rates, but don't ever buy the line (pushed often by Keith) that global turmoil, war, etc are a negative signal for US real estate. I think the evidence shows the reverse is true.

Of course, if the US economy goes down the shitter, it will take RE with it, regardless of what happens overseas.

Dogcrap Green said...

SAlowly destroying a country with out of control lazy imigrants?

I thought you were talking about England allowing you to live and work a job that can obviously be done by any moron via the mere fact that you have it..

Anonymous said...

350,000-500,000 Hispanics marched in Dallas today in favor of illegal immigration. There will be similar demonstrations in 60 cities tomorrow.

Does anyone else think that these marches are going to backlash severely, because they will be many people's first clue that there are that many illegals in the country?

Add to that this strategy of being as confrontational as possible, flying foreign flags, skipping school, etc., and you've got the potential for this thing to to backfire bigtime.

Joe said...

Phoenix had a huge rally of listings this week - up to 41,300. Similarly, Vegas up to 18,864.

Las Vegas and Phoenix are like Thelma & Louise, holding hands and riding off that cliff...

Anonymous said...

Wow, everytime i see the Phoenix numbers, I am blown away.


Simmsays...
http://www.AmericanInventorSpot.com
AmericanInventorSpot.com

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the tip. France has a bunch of screwed-up people..now I don't have to visit. That saves me a lot of money!

Anonymous said...

Per hour productivity of French workers has been higher than that of American workers for a number of years. The French work 30% fewer hours in the typical year, so the amount contributed to GNP divided by hours worked is significantly higher in France than in the US. French workers devote more of their time to life, social interaction, family, and vacation. Last week, a talking head on MSNBC tried to explain away this report that comes out every year by saying the French don't have as high a level of "well being" as American workers. When asked what he meant by "well being" he said "consumption." The average French person consumes half as much as the average American. By this logic, ever increasing consumption = ever increasing "well being." Think about the absurdity of this statement and you'll begin to understand some of the US disconnect with reality and perhaps why the US foreign policy has been such a disaster. The French don't have it right yet, but they do spend more time with their families and friends than Americans, who live to work from what I see.

Paris probably does have a real estate bubble. Rents there last June were about 64% of costs to own, but that proportion in LA is closer to 35%. I have places in both areas and think there are serious underlying economic problems in both places, but the level of emotional imbalance in US culture that leads to binge consumption, hate filled rants on blogs, and violent stupidity of the fox news ilk is much worse than the French "snobbery." The French lifestyle and public policy are also much healthier and more cost effective than absurdly expensive American approaches like using incarceration to treat social problems and emergency rooms to treat common medical problems. The major reforms needed in France involve enabling entrepreneurs to succeed and create growth without creating the kind of throw-away culture we have in the US.

I think I'll be tuning out of this blog for a while, but check back from time to time and see if there are any good housing bubble facts posted. Some of the housing bubble related posts have been good in the past, but lately it seems to be standard mindless anti-other rants.

Anonymous said...

France does not have "out of control" immigration, in fact it has very little legal immigration these days and illegal immigration is way smaller than in the US (it's a very bureaucratic society and it's a tough place to be an illegal in).

You may be thinking about all of the Arab-French youths who went on a rampage some months back. They are native born French citizens. They are the children of immigrants who arrived in the 1950's and 1960's, mostly legally.

blogger said...

From http://tinyurl.com/gzmkg

Last November, the world watched in horror and consternation as Muslim youths torched cars, businesses and even hospitals in cities across France. Reportedly, they were provoked into this fiery rampage by the government’s failure to provide adequate the social, educational and employment opportunities for them that were so amply provided for their non-Muslim (mostly white) contemporaries. And as the fires raged, Eurocentric Frenchmen harboured delusions that they were the spontaneous criminal acts of rabble-rousing, unemployable and deportable migrants. When the smoke was cleared, however, the overwhelming majority of these rioters turned out to be French citizens – living in marginalised immigrant communities - who were venting generations of pent-up frustrations

Anonymous said...

Et oui, Keith, nous avons nous aussi notre belle bulle immobilière mais il est vrai que notre économie n'est guère réjouissante et que les jeunes souffrent du chomage. Par contre, nous sommes beaucoup moins endettés mais il est vrai que la bulle a des conséquences politiques importantes...!

Hello Keith,in France we have also a big housing bubble (115% in 8 years) with a poor economical groqwth. On the other side, we do not have ARMs and we are less indebted. On the ohter side, the political consequences are probably more important and the confict between the young and the old generation increased.

A french reader