May 04, 2006

Been traveling.. what'd I miss?


Reporting from O'Hare right now, after spending the week in Phoenix, Palm Desert and Chicago, catching the flight back to the UK tonight

A few thoughts after re-absorbing the US market this week:

1) Fox News still sucks. As in sucks in that it got boring. Lots of reporting about a stupid rape case at Duke. A whole Hannity and doofus show dedicated to the Duke rape case? Uh, let's see, we're about to fight a war (again) with an oil state, the dollar is plunging, the congress is even more incompetent and we get an hour on the Duke rape case? We deserve better

2) Saw a sign for a $600,000 for a 1-bed condo in Palm Desert. Gee, gotta think that model home showroom is a bit quiet today

3) Get this one. I flew from Palm Springs to Chicago with the national mortgage broker association membership - they were having a conference there. Well, suffice it to say, yours truly was not Mr. Popular in the concourse or on the flight. I was doing my thing - talking about the surge in listings, the corruption in their profession, the evil NAR, the Ponzi Scheme, the collapse in Vegas and Phoenix, and the recent huge layoff at Ameriquest. Telling them the gig is up was like telling the defendant he got the death penalty. News not received well. And they were frankly mad at me, like shhhhh... you'll blow it for all of us... shhhh...

4) Americans were even fatter than I remembered

5) Seeing $3.50 gas signs is shocking

So, I'll be out of pocket for another day - go ahead and post articles here and your thoughts on recent events.

Cheers



23 comments:

Roccman said...

Not to mention Evo says to foreigners - get the fuck out related to natural gas in Boliva THEN Rebbeca Gomez on Fox Live yesterday reported that Bolivia is only acting like a puffer fish and that nationalizing gas resources would have NO effect on US supplies...hmmmmmmmmmm...me thinks Hugo, Castro, and Evo maje the perfect Trifecta - $10 gas here we come!!!!!

Anonymous said...

The Fox rape story is the same story found on CNN, CNBC, ABC, NBC, and CBS.

Get the new Harpers and check-out today's Fortune. Both have crashing bubble stories, and Harpers includes the cover.

Bill said...

The euro surged above $1.27 to a fresh one-year high on Thursday

I would say we are at the doom and gloom faze of things... my local home depot parking lot where i live in masshole, is just about empty other than the employees vehicles.

Out at the peak said...

I guess Fox News doesn't take their own advice. They have an article on their front page now that is titled "Sex Doesn't Sell."

Anonymous said...

I live in New Hope, P.A., a resort town. I know many business shop owners, and their retail sales are way down. Have not seen sales this bad since the last recession. The money has dried up.

Anonymous said...

seems like there's a sudden inflection in the news media coverage of housing market. A lot of new stories on bursting bubble, and a more emphatic treatment. This could be a turning point in public perceptions as we go into summer.

Anonymous said...

Keith, You need to put half your posts into the archives. It takes longer to download your site than my favorite porn site, and that takes a long time!

Anonymous said...

go to cnn...

http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/03/new

s/economy/realestateguide_fortune/i

ndex.htm

Welcome to the dead zone
Real estate survival guide: The great housing bubble has finally started to deflate, and the fall will be harder in some markets than others.
By Shawn Tully, FORTUNE senior writer
May 4, 2006: 2:15 PM EDT

Bill said...

http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/03/news/economy/realestateguide_fortune/
index.htm?source=yahoo_quote


They finaly admit it!

Bill said...

my bad I did not see the anon post.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

"Keith, You need to put half your posts into the archives. It takes longer to download your site than my favorite porn site, and that takes a long time!"

I agree. . . . Keith, your site takes too long to download, even with high speed service, and sometimes parts of it get stuck, and I have to hit "refresh," and wait all over again. Do you really need to keep all those previous topics on your home page?

Anonymous said...

Keith:
You have done it. You single-handedly created the housing bubble and now it is bursting...!

I have enjoyed this blog, and it has been right on. Unfortunately, due to the popping of the bubble, your services will no longer be needed. Please start a blog on the illegal immigrant situation.

My take: Enforce the laws. Send them home...or to Iraq.

Anonymous said...

It can only get worse before it gets better. A little consumer discipline would work wonders.

Anonymous said...

KEITH, IT IS NOT JUST FOX... I USED TO LIKE FOX AS THE ALTERNATIVE TO THE CLINTON NEWS NETOWRK (CNN), BUT NOW THEY ALL SUCK. I NEVER WATCH FOX ANYMORE B/C THEY ARE A BUNCH OF BUSHBOTS, AND I ONLY WATCH CNN FOR LOU DOBBS AND THEN I TUNE IT OUT FOR 24 HOURS UNTIL LOU IS ON AGAIN. ALL OF YOU NEET TO LISTEN TO MICHAEL SAVAGE. GO TO www.910knew.com or www.1100kfnx.com and stream it .... it all plays at 4pm or 5pm to 7pm or 8pm Arizona time.

Anonymous said...

Keith, the two posts above are some kind of pyramid scheme. Somebody keeps positing this crap on all your threads. Note that the link includes a distributor I.D. (hop=brentb), so the poster gets credit if another sucker signs up.

41cadillac said...

Keith: I have dial-up. Appreciate your putting the past into archive. Thanks 41cadillac

Anonymous said...

You guys who are waiting half the night to download Keith's blog should switch from Internet Explorer to Opera or Firefox. Start to download Housing Panic. Then open a new page (you still can't do that in IE) and download something else at the same time. The less bloated site will download quickly and give you something to look at while you wait for HP to fully load.

Anonymous said...

Check it out....TGIC is up 25% since Keith said short it on 3/21.

Actually all his 3/21 stocks are up (though he recommended sell).

Anonymous said...

See transcript of Stephen Colbert's roast of BushCo at the White House Correspondent Dinner at.
http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/4/30/1441/59811

Beautiful! Thanks Stephen.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I'm here in Tampa, Fl. I have just sold a house that had been on the market for 3 weeks. I had two offers and took the best one. My experience is just this: I had the lowest price in the neighborhood (I wasn't greedy), I did not use my house as some kind of bizarre piggy bank. We sold to a very nice couple who will really like this house. Housing bubble? Well, yes. It is driven by greed and a weird invesment mentality: it doesn't need to produce anything aslong as it makes money (money loosing dotcoms anyone?) Houses don't really produce anything. They are not businesses or factories or whatever. Condos? Here in Tampa prices are falling and units unsold.

Anonymous said...

When I got my hair done yesterday in Austin TX, the owner of the shop was telling me business is way down. She also said all the little restaurants around her were quiet. I was the only customer in her shop. I guess the gas prices and increased mortgage payments, are finally showing up, just not in stats. Two houses in our neighborhood have had repeated "under contract" signs on them, and then - back on the market they go. Either people can't get financing, or they can't sell their other property, and the deal was contingent.

Bill said...

I would like to see what would happen if we all refused to pay our mortgage, as a sort of demonstration, what do you think the banks would do or react...yes the obvious is forclosure, other than that what could they really do?

Anonymous said...

Continuing with the "negativity" thread. We sold at the top, and currently rent a very small place. My husband drives a toyota echo, and we are saving money. Well, we have had a helluva time making friends. We are living so far out of the mainstream, that we are regularly blown off, by people living beyond their means, in big houses, driving SUV's. They don't even take the time to find out if we have something interesting to say. There is something wrong with this country. I want all the overextended people to fall hard. I am sick of being treated like a looser. Since when was it wrong to work hard, and save your money?