Revisiting the HousingPANIC Manifesto

This was probably the most controversial and misunderstood or mispositioned post in HP's brief history.

This post was about Change (with a capital C). It was about getting America (and the world) off of an addiction to the crack of consumerism, and back to a world where we cared about future generations and our fellow man more than what we drive, what we buy or how big our house is.

It was calling for a long-needed intervention, which if you're honest with yourself can and will only come via an economic meltdown. And folks, it's already here, in the form of an historic housing crash, and it's having the desired effect.

The housing crash underway in the United States stopped the corrupt and out of control housing industry in its tracks. It destroyed the flippers, and it made people realize (finally, and too late) that home prices can and do crash, it discredited the fools and charlatans, and it proved, once again, that the fundamentals do matter.

People now look at 2005 home prices and wonder what the hell were people thinking. People now laugh at 2006's out of control subprime lending and bankrupt lenders. People are disgusted with the failed flippers, lying realtors and corrupt mortgage brokers. And people are watching homes sell for less and less every day.

Bottom line - the only way we're going to get Change is through a catalyst, and the medicine of an economic collapse, although painful, is the only way our sick patient will get well.

Think we're addicted to consumer spending? Think it's pathetic that the US savings rate is negative? Disgusted by illegal immigration? Sick of trade deficits, out of control government spending, a $60 Trillion US debt, and our do-nothing REIC bought-and-paid-for government? Well, I was, and I am.

Here's the Manifesto again. I think HP'ers understand. And I think the REIC, MSM and self-obsessed simpletons don't. And that's OK by me.

Change.

This may disturb some of you. This may surprise some of you. This may disappoint some of you. But it has to be said.

After denying it for sometime, to you dear reader and even to myself, the truth is now clear. And you should now read this blog in the context of what I am about to say.

I am rooting for an epic housing collapse, a disastrous recession, the collapse of the stock market, a complete replacement of our current partisan leadership, a questioning of our country's current economic model, and a severe and historic financial meltdown.Period.

Before, I thought just a correction would do the trick. A cleansing of the debt-and-greed-fueled housing balloon we as a society created. But I've come to the conclusion that will not be enough to right the wrongs and fix the problem, so that future generations will not be burdened with the current generation's misguided and self-centered ways.

Pure and simple, I want Change (with a Capital C), and I now feel that only an historic financial meltdown will create the environment where Americans wake up from their current slumber, and call for new leadership, new thinking, and above all, change.

Something went awry in the US over the past decade. Something changed, with our government, our system, and our collective conscious. And this change was not for the better.

Greed overcame and infected so many of us - the idea of getting rich without working, and an overwhelming need to consume, consume, consume. We no longer worked for the benefit of our common man - we worked only for ourselves. We said "screw the next generation - I want mine, and I want it now!". And we went on a debt-fueled orgy of spending, never stopping to look at the bills coming due, and never stopping to think about the repercussions.

Now, dear reader, it's time to stop. It's time to pause, and consider where we went wrong, and above all, how we can fix it.

So, in conclusion, the fate that awaits us, this cleansing of our ways and of our system, in the form of an epic real estate market and financial collapse, in my simple opinion is a fate of necessity, and will serve as a catalyst for needed Change.

And away we go. Good luck to all of you, and know that I believe that we will come out of this stronger, wiser and determined to Change.