Microsoft - Yahoo: Does this deal herald The Great 2008 Fire Sale?

Watch now as smart investors, companies and countries swoop in to buy distressed real estate and institutions for pennies on the dollar, deploying their mountains of accumulated cash and low-interest loans.

The Great 2008 Fire Sale is on.

So, is it time for you to start wisely deploying your cash?

I think it is. But be careful. Some knives fall all the way. (In other words, don't rush out to buy a condo in Miami or pets.com stock)

Supply. Demand. Prices. Questions?

Why are there any questions? Isn't this all so OBVIOUS? Isn't supply/demand/prices taught in second grade?

MarketWatch: Weak spring may drive home prices lower - Tough sales season, rising inventories further pressure housing market

BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- A spring home-selling season that's looking like a bust and pressure from growing inventories of houses in the resale market should intensify home-price declines in the second half of 2007, Wall Street analysts say

"We think the housing downturn has decisively moved to its second act of falling prices," wrote Deutsche Bank in a report to clients Monday.

Yet the picture could get worse if home-price declines catch up with falling sales, and home builders' profit margins are further squeezed.

"With the first act consisting of significant retrenchments in volumes, the second act is one with home prices falling back to more equilibrium levels after a period of breathtaking increases during the housing boom," Deutsche Bank said.

During first-quarter conference calls, home-builder executives said they're cutting prices or offering more incentives to make up for sales-volume declines. A key dilemma they've faced the past year and a half during the housing pullback is balancing volume and prices with an eye on protecting profit margins.