Cheaprealty.net

Extract from TVNZ's 'Close Up' current affairs show hosted by Mark Sainsbury on May 13, featuring Olly Newland. Has the property market crashed or is it just a media beat up?

This piece shows what happens to the uninhabited shells after foreclosures move families out. Basically, everything gets trashed, and even when it looks nice on the outside, it can get pretty nasty when people are staying somewhere with the power turned off and none of the facilities working.

Some enterprising squatters are even cleaning places up, changing the locks and renting them out. By the time the banks find out, months could have gone by. And what do banks do about it? Maybe nothing.

Anyone who thinks overbuilding isn't a problem should watch this video. Do city planners make choices that could avoid these kinds of problems?

Peter calls a recession "necessary medicine", to put the US economy back on course.

The Fox host tries to float the idea that all the recent media talk about a recession is worsening the situation, as Americans become more aware and cautious about what is happening.

Peter has another point of view, he says the main reason for a recession is, Americans are broke!  They borrowed and spent like there was no tomorrow, and now the chickens are coming home to roost.

Thank goodness someone like Peter Schiff is able to get on these shows and state the obvious.  Too bad more people weren't paying attention a couple years ago.

Which brings up a related point, I wonder if people here in Canada are paying attention? 

These two wide ranging interviews cover the psychological elements of the credit crisis, as well as the new interconnections between nations that are causing the crisis to travel around the globe. Some ideas about damage mitigation are explored. Robert Shiller argues in favour of a bail-out, but one with long term vision that will not result in a pattern of future bail outs - a bigger new deal, that will smooth over these troubles. Problems like the securitization and the lending with adjustable mortgages to people who couldn't afford the adjustments - to prevent future problems, people should get disinterested financial advice that could prevent similar problems from developing.

Housing and the British economy - interlinked.

We're on the verge of an economic collapse, not just a recession.

This means the economic foundations of America need to be rebuilt, which is going to cause a lot of tough problems in the short term.

This is the beginning of the end for the US. Consumption is not a god-given right of americans, it can go elsewhere.

These are some of the ideas tossed around by Peter Schiff. 

As usual, other panel members try to talk over Peter Schiff, interrupt him and label him as hysterical.

But as Peter, overly smug but accurately replies, his recent track record on these things is a lot better than his detractors.

Professor Roubini. A wide ranging interview covering global conditions, not just american financial conditions.

Subprime is only one part of the problem leading to recession , but it is just beginning, and it is a social problem as well as an economic problem.  The credit system is at the heart of the economy, which is going to cause the entire economy to slow down.

Not only that, but banks have holes in their balance sheets, and don't know how secure they are. 

Interestingly, he points out the best bang for the buck for a stimulus package would simply be to increase employment insurance.

The other major damage is going to be to local and state tax rolls as property values fall. 

The idea of encouraging more spending versus more savings is probably the wrong approach. 

Courtesy Angy Renter. From the site introduction:

All we hear these days is whining from reckless home borrowers and their banks.

But did you know that renters are 32 percent of American households? And that homes in foreclosure are less than 2 percent?

So why is Congress rushing to bailout high-flying borrowers and their lenders with our tax dollars?

Unfortunately, renters aren't as good at politics as the small
minority of homeowners (and their bankers) who are in trouble. We don't
have lobbyists in Washington, DC. We don't get a tax deduction for our
rent and we don't get sweetheart government loans.

Quite simply, we are just Angry Renters. And now it is our time to be heard: no government bailouts!

"A Horrible Housing 'Fix'"