Housing Doom Housing Bubble Blog

A nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it. - Churchill

August 10th, 2007

Op-Ed Friday: Everyone’s Freaking Out

Twist just managed to send this video clip from n’Eeoo e’Aaq before she went out of internet range. Igor thinks it’s the sermon from a native religious observance. Unfortunately the language being spoken by the priest has not yet been positively identified.

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August 10th, 2007

Op-Ed Friday: Volatile Again?

It’s Op-Ed Friday, and as of 7:27 EST [I’m in Manhattan at the moment, so I’m not on Pacific Time as usual] Marketwatch is proclaiming Futures Point to Sharp Drops, It could be another wild ride today.

Americans, however have these words of assurance from our Commander-in-Chief:

President Bush struck a reassuring tone Wednesday about recent turbulence on Wall Street, saying he believes the markets will work their way through the turmoil safely. In his most extensive remarks on a gyrating stock market, he expressed confidence that investors would eventually calm down. ”My hope is that the market, if it functions normally, will be able to yield a soft landing,” Bush told reporters at the Treasury Department.

So Doomers, what say ye?  We’d love to have your links, comments, suggestions, whatever is on your mind.
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August 10th, 2007

Rodrigue Tremblay: Canada and Bush’s North American Union

Once more Housing Doom is pleased to re-post a timely article [1] by Montreal based economist, humanist and political figure Rodrigue Tremblay. This work will be of compelling interest not only to Doom’s Canadian readers, but Mexican and American ones as well. The future of all three of our countries is evidently at stake. Housing Doom wishes to warmly thank Professor Tremblay for his kind permission to reproduce this work.

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Canada and Bush’s North American Union Project
par Rodrigue Tremblay

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
          Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), 34th US President, Farewell Address, Jan. 17, 1961

“An agreement [with the U.S.] to harmonize trade, security, or defence practices would, in the end, require Canada and Mexico to … cede to the United States power over foreign trade and investment, environmental regulation, immigration, and, to a large degree, foreign policy, and even monetary and fiscal policy.”
          Roy McLaren, former liberal trade minister

 

Look for a very strong backlash coming from the Canadian people, but also from the American and Mexican peoples, once they clearly understand what the Bush-Calderon-Harper trio has been concocting in near complete secrecy and with nearly no public debate whatsoever, over the last few years.

Indeed, the three relatively unpopular governments presently in charge in Washington, Ottawa and Mexico, have aligned themselves with very large corporations, most of them American owned, to lay the foundations for a new North American Union, (NAU) also called the "Deep Integration" project. This would be a new permanent alliance that would be de facto placed under American control. Canada and Mexico would have to harmonize many of their laws and regulations to suit the interests of big business and the undemocratic and imperial ambitions of the U.S. government around the world.

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August 10th, 2007

D.R. Horton May Have a Point

D.R. Horton is being sued:

The lawsuit charges the homebuilder with violating the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court, Southern District of Georgia, says the homebuilder required that home buyers use Horton’s affiliated mortgage company in order to get discounts and incentives.

Perhaps D.R. Horton should turn to this article by John Rosevear at Motley Fool for their defense:

But when a builder offers a $99,000 discount on a newly built home, are you really buying a $300,000 home for $201,000? Or are you paying $201,000 for a home that’s really a $190,000 home spiffed up with marketing smoke and mirrors? In order to understand if you’re really getting a discount, you need to have some idea of what the home’s fair value is in the current market. Odds are, you’re not getting as big a bargain as the advertising implies — and you may be getting no bargain at all.

I can picture the courtroom drama:
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