The stat is computed as:
number of houses for sale
/ number of sales last month

Specifically, when there is a
month of low sales, this stat
can grow alot even if the supply
of houses for sale decreases.

A better stat would be either:
(1) number of houses for sale

(2) number of houses for sale
/ Average number of sales over the
last year.

Rubin, too!!

I guess “call center” is very generic, so I will say Tech support agent. I good tech support agent for a larger company can pull in over 50K. Of course there are those who make half of that as well. I’m not referring to the $10 per hour jobs. Still though, I don’t see how losing even a $10 hour job overseas is a boost to our economy.

Regarding oil, you hit it on the head. There are many who say we really don’t have an oil shortage. I’m not claiming to know for sure, but my gut feeling is that we are not as bad off as the general media says we are. It my true belief that the US could be a pure national economy if we really wanted to. We wouldn’t all die, and in the long run, we would have plenty of jobs and would prosper in the long run. In the short run, it would be ugly. Ultimately, we could drill Alaska and other places if it came down to it. We would have plenty of time to produce more economy hybrid cars that get 3 times more mileage than an SUV.

Corporate greed is what ruined the greatest nation on this planet by loaning out money that people should not have qualified for…and greed will keep us in debt.

With no disrespect to hard working folks, I wouldn’t call a support center a “very skilled job”.

Also, your fact about 11 years of oil reserves is correct, but only if we drastically cut production. I know the peak oil folks won’t like this, but I just don’t see a big problem (yet – it’ll come, but probably not for decades). Inventories are higher than last year and production is still increasing linearly (as it has been for a long time). What we have is a commodity bubble that is inflating just like tech in 2000 and RE in 03-05.

I thought you all were talking about the strategic oil reserves where they put oil in old salt mines.

Igor is being mean today.

“If a discredited economist speaks, does anyone listen?”

I think in many ways we could pull it off, and in some ways we couldn’t. In our present economy, we don’t produce anything like we used to, so in many ways, we are dependent on foreign trade. If we cutoff foreign trade, many people would be out of work…..TEMPORARILY. We would have to start building factories, which would create jobs in the long term. Of course, the cost to produce those goods would be higher, because our wages are higher, so we would get some inflation. However, we would get some very skilled jobs back to the US, like information technology, support center, etc.

As far as oil, we have 11 years of reserve at current consumption. If mandatory rationing were put into affect, we could probably stretch that to at 15 years or longer. I really believe that we could come up with a solution in that amount of time. Yes, I know some businesses would suffer somewhat due to people not traveling as much to drive 5 miles to get their starbuck’s coffee in the morning, but that’s life. Yes, I know that the 100 pound women would be pissed because they can no longer own a 10 mile per gallon SUV to pick up their 70 pound little girl from soccer practice. Gee…life’s real though.

Well, it’s all interesting talk, but even if it COULD work, it would never happen. Big corporations demand larger profits. Let’s face it, why would you pay an American IT engineer $90K per year, when you can have an Engineer from India do the same work via T1 line for $20K per year? Big businesses will not allow our gov’t to stop exporting those high paying jobs overseas. In the long run, yes, we could do it. We wouldn’t die, but it would be painful. But…like I said, it won’t happen.

Back to the Future. I like it. As the bread basket, we could pull it off. I’ve been wondering myself if this Global Economy is all that it’s cracked up to be. I’m more of a conservative type but I do like the idea of going back to a national economy. It’s all about food and oil, though. Do we have both?

“Economist who failed to predict housing bubble or recession now predicts it will be over far more quickly than economists who saw it coming”

OK, too wordy.

I was back in Austin bright and early yesterday, and now I’m headed out bright and early today to spend a couple of days in Kentucky and Tennessee. My internet access will be limited, so my apologies in advance if Igor gets unruly and it takes me awhile to rescue your comments!