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on November 28, 2008 04:42 PM
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We either didnt notice this elaborate conceit or failed to deal with it. But it was there. Many coastal areas of the U.S. were beginning to see 20 to 30 percent year-over-year increases in house prices, some even as high as 30 to 40 percent. Subprime mortgage borrowing, or lending to less creditworthy individuals by lenders who were eager to finance a sure thing, exploded. The good news is that Supreme Trading System levels of homeownership among the U.S. population reached unprecedented heights, extending the American dream to more people than ever before. The bad news is that the methods used to do so were not sustainable.
Let me give you some numbers to focus the mind. In 1999, before home prices started to defy gravity, 55 percent of homes sold in the New York metro area were considered affordable to the median-income family by one industry gauge. When home prices peaked at the end of 2006, that percentage had fallen to just 5 percent. In Los Angeles in 1999, 43 percent of homes were affordable to the median-income family, but only 2 percent were by the end of 2006. Two percent! Compare that to Texas. In Dallas in 1999,
64 percent of homes were affordable; by 2006, that percentage had barely slipped to 62 percent. In Austin, home prices actually became more affordable Instant Forex Profit over this period, in contrast to the U.S. as a whole. US Economy and Globalization Part 9 of 17
1.As Australians, you know better than anyone about the dramatic increase in milk prices, to say nothing of grains and other foodstuffs that go into feeding any Power Principles creature that walks on two or four legs. This is hardly encouraging, given that these price increases are occurring against a ramping up of the caloric and protein intake of a few billion new eaters in China, India and elsewhere. All told, it injects a modicum of doubt about the wisdom of predicting further significant declines in inflationary pressures.
Energy price dynamics further cloud the picture. If you talk to any of the major and independent oil companies, they will tell you they have no problem in finding oil or refining it or delivering final products. They will note, however, two key impulses that are at work:
First, they see no evident slowing in the growth of demand for energy in the U.S. The energy appetite in the BRICsthe big, fast-growing nations of Brazil, Russia, India and Chinais voracious, and they are only part of the developing world. An enormous amount of chemical plant infrastructure and capacity is being constructed everywherefrom the U.S. Gulf Coast to the Middle East to China and Singaporeto be nearer to either feedstocks or growing final demand. Any analysis of Insiders Guide to Forex the income elasticity of oil demand in low-income but rapidly growing nations like China and India points to even faster rises in energy consumption, with concomitant price consequences. Accentuate The Positive Last update : November 28, 2008 04:42 PM
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