bostonbubble.com

[Hard Rain]

"A lot of students and professors come from overseas, and they're billionaires in the US because the exchange rates are suddenly ridiculous. Their currency is worth a lot more here."

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/articles/2008/09/07/bidding_wars_quick_sales_its_happening/?page=2

[GUEST]

AND 33% OF THE NATION APPROVES OF BUSH

HUMMERS AND EXPEDITIONS ARE STILL SELLING

the reality is that there is always a market for goods regardless of the price/ or seeming disconnection with market fundementals. People, who are not connected with the market or see things as rosey will always be there. I have a friend who just inhereted 25 mill... I had to talk them out of buying a Ritz apt in 2006... they waited but they were as close to signing the papers as possible.

the reality is that these individuals are statistical anomolies and do not make up the market as a whole--- even in they make up 10% of the market that does not support current prices or rising prices.

I have never bought a Brioni Suit, and probably never will, but they are still selling...

[john p]

When you add too much liquidity to the market, eventually that money needs to find a home and cashed into "stuff" that is valuable.

Just like there are "running’s on the bank" they have running’s on the currency, meaning if someone thinks their currency is overvalued, they start to spend or invest in other assets that are tied to devalued currencies. This is why people from other countries are coming here for vacation and are buying homes. This is why we have "poor" people in America with three TV’s in their homes, video games and ten pairs of sneakers for each person in their closets while paying no taxes (bottom 50% of citizens pay less than 2% of the cost of government); China is poorer than us.

I was never a Bush fan before, but since his tax cuts went into effect, the Dow has gone up. Discretionary spending has gone down, meaning the Debt is based on the cost of the War on Terror and an aging population that is relying on social programs like Medicaid and Social Security. We need to be leaner in coming years, without being appeasers to terrorists. During Clinton and the first 8 months of Bush, the terrorists were much, much more active; now they aren't operating in the open in these sanctuary nations. When countries harbor terrorists and other nations that are our "friends" don't put pressure on them and sit passively on the side so they can be slothfully lazy, passive, socialists you begin to realize that they aren't our real friends and why should we feel bad if they decide to make a sport out of calling us the "Ugly Americans?" If they don't like us for the wrong reason that is their problem. Our job is not to have everyone like us whether or not they are fair to us or not. Other nations need to earn our friendship. Think about how many nations have decided to not spend hardly any money on their military because they know we will defend them. We are subsidizing their safety. Think about how much more money we would have for ourselves if we sat on the sidelines like Germany or France? Iran, which has the 2nd largest conventional military, has their leader over right now in Russia meeting with Putin. Iran's leader doesn't think that the Holocaust existed and wants to eliminate Israel. The reason why Joe Lieberman spoke at the RNC was because he is Jewish and it is hard for him to soothe himself and close his eyes and say that it is just a bad dream and he wants a time out from the whole heightened state. Keith Olberman has gone so far as to say that it is despicable to even show pictures of Sept. 11, 2001 because it is fear mongering. This is reality, this isn't a television station and we can change the channel to watch romantic comedies, this really happened. Saddam Hussein was offering financial rewards to any terrorist that targeted Americans. The ridiculous absurdity and over the top stuff that Republicans said, I thought was distasteful for a long time, but when I realized that the Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus, Oprah Winfrey approach wasn't going to work on these crazy people because they were the ones that were over the top, out of their minds.

Ask yourself this, who is more dangerous, George W. Bush, or Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15907666/


Listen to his argument; he is saying that we are a "bully". His country is trying to develop nukes, partner with Russia, is supplying Shiite militias, wants to destroy Israel, etc. Has George W. Bush ever said anything like a holocaust didn’t exist or expressed any desire to eliminate a country from the face of the earth?

This guy Ahmadinejad is real; he is not some bad guy on television or one of those fake professional wrestlers who is really nice behind the scenes. As unpleasant as it is, these are the realities that we face.

In the Civil War, in the Battle of Bull Run, people thought War was a "spectacle" and actual spectators went to watch the battle like going to a football game or something. It is amazing how people create comfortable delusions to avoid reality. This is a "bubble mentality".

Churchill, one of the heroes of WWII was voted out of office immediately after providing the most heroic leadership after the War. Thanks for being a hero, but we’re back to the appeasement business again. You’re too unpleasant to have around our aristocratic cocktail parties anyway.

http://www.school-for-champions.com/biographies/churchill4.htm


People thought he was too negative and they made them worry and everyone wanted to feel happy again. During the time they ousted him, he was warning about how the Soviets had designs on Eastern Europe.

We all talk about the housing bubble drifting away from fundamentals, and how this irrational exuberance drifted out minds away from reality; well that delusion deformed fundamentals and the delusion itself created an upward force which then became part of our reality, so we now have to balance rational thinking with the power of the delusional herd mentality. Just as I’ve said you need to think in parallel realities, one that is based on rational fundamentals and one that is based on the prevailing perceptions because they are a reality in of themselves, we have to face the real world as how we would like it and how it really is.

I certainly think Bush is not Churchill, and he employed some bad tactics for sure, but I think part of that 33 percent favorability rating is that Bush reminds us of something we want to forget; he is like the alarm clock that is going off and we don't want to wake up just yet.

Sorry for the long blog, Sept. 11th and all....

[Guest]

way too long and way too political-- you need to focus....

2 non-domestic terrorists attacks in the US (1992 WTC, 2001 WTC) I lost a college roomate, a family friend and a collegue... it was a terrible time...

bush was in power for 9 months... and in no way do i feel safer today than i did in 2002.... Infact i feel that we have started a war that we are not prepared to fight. I travel internationally on business a lot and it is ugly out there.

Do you think Iran has more to do with them wanted to wipe us out-- or our president declaring them "axis of evil".

There was never a suicide bombing under Saddam-- reportedly supplied money to palistine suicide bomber-- but our media only shows one side of the attrocities that have been going on for decades in that region...

We have bred terrosits-- and they will be here for generations to come...

as for the economy--- i cannot even begin to discuss... if we spend 10% of defense money on R&D (energy, tech, etc) or reducing costs of higher ed.. we would be in a hell of a lot better position.

and as for success of his tax cuts:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/14/bush-tax-cut-mythology/


granted that is one view of the data--- but do not believe everything you read..

and I am not a liberal-- but a libertarian-----

[john p]

I like my blogs long and boring; that's my signature move and I'm a one trick pony.

Do you remember that movie "Knocked Up" with the guy who only knew the dance move where you pretend to be shaking and throwing dice. I could do that all night long with the little hoodsies at "The Liquor Store".

[Guest]

here is an interesting piece of data from Jaohn Maudlins newsletter:

If you go the Federal Reserve data, you find that US national net worth has dropped by over $2 trillion in the two quarters ended last March (that is the latest data). Given the continued drop in home prices and the stock market, it is likely those losses will mount. (http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/Current/z1r-5.pdf)

number of millionaires is looking to trend down this year-- and that does not include there primary residence.

[showgunx]

The weak dollar policy is pissing me off. Don't devaule me hard earned money just because uncle sam is in debt, and he doesn't want to pay dollar to a dollar back to the lender.
We get scamed by the current policy makers on this, since they first trick you into buying a over priced property, so you are in debt as deep as the US government. Then it keeps printing money and lower the interest rate and ignoring the level of inflation.
I wish I get paid by gold at my job.