Commercial real estate maturities will peak in 2012 – $350 billion in loans coming due and hundreds of additional bank failures. Bank lending in the CRE market collapsing.
The commercial real estate disaster is sinking banks on a weekly basis. Talk of a V-shape recovery is now largely a moot point since we are past the point of a quick and strong recovery. The question now revolves around what we are going to face for the next few years. Commercial real estate really […]
40 years of housing data – U.S. homes still too expensive for typical families. In 1970 the median home could be purchased with 657 ounces of gold. Today, it only requires 155 ounces. The erosion of the U.S. dollar
The last 40 years have seen the U.S. housing market transform into a market largely driven by incredible amounts of debt. The credit card companies understood the basic notion that the monthly payment drove most financial decisions. Even though people purchase a home with a 30 year mortgage, the implicit understanding was that in a […]
FDIC flashes SOS – 1,000 bank failures before recession is over – FDIC not too far away from tapping into U.S. Treasury $500 billion taxpayer lifeline. Georgia leads the pack with 40 bank failures since 2008.
By the end of the recession, there will be approximately 1,000 bank failures. Does this sound extreme? It should but the numbers don’t cover the entire story. Since 2008 the number of bank failures has reached 269 and this doesn’t include consolidations done through the FDIC where bigger banks ate up smaller banks before they […]
Fairytale economics – spending into poverty legend. How the allure and trappings of consumption led the middle class into a modern form of debt servitude.
Ludwig the II of Bavaria is rarely discussed in history class but most would recognize many of his castles especially the one that is replicated in Disneyland (Neuschwanstein Castle). Ludwig spent money he didn’t have to indulge in his eccentric desire to build opulent castles. Even wealthy royalty can put their balance sheet into jeopardy […]