Buying a Home in America today is Expensive Thanks to the Banking Sector: Examining Income and Home Prices from 1950 to the Present. Can Home Prices Fall Another 38 Percent?
A question rarely asked regarding the housing market today is whether prices are affordable. There seems to be this implicit belief that because prices have fallen so drastically that they somehow must reflect a bargain. This is not necessarily true. I think in our consumerist society people are conditioned to automatically assume that a lower price somehow means a good deal. Go to any mall after the Christmas shopping season and you’ll see “amazing” bargains for 50, 60, or even 70 percent off. But is it really a bargain? This question is not often asked yet this is the central tenet to the housing bubble that got many Americans into trouble.
How the Financially Connected Prospered in a Decade where Wealth Evaporated for the Majority: S&P 500 Down 24 Percent for the Decade, Real Home Values down 3%, U.S. Dollar down 23%, and Unemployment back to 1980 Levels.
As we usher in the New Year the filthy rich are counting their blessings and must be very appreciative of the massive bailouts that protected their wealth. The top one percent of this country control 42 percent of all financial wealth so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that most of the bailouts went to Wall Street and those that are tethered to it for income. As the stock market continues to rally Americans collecting food stamps stands at the highest number ever at 37 million. We also have 27 million Americans looking for work or are simply stringing a few hours together to keep some sort of paycheck coming in.  The vast majority of Americans are simply exhaling a sigh of relief that the 2000s are now a thing of the past. Yet if something isn’t changed radically in our system we are bound to enter another financial shock in the near term.
Top 1 Percent Control 42 Percent of Financial Wealth in the U.S. – How Average Americans are Lured into Debt Servitude by Promises of Mega Wealth.
Many Americans are not buying the recent stock market rally. This is being reflected in multiple polls showing negative attitudes towards the economy and Wall Street. Wall Street is so disconnected from the average American that they fail to see the 27 million unemployed and underemployed Americans that now have a harder time believing the gospel of financial engineering prosperity. Americans have a reason to be dubious regarding the recovery because jobs are the main push for most Americans. A recent study shows that over 70 percent of Americans derive their monthly income from an actual W-2 job. In other words, working is the prime mover and source of their income. Yet the financial elite have very little understanding of this concept. Why? 42 percent of financial wealth is controlled by the top 1 percent. We would need to go back to the Great Depression to see such lopsided data.
Commercial Real Estate Holders Decide to Walk Away: The Continuing Double Standard from the Banking Industry. Debt Ceiling Raised to $12.4 Trillion Making Room for more Bailouts.
There will be many new financial stories in 2010 but one that is certainly to garner much attention is the implosion of the commercial real estate market. A $3.5 trillion market that has taken it on the chin alongside the residential real estate market. The commercial real estate debacle usually follows a similar pattern. Residential real estate pulls back followed by commercial real estate. But in this massive decade long real estate bubble commercial real estate debt ballooned into uncharted territory. The bust is going to be deep and has no parallel in history just like the housing bubble bursting.  Yet the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve have already had backroom talks about coming out with a “Plan C” to bailout this segment of the American economy.