.
came across the following email exchange tonight while looking for something else from that year, and it instantly took me back to those lazy, hazy, crazy days of what turned out to be the height of the california real-estate insanity:
From: [noblesavage]
To: [mkf]
Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005 13:28:52 -0700
Subject: Got the mail today...
...and there was a postcard from a realtor offering an 850 square foot house on Betty Way for $825,000. I was shocked. I went online and here it is for only $799K. Here it is:
[link to listing]
Then I saw this 1 Bedroom 1 Bath condo on Kings Road across from Gelson's for $419K:
[link to listing]
I'm just wondering when the bubble is going to burst and just how ugly it is going to get.
Happy Saturday.
Rob
----------------
my reply:
i've been clinching my sphincter in anticipation of the coming crash for so long that i've got the asshole of a 12-year-old again, rob. hell, the little house on portola that i (thought i) sold at the top of the market has appreciated at least $150,000 since we closed.
i've given up prognosticating. our entire economy is a house of cards waiting to collapse; the idiot masses simply don't know it yet. america is, metaphorically, wile e. coyote pedaling madly in mid-air, right before he realizes that he's just run off the cliff.....
* * * * *
what's the point of this post, you ask? the point is, if even way back in 2005 a couple shmoes like noblesavage and myself knew where that runaway train was headed, is it really possible that all the geniuses in new york and washington completely missed what we saw so clearly?
way i've always figured it, there are two possibilities, and only two: either some or all of them were (a) so collectively and individually stupid, greedy and short-sighted that yeah, they did miss it; and/or (b) so irredeemably, recklessly evil that they totally saw the inevitable outcome of their machinations and simply didn't care, because they knew they'd get theirs.
either way, every day that anybody who was in a position of fiscal or elective power in america on the august day on which the above email exchange occurred and didn't sound the alarm (i.e., almost all of 'em) is one day too many for this country boy.
which means, among other things, that i literally can't wait to watch batshit-crazy sharron angle mop the nevada desert with the dried-out husk of harry reid come election day.
i'll be in the booth on tuesday, and i don't plan to vote for a single incumbent. how about you?
5 comments:
MKF, in August 2005 when these emails were exchanged, we had a Republican President and strong Republican majorities in both houses of Congress.
And you're going to vote to put the people who caused the problem back in power?
Angle may be bat-shit crazy, but she, like Sarah Palin, will do everything Mitch McConnell tells her to do.
And if he tells her to give all of America's wealth to tobacco companies and Chinese corporations, she will happily turn over the same billions to them that Republicans shoveled to them in 2005.
I'll grant you the Dems have some blame as well (though very little compared to the Repubs). So vote for a third party if you must. But voting for a Republican????
You weren't fooled about the housing bubble. Don't be fooled into voting in the same people who caused this mess. C'mon, you're way smarter than that.
There was a housing bubble and it was getting higher and higher and higher right around 2005. You saw that and I saw that pretty clearly.
The question was, how was it going to end?
Most economists thought it would be a rather soft landing. Southern California real estate bubbles in the past really never ended softly however. It was always a painful retrenchment followed by years of stagnation followed by years of frenzied activity and the cycle repeated.
So the political leadership in Washington was not particularly astute here. If there is one person to blame, however, it is Alan Greenspan. He kept interest rates at rock bottom way too long and then was dismissive when there was "froth" in the housing market.
The housing bubble was the result of a monetary policy, not a fiscal one. Voting in or out of office any of the folks who are now in power will not matter worth a whit (all those liar loans and other programs that were encouraging people to buy a home would have had a much more muted impact if housing prices had gone up 3 to 4 percent a year instead of jumping 10 to 20 percent for years in a four or five years in a row).
As for the upcoming elections one week from today, it is looking ugly for the Democrats. As Mark noted, I do not think it is the Democrats who are to blame.
At the same time, Democrats have not appeared focused upon the economy as their primary goal and the issue of jobs and economic development. Survey after survey said that's what the electorate wanted. They didn't get it. So, it is totally understandable why people are frustrated and blaming Democrats.
The people wanted a focus on the economy and they got a massive health care bill. I like the health care bill. It is an achievement for the ages. But a lot of people don't see it that way.
As for you not voting for a single incumbent, well, that's just nuts. I would suggest that not all incumbents are equal. Some are good and some are not so hot. Some deserve to be replaced. But some don't. Are you voting against all the judges too? I'm mean, what's the sense of that?
so lemme get this straight: my two smartest friends commenting on the same post for the very first time--and for all your education and accomplishments, your collective political stance can be pretty much boiled down to that of the most illiterate teabagger out there; namely
"it's all the other side's fault"
jesus god, we're doomed.
oh, and as for my declaration that i don't plan to vote for a single incumbent: keep in mind that while i often post drunk, i usually vote sober.
Guttermorality, oh guttermorality. You just sure can oversimplify, can't you.
When I try to explain economic principles, you simple repeat yourself. You have become Royce...if Royce ever had the opportunity to read crazies on the internet.
So there.
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