Or as someone on CH.C said, boils to be lanced.
- Super jumbo-jets, aka the A380, aka the White Elephant. One third of the orders for the A380 come from the UAE. With the collapse in oil prices and the lancing of the global credit boil, the idea that Dubai is a great place to visit, live, work and retire to is no more. The airliners and skyscrapers of Dubai were built on cheap and easy credit. Speaking of which...
- Mega skyscrapers. The petrodictators have been in a mad rush the past decade to build the tallest moments to their greatness. The Burj Dubai is the most famous example, but many of the petrothugs throughout the Middle East and Russia engaged in this mania. Funny thing, there's a correlation between building height and financial collapse. Hooo doggie, Dubai is gonna be a gilded ghost town. Speaking of which...
- Gold. It continues to drop. Over on the Ben Jones Housing Bubble Blog, the gold bugs (the proper term is gold cretins) continue their pretentious "we are smarter than everyone else" nonsense, labeling gold with cutesy "insider" names like "the Precious" and "mellow yellow." The writing style of the gold cretins is known to induce a distinct flesh-crawling sensation when a sane person reads their comments. They rant and rave about "fiat currency" and how our dollars are worthless. Funny, the gold cretins never took me up on my offer. The fact is, gold is a gamble. Speaking of which...
- Casinos. Credit card balances are destroyed and the home equity tap is turned off. All those shiny glittering casinos, not only in Las Vegas but in places like Macau and Tunica, soon to be empty. State governments are counting on the tax revenue from "gaming" casinos to prop up balance sheets for things like schools and universities. Oops. Speaking of which...
- College costs. The reason college tuition and fees have exploded the past 2 decades is because of the availability of cheap and easy loans backed by the government. When everyone and anyone can get $100k loans for college tuition, what else would you expect? Speaking of which...
- Now that cheap and easy home loans are gone, isn't it interesting that housing prices are declining and are becoming more affordable?
Or as someone on CH.C said, boils to be lanced.
4 comments:
Credit is renormalizing in an orderly manner, not the panic that many had anticipated. Things are unwinding as well as could be expected given the amount of speculation these past 5 years. Not that our government couldn't screw things up in a big way (and I expect that they will do this).
Lou I don't know squat about aero planes, gold or casinos (other than the Bellagio sent me an invite for 149 a night! last time I was there it was like 349).
But Dubai is still going gangbusters and paying on time but the vibe has changed dramatically and I am ready to shut down on a moments notice.
I also know about tuitions with two in Uni and one in B school. Have you priced decent MBA programs lately? Can you say $1,100 per unit???
OUCH!
Take care hope all is well with you and yours!
Anyone see this Onion News report on Obama supporters? Brutal but hilarious.
Gold:
physical gold & silver currently command hefty premiums, paper gold is getting cheaper.
if you believe 1970s-style inflation is coming back given trillions of dollars of federal stimulus, you want gold.
if you think the credit market collapse will overwhelm any stimulus injections, you want dollars.
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