About a year ago, my fiancé and I were thinking of buying a house. Reading mainstream media back then would lead one to believe that we were experiencing a mild softening of the market and surely would recover in early 08, HA!. After doing a little research on the Internet I found a few “bubble” articles speaking of 40-50% declines. A few of my acquaintances, some in the RE industry and others, well educated professionals, pawned if off as doom and gloom. Funny, all it takes for a reasonably intelligent, rational person is a few hours of studying Piggington’s to figure out the housing market is in dire straights. Thank you, all you doomersayers out there!
One person’s doomsayer is another’s savior I guess…
The mainstream media is practically useless in doing it’s job as a watchdog for the masses. The financial clusterfuck brought on by the fed and wall street that many of you allude to pales in comparison to the economic havoc that most likely will be brought on by declining oil production. By the time the current financial mess unwinds over the next few years we should be at peak or pretty damn close, per most experts. We will be changed forever and it will be painful. I really wish I did not think so. Try spending some time studying the oil drum blog and not coming to the same conclusion. Peak oil is the biggest white elephant in the room and the US is the least prepared to deal with such a problem.
But I am sure we will get ample warning from the media and proper steps will be taken by the feds, right?
“We have only two modes—complacency and panic.”
—James R. Schlesinger, the first energy secretary, in 1977, on the country’s approach to energy
“Of all races in an advanced stage of civilization, the American is the least accessible to long views… Always and everywhere in a hurry to get rich, he does not give a thought to remote consequences; he sees only present advantages… He does not remember, he does not feel, he lives in a materialist dream.”
—Moiseide Ostrogorski (1902, 302-303)
