[barnaby33]

Does the low price in IB come with its own derelict/biker next door neighbor, or do you have to negotiate that one in addition?

Josh

[barnaby33]

Employers pay what they have to, not what they can. Qualcomm never payed good salaries, it was always about the stock. Like most big companies they always have job openings, but are they actually hiring for them is the question. Often a company will leave a req open even if they have a hiring freeze, because it would look bad.

Overall San Diego pays middle of the road to higher end wages, but the cost of living is so much higher here. The argument that companies can’t find qualified workers is bunk, except in certain specialized fields. Bio-tech and certain hardware specialties I could believe.

IT has a boom/bust cycle that is often not in tune with the general economy. It so happened last time that the two were in tune because IT was the bust. The time before that Defense went bust and San Diego was a huge defense town. This time I don’t think the general recession will affect IT as much. I think that where we are at right now is the tail end of a small boom in our industry, heading into a cooling off or small recession. The economy at large however is heading for something much larger.

Lots of companies, mine included, hired like mad up till recently. That seems to be cooling some. I would imagine Qualcomm is no different.

Josh

[barnaby33]

I too would attend, though I have a wedding (not my own) to goto in Denver July 1 to 4. Sounds like before that most people, Rich included could come together.

Josh

[barnaby33]

I would be interested in joining a small group to pool some money for two reasons. One it actually motivates me to do real research and two I think face to face interaction avoids alot of the extremist viewpoints that anonymity affords.

Which brokerages allow you to short stocks? I use TD Ameritrade(formerly waterhouse). Shorting with them is not easy. Either you already have to be long, or you have to call into their trading desk and ask if the brokerage has shares you can short. This makes shorting very hard because on a day to day basis you can’t tell what will be available, and its a bit counter-intuitive. If the stock were going to decline, or a large group of people thought it would, why would the brokerage buy shares and then lend them to you to short?

Josh

[barnaby33]

Didn’t you or someone else post this before? I could have sworn I have seen a post with almost the same language. Maybe it was a different development.

Josh

[barnaby33]

My comment is one based LARenters comment on the other board. The factors we all know are going to lead to the next housing recession are fairly obvious. These guys at UCLA couldn’t have not known that. So what does give? They ignored the biggest factors of all and claimed ignorance when challenged on it, that just smells fishy. I hate fish.

Josh

[barnaby33]

Somehow, shooting the messenger never does go out of style.

On a more RE related topic, I saw an advert on CL for a condo in mission hills. What caught my eye were two things. First the explicit 60k reduction. Second the realtors response. This is a prime area, lots of people would like to live in MH. Its not the top of the hill and yes there is some airplane noise but its still a pretty nice area. In addition this unit has a two car garage. Now that in my mind makes it very desireable.

I sent the realtor an email saying, if the seller is desperate why don’t you lower the price? I said a couple of other things about a declining market and such, but kept my tone as neutral as possible and yet no response. Normally realtors write you back just on the outside chance they could get you to come see and fall in love with the place.

All I can say is the party has started, really started and not just in downtown. When a condo in MH is having a hard time selling ouch I would hate to be selling something in Mira Mesa.

CL link: http://sandiego.craigslist.org/rfs/166780017.html

Josh

[barnaby33]

I don’t know, Bruno’s supposition (on the bottom of the VOSD article); that if Rich knew anything about real estate he would be dangerous, is pretty persuasive!

Josh

[barnaby33]

The MHD (Mad House Disease) era, I gotta admit Suzanne isn’t going to like that.

Josh

[barnaby33]

I think you would find that most of those do have significant foreign inputs.

As a secondary and more housing related question, how much of the material to build a house comes from places outside the US. I’m pretty sure sheet rock and concrete comes from here, but lumber? Fixtures and faucets, doors?

Josh

[barnaby33]

You are forgetting the most insidious option, stop paying on the debt and start printing money, not just lowering rates, but flat out printing money to cover current expenses.

Josh

[barnaby33]

A weak dollar is not that simple, nor is a strong RMB. Our economy is more complex than the chinese economy, but even so the repercussions of a strong and or weak currency aren’t so easily discerned. For instance the US is still the worlds largest manufacturer, just not of clothes or electronics. So a weak dollar seems like it helps us sell our end products, but those end products are in turn made up of constituent parts made in other places. Any gain in end sales tends to be offset by a rise in cost for imports.

Conversely the Chinese make lots of stuff, but have to import most of the basic commodities to produce those things. Therefore the weak currency adds to the cost of production. For example if you think oil is expensive for us, trying being a chinese business. All of your commodities are artificially expensive. In essence the chinese govt is attempting to subsizdize exports with imports.
Josh
Josh

[barnaby33]

Prices actually don’t seem to rise with inflation, at least here in San Diego. They seem to rise faster than inflation, then deflate. This boom bust cycle has been much more pronounced throughout the 21st century in So Cal than most other places. Price increases may average out to the rise in inflation, but nobody buys at an average. They buy at a specific point in time.

Josh

[barnaby33]

Currency?

Josh

[barnaby33]

I never imposed a limit on you and the questions I asked were rather complex. I was hoping to get some in depth answers, or at least suggestions from different viewpoints.

Josh

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