[EconProf]

You underestimate the dynamic and self-correcting nature of our market system, and also ignore some beneficial effects of such an event.
First, SDSU students are not stupid–they will go to other neighborhoods, etc., saddling the new foreign owners with huge vacancies. Second, those new areas receiving the influx of students, will boost their prices, spurring the building of more rentals, subdividing houses, etc. In addition, the happy sellers of all the SDSU-near housing and apts must have been paid a pretty penny to sell out–they will now spend, save, and invest, leading to more beneficial effects.
I think it was at the height of the Japanese boom in the 1980s when all the US-bashers thought we would be overwhelmed by the Japanese buyers (before their 2 decades of stagnation), that Japanese investors bought the famous Pebble Beach, for about $1 billion I believe. They way overpaid for it, and sold for a lot less years later. Vancouver may some day experience the same.
We need to keep our country open for business, preserve property rights and the rule of law, and welcome foreign investors while we hope they keep on welcoming us.

[EconProf]

You underestimate the dynamic and self-correcting nature of our market system, and also ignore some beneficial effects of such an event.
First, SDSU students are not stupid–they will go to other neighborhoods, etc., saddling the new foreign owners with huge vacancies. Second, those new areas receiving the influx of students, will boost their prices, spurring the building of more rentals, subdividing houses, etc. In addition, the happy sellers of all the SDSU-near housing and apts must have been paid a pretty penny to sell out–they will now spend, save, and invest, leading to more beneficial effects.
I think it was at the height of the Japanese boom in the 1980s when all the US-bashers thought we would be overwhelmed by the Japanese buyers (before their 2 decades of stagnation), that Japanese investors bought the famous Pebble Beach, for about $1 billion I believe. They way overpaid for it, and sold for a lot less years later. Vancouver may some day experience the same.
We need to keep our country open for business, preserve property rights and the rule of law, and welcome foreign investors while we hope they keep on welcoming us.

[EconProf]

You underestimate the dynamic and self-correcting nature of our market system, and also ignore some beneficial effects of such an event.
First, SDSU students are not stupid–they will go to other neighborhoods, etc., saddling the new foreign owners with huge vacancies. Second, those new areas receiving the influx of students, will boost their prices, spurring the building of more rentals, subdividing houses, etc. In addition, the happy sellers of all the SDSU-near housing and apts must have been paid a pretty penny to sell out–they will now spend, save, and invest, leading to more beneficial effects.
I think it was at the height of the Japanese boom in the 1980s when all the US-bashers thought we would be overwhelmed by the Japanese buyers (before their 2 decades of stagnation), that Japanese investors bought the famous Pebble Beach, for about $1 billion I believe. They way overpaid for it, and sold for a lot less years later. Vancouver may some day experience the same.
We need to keep our country open for business, preserve property rights and the rule of law, and welcome foreign investors while we hope they keep on welcoming us.

[EconProf]

You underestimate the dynamic and self-correcting nature of our market system, and also ignore some beneficial effects of such an event.
First, SDSU students are not stupid–they will go to other neighborhoods, etc., saddling the new foreign owners with huge vacancies. Second, those new areas receiving the influx of students, will boost their prices, spurring the building of more rentals, subdividing houses, etc. In addition, the happy sellers of all the SDSU-near housing and apts must have been paid a pretty penny to sell out–they will now spend, save, and invest, leading to more beneficial effects.
I think it was at the height of the Japanese boom in the 1980s when all the US-bashers thought we would be overwhelmed by the Japanese buyers (before their 2 decades of stagnation), that Japanese investors bought the famous Pebble Beach, for about $1 billion I believe. They way overpaid for it, and sold for a lot less years later. Vancouver may some day experience the same.
We need to keep our country open for business, preserve property rights and the rule of law, and welcome foreign investors while we hope they keep on welcoming us.

[EconProf]

Amen to that 70degrees.
That our savers getting screwed is due to the deliberate Bernanke/Fed policy of keeping interest rates at a minimum in order to prop up the stock market and housing market. He is hurting those who play by the rules and save for their future, and apparently doesn’t care about how much it hurts the frugal and the elderly who hoped to live off their interest during retirement.
As far as Canadians and other foreigners buying here, let’s bring it on. They did not cause our bubble and bust–we did. If prices are now a bargain to them, and their currency is stronger than ours because they did not mismanage their economy, then they deserve to come here and pick up bargains.
BTW, Canadian fiscal and monetary policy for the last decade is in remarkable contrast to that of the U.S. They did not allow extreme leverage in their banking and mortgage sector, they did not oversupply their housing stock with excessive building fed by cheap loans, their budget is close to being balanced as they did not hype their economy with excessive spending. Markets reward smart policies like this, and the strength of the Canadian dollar is the result. Canadians are big factors in the Phoenix housing market, and I’m not surprised they are also buying in the Palm Springs area.

[EconProf]

Amen to that 70degrees.
That our savers getting screwed is due to the deliberate Bernanke/Fed policy of keeping interest rates at a minimum in order to prop up the stock market and housing market. He is hurting those who play by the rules and save for their future, and apparently doesn’t care about how much it hurts the frugal and the elderly who hoped to live off their interest during retirement.
As far as Canadians and other foreigners buying here, let’s bring it on. They did not cause our bubble and bust–we did. If prices are now a bargain to them, and their currency is stronger than ours because they did not mismanage their economy, then they deserve to come here and pick up bargains.
BTW, Canadian fiscal and monetary policy for the last decade is in remarkable contrast to that of the U.S. They did not allow extreme leverage in their banking and mortgage sector, they did not oversupply their housing stock with excessive building fed by cheap loans, their budget is close to being balanced as they did not hype their economy with excessive spending. Markets reward smart policies like this, and the strength of the Canadian dollar is the result. Canadians are big factors in the Phoenix housing market, and I’m not surprised they are also buying in the Palm Springs area.

[EconProf]

Amen to that 70degrees.
That our savers getting screwed is due to the deliberate Bernanke/Fed policy of keeping interest rates at a minimum in order to prop up the stock market and housing market. He is hurting those who play by the rules and save for their future, and apparently doesn’t care about how much it hurts the frugal and the elderly who hoped to live off their interest during retirement.
As far as Canadians and other foreigners buying here, let’s bring it on. They did not cause our bubble and bust–we did. If prices are now a bargain to them, and their currency is stronger than ours because they did not mismanage their economy, then they deserve to come here and pick up bargains.
BTW, Canadian fiscal and monetary policy for the last decade is in remarkable contrast to that of the U.S. They did not allow extreme leverage in their banking and mortgage sector, they did not oversupply their housing stock with excessive building fed by cheap loans, their budget is close to being balanced as they did not hype their economy with excessive spending. Markets reward smart policies like this, and the strength of the Canadian dollar is the result. Canadians are big factors in the Phoenix housing market, and I’m not surprised they are also buying in the Palm Springs area.

[EconProf]

Amen to that 70degrees.
That our savers getting screwed is due to the deliberate Bernanke/Fed policy of keeping interest rates at a minimum in order to prop up the stock market and housing market. He is hurting those who play by the rules and save for their future, and apparently doesn’t care about how much it hurts the frugal and the elderly who hoped to live off their interest during retirement.
As far as Canadians and other foreigners buying here, let’s bring it on. They did not cause our bubble and bust–we did. If prices are now a bargain to them, and their currency is stronger than ours because they did not mismanage their economy, then they deserve to come here and pick up bargains.
BTW, Canadian fiscal and monetary policy for the last decade is in remarkable contrast to that of the U.S. They did not allow extreme leverage in their banking and mortgage sector, they did not oversupply their housing stock with excessive building fed by cheap loans, their budget is close to being balanced as they did not hype their economy with excessive spending. Markets reward smart policies like this, and the strength of the Canadian dollar is the result. Canadians are big factors in the Phoenix housing market, and I’m not surprised they are also buying in the Palm Springs area.

[EconProf]

Amen to that 70degrees.
That our savers getting screwed is due to the deliberate Bernanke/Fed policy of keeping interest rates at a minimum in order to prop up the stock market and housing market. He is hurting those who play by the rules and save for their future, and apparently doesn’t care about how much it hurts the frugal and the elderly who hoped to live off their interest during retirement.
As far as Canadians and other foreigners buying here, let’s bring it on. They did not cause our bubble and bust–we did. If prices are now a bargain to them, and their currency is stronger than ours because they did not mismanage their economy, then they deserve to come here and pick up bargains.
BTW, Canadian fiscal and monetary policy for the last decade is in remarkable contrast to that of the U.S. They did not allow extreme leverage in their banking and mortgage sector, they did not oversupply their housing stock with excessive building fed by cheap loans, their budget is close to being balanced as they did not hype their economy with excessive spending. Markets reward smart policies like this, and the strength of the Canadian dollar is the result. Canadians are big factors in the Phoenix housing market, and I’m not surprised they are also buying in the Palm Springs area.

[EconProf]

Back to the High Speed Rail subject….
We are now discovering the false promises under which HSR was foisted upon us. Much has been made of the propaganda fed to the voters before they (barely) approved the bond measure to start HSR some three years ago: understating the costs of building it, overstating expected ridership, understating ticket prices, to name just three.
The lies continue. Recently a consulting company was hired by the HSR authority to predict ridership (and thus revenues) once the whole project is complete. Naturally, they had to come up with a number that would justify the project financially.
They projected an annual ridership for CA that was three times what Amtrak currently gets in the entire U.S.–in 46 states!
They came up with this number by asking the public whether they would ride HSR. 90% of those asked said they would take the HSR. Who did they ask? Current users of trains in CA. Such a subset of CA citizenry is 5% of the population.
This is our government at work. This is our tax money funding such a shoddy study to convince us to spend more. This is also our CA media failing to blow the whistle on such dishonesty.
BTW, this info all from whistle-blower and libertarian commentator Chris Reed of the Union-Tribune, who does a great radio show on KOGO, 600 am, 6:00 to 8:00 pm daily except Wednesdays. I highly recommend him.

[EconProf]

Back to the High Speed Rail subject….
We are now discovering the false promises under which HSR was foisted upon us. Much has been made of the propaganda fed to the voters before they (barely) approved the bond measure to start HSR some three years ago: understating the costs of building it, overstating expected ridership, understating ticket prices, to name just three.
The lies continue. Recently a consulting company was hired by the HSR authority to predict ridership (and thus revenues) once the whole project is complete. Naturally, they had to come up with a number that would justify the project financially.
They projected an annual ridership for CA that was three times what Amtrak currently gets in the entire U.S.–in 46 states!
They came up with this number by asking the public whether they would ride HSR. 90% of those asked said they would take the HSR. Who did they ask? Current users of trains in CA. Such a subset of CA citizenry is 5% of the population.
This is our government at work. This is our tax money funding such a shoddy study to convince us to spend more. This is also our CA media failing to blow the whistle on such dishonesty.
BTW, this info all from whistle-blower and libertarian commentator Chris Reed of the Union-Tribune, who does a great radio show on KOGO, 600 am, 6:00 to 8:00 pm daily except Wednesdays. I highly recommend him.

[EconProf]

Back to the High Speed Rail subject….
We are now discovering the false promises under which HSR was foisted upon us. Much has been made of the propaganda fed to the voters before they (barely) approved the bond measure to start HSR some three years ago: understating the costs of building it, overstating expected ridership, understating ticket prices, to name just three.
The lies continue. Recently a consulting company was hired by the HSR authority to predict ridership (and thus revenues) once the whole project is complete. Naturally, they had to come up with a number that would justify the project financially.
They projected an annual ridership for CA that was three times what Amtrak currently gets in the entire U.S.–in 46 states!
They came up with this number by asking the public whether they would ride HSR. 90% of those asked said they would take the HSR. Who did they ask? Current users of trains in CA. Such a subset of CA citizenry is 5% of the population.
This is our government at work. This is our tax money funding such a shoddy study to convince us to spend more. This is also our CA media failing to blow the whistle on such dishonesty.
BTW, this info all from whistle-blower and libertarian commentator Chris Reed of the Union-Tribune, who does a great radio show on KOGO, 600 am, 6:00 to 8:00 pm daily except Wednesdays. I highly recommend him.

[EconProf]

Back to the High Speed Rail subject….
We are now discovering the false promises under which HSR was foisted upon us. Much has been made of the propaganda fed to the voters before they (barely) approved the bond measure to start HSR some three years ago: understating the costs of building it, overstating expected ridership, understating ticket prices, to name just three.
The lies continue. Recently a consulting company was hired by the HSR authority to predict ridership (and thus revenues) once the whole project is complete. Naturally, they had to come up with a number that would justify the project financially.
They projected an annual ridership for CA that was three times what Amtrak currently gets in the entire U.S.–in 46 states!
They came up with this number by asking the public whether they would ride HSR. 90% of those asked said they would take the HSR. Who did they ask? Current users of trains in CA. Such a subset of CA citizenry is 5% of the population.
This is our government at work. This is our tax money funding such a shoddy study to convince us to spend more. This is also our CA media failing to blow the whistle on such dishonesty.
BTW, this info all from whistle-blower and libertarian commentator Chris Reed of the Union-Tribune, who does a great radio show on KOGO, 600 am, 6:00 to 8:00 pm daily except Wednesdays. I highly recommend him.

[EconProf]

Back to the High Speed Rail subject….
We are now discovering the false promises under which HSR was foisted upon us. Much has been made of the propaganda fed to the voters before they (barely) approved the bond measure to start HSR some three years ago: understating the costs of building it, overstating expected ridership, understating ticket prices, to name just three.
The lies continue. Recently a consulting company was hired by the HSR authority to predict ridership (and thus revenues) once the whole project is complete. Naturally, they had to come up with a number that would justify the project financially.
They projected an annual ridership for CA that was three times what Amtrak currently gets in the entire U.S.–in 46 states!
They came up with this number by asking the public whether they would ride HSR. 90% of those asked said they would take the HSR. Who did they ask? Current users of trains in CA. Such a subset of CA citizenry is 5% of the population.
This is our government at work. This is our tax money funding such a shoddy study to convince us to spend more. This is also our CA media failing to blow the whistle on such dishonesty.
BTW, this info all from whistle-blower and libertarian commentator Chris Reed of the Union-Tribune, who does a great radio show on KOGO, 600 am, 6:00 to 8:00 pm daily except Wednesdays. I highly recommend him.

[EconProf]

The fatal flaw in high speed rail (and, arguably, all forms of mass transit) is ignoring the time to get from your house or apartment to the station, and then to get from the destination station to your job (or store, etc.)…plus the parking problem at the station. Americans love to go from their own driveway to the parking lot at their destination. This is a luxury we have that the Japanese, Chinese, and europeans envy.

[Author]

Posts