[powayseller]

We have the strongest military and the world reserve currency, because oil is still purchased in dollars, although some countries now sell it in euros. But that does not define a superpower.

We lost our superpower status, because we are unable to produce or finance our own consumption. We have transformed to the world’s greatest debtor nation, and if the Asian countries were not so export dependent, our economy would have fallen apart 10 years ago. It is only because the Asian countries are export dependent, that we can consumer more than we make.

We are at the mercy of foreigners to fund our lifestyle. As soon as Asian countries stimulate consumption among themselves, they will not need us anymore. They will sell of their Treasury notes, and our dollar will vaporize. With Venezuela, Iran, and perhaps Saudi Arabia selling oil in euros, who needs dollars anymore? They will be too worried about our ability to repay them, and won’t want dollars.

So having a big military doesn’t make us a superpower, nor does the fact that we are the planet’s largest consumers of goods, oil, and all natural resources. Our military is funded by China, Japan, and all other nations that buy our debt, to keep our government going. Without them, we couldn’t afford to have the military.

A superpower leads the world, produces enough for its own people and exports the excess, and is admired for its financial and technical and political savvy. We have lost that status.

Don’t let your love of your country blind you. Investors have to keep an open mind. When we become in denial, we may be satisfied that “I am right”, but we lose the investor’s advantage which comes from seeeing the truth and not following the masses.

Let the masses think we are a superpower, put their money in the stock market, buy houses, think all is well. We profit at their expense.

This board is about opening our eyes, and part of that is understanding that the US economy is on its way down, and unless the political leaders have a sudden willingness to sacrifice today for a better tomorrow, the economic collapse will come. There is no preparation at all for $100 oil. Why couldn’t they see it coming?

How can we be a superpower if we are dependent on other countries to fund out main resource, oil? Why didn’t we plan for this permanent increase in oil prices by building windmills, promote solar energy panels, hybrid or hydrogen cars? We are dependent on countries which hate us, except Saudi Arabia our ally (?), to sell us the resource which runs our economy. If they pull out the rug from under us, or raise oil prices to $200/barrel because supply is running out, we will have an utter economic collapse.

What superpower? Surely you jest.

[powayseller]

Josh, I was thinking the same thing. When your neighbor loses his construction job or lending job or real estate attorney job, where will she/he go? This housing market bust is nationwide, and I am glad that people here are finally seeing it. SD is the worst, but it is natinowide, it is global.

[powayseller]

Perry, please read my opening post. My question was about my own experience and a story I heard, and that’s why I asked if this was just an aberration, or if we have rising wages for illegals.

Second, hiring a cleaning crew just once doesn’t mean I have to pay taxes for them. I believe the rule applies if you pay someone more than a certain amount, or hire them regularly. Does everyone who hires a day laborer fill out a W-2?

Perry, rising costs don’t mean you can pass them along. Often you have to figure out how to lower your profit margins.

I still don’t have the answer to my question, which is: are illegals getting paid more now than they were last year or the year before?

Payroll surveys show that wages are flat, but how are the wages of illegal labor? Is it rising? Come one, how can a cleaning person charge as much as a technicians with a bachelors degree? What is driving that?

[powayseller]

Rich, I made this post myself on July 19.

Update, the Origination News link is no longer working. Here is the original report, the 8th annual report by MARI to the MBA pdf file, dated April 2006.

[powayseller]

DaCounselor, downturns and bubble busts are always worse than anybody expects. That’s why I’m betting on a 50% price drop. We’ve already lost 10-15% on North County homes. According to Jim Klinge at bubbleinfo.com, North County homes are back at 2004 pricing. In the last cycle, the highest drops came in years 3-5, so the highest drops are yet to come. This time, the intensity will be greater due to exotic loans and our economy’s reliance on construction and real estate.

50% might be too optimistic. Maybe a 55% nominal drop will do it.

[powayseller]

Wouldn’t they have more luck selling by lowering the price?

Do you think we will see more owner carry types of offers?

[powayseller]

Steven, I found your post in the main page, sort of buried, and wanted to highlight it in the forums. Welcome to the forums. What does your company do? Could you tell us more about what you do, what you’re seeing out there? Also, if you know of anyone whose ARM is about to reset and cannot handle their new payment, would they consent to an interview with the LA Times? contact [email protected]

[powayseller]

Which countries can agree on one thing enough to make a world currency? Who is collaborating on it? Could you post a summary when you’re done reading it?

[powayseller]

Josh, you can be harsh. The truth is, nobody likes a small p***.

[powayseller]

Yes I see. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to read people’s views about Amarillo. Some are:

Nothing special about this place. — 14 weeks ago

Not worth it!

Just another dirty little Texas town.

Why would you want to go? He left as soon as he could and doesn’t want to go back. There is really nothing there. If you are driving across country then you probably want to stop there because its the only city in between two huge stretches of highway. But really, there is nothing to see in Amarillo except driving through you can see Cadillac Ranch which is kinda neat.

Apr 08, 09:33PM PDT | 0 comments

FallingFaceUp
Lamoni
Just not impressed — 27 weeks ago

Not worth it!

There are places I would have much rather been in Texas.

Jan 11, 12:58PM PST | 0 comments

[powayseller]

I wish I could answer this. I have not traveled much, and have not read about history, cultures, or politics. I’m real one-dimensional.

[powayseller]

Neither reply addresses whether we are seeing an upward shift in illegal/independent contractor/off the books worker wage demands.

I doubt the cleaning people file a W-2. If they did, I would have been given a receipt.

[powayseller]

I had no idea that a La Jolla address carries such a price premium. Wow! You can get a beautiful Carmel Valley home for that price. Why get that old small La Jolla house for over a million? I don’t get it.

I think prices will go down 50% over the next 5 years. If history is any guide, years 3-5 will see the largest drops. We are in year 1 now, since the yoy median just turned negative.

Some landlords on this forum wrote that a gross rent multiplier of 8-10 should be used for rental property. So the property should cost less than 8 times annual rent. I expect we will return to that level.

Rents and housing prices have a fundamental support in wages.

[powayseller]

Those who think the US is still a superpower, I disagree. At one time, we were the manufacturing capital, but now we are the world’s biggest debtor nation.

Our civilization will end someday, just as the others, and the dollar will no longer be the world reserve currency. Look at other reserve currencies, and how long they lasted. The last one to go away is the British pound.

Michael Sherman, in Scientific American, researched 60 civilizations, both ancient and modern. He found the average life span of each was 421 years. Modern civilizations have a life span of 305 years. These societies collapse because they ran out of resources, and their leaders did not plan for this.

One of the best-known examples of a collapsed society is Easter Island. They built great big statutes in honor of their chiefs, until they had cut down every tree and eliminated their food supply. Stupid, right?

But we also are short-sighted, because we are creating asset bubbles, consuming more than we produce, and are dependent for our survival on a resource that we must get from other countries: oil. Why do we not replace our short-sighted closed-minded leaders, since they are not making tough decisions today for our greater good tomorrow? They are not protecting us from the upcoming energy crisis, asset bubbles, underfunded social security and medicare, and all the other problems we discuss.

[powayseller]

Thank you for asking my opinion, it is an honor to be asked by you.

The thing that surprises me is that consumer spending is 70% of GDP. Is it that high in other countries?

During the Depression, people learned to be VERY frugal. The difficult times caused a new way of looking at lifestyle and what is important in life. Will this next recession be big enough to cause a cultural shift?

What do you think VCJIM? Why are your values so different from the majority?

[Author]

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