The Vig

As usual, the Irvine Housing Blog distills the zeitgeist.
Do you see the mentality at work here? All someone had to do was buy some real estate, improve it if they wanted to, wait a short time and sell it for a huge profit. The prices paid do not matter as long as the greater fool […]

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The Tropicana hotel filed for bankruptcy protection last night.  It’s long been speculated that the Trop was the next place on the Strip to go.  It’s a natural, I would think, given its location.  This may bring that day one step closer.
I’ll never forget the night I stayed there.  Must have been late 2003?  Anyway, […]

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I’ve been trying to piece together in my head just what in the heck is going on with the economy and commodity prices. Maybe this summer I’ll take a couple of economics courses to figure this stuff out. In the meantime, I just read and listen.
From Marketplace (emphasis mine):
MOON: Well, you already […]

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The Washington Post has an interesting angle on the condo market.
Now Moss, 33, wants to find a tenant for her condo while she waits out the economy. But the condominium association allows only 20 percent of the units to be leased at once, so Moss is on a waiting list. If she tries to rent […]

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They put in $15,600 and took out $599,800.  Just another story from the Bush economy.
At some point the smart people on the tee-vee are going to figure out the free money from home equity lines is no longer flowing into the economy.  Once they do, this talk of a “mild” recession will cease.

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He’s pushing back against this temporary repeal of the gasoline tax and good for him, I say.  This idea is about as stupid as the one the Senate Republicans floated a few years ago when they wanted to send us all a check for $100 to help pay for the $3 gas.  Giving me $2 […]

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An interesting quote from Morgan Stanley.  I don’t know whether it’s that the pundits don’t fully appreciate what’s happened with the housing bubble or they’re just wishing it will all go away.  This isn’t like the dot-com bubble earlier in the decade.  This is something completely different and it’s infiltrated literally every nook and cranny […]

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Neat article in the New York Times about the end of the stockyards in South Saint Paul, MN.  Some of my favorite memories growing up were of my grandfather taking my brother and me to the old McMinnville auction.  It was held Wednesdays at noon.  You could buy everything from cattle to horses to sheep […]

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Last year, Morgan Stanley wrote down $3.7 billion (with a b) in assets related the the sub-prime mess.  A month later, they announced they were getting a $5 billion (again, with a b) from the Chinese to help them weather the storm they created.
Yesterday shareholders had an opportunity to send Morgan a message at their […]

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From the “you’re pulling my leg, right?” files comes the Countrywide REO website.  These are properties financed by Countrywide that have foreclosed and are now back with the bank.  According to this guy, there’s almost $3 billion worth of property available.  And that’s just asking price!
Just for fun, I poked around the site to see […]

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