Re: The bottom has arrived
Well, if I were giving advice to any Realtor it would be not to buy that big boat just yet. We have a while to go before we hit bottom and before it is over, many will know what it is like to go to Walmart and see some of the shelves empty.
It's going to be tough going for a while, but it's going to be even worse for the people who insist on sticking their fingers in their ears and singing "La-la-la-la."
Three cases in point hot off the presses:
Asian Inflation Begins to Sting U.S. Shoppers
The free ride for American consumers is ending. For two generations, Americans have imported goods produced ever more cheaply from a succession of low-wage countries — first Japan and Korea, then China, and now increasingly places like Vietnam and India.
Developing countries have had bouts of inflation before. Indeed, some are famous for them, like Brazil, which experienced triple-digit inflation in the late 1980s and early 1990s. But two things make this time different, and together promise to send prices higher at Wal-Mart and supermarkets alike in the United States, just as the possibility of recession looms.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/b...=business&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Credit crunch losses will top $945-billion: IMF
The International Monetary Fund is pegging the losses related to the global financial crisis at a minimum of $945-billion (U.S.), far surpassing the costs associated with the Asian financial crisis and the U.S. savings and loans crisis that marked previous decades.
In one of its most pessimistic reports on the credit crunch to date, the IMF said Tuesday that financial stability has deteriorated significantly, and warned that the side-effects of the credit problems will be harsh.
“What began as a fairly contained deterioration in portions of the U.S. subprime market has metastasized into severe dislocations in broader credit and funding markets that now pose risks to the macroeconomic outlook in the United States and globally,” the report states.
“It is now clear that the current turmoil is more than simply a liquidity event, reflecting deep-seated balance sheet fragilities and weak capital bases, which means its effects are likely to be broader, deeper, and more protracted,” the Fund says in its Global Financial Stability Report, released Tuesday morning.
http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080408.wimf0409/BNStory/robNews/home
Energy Department says gas prices could peak at $4 a gallon this spring, curbing demand
NEW YORK - Retail gas prices could climb as high as $4 a gallon this summer, but prices at such lofty levels will make many Americans think twice about hitting the road this summer, the Energy Department said Tuesday.
"It is important to note ... that even if the national average monthly gasoline price peaks around $3.60 per gallon this summer, it is possible that prices at some point will cross the $4 per gallon threshold," the EIA said.
http://www.startribune.com/business/17383324.html
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It will be better to prepare for the worst than not be ready at all.
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, just like to get buzzed at sunset on gin and tonic
