Rossputin.com

On Monday, OPEC made a slight but nevertheless important downward revision in their estimate for fourth quarter oil consumption, from 28.86 million barrels per day to 28.69 million bpd. While the stock market has rallied strongly in recent weeks, in s… more »

re "The dark side of debt" (The Economist, 9/21/06) http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=7943243 Sir -- I expect better work from the Economist, particularly about financial markets, than you displayed in "The dark side of debt"… more »

see "Existing-home prices fall for 1st time in 11 years" (MarketWatch.com, 9/25/06) http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B32209313%2DC23C%2D4946%2DB9B5%2D5392D6499D24%7D&siteid= The National Association of Realtors August surve… more »

see "'The Biggest Slump in US Housing in the Last 40 Years'…or 53 Years?" by Nouriel Roubini, RGE Monitor, 8/23/06 http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/roubini/142759/ NYU Professor Nouriel Roubini has written the above article at his blog which is even m… more »

This past Sunday's Sydney Morning Herald (Yes, Sydney, Australia, from where I'm writing this) has an interesting story about the local residential real estate market. My theory is the same as it has been since I lived here in 2002-2003: Sydney's real… more »

see "Housing: The Roof Won't Collapse On The U.S. Economy" (Business Week, 9/4/06 issue) http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_36/b3999032.htm Business Week argues that the residential real estate market is adjusting fairly rapidly to its c… more »

see "Home prices fall; sales plummet" (Washington Times, 8/24/06) http://washingtontimes.com/business/20060823-115813-6690r.htm As I have warned on these pages for over a year now, the housing bubble is now bursting. Last Wednesday, The National… more »

The National Association of Realtors has released their Q2 2006 report on existing home sales showing the fourth consecutive decline in the seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales. Looking into the details of the spreadsheet, one sees (not surprising… more »

see "Wal-Mart Announces Sale of German Business" (PRNewswire, 7/28/06) http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-28-2006/0004405659&EDATE= Wal-Mart is selling its 85 stores in Germany after trying for nearly a… more »

Following my worried post a week ago, thinking that the market would fall because of the situation in the Middle East and fears of a slowing economy, the market has put in its best week in over 18 months. Luckily, I didn't lose money being wrong. We'… more »