Cheers,
Carson

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/record-number-of-homes-sitting-vacant-us-says

“Annual homeless prevalence was estimated at between 1.58 million (based on October/November four-week count) to 3.49 million (based on February seven day count).[8] Most, though not all, advocates use the higher estimate of over 3 million, especially since homelessness is thought to have risen since 1996″

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_the_United_States

Their definition of homelessness is limited to those that don’t have adequate night-time housing, so a more liberal definition would have much higher numbers.

Don’t know if the vacant homes include 2nd homes, and doubt if it includes vacancies in multi-unit buildings.

Any way you slice it, though, more than enough existing housing to go around.

Really? Why do you say that? I do want to know.

Do you also think that we have far too many homeless?

If so, how do you reconcile those two beliefs?

Many thanks. :)

“If the system is so fragile, maybe we need a new system. One based on, say, the actual long run production of capital and consumer goods, rather than the trading of mathematical baseball cards.”

Now, why was the Contract Clause included in the U.S. Constitution?

Because Hamilton (of whom I am not an unqualified fan) and others recognized that enforceable contracts are crucial to guarantee the open flow of funds and capital, without concern of government meddling or private malfeasance.

Further, let us consider the 14th amendment:

“nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Are TBTF to be granted special “private relief” under the laws? Well, they already have, so I guess I should rephrase: are TBTF going to continue to be granted private relief under the laws?

The expectation that this is so certainly would explain the capital inflows into the surviving investment banks. If every counterpart to my trade were backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government… Hell, even *I* could make money in the derivatives market.

The government is now deciding who capital should be allocated to, both in its spending and in who it declares TBTF. Necessarily, the government is allocating capital to the actors that help preserve the current politicians in the government: the bankers and various special interest groups. It is only by chance, and a rare one at that, that the capital is allocated efficiently to a useful activity. Consider the first time home buyer tax credit: this drives up the prices of entry level homes, sending a signal to home builders to build more homes which, in turn, keeps more people in the home construction business than is necessary (we have far to many homes as it is.) So we are perpetuating the distortion of the home market, and putting of the retraining desperately needed for construction workers and others currently misallocated to the production of homes. But only for a bit. Just like with cash-for-clunkers, new home demand will collapse once the program ends, and everyone will wonder what happened.

If the system is so fragile, maybe we need a new system. One based on, say, the actual long run production of capital and consumer goods, rather than the trading of mathematical baseball cards.

Cheers,
Carson Gross

The above would be impossible to know in days of time with the level of book-keeping that is presently being used by banks. However, if the book-keeping used in complex industries before computers, 50 years ago, had been properly programmed into computers it would be simple to know.

The irony is that if the Industrial model of book-keeping had been computerized, Lehman and the rest would never have gotten into the position they put themselves in in the first place. Today’s meltdown is a book-keeping software issue, pure and simple. And our society of cultures will remain in a stressful state until the proper book-keeping is restored to its historical standard.

There is no other language to control the fairness of commercial trade.

My main thought on it is this: Isn’t this like looking at a fatality of DUI in the hospital and saying “Well if we had used better sutures and antiseptics he never would have got that infection, and we could have saved him. Let’s try to forget it with some liquor at the bar.” ??

Much better than our Rube Goldberg Device Economy(RGDE)

Let’s all meet on Larry Ellison’s yacht (not sure which one yet) next week to discuss further.