My favorite columnist is Paul Krugman. He dwells behind the "firewall" - but sometimes clever readers can offer non-protected links from other papers.
http://select.nytimes.com/...
What do you get when you cross a Mafia don with a bond salesman? A dealer in collateralized debt obligations (C.D.O.’s) — someone who makes you an offer you don’t understand.
If the offer is attractive enough, it's an offer that can't be refused - providing you manage a hedge fund.
The details of C.D.O.’s are complicated, but basically they’re supposed to transfer most of the risk of bad loans to a small group of sophisticated investors, who are compensated for that risk with a high rate of return, while leaving other investors with a "synthetic" asset that is, well, safe as houses.
There are lots of "synthetic assets" these days - such as the dollar. China holds enough dollar reserves to blackmail us - and they are not shy about doing so, even as they undervalue their own currency.
Investors who thought they were "playing it safe" face huge losses - and waves "distress selling" are likely to drive the real estate bubble downward, every downward.
Of course, the wise men who guide our path through uncertain times with accurate financial information and disinterested advice can be trusted, right?
Now, you might have thought that S.& P. and Moody’s, which gave Thailand an investment-grade rating until five months after the start of the Asian financial crisis, and gave Enron an investment-grade rating until days before it went bankrupt, would by now have learned to be a bit suspicious. And you would think that the regulators, in particular the Federal Reserve, would have learned from the stock bubble and the wave of corporate malfeasance that went with it to keep a watchful eye on overheated markets.
But apparently not. And the housing bubble, like the stock bubble before it, is claiming a growing number of innocent victims.
I see "for sale" signs springing up in my suburb. I see small businesses shuttered.
I do NOT see any plan for addressing our economic collapse by our current Democratic candidates. It's not enough to offer "hope" or "experience" or "passion." What the heck are we going to do to prevent economic implosion?
When offering advice, please remember - we are at "war" and running a huge current-account deficit.
We have outsourced our capacity to manufacture needed goods, and may in the future be unable to afford imported goods, due to the weakness of the dollar.