housing bubble

With home prices rising in many areas of the country, many people are worried that we’re headed for a housing crash like the one we suffered in 2008.

But here’s the thing: it’s just not true. While it’s understandable that people would look at the current market, consider it a “housing bubble,” and assume it’s going to pop, the truth of the matter is the market today couldn’t be any more different than they were before the crash of 2008.

Let’s look at four reasons why we’re not headed for another housing crash:

1. Banks have tightened their lending practices

In our last column, we explained that the financial collapse of 2007-08 was due much to collusion between private banks and government. Congressional mandates required lenders to issue mortgages to people who couldn’t afford them. Then, government agencies would purchase the faulty loans from the banks, thus relieving the banks of the risks.

Sometimes Hollywood hits a homerun.

For example, The Big Short, the movie account of the US financial collapse of 2007-09. Its all-star cast is notable. But we were skeptical from the sound bites used in previews and other promotional blather that this would be another anti-capitalist propaganda flick. We were wrong.

The Nevada State Demographer’s Office at the University of Nevada, Reno has released its most recent population projections for Nevada and its individual counties, projecting through 2033.

The Nevada State Demographer’s Office at the University of Nevada, Reno has released its most recent population projections for Nevada and its individual counties, projecting through 2032. After seeing population declines in 2011, 2012 and this year with 363 less people living here, Carson City's projected population is 55,122.

“As our state recovers, people should bear in mind that Nevada was hit by three economic factors in the last decade: the housing bubble, the spike in fuel prices, and the financial crisis. Even so we grew by 35 percent from 2000 to 2010,” Jeff Hardcastle, state demographer, said.

Sometimes it takes a while to get the big picture, to see things coming into focus. Now, I am not much for conspiracy theories, but if anything looks like it is being driven by design, this is one. The theories driving it were formulated many lifetimes ago. The people whose sick minds spawned them are long dead. For the life of me I do not understand how any egomaniac could possibly get his jollies from a trend he might have started but maybe not even his great-grandson might see coming to fruition. But there it is, a hundred year timeline on several fronts.

Destruction of money


CARSON CITY – Nevada’s unemployment rate fell by four-tenths of a percentage point to 12.6 percent in December, the second consecutive monthly decline that saw the number of jobless drop to 166,300, a state agency reported today.

A year ago, the rate, which is adjusted for seasonal fluctuations in the labor market, hit a record high of 14.9 percent.

The hardest bubble to see is the one you are in. We have survived the Internet bubble, later the housing bubble and the stock market, private debt and discretionary spending bubbles. You would thin...

Job, jobs, jobs. We are told that is what we need to fix our ailing economy.

With an unemployment rate above 9 percent, we do need more jobs. But there's a better chance of getting Sarah Palin to pose naked for a PETA anti-fur ad than there is of getting any kind of job-creating bill through a Congress held hostage by deficit-obsessed Tea Party Republicans.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
Despite upgrading Nevada’s outlook from negative to stable, the credit rating agency Moody’s downgraded Nevada’s credit rating to Aa2 from Aa1.
The rationale behind the adjustment involves Nevada’s Legislature. Moody’s cited the two-thirds supermajority required to raise taxes as a negative in Nevada.

RENO – When the bottom fell out of the construction industry, some lucky ones kept working.
CC Myers, a California company, has benefited from a portion of a $393 million contract to extend Interstate 580 between Reno and Carson City. They are building the 120-foot-tall bridge spanning Galena Creek.
Work there has continued apace as vehicles zooming through the valley below have increasingly carried unemployed Nevadans.