[Alberta's Child]

So the author's point is that the lumber industry collapsed after the 2008 real estate market collapsed, and has never restored the production capacity it had before then ... and Obama should have pursued a larger "stimulus package" to flood the market with even more money to keep the industry afloat.

Sorry, folks -- I'm no fan of Obama but I'm not blaming this on him. The U.S. housing market had been overbuilt for a long time before 2008, and subsidizing builders and lumber producers with cheaper loans and more money is only going to end in disaster.

[zek157]

This is more a condition of inflated dollar supply.

Isn’t going to end any time soon either.

[babble-on]

I was about to post the same thing. Also blaming Obama for “pivoting to austerity” after 2010 is rather laughable.

[AndyJackson]

You mean like pubic infrastructure projects to compete with businesses and individuals for labor and material and price the private sector out of the market while the gubmint builds what the bureaucrats in DC and the politically connected decide the public needs?

That kind of idiocy, slouching toward Venezuela.

[Drago]

Yep, and the 20% tariff (now reduced to 9%) PDJT added on to Canadian lumber didn’t help.

https://www.familyhandyman.com/article/us-commerce-department-cuts-tariffs-on-canadian-lumber/

[BobL]

“Sorry, folks — I’m no fan of Obama but I’m not blaming this on him. The U.S. housing market had been overbuilt for a long time before 2008, and subsidizing builders and lumber producers with cheaper loans and more money is only going to end in disaster.”

DEAD ON - probably started with Bill Clinton, with his lending requirements to people who couldn’t pay back their loans, and the Bush Jr. with his “Ownership Society”, thinking that if you simply gave derelicts the title to a house, they would instantly become responsible homeowners.

And with the cheap money juicing housing, as families became smaller, houses became bigger, with the square footage per person DOUBLING in 30 years...and all the while, our manufacturing base, which still had to pay market prices for borrowing money, going to hell.

Brilliance!

[joe fonebone]

I kind of agree with you here...
Trump was the best president of my time..
Having said that, he was also human, and made a few mistakes..
He went after the canadian lumber deal, and the result was higher prices, that continue to rise today (covid)..
So I will put the pricing of lumber on trumps shoulders..

No one is perfect

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Yep, Just in Time inventory is to blame on this along with Texas Freeze killing plastics production.

[Organic Panic]

Harvesting regulations sure didn’t help. Massive “stimulus” ain’t helping. Commodities aren’t rising in as much as the dollar is falling. It’s going to be a great 4 years if you are a politically connected crony, illegal alien, or lazy welfare leech. The rest of us. We’re screwed. After 15 years of being self employed I have to look back and thing what a chump I was. I could have lived a life of leisure if I was a lazy slob.