[ex-Texan]

Looks like there will be no relief for Americans now or after the housing bubble causes massive economic chaos and disruptions. We will have to live with the after effects until 2011 and beyond. Helpful Graphs

[Gorzaloon]

Combining a rise to 28% in Credit Card rates (This happens for any reason at all..Moon in Taurus, delayed credits and instant debits, or simply because the Card Co. feels like it) with Debt consolodation loans (Owned by the same companies who run the CC's), and add to this mix the new Bankruptcy Laws, we can expect things to get interesting.

In talkng about this the other day, it came up, "What good does it do if the CC card companies own someone's house in a declining RE Market?"

Well, it may not matter. They own the equity of a $200,000 house which is now worth $100,000. It's still a gain, and they are big enough to ride it out..

Now it is almost time for the Gold Bugs to begin to come out, and already I am seeing TV ads about "Owning gold".

If you own gold you do not hold, you own paper.

[jdm]

Yet another reason to live in a halfway house and transfer all assets into Titanium Metals. FNM is Fannie Mae.

[Moonman62]

The departing Fed chairman Alan Greenspan has done the easy work, lifting US interest rates to 4.5pc in 14 brisk steps from the aberrantly low - perhaps fatally low - level of 1pc in June 2004. This may be near the "neutral" level, or not.

As for the dreaded "inversion" of the yield curve as long-term rates dip below short-term rates - harbinger of slumps through the ages - he said it may even be a bullish signal this time, stemming from investor confidence.

There you go. Another Fed chairman who thinks he is smarter than the market, which isn't surprising, because no matter how big an economic disaster he creates, he'll still get his rewards from around the globe simply because of his powerful position just as Greenspan did.

[Dec31,1999]

Whatever his inner doubts, Mr Bernanke seems bent on pushing full steam ahead with interest rate rises, and damn the torpedoes.

Go, Ben, GO! We need higher ST rates for at least two reasons; to snuff out the housing speculators and to attract capital to the dollar.

It's a smart move that will fight inflation, as well.

As per real estate, all you home owners should consider selling now before you're priced IN! :)