[wideawake]

A 6.7% drop in housing prices means that America as we know it is about to come to an end.

Sell everything you have and buy gold.

Dust off your Gary North-approved Y2K survival gear.

Draft Paul Craig Roberts for President in 2008.

Learn Chinese.

[Petronski]

Don't forget: lay in more ammo, spam and KI caplets.

[GodGunsGuts]

Not everything. But gold should comprise about 5-10% of your portfolio, just in case.

[Proud_texan]

"A 6.7% drop in housing prices means that America as we know it is about to come to an end."

I know you were being scarcastic and I fully appreciate that often market downturns are protrayed as the end of the world but...

However I do see any RE market downturn as one having a ripple effect on the economy. Oh, there won't be all that many foreclosures, leaders HATE to foreclose and they'll probably renegotiate some of the more outrageous loans, probably something with a ten year baloon payment, stuff like that.

However there is a trickle down if the sale of new homes declines as pointed out by someone else earlier in this thread.

For that reason I have lightened up on equities over the last several months and I have loaded up on bonds. I think the bond market is close to overbought, it's betting way too much on a hard rather than soft landing and a lowering of Fed rates next year and while I'm not solid in the hard landing camp I'm leaning in that direction.

Of course I could be totally wrong, take anything I have to say with a grain of salt. Okay, a pound of salt, but the point is that inside of the hysterical wording may lie some insight into the market, which can be profitable. No, the world isn't coming to an end, but I would rather have been long on bonds vs. say, home builders over the last three months and, until something changes, probably the next three months.

[churchillbuff]

Learn Chinese.""

Actually, that's not bad advice.