2008 Year End Odds and Ends

http://www.census.gov/newhomesales


Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Same with graphs. But, sometimes they can be misleading.

Take the above graph. In what has supposedly been a terrible two years for the housing market, the median home price has only dropped by 13%.

So what do we make out of this data. Here are some thoughts.

1. There are pockets where home prices have fallen a lot, and those are the prices the media keeps focusing on. But overall, prices aren't down as bad as they lead you to believe.

2. The government is giving us bogus figures, much like they do for inflation. This makes the situation not look quite as bad as it really is, which in turn covers up their dirty deeds.

3. Instead of selling at lower prices, homeowners are just sitting tight and waiting for better times before they sell, move or upgrade. When there is more supply than demand, prices fall. So when homeowners quit selling, then the growth in the oversupply of homes on the market begins to slow and the price declines begin to slow accordingly.

I just found the above graph interesting, and in fact, all three scenarios could be true.

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Here is an interesting quote:

On May 20, 1999, Alan Greenspan testified before Congress, “Gold is always accepted and is the ultimate means of payment and is perceived to be an element of stability in the currency and in the ultimate value of the currency and that historically has always been the reason why governments hold gold.”

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Gold's deep plunge from July to September can be directly attributed to the $15 billion increase in gold shorts from JP Morgan. This is according to the 2Q and 3Q reports released by the Office of the Controller of the Currency. See page 30 of both reports.

http://www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/release/2008-152a.pdf http://www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/release/2008-115a.pdf



By shorting gold they are able to force the price down, making gold a less attractive alternative to the dollar. This keeps their paper printing scheme rolling right along, because without gold being viewed as an alternative store of wealth, the dollar continues to remain strong.

The above racket is bad enough but it gets worse. When these short positions expire and become worthless, Morgan simply gets the Fed to bail them out because of their "unforseen" investment losses.

Now we expect this from Morgan and the Fed, both are private corporations whose sole purpose is to make money for themselves. But with the OCC's involvement, you can see just how deeply the globalists tentacles have enwrapped our entire government and financial system.

The fox is guarding the hen house.