Monday, December 31, 2007

No sex. No drugs. No wine. No women.

Or perhaps, more wine. Lots more wine.

Via the excellent housing blog, Calculated Risk:

Times: Top economist says America could plunge into recession.

Quotes:

Losses arising from America’s housing recession could triple over the next few years and they represent the greatest threat to growth in the United States, one of the world’s leading economists has told The Times.

Robert Shiller, Professor of Economics at Yale University, predicted that there was a very real possibility that the US would be plunged into a Japan-style slump, with house prices declining for years.

Professor Shiller, co-founder of the respected S&P Case/Shiller house-price index, said: “American real estate values have already lost around $1 trillion [£503 billion]. That could easily increase threefold over the next few years. This is a much bigger issue than sub-prime. We are talking trillions of dollars’ worth of losses.”


P.S. The Vapors.

P.P.S. Love Heebner, but I'm worried like Schiller.