i know it sounds off, but the back after the fall of the curtain, and the push of NATO further to the east, had serious ramifications, that if you start connecting dots, they started to to give birth to the bubbles (RE).

basically, they gave labor & delivery to the creature, and the creature did its damage.

i know i am speaking in sas’ism…
i will be clearer in future as my buddy and I up in Boston weed through the archives.

Its just some food for thought.
SAS

thoughts?

“China’s refined oil consumption hits record in May”
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/chinas-refined-oil-consumption-hits-record-in-may

SAS

well, i always liked the cuban punch. they made them a little stronger down there. but, i admit, i don’t know all there is to know about cigars.

SAS

Indians also have a similar cultural affinity to buying ‘new’ (I’m sure you’ve noticed). Part of the ‘experience’ is calling your peeps back in India and telling them you bought new, no prestige in buying ‘used’, just like buying a used car.

Kettle1,

Thanks for the China updates. As you know, I’m underwater on my FXP play. Waiting for a double down still. I heard similar things about their RE. The only negative is that they really don’t have much of a dangerous mortgage market like we have. I do feel that all of their numbers are total BS though. This coupled with ChiFi’s posting of a second dip this fall keeps me feeling optimistic.

Good night all and happy father’s day to those who are crazy enough to have kids in this economic environment.

“It seems that many Chinese buy real estate because they view it as a “can’t lose” investment (sound familiar?). They don’t often rent out the space. It is not as easy to rent residential space in China, because anybody who can would rather buy a new house, partly because of the prestige value, but also partly because they believe that real estate is a “can’t lose” investment. Evidently they have the belief that at some point in the future, they could always sell the property, since it is still technically “new.” Remember, there is at best only a very small secondary market in real estate in China. Nobody in China goes shopping for a “used” home, they always look for a home in brand new developments. These are typically high rise apartment buildings that are really not very attractive at all by our standards (with some exceptions in parts of Beijing and some of the other largest cities). They often look more like tenement slums, particularly after they age a few years, because nobody does much painting or landscaping in Chinese residential areas. I have never seen housing tracts like the ones that are so common in the US, and I suppose they exist somewhere to a very limited extent, but I never even saw any single-family free-standing homes. It’s all high rise condo/apartment buildings. I realize this is kind of paradoxical…..that Chinese would believe they can always make money selling a home second-hand despite the fact that the secondary market is small or even nonexistent in places. But, that’s China. I think they are less concerned with actually realizing a gain, than in maintaining a paper gain. Again, a not insignificant factor here is the prestige value.”

http://www.feer.com/economics/2009/june53/Chinas-Real-Estate-Riddle

Seller Disclosures are worthless documents. They are only made in order to absolve the Realtor of the liability of non-disclosure. Use your home inspection report as the document that will guide you in assessing the condition of your purchase.

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/06/buy-china-policy-will-raise.html

Better hope he doesn’t come home with this:

http://www.tvacres.com/dogs_greyhounds_santa.htm

Let’s peg our currency to certain doom.