Hot Air » Blog Archive » Video: Frank in 2005 — Bubble? What bubble?
People building fiber-optic cable for which there was no need. Homes that are occupied may see an ebb and flow in the price at a certain percentage level, but you’re not going to see the collapse that you see when people talk about a bubble. And so, those of us on our committee in particular, will continue to push for home ownership.
Daily Pundit in 2005:
Daily Pundit » It’s Getting Frothy In Here
Some 10% of homeowners are sub-par borrowers, another 10% have neg-am mortgages, and 2/3 of mortgages are interest-only or floating-rate. (Here again, higher-risk mortgages aren’t evenly distributed across the country.) As interest rates rise these owners may not be able to keep their homes, and if prices fall they may not be able to renew their mortgages for the full value of the outstanding debt - so their homes are put out on the market, either by the owner or the bank.
Of course, the MSM paid no attention at the time. And why should they? Barney Frank was a “recognized national leader and expert” on housing. Daily Pundit was just a bunch of pajama-clad bloggers.
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“Objective American” newsletter editor E.G. Ross, otherwise often sensible, used to denigrate the so-called “bubble boys” for their warnings about the effects of credit expansion. But Ross died in 2003, too early to see the consequences. And since I see monetarists applauding the latest Fed flooding, who knows whether Ross would have recanted in light of the popping of the housing bubble. I’m sure there were “economists” around in 1923 Germany explaining that the only problem is that wheelbarrows needed to be a little larger for lugging the mounds of hyperinflationary marks around.