December 18, 2008 06:48 PM UTC

Whither now, Economy? (Paging Danny the Red Hair, paging....)

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• by: parsingreality

Not so much a diary here, but a table for discussion about the future of the economy and what we as individuals in our different lives should be doing.  So, here are a few topics to kick things off:

1.  How much more will home prices slide and how low?  Keep in mind some places will recover sooner, some later.  Best article in a long time about the fundamentals of home prices historically that the recent balloon tried to ignore: http://www.usatoday.com/printe…

2.  How would you rate these different programs for jump starting the economy:  Bailing out Wall Street, bailing out the not-so-Big Three, or Obama’s pending spending on infrastructure repairs? (My vote is for the last, by a big margin.)

3.  What will happen to interest rates, short term and longer term?  We cashed out a matured CD yesterday and I asked the CS person what is she seeing.  She said there a lot of new CD’s being set up; we agreed that a lot of that money probably came from stocks that were taking a beating.  Also people look at the current rates and say “I might as well put it under the mattress.”  Danny, I hope you pick up on this diary because I want to review and refresh on your beliefs that rates will only go up. Maybe because they will have to start printing money?

4. Will fire sale interest rates jump start the economy? Real estate agents here (WAY too many) are peeing in their pants with the new, low mortgage rates.  But I ask, if you don’t have a job, so what?  I do see investors here buying up things like ten or twenty houses.  How can that be good for home ownership down the road?

OK, the table is set.  Add your own questions, or better, weigh in on what I’ve asked.  This could be a ten course meal!