Wonkette Takes Day Off From Being Funny to Scare the $#!# out of Us
| I read Wonkette to be amused by pithy, vulgar humor. Not to be terrified. Two stories today: 1) The housing market is going to collapse and spark a recession. 2) We will be at war with Iran within the month. Thanks! I'll be stuffing my mattress with cash while simultaneously whizzing my pants. |
posted by Tokatakiya at 8:58 PM
Comments on "Wonkette Takes Day Off From Being Funny to Scare the $#!# out of Us"
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JPRS2010 said ... (11:01 PM) :
post a commentThe Housing Market:
Prices will drop, but I don't see the D.C. market tanking (e.g. I wouldn't be surprised to see 20-30% losses off peak values--but I don't see 50-60% losses).
When the sales market slows, the rental market typically picks up. I can see the big time investors flipping a number of condo developments to apartment buildings. I do think smaller scale investors might take a pretty big hit though. Btw, the commercial real estate market is still pretty solid.
Of course I could be completely off-the-mark.
As far as Iran goes, when the Bush administration says that they are dedicated to negotiations, I actually take Bush at his word.
The prospect of a wider war in the Middle East would be a strategic disaster right now--it would ensure failure in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Plus I get the sense that a war with Iran would be politically disasterous for Bush. Even if Iranians were alleged to have "provoked" an attack--I suspect many Americans would be very skeptical.
I see these naval deployments--and the way that the news has been leaked--as a gambit to leverage the Iranians in negotiations. The U.S. did something very similar to this in the mid-90s with North Korea. This White House would be embarrased to admit taking a page from the Clinton playbook, but I suspect that that is exactly what's happening.
The long and short--the long term consequences of the Bush administrations incompetence worry me much more than any near-term threat.