A bear on banking repents

The conclusion has merit, but is perspective based. Prices are down and there have been sales which should reflect in next months reports. I think that they will look pretty decent in light of what will be expected. It's an illusion. The buying is coming from people with great credit and cash down that any bank would welcome. They were renting and waiting but they are not house flippers or investors, they are looking for a place to call home - and stay put. This pool will exhaust in sort order and sales will again go slow. Mr Peabody did not take into account that homes are still under construction and people are still dying. A great deal of our population is older and estates are becoming more frequent. We are not at bottom in housing yet. As you say, fuel, food and other areas of rising price are impacting the consumer in the negative sense. Layoffs are on the rise and job loss will not improve economics. If these trends continue it is only a matter of time before corporate profits are adversely effected and Wall St. is confronted with an inexplicable truth, and a major market adjustment.

RE; Previous article regarding only 30% of the economists see the economy shrinking this next year (as related to this article).

It certainly doesn't take a genius to figure this one out; perhaps a little common sense that seems to be substantially missing in our "Harvard & Princeton MBAs" who are the parties responsible for this economic debacle anyway. So, it appears that only a third of the economists surveyed showed any "common sense" about these issues . . . That certainly says a lot about the economists doesn't it. Any economist who thinks that the economy isn't going to shrink should turn in their calculator and look for employment elsewhere

Seventy percent of the economists appear to be somewhat dilusional.