Northern Virginia Weekend Bits Bucket 2/27-2/28, 2010

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Keep the Rates Low, or Else . . .

Some discussion at the Mess that Greenspan Made of how Maxine Waters, who has been on the House Committee on Financial Services for 20 years, apparently doesn't understand how the central bank works.

Some comments in the thread:

"James Cullen said ... What's really shocking about this isn't that Maxine Waters can't differentiate between Fed actions, but that she's so adamant that interest rates need to be kept low to bail out people with ARMs and convinced market interest rates are entirely controllable.

DLP said...James -- I had that same thought -- it was a good demonstration as to what elected officials could do if given control over the central bank."

Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 2/26/2010

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Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 2/25/2010

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Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 2/24/2010

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S&P/Case-Shiller® December Home-Price Index

The S&P/Case Shiller® composite index (graph here) for the month of December was released today.

"'As measured by prices, the housing market is definitely in better shape than it was this time last year, as the pace of deterioration has stabilized for now. However, the rate of improvement seen during the summer of 2009 has not been sustained,' says David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor’s. 'In the most recent months we are seeing fewer and fewer MSAs reporting monthly gains in prices. Only four cities saw month to month improvements in December over November, when you look at the raw data. We are in a seasonally slow period for home prices, however, so it is not surprising to see better statistics in the seasonally-adjusted data, where 14 of the markets and the two monthly composites all rose in December. Similarly, the National Composite fell by 1.1% in the fourth quarter, but rose by 1.6% on a seasonally-adjusted basis.'"

Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 2/23/2010

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Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 2/22/2010

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Northern Virginia Weekend Bits Bucket 2/20-2/21, 2010

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Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 2/19/2010

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Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 2/18/2010

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Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 2/17/2010

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Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 2/16/2010

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Got Shovels?

WTOP: Call for help from County Schools:

School systems in Fairfax, Arlington and Alexandria are calling on the community to help clear sidewalks so children can get back to school.... Fairfax County is asking for volunteers to help shovel out the snow and ice so school can resume.

Any volunteers can report to the school in their neighborhood any time between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. with shovels, snow blowers or other snow clearing tools".

Northern Virginia Weekend Bits Bucket 2/13-2/14, 2010

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Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 2/12/2010

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Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 2/11/2010

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Northern Virginia January Housing Sales

2010 housing sales were off to a quiet but respectable start in Northern Virginia. This year began with less inventory than in the past four years. Arlington and Alexandria showed the most improvement in the number of sales in the Northern Virginia region, and median prices were flat to up slightly for most counties. In Greater Northern VA, Culpeper County had its second-highest sales in 13 years (2005 being the highest).

Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 2/10/2010

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Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 2/9/2010

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Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 2/8/2010

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Northern Virginia Weekend Bits Bucket 2/6-2/7, 2010

Newsflash: in light of recent atmospheric catastrophic events, this is probably not a good time to house-hunt or move. The early Spring market is hereby postponed.

Fear the Boom and Bust

I was fascinated by Rasmussen's poll data this morning. Paul Krugman will not be happy, although I am sure there are ways to dismiss this poll:

"While influential 20th Century economist John Maynard Keynes would say it’s best to increase deficit spending in tough economic times, only 11% of American adults agree and think the nation needs to increase its deficit spending at this time. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 70% disagree and say it would be better to cut the deficit.

In fact, 59% think Keynes had it backwards and that increasing the deficit at this time would hurt the economy rather than help.

To help the economy, most Americans (56%) believe that cutting the deficit is the way to go.

Eighty-three percent (83%) of Americans, in fact, say the size of the federal budget deficit is due more to the unwillingness of politicians to cut government spending than to the reluctance of taxpayers to pay more in taxes".

As for "Boom and Bust," the one thing that resonates for both sides is the hangover.

Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 2/5/2010

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Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 2/4/2010

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Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 2/3/2010

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Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 2/2/2010

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Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 2/1/2010

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