Tuesday August 29, 2006

Saw some very interesting comments this morning from John Mauldin's newsletter and from Professor Nouriel Roubini of NYU. At this time, the fall in the housing market suggests to them that the US could be in for the worst recession (if not outright depression) since the Great Depression 77 years ago. Consider these points:
1. Approx 30% of all employment is related to housing, including contractors, building materials, real estate brokers and agents, and employees in the mortgage finance industry.
2. Still more people are employed by furniture and home appliance manufacture.
3. Guess who buys more Ford trucks then anyone else? Contractors.
4. The economic expansion of the last few years was powered primarily by home refinances.
5. This year the cost of borrowing for nearly 1 trillion dollars of ARM's is rising sharply.
6. Next year nearly the borrowing cost of nearly 1.8 trillion dollars of ARM's will rise sharply.
7. Rents are increasing to keep pace with the cost of construction.
8. The same indicators are occurring in Europe.

Hang on to your hats, this may be a wild ride. If you have the cash available when the roller coaster hits bottom it will be a good time to buy real estate.

Monday August 28, 2006

Spent most of Sunday after church putting the Voyager back together. Drove it to work today, looks good so far, heater output appears to be 100 degrees over ambient. I may have a warm drive this summer.

Friday August 25, 2006

Finally got the heater core out of the Voyager last night. I need to pickup some heater hose and decide if I want to do something about the rest of the plumbing for the cooling system. It has been nice driving the Gladiator this week, but it will be painful to fill it. Most of the summer I have been filling it up every other paycheck instead of twice a paycheck.

Tuesday August 22, 2006

No comment on gas prices today. I finally started to change out the heater core on the Voyager last night. Tore the dash apart far enough to see the top of the heater core.

Friday August 4, 2006

Gas Prices. Arrrggh. I paid $2.85/gal in Bemidji on Wednesday, by the time I got back to GR gas here was $3.05, by Thursday 4PM it was $3.13. Where will it stop?