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Housing continues to get dragged down deeper into the muck with each passing month.  Housing starts, sales of existing homes, and home prices are all headed in the same direction – DOWN.  This is despite interest rates regularly reaching historical lows and the government (meaning you and me, the taxpayers) underwriting or assuming the credit

On New Year’s Eve this coming December, there are extra reasons for you to imbibe heavily to escape reality.  Fed head honcho Bernanke tells us (correctly, for once) that the U.S. economy could fall over a “massive financial cliff” on January 1, 2013.  That day marks the end of the Bush-era tax cuts and the

The front page of this morning’s Wall St. Journal announced that “the $25 billion settlement with banks over alleged foreclosure abuses will provide financial relief to an estimated one million at-risk borrowers, raising new hopes for an economy still hurting from the mortgage bust.”  Uh … no, on most all of that statement. There is

Since the beginning of the financial crisis, politicians and bureaucrats trying to rescue it have consistently done nothing but fall over their own feet.  We would be hard pressed to point to a single true success story among the multitude of programs and regulations that have been proffered during the last five years.  All the

According to our political leaders and certain well-placed economists, the U.S. economy is recovering well from the recession.  If only the country could get the housing market back on track, then everything would be just dandy.  In my view, while the housing downfall heavily contributed to the financial crisis that started about four years ago,

Political silliness just keeps reaching new lows.  The latest idiocy revolves around the political fighting over whether to raise the payroll tax rate back to 6.2%, keep it at the reduced 4.2% reduced rate for two months, or maintain it at that 4.2% rate for the next 12 months.  This discussion occurs with only the

What a week!  Two of the more interesting stories were Jon Corzine accidentally misplacing $1.2 billion and the escalation of the Euro crisis. First, let’s talk about Corzine.  This guy has been a Wall Street CEO (twice), a U.S. Senator, and a governor – isn’t that the trifecta of EVIL?  He did not accidentally lose

On the surface, the U.S. economy seems to be turning around.  Many of the TV talking heads say so!  Heck, the U.S. added 120,000 jobs in November, bringing the unemployment rate down to 8.6%.  On top of that, retail sales from the Thanksgiving weekend were stronger than expected and manufacturing in the U.S. has been

Yeah, we’re saved!  Many economists and more than a few politicians are assuring us that the U.S. is entering a recovery phase (again), with little chance for a double-dip recession.  One reason is that claims for unemployment benefits dropped to their lowest level in seven months to a seasonally adjusted rate of 388,000 people.  Never

A story in my local newspaper this week demonstrated the absurdity of some special interest groups – notably, public education unions.  Teachers at the California State University system have good pay, excellent health benefits, a great retirement system, and job security far in excess of most anybody in the private or public sector.  So, it

Some people seem to always be sunny optimists.  Up to a point, this is a good thing.  Inventions aren’t invented, businesses aren’t created, and relationships aren’t begun unless someone believes in them and champions them.  Investors need to believe in a company prior to purchasing their stock.  As a real estate note buyer, I have

The government and media shell games on public employees, debt, and evaluation of past programs continue.  Over the past couple of years, we have increasingly been reading about wide scale reduction of public employees in the press.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) claims that state and local governments shed 221,000 jobs between December 2007

Since early 2005, I have advised friends, colleagues, and anyone else who would listen not to buy real estate.  While I make no claims to uncommon brilliance or being able to foretell the future, I am somewhat of an information junkie.  When I looked past all of the happy-talk headlines and examined the real data,

QUICK ECONOMIC SUMMARY OF THE PAST WEEK 22.5% of all U.S. homes (11 million properties) are still underwater (9/13/11 Housing Wire) Mortgage servicers started the foreclosure process on 78,800 properties in August.  This is a 33% jump from July, but 18% below last August, just before the robo-signing scandal hit (9/14/11 Housing Wire) The income

ECONOMIC HIGHLIGHTS OVER THE PAST WEEK GDP growth in the second quarter was a measly 1.0%, only slightly better than the 0.4% of the first quarter (August 26 MarketWatch) Consumer confidence plunged but spending was up in July by 0.8% (August 30 Wall St. Journal) The unemployment rate is expected to stay above 8% through

Over the past 6-12 months, the economies of the West have received more negative attention and experienced more issues than at nearly time in history.  The countries being hit in Europe just keep getting bigger, as it started with Iceland, then went to Portugal, Greece, and Ireland, and now is affecting Spain, Italy, and even

As a person who considers himself to be a moderate but a fiscal conservative, I am generally against tax increases.  My observations over the years have shown that politicians use higher taxes to cover themselves when they just want to waste more taxpayer money rather than pay for meaningful programs.  Nearly every day, you can

Disgusting, sickening, repugnant, and demoralizing are just some of the words that spring to mind when I think about the actions of our politicians.  They, together with Wall Street bankers and assorted other miscreants, caused the economic and real estate collapse, yet show no ability or inclination to fix it. A couple of glaring examples

If you have not already read the previous three parts of this article, you can find them here: How to Invest in Real Estate Notes — Part 1 How to Invest in Real Estate Notes — Part 2 How to Invest in Real Estate Notes — Part 3 Now we come to the final stage