True story: In November, 1996 I overheard stock market/mutual fund chatter from drywall installers, toy store clerks and mothers of toddlers at the playground. Six months later the run on the Thai Baht commenced, which ushered in the "Asian Contagion" financial panic of 1997.
Moral: never underestimate the power of an apocryphal tale.
Doug Henwood wrote,
>A friend of mine whose day job is raising capital for real estate
>developers (i.e., not an amateur baying from the sidelines) writes:
>/I thought you would be interested in this. />/ />/In particular, I thought you'd find the following item interesting: />/<http://www.tompaine.com/articles/trouble_at_home_the_housing_bubble.php> />/ />/DH:An acquaintance of mine is going through a divorce.He went to the />/local high end stereo store to restock his gadgets for an apartment />/he's renting.The store manager sympathetically encourages my pal to />/rent the condo he(the manager) just acquired with a 95% floating />/rate loan,which now sits empty.What the fuck is some retail store />/manager doing speculating in Real Estate?The frenzy has had the />/effect of driving up everybody's real estate taxes,thus putting />/these speculator's deals deeper in the hole,not to mention his/her's />/primary residence.UH OH! mIAMI/dADE COUNTY HAS 58,000 condo's />/approved or under construction,the historic best year sales has been />/8,500 units.The developers have driven up construction costs to the />/point that committed pre construction unit sales no longer cover />/costs.A train wreck waiting to happen./