171–180 of 236 posts
I'll echo what some folks have said in other threads, we've had rates down near zero for fifteen years, and we've got to get them back somewhere near historic normals at some point. If only so they can be cut again during the next crisis. How much is our entire culture the result of cheap money?
>How much is our entire culture the result of cheap money? Only the parts involving housing, education, transportation, employment, and investments.
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> Fed doesn't have to fight with inflation if it not creating one. So Fed's balance sheet could be as well $0 Inflation has multiple causes. Fixed-money economies experienced inflation and deflation throughout antiquity.
Still, Fed is responsible for 90% of inflation.
You're really jumping straight from proposing a zero-reserve central bank to theorizing the source of inflation?
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Given that mortgage rates recently rose past 6%, seems to me this latest rate increase is going to put strong pressure on house prices. The rate has a huge impact on the monthly payment required to service a loan, more so than is immediately apparent without doing the math. People keep hoping or expecting this, yet prices keep going up. As long as wages for top earners keep rising, so will demand in expensive areas.…
Prices are not dropping, but sales are drastically slowing down and properties are staying on the market for longer. At least in the Bay Area, a few months ago it was unheard of for a home to stay on the market a month. Now they're sitting there. Definitely think rates are affecting how much buyers are willing to spend.
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Given that mortgage rates recently rose past 6%, seems to me this latest rate increase is going to put strong pressure on house prices. The rate has a huge impact on the monthly payment required to service a loan, more so than is immediately apparent without doing the math. People keep hoping or expecting this, yet prices keep going up. As long as wages for top earners keep rising, so will demand in expensive areas.…
Prices have corrected across the market, where are you seeing prices going up.
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Government subsidy tends to attract a lot of malinvestment in order to get those dollars. For example, in Biden's bill, there's a subsidy for so-called "smart" glass that darkens when an electric current is applied. This is supposed to reduce solar input from windows by 20%. Of course, if this mattered, people would have already installed window blinds, which are cheap and easy. External eyebrows and eaves also work.…
One advantage of smart glass is you can get much better wavelength control. For example, you can reflect 90% of infrared light while letting through the visible light. This is really hard to do with a curtain.
I've seen smart glass demoed at a home show 25 years ago. I thought it was way cool, until they quoted the price. It's no surprise it hasn't gotten any traction since. Oh, it also consumed electric power when in dark mode, as much as a light bulb. It's not a passive system.
Window blinds, louvers, eyebrows, shades, etc., all work fine and are cheap.
BTW, when I lived in Phoenix in the 1970s, people would tape aluminum foil or newspapers on the windows to cut the heat intake. The newspapers would block most of the solar heat, but would let the light through.
Here in Seattle I made some reflective panels I can just stick on the windows when we have a heat wave. Plenty of light still gets in.
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Do you have a source for the smart glass subsidy? I haven't been able to find anything that mentions it.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/inflation-reduction... - It seems like it just puts it on an equal footing with other solutions. Unless there's a downside that I'm not aware of, that seems like a reasonable thing to do?
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Prices have corrected across the market, where are you seeing prices going up.
Have they? Certainly have not seen this beyond prices for rural/exurb properties that shot up during covid - even those prices have just come back to what they were before covid.
How is this entry about to leave the front page at 105 points and 154 comments and the CNBC one at 36 p 14 c rising? This is ridiculous. I'm not accusing of malice, but something needs fixing.
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College Education pricing has many blames beyond cheap money. The fed getting involved in student loans have totally broken that segment of the economy. 1) Federal loans do not have limits on amount. 2) Loans are non-discharged (you can't shed them in bankruptcy). 3) There is no intensive for schools to charge less. (schools likely should have skin in the game if borrowers end up shedding debt through time expiration…
"Most people would be better served by trade schools or apprenticeship, but the US hasn't figured out how to do this well yet. This is more of a cultural problem, that I hope employers can figure out." Employers including technology companies used to provide training and apprenticeships but purposely shifted their job training costs on to job seekers and the education system. You are in effect looking to those that a…
Given that mortgage rates recently rose past 6%, seems to me this latest rate increase is going to put strong pressure on house prices. The rate has a huge impact on the monthly payment required to service a loan, more so than is immediately apparent without doing the math.
Given that mortgage rates recently rose past 6%, seems to me this latest rate increase is going to put strong pressure on house prices. The rate has a huge impact on the monthly payment required to service a loan, more so than is immediately apparent without doing the math. People keep hoping or expecting this, yet prices keep going up. As long as wages for top earners keep rising, so will demand in expensive areas.…
Prices have plateau'd or gone down