The HBB Rates The Mainstream Media
Recently, a HBB discussion turned to which Florida newspapers had done a good job of covering the housing bubble while it was building or at the peak. I thought it would be a timely project for this blogs readers to review the subject. On this thread, I am asking for nominations for the following areas in these catagories; the 3 best at housing bubble reporting, the 3 worst, and the best single journalist. Let’s also rate best/worst market observer for each area, which could be appraisers, economists, UHS or analysts.
Feel free to expand on the details and include links if possible. I am also asking for knowledgeable local readers to join a small committee (online) to rate the nominees and then we’ll put up a reader poll and see how those match up. Mainstream media only, please; this can include print newspapers, magazines, and online news services like the AP.
The areas of the US to be rated:
Northeast.
Mid-Atlantic.
Southeast, excluding Florida.
Florida.
Midwest.
Southwest, excluding California.
Southern California.
Northern California.
The Pacific-Northwest.
National/International publications.
I’ll forward this thread over the next few days and we’ll start the ratings on individual threads next week. - Ben
To give you an idea of how this might work, I’d like to nominate these as best Florida newspapers for housing bubble reporting:
1 the Herald Tribune - Sarasota
2 the Palm Beach Post
2 the News Press - Ft Meyers
Best journalist: Jeff Ostrowski at the Palm Beach Post.
Worst? Maybe TC Palm, Florida Online, Orlando Sentinel.
And I could expand on why if anyone is interested.
And I could expand on why if anyone is interested.
I am. Expand away, por favorrrrrrrr.
well FWIW our local rag, the Missoulian, has been incredibly wimpy through our local bust. I still have to rely on rumor, observation and MOR stats to get any kind of feel for the market. All the Lee papers in MT have been bad.
I was looking at the Sunday RE section this week and realized they hadn’t done ONE story on the bust in the past two years (since I’ve been reading HBB). It’s just all kitchen-bathroom-drapes-landscaping-granite stories, your Dream Home blah blah.
Housing bust stories up front have been rare, timid and dependent on Realtwhore spin. They’re clearly frightened of losing more ad revenue from Lambros and Prudential, the two big RE entities here.
Dream homes? Wonderful!
I just love paying $10.00 and going through the Street of Dreams’ homes. I think most major cities have Street of Dreams’ homes.
I think Street of Dreams isn’t quite so dreamy anymore. Not with 10 percent unemployment and so many foreclosures. It’s more like Street of Nightmares.
I remember attending Street of Dreams’ homes in past years, and business was so good that you had to park your car miles from the homes and be bused to the upscale subdivision.
These days, I think they pay you to go through the “dreamy” homes.
I hate the ‘Street of Dreams’ stuff.
This is a very serious and sustained hatred, not like my average flighty dislike, where I get emotional and then drop my bag of licorice Twizzlers and by the time I get back up off the floor I’ve forgotten who I hate.
‘Street of Dreams’ stuff is pernicious. It’s like tooth-decay; it happens when you aren’t looking.
I don’t like the Street of Dreams’ stuff, either.
I have not forked over money to attend one since the late ’90s. As far as I recall, I’ve attended only three or so.
If the national Street of Dreams’ organization hasn’t folded by now, it should. I think it’s safe to say it’s dead in the water.
However, the SOD might generate some interest to have the dates coincide with the fall showroom displays of the latest Toyota Camry models and other exciting cars. At least for some people.
Now for myself, that would be too much excitement. Seeing the latest Camry model and the SOD on the same day would be excitement overload. I’d have to take two or three Valium pills.
Seriously, though, people are losing interest in homes. I certainly have. Especially young people. Just like young people have almost no interest in cars today. And this trend is not going to reverse itself for a long, long, long time. This trend does not bode well for the housing industry or the car industry.
I’d like to throw in my two bits, from my insider perspective. These are my candidates for HBB’s Florida awards.
The selections are for Florida based newspapers, reporters, analysts, shills, brokers, etc. Tomorrow I’ll submit my selections for individuals and firms located outside of Florida.
Best Florida Real Estate Reporting;
1. Sarasota Herald Tribune
2. South Florida Business Journal
3. Miami Herald
4. Palm Beach Post
5. Tie - Tampa Tribune, Ft. Myers News Press
Worst Reporting;
1. South Florida Sun-Sentinel
2. Orlando Sentinel
Best Real Estate Reporters;
1. Tie - Matt Haggman - Miami Herald, Ed Duggan - South Florida Business Journal
2. Michael Braga, Aaron Kessler, Tom Bayles - Sarasota Herald Tribune
3. Shannon Behnken - Tampa Tribune
4. Jeff Ostrowski - Palm Beach Post
5. Dick Hogan - Ft. Myers News-Press
6. Monica Hatcher - Miami Herald
7. Bob Norman - Broward/Palm Beach New Times
8. Linda Rawls - Palm Beach Post (retired)
Worst Reporters;
1. Paul Owers - South Florida Sun-Sentinel
2. Jerry Jackson - Orlando Sentinel (retired, thank God!)
3. Tie - Terry Sheridan, Paola Iuspa Abbott - Miami Daily Business Review
Top Real Estate or Lending Analysts;
1. Lew Goodkin - Goodkin Consulting
2. Marvin Rose - Rose Consulting
3. Ken Thomas - Independent Banking Analyst - Miami
4. Humbly,……
Vested Interest and/or clueless Analysts & Economists;
1. Henry Fishkind - Fishkind & Associates
2. Michael Cannon - Integra Reatly Resources
3. Sean Snaith - Univ. Of Central Florida
4. Stan Smith - University of Florida
Smart R.E. Brokers;
1. Peter Zalewski - CondoVultures
Industry Shill Propagandist Brokers and Public Relations;
1. Ron Shuffield - Esslinger Wooten Maxwell
2. Michael Saunders - Michael Saunders & Company
3. Jeff Morr - Majestik Properties
4. Maria Alicia Cervera - Related/Cervera
5. Craig Studnicky & Philip Spiegleman - International Sales Group
Amazing post, Jack! I think this might be contender for #1 bubble quote:
“South Florida is working off of a totally new economic model than any of us have ever experienced in the past.” He predicts that a limited supply of land coupled with demand from baby boomers and foreigners will prolong the boom indefinitely.
Ron Shuffield, president of Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realtors
Thank you.
Except I don’t know why you’re humble within section: “Top Real Estate or Lending Analysts”. You’ve probably been the only person in Florida worth listening to, besides Muggy, for at least 3 years, or maybe more.
I used to not even believe we here in America HAD a Florida, becausee it sounded so crazy-like and improbable, like Pangaea or Never-Never-Land or something.
I don’t live in Florida, but I have read several good investigative articles online by the Herald Tribune.
In 2005 Jim Jubak, a national real estate/ financial journalist, was pointing to the fact that we weren’t even close to a housing bubble. “A housing bubble? Are you crazy? Ha! Ha! I can tell you we aren’t even remotely close to a housing bubble.”
Even I, a dummy, knew there were red flags all over the place. When Arizona developers were chartering planes to fly-in buyers and then bus them in from the airport to buy homes in a matter of a few hours, that told me speculation was out of control. Condo buyers in Florida sleeping on cots for days to sign on the dotted line was a red flag, too.
Rational logic would kind of tell you that Mr. Jubak would lose credibility. A lot of credibility. How could a real estate/ financial journalist be so wrong and not grasp what was happening? As far as I know, Jubak’s articles are still appearing on MSN.
Millions of smart folks are unemployed, and yet Jubak is still getting paid for worthless garbage.
I think Ed Yardeni took a fall with his way-off-base Y2K predictions. He was predicting major computer problems at 12:01, January 1, 2000. And we all know his dire computer predictions never materialized.
And then there’s Ben Bernanke. He didn’t see any housing bubble red flags, either. Futhermore, he’s still got a job.
Ben
Back in November 2005, I exchanged emails with a journalist at the Orlando Sentinel, Peter A. Brown email: pbrown@orlandosentinel.com.
His point then was that the mortgage interest deduction shouldn’t be changed. I countered as follows:
“A key point is that to have a tax benefit, a family with 40K-60K must take on debt of ca 170K to match the benefit of the standard
deduction. To actually have a significant benefit, they would need to borrow much more. As such the example of the 40K income household doesn’t hold up. In fact in my worksheet, a family earning 40K would actually receive a refund under the current system of $26 via the EITC.
As a California home owner, I know I may personally suffer in the
short term if interest deductions are limited. However the bigger
picture is that Americans need to stop pretending that more debt is always a good thing. I think changing the tax code to encourage all of us to make more rational decisions when it comes to housing would be beneficial. Some of my neighbors in San Diego have bought multiple homes because they can deduct the losses against active income. This combined with the current $1.1 Million limit on mortgage interest+heloc has led to the so called housing bubble.
A further point is that when the UK took away the tax benefits of
home ownership in the early 90s, there was a temporary property crash in London. But longer term the market has more than fully recovered and has proven that you don’t need to subsidize high end housing.”
He wrote back: “Thanks for your thoughtful note”
But he never ran any articles that I saw denoucing the high levels of debt people were taking on to get a “tax benefit”.
So from my perspective, as I tried to give a direct warning and was ignorned, Peter Brown is the worst journalist I’ve encountered.
The worst cheerleader in my sphere has been by far the Democrat & Chronicle, which is still talking like it is 2005 in Rochester, NY.
I do remember you referring/linking to the Herald Tribune often in the early days — definitely bleeding edge.
Strangely, I’d say the grey lady ran a few ‘ahead-of-the-curve’ stories, so some credit is due there.
Sorry Muggy, But I’ve checked in all 3 upstate papers: Albany Times Union, Syracuse Post Standard and Rochester D &C. By far, Syracuse is the worst. The least informed people are around here, the happier the local PTB are.
Yeah, I don’t really follow Syr news. The one thing I have noticed with most upstate news outlets is that they don’t even know how to handle stuff like this; anything beyond school board meetings, balloon parties at the zoo, new restaurant openings, etc. — W/CNY reporters can’t wrap their heads around S.Florida, NYC, Cali, etc. concepts.
You won’t believe this, here is the D&C running these 2 articles in the SAME MONTH.
$400,000 Condos Planned for Midtown Tower
http://tinyurl.com/yg33o72
Developer Misses $500,000 Payment
http://tinyurl.com/ygruzxs
I almost forgot…
Absolute worst analogies: Sean Snaith
Absolute worst predictions: Sean Snaith
Absolute worst interpretations: Sean Snaith
Most likely to be a reasonably successful food critic: Sean Snaith
This reminds me, I’ll include best/worst “market observer” for each area, which could include appraisers, economists, industry analysts or UHS.
“I’ll include best/worst “market observer” for each area, which could include appraisers”
Orlando/Dimedropped!
“…I’ll include best/worst “market observer” for each area, which could include appraisers, economists, industry analysts or UHS.”
Way COOL Mr. Ben, Thanks!
I’ll just create x3 of my favorite categories to keep them all clear:
1. “TrueBeliever’s™”
2. “TrueDeceiver’s ™”
3. “TrueBeliever’s™ & TrueDeceiver’s ™”
(Example: Leslie Appleton-Young)
Yeah, add your own catagories, etc. I just came up with a few to get started.
In Hawaii, hands down, (former) Bank Of Hawaii Chief Economist Paul Brewbaker wins for worst market observer. A quick list of my all time favorites:
Late 2008: “This thing (the idea that a recession is under way) is in people’s heads…Just turn off the TV and you’ll be fine.”
In 2007: “It’s not implausible that we could have seen the (real estate) market already hit rock bottom.”
In 2006, he said “It’s better to get on the train now, because it isn’t coming back” — referring to real estate
In 2005 it was “Is it a bubble? This ain’t no stinkin’ bubble.”
Hawaii should get it’s own category or be in national/international IMO.
It really is different here…
Just turn off the TV and you’ll be fine.”
Whew, now we know how to fix it.
I’m in Charlotte, NC and the local paper, The Charlotte Observer, has done a pretty good job of journalism. They were early reporting about Beazer Homes’ shady practices with starter homes and mortgage fraud.
I would second the Charlotte Observer for best mid-atlantic. I’ll dig up some of their sub-prime articles from 2005 just to show what could have been done when it might have made a difference.
I liked the Observer when I lived in Rock Hill or visited my parents. My husband loves Charlotte, NC , so it’s surprising we never moved back there.
Interesting aside,my husband worked with someone who moved from Charlotte to Fort Mill, SC so his daughter would be able to apply to Winthrop University in Rock Hill as an SC resident. They rented as expensive but forgot to change their drivers’ licenses and other paperwork to show the SC address. The girl didn’t qualify for instate tuition and they couldn’t afford to send her at the higher rate. But they could afford to take several cruises a year. All is good though. She was going to be a dance major. Maybe she has been able to get a job as a dancer.
I’d like to nominate the Boston Globe as a strong negative: lots of halfway covered stories (eg, a foreclosure victim story, but public records reveal multiple cash-out-refinance). Cheerleader blogs hosted on the Globe website. A selective review of the numbers such as using month-to-month when it shows rising prices or activity and year-to-year when it minimizes the appearance of declining prices or activity.
I’ve politely pointed out discrepancies in the Globe multiple times both on their website (comments) and letters to the editors. I’ve never received so much as a response, let alone an acknowledgement.
‘never received so much as a response’
Here’s a chance for folks in MA to let the Globe know what they think of their reporting.
One Name:
Kimberly Blanton.
I haven’t seen her name in print in a while. It appears that Jennifer B. McKim has taken over Kimberly Blanton’s place in the pantheon of obvious Real Estate Cheerleaders in the Globe’s stable of reporters.
I got responses from Kimberly Blanton, always staunchly defending her asinine bullishness. (How’s that for a mixed metaphor.)
Agreed. The Glob never fails to get the basic underlying story wrong. They are so consistently wrong it has got to be a conspiracy. As a newspaper with a lot of debt and declining business, I guess they could not afford to upset the Real Estate Industrial Complex.
But what about the Boston Herald? When I was blogging in 2005, I would quote them and the trolls would jump on me saying, “that’s a tabloid!”
The BH did some decent HB reporting in my opinion. But I got a lot from all the tiny “Wicked Local” sites too. Probably too many of them to mention, unfortunately.
Ben - the Herlad (which is in tabloid format) is the smaller in both circulation and content and is more Replublican-leaning of the two Boston papers. In my opinion it tends to both be more objective and more sensationalist. The space it devotes to hard news is significantly smaller than the Globe which reduces it to AP-style snapshots of the news (although it does a significant amount of its own reporting).
The Herald survives for two reasons. It is the paper on construction sites: look in any Teamster’s cab or construciton trailer and you’ll find the Herald. I suspect it has to do with the Herald’s greater support of Unions. Also, the Herald is easier to read on mass transit due to its format.
It can best be summed up this way: The Globe might have four times the column inches, but the Herald has twice the sports content on any given day.
to AP-style snapshots of the news
Thanks for that snippet, Chile. That explains why I can’t give names for bad journalism on the DesertSun. It is owned by Gannet which owns USA Today which is the “news” version of People magazine, which as we all know is the toilet reading of choice ala The Big Chill. “”Articles” no longer than a cra p.”
One can only walk by and read the headlines on desertsun to know the entire content of that “article”. Sensationalism and rah rah RE!
‘The Herald….is the more republican leaning of the two papers.’
‘The Herald’s greater support of Unions.’
Chili, generally speaking, right leaning papers are not pro-union.
‘The Herald has twice the sports content’ …. Now that explains why it’s found on the construction sites.
Oddly, I agree that the Herald is the more conservative and ALSO the more pro-union. The Globe would be very big on stuff like environmentalism, affirmative action, gay marriage, helping Darfur…
AZ-Lender - thanks. When I typed the the lines “More Republican…greater union support” I winced. I couldn’t find the right word to use in the first sentence. I was tempted to write “conservative” but I felt that it didn’t do the paper justice. The Herald’s support of unions (espically the firefighters and police unions); their lurid fascination with the latest scandal; and vocal “small government” while supporting balloning budgets all seem very republican to me.
I’ll happy submit the two statements to revision, but after two days of this thread I still can’t think of a better way to describe.
Ben, would it be possible to expand this concept to local TV and radio stations? Here in the DFW area, there was both serious bubble coverage and cheerleading on the airwaves.
Definitely, for instance News 10 in the Sacramento area did a good job. Many times these TV shows had transcripts online and so did NPRs Marketplace.
Radio? omg. 1 old timers music from the 40s. 3 stations of talk radio.
and ads or the occasional Amber alert or someone escaped or someone got lost hiking in the mtns. Or they found a decomposing…
Or the Big Horn golf tournament is coming up…or this golfing tournament is coming, or that tennis match at the Tennis Gardens, or lately they are getting prepped for the Palm Springs Film Festival..or there is another golf tournament..or an senior citizens festival.
That is our news. Oh, there is NPR, but not all through the valley.
Too many Clear Channel stations around here. I only listen to the radio when my son’s in the car. We like much the same music and he changes the station as soon as it gets annoying, mainly when commercials or the announcer comes on. I’ve heard plenty of good announcers but very few around here in the past twenty years.
The Isthums, entertainment weekly in Madison, Wisconsin.
This paper, claiming to be an independent newsweekly in the Village Voice style, is pathetic.
As late as 2009 they finally wrote a milquetoast article on the real estate crash, actually quoting our long-time friend Jack McCabe of FLORIDA??!!, and also trying to put an upbeat spin on the article by quoting local shills.
I hate this over-priced, frigid wasteland, time to head back to Flowierda.
Opinion on Capital Times? Journal Sentinel was pretty objective.
IMHO, The Journal Sentinel did come around to being objective on RE but it took them a while.
The Capital Times seems like it is careful about rocking the boat too much.
This is Wisconsin and they are kinda careful to see which way the wind is blowing.
Milwaukee TV stations on the other hand, will devote a good 2 days and 40 hours of air time forming a lynch mobs and dissecting plays, players and coaches if the Packer lose a game.
The Wisconsin media has it’s priorities… on what it feeds the mushrooms.
The Isthmus for the most part has been very quiet. One look at its classified adds tells you why. The few stories have mainly been the “poor victim” route.
Cap Times and State Journal are owned by the same company and try to give different slants to keep everyone happy. Actually, I think Cap Times in now online only and there have been a lot of layoffs on both sides of the paper.
Neither one is covering real estate very well, although the State Journal is slowly starting to have a local agent give a more balanced look at the market….but never in the Sunday paper, only buried on week days. Sadly, most of the paper, Sunday included, is not much more than syndicated columns or stories from the AP. October 1, the story is in the Wall Street Journal, October 15, the same story is in the Chicago Tribune, November 1 in the State Journal.
Worst paper in the area must be the Janesville Gazette. Mary Umberger in the Chicago Tribune is also bad.
‘Mary Umberger in the Chicago Tribune ‘
I could also see the CT in best and worst.
The Tribune’s quality depends on the section and story angle. They’ve done some good nuts-and-bolts reporting at times, but it’ll run almost concurrently with NAR-driven boosterism in another section.
I don’t understand why the tabulation of data from the NAR, and other organizations, seems to be in its infancy.
Much too often I’ll read, or hear on TV, that some type of tabulation just started in 1980. For example, say the number of home foreclosures before 1980 is unknown. That’s just an example. Things like that. Statistics that should be well-documented but weren’t kept on the books.
Ben,
I like your idea here but IMHO ALL MSM reporting has been, and always will be, tied to ad revenues, and ALL MSM has a large RE tie.
Therefore they’re all bad, period.
That’s why your blog has been so successful… the comments written about these articles are honest opinions of J6Ps, and they’re the foundation of the new face of world media.
“ALL MSM has a large RE tie”
One of the Toll Brothers acquired part ownership in the Philadelphia Inquirer, presumably so he could direct the tone of the reporting, and god knows what manipulations behind the scenes insofar as getting Toll Bros. better ad rates, etc.
Inquirer filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.
Do you have any examples of where the Philadelphia Inquirer has run articles that specifically benefitted Toll?
There were some excellent housing-bust prognostications in MAGAZINES. Gary Schilling in Forbes was calling it down pretty early. I forget who wrote the terrific cover story in Harper’s in 2006, entitled “The Road to Serfdom,” which alluded to people’s assuming massive debt to buy houses. Gonna try to look that up, see ya later…
OK, found two of my MSM favorites.
Michael Hudson had a cover story in Harper’s Magazine in May 2006 called “The New Road to Serfdom.” By which he meant, home-debtorship.
Gary Shilling’s Feb. 2006 piece in Forbes called “A Dark Year Lies Ahead” apologized for his 2005 prediction that the housing bubble would burst, but asserted that it would probably happen soon, and in his opinion was already in the process of happening.
Here in Norfolk the Virginian Pilot mostly runs positive real estate articles. They are hurting though for income. When they write negative articles about real estate I think they catch a ton of grief from their advertisers and perhaps a large segment of their reader base.
Do you mind if I borrow, vaybey? It saves me having to type:
Here in Thurston County the Olympian mostly runs positive real estate articles. They are hurting though for income. When they write negative articles about real estate I think they catch a ton of grief from their advertisers and perhaps a large segment of their reader base.
The PNW articles on real estate are, for the most part, shill pieces for the REIC. Be it the Olympian, The Seattle Times, The Seattle PI, or even the Kitsap Sun, there is almost no such thing as objective, unbiased reporting when it comes to housing.
What about the Colombian News Times? I used to get a bunch of data from them. And the Bellingham Herald was OK, then went south. I thought the Seattle PI was alright, but the Times, nahh.
How about Oregon? I like 1. Oregonian, and 2. Mail Tribune. The Bend Bulletin before they fired that one guy for bubble talk.
My best paper vote for the PNW has to be the Idaho Statesman.
Being a local subscriber to the Statesman, it’s hard to remember how bad some other newspapers can be. I moved out of San Jose in early 2006 so I didn’t have the daily exposure to their coverage.
Sadly the Idaho Statesman is struggling - they are now in a co-publishing agreement with the Nampa Idaho Press-Tribune. The Statesman’s physical printing press is obsolete and they don’t have the money to upgrade, so they are using the newer press at the Press-Tribune. The number of printed pages has really shrunk this year.
The Statesman’s physical printing press is obsolete and they don’t have the money to upgrade, so they are using the newer press at the Press-Tribune. The number of printed pages has really shrunk this year.
Sounds like The Olympian, which is now printed in Tacoma instead of Olympia. The quality of reporting hasn’t changed—it was REtarded before; now it’s REtarded with fewer pages.
Oh, and you have to pay 25 extra cents for the Sunday teevee guide now.
Ditto. Our local Rag, the Courier here in Grants Pass is nothing but a shill for the RE businesses.
They show beautiful graphs that show housing prices
rising and how the market is going up, and yet if it
wasn’t for all the NOD’s being published, they’d be
broke.
I can’t comment on the newspaper coverage for the Greenville, SC area. I can’t remember the last time I read the newspaper. I don’t even go to the website.
I can’t remember the last time I read the newspaper ??
My problem also with our local the San Jose Mercury News…I do lots of my reading from links here on the blog…
Thanks Wolfie, Website for the desertscum was changed over a yr ago and sux big time. It takes forever to refresh- their server, or rather their software program. SUX> Only look if I have to for movie times- so we know that aint happening to often. Movie rates are over 8.oo for a matinee. sheesh.
OK, I’ll throw this out there for the best overall SoCal bubble reporting paper; Press Enterprise; mainly because of solid inland empire reporting. I can back this up with links too. Tough to compete with Voice of San Diego, though.
Press Enterprise;
Yep. I would have to agree with solid reporting.
I wonder why them and not the other surrounding rags?
What about the North Co Times? Seems like there was good reporting 2 years ago, but I was late to this and don’t know if they had changed their tune.
Yeah ,the greenville news is rather pathetic .. They offered a whole years subscription , including Sunday , for $80. Think we’ll pass on it .
Until Goldman Sachs receives serious scrutiny and penalties for their immoral trading behaviors during the unregulated free-for-all that bet against American interests, accelerated the demise of American institutions, and precipitated great harm upon the American taxpayer - I can’t believe the outrage printed in the big newspapers, and aired on radio broadcasts about “justice for harm done” is little more than self-serving pandering to middle America’s anger. The Larry Summers, Robert Reich’s, Ben Bernanke’s, Alan Greenspan’s, etc. are decent people, but..but..
Why is GS so doggone sacrosanct?
Because the Suit allowed it to happen. There will be no regulation or investigations because if GS or GPM go down, so does the Suit. They’re tied together tighter than a Siamese twin.
Because, it, like the FED and the major media is run by a pack of Jews.
If you try to oppose them, your are anti-semitic and will be hounded and villified by the ADL, Southern Poverty Law Center, B’nai Brith, ACLU, and every other Jewish front organization with support of New York Times, WAPo, Newsweek, Business Week, ABC, NBC, CBS, etc, etc, etc.
The FIX has been in for a LONG, LONG time and since the FED can print up vast supplies of money to give to Goldman and friends to pay off congressmen and senators, there is no way this game is going to end.
Any opposition will be squashed, so just go along and don’t say anything bad about any of them before you are found out to be the NAZI that you are and need to be persecuted and prosecuted for you ideas and opinions which are clearly “hate crimes” and will need severe punishments.
does that answer your question??
‘run by a pack of Jews’
Now how in the hell did that get by the filters?
one of life’s many mysteries
OY
now we’re getting somewhere!
Blame the JOOOOOOOOOS!
“…bet against American interests, accelerated the demise of American institutions, and precipitated great harm upon the American taxpayer…”
Megabank, Inc has turned cancerous. Please administer chemotherapy immediately.
In New Jersey the worst has to be The Record. It’s so bad I get it on Sundays for a lighthearted read. They deliberately make their RE advertising section look like legitimate news stories - this annoys me no end. The puffery of the most fugly developments and the unchallenged “we are nearly sold-out” statements of the developers reps are laughable.
Also, no coverage of any RE downturn other than of the “it’s-all-starting-to-turn-around” variety.
What worries me is that so many people reading it will accept their coverage at face value. Also, I’m not exaggerating when I say that during the summer months I swear every Sunday included the phrase “never been a better time to buy” or close variant thereof.
This is a truly pathetic “newspaper”.
The Asbury Park Press; thumbs up or down?
Sorry, don’t know it Ben.
Thumbs down. Second Graders aren’t allowed to review its articles for classroom assignments because its written at too low of a reading level.
From a strictly real estate perspective, same as mentioned above, advertisements that look like articles and very little actual content.
On the other hand, datauniverse.com which belongs to them is freaking awesome and for it, I thank them.
My vote for worst journalist (I use that term loosely since he is supposedly a financial advisor) is George Chamberlin who wrote the following August 2007.
http://tinyurl.com/badjournalist
And my letter to the editor which for some reason they never published:
Dear Editor:
I read Mr. Chamberlin’s recent column with a great deal of interest as I am one of those who has been predicting a housing correction since 2004. However, I am not celebrating the avalanche of bad news, the growing number of foreclosures, and the massive destruction of wealth we are currently undergoing. I cannot rejoice because too many of my friends and clients either overbought or “freed the equity” in their homes without truly understanding that this debt would have to be repaid even if their homes did not continue to appreciate. Instead I watch this as I would a terrible accident I see coming but cannot prevent.
At the end of 2003 I knew that based upon fundamentals the market was overheated and housing prices were too high. Then in 2004 I watched in amazement and disgust as traditional lending standards were thrown out the window and “creative financing” became widely available, allowing almost anyone to purchase a home for any amount. Did I see a problem with lending half a million dollars to a person with poor credit, no down payment and a $50,000 income? Absolutely. Did I believe we were going through a paradigm shift that meant average Americans could now afford a home at ten times their income instead of a traditional three to four times? Absolutely not.
I’ll admit, in some respects Mr. Chamberlin is correct. I want to see a housing correction. I want young couples starting families to be able to buy starter homes that are three to four times their income instead of 9 to 12 times. I want people to be in fixed loans that become easier and easier to pay over time as their income increases instead of adjustable rate loans that manage to swallow all income gains and never pay off a dime in principal. I want people to have to maintain good credit, save for a downpayment, and actually earn their homes instead of having them handed to them through cheap and easy money. I want people to have manageable debt and not be enslaved to pay for a house they lost years ago because they made the mistake of refinancing it.
I am sorry for the people who are about to lose their homes. Many good people are going to suffer and the system set them up for failure. But the simple fact is that they bought homes they could not afford. At a time when a borrower could get a fixed loan for 5.5%, they bought houses they could afford only through adjustable loans. And lenders not only allowed this, they promoted it, encouraging people to ignore traditional wisdom, to buy “toys” they could not otherwise afford, and to refinance short-term consumer debt into long-term collateralized debt. Now these loans are failing in record numbers and investors are no longer providing the cheap and easy financing – thus the Ponzi scheme begins to unravel.
Mr. Chamberlin can blame the housing bears for the current contraction in price and liquidity, but it is a false argument. As an “investment professional” he should be well aware that any asset that has years of 20% plus appreciation is a very risky investment and has a very high downside potential.
Sincerely,
Me
Yes, I posted this a couple years ago. But I still find it interesting that contrary voices were never shown officially (they were in the comments section) and I know I’m not the only person who wrote in refuting this idiot’s “analysis.” This man, who is on TV and radio as well as in print, did incalculable damage to people who listened to him. And he used his position of investment professional to influence his followers. Unfortunately, like Cramer, there’s no way to sue him for his horrible advice but hopefully karma will get him in the end.
Good letter.
Contratian letters to editor don’t get posted at the desert scum, I mean sun.
“…even if their homes did not continue to appreciate.”
“…I want people to be in fixed loans that become easier and easier to pay over time as their income increases instead of adjustable rate loans that manage to swallow all income gains and never pay off a dime in principal.”
“…But the simple fact is that they bought homes they could not afford”
“…This man, who is on TV and radio as well as in print, did incalculable damage to people who listened to him.”
(Hwy feels the same way about Rash Limpbaughs, even though he’s only on radio…but they paid him $400,000,000.00! …to distribute mind poison” ;-(
What a woman!!!
“What a woman!!!”
How come it’s only the married or gay men who feel this way?
I am neither and I agree.
But I have to mention “in the bag Gary.”
Not a journalist, to my recollection, but an economist (snark)…
I nominate the Washington Post as one of the WORST offenders. Still are. “Bad” housing news is almost always buried inside.
Secondly, I put forth Elizabath Razzi as cheerleader of the mid-Atlantic.
Sadly, I cannot think of a regional paper that has done a decent job. I do think the NY Times, although late to the party, has done a great reporting job since, especially profiling different types of people and their situations from around the country. This includes the NYT magazine.
They are not local reporters but I like Declan McCullagh and Diana Olick.
I will provide links if I have more time later.
The Post is one of those I can see getting on the best and worst list, somehow. (Like the NYT and LA Times).
I like the underdog small paper in mid-Atlantic; Frederick News Post in Maryland and related appraiser Wayne Six as best market observer.
The Baltimore Sun did a passable job, (and who can forget the Cash-Flow Freedom Bus?!)
WaPo = Best and worst? Well, good and bad certainly. The front page and business sections have been pretty good, but the RE pages have definately been very cheerleader-y. There were certainly business and first sections stories that reported on the possibility of a RE bubble, and tried to explain how MBSs are created. But the RE pages simply spew whatever REALTORS told them. The bubble was never acknowledged until price declines were undeniable, and even then they were full of stupid “how to stage your house,” stories instead of “lower the price dummy.”
full of stupid “how to stage your house,” stories instead of “lower the price dummy.”
Kinda like the paper here. The articles are from midwest tabloids, not the desert type regions where it IS different than midwest.
‘What kind of plants to put all around your house.’
Oh, brother, don’t get me started on that “stage the house” thingie. Happened to the house behind me. Twice. And, in neither case did it help the house sell. It’s now being rented “until the market improves.” (Translation: When 20% annual appreciation rates return — or when hell freezes over.)
And that client I mentioned — she and hubby have their “investment” house on the market now. Yup, it’s been staged.
And mean ole me, I even had to ask who photographed the interior because I saw a broom in one of the pictures. (Nothing like showing prospective buyers that you were still cleaning the living room when you snapped the photo.)
Client’s reply: It’s a decorative broom.
The Desert Sun, or as I refer to it as the Desert Scum. It leans so heavily towards development. Once in awhile it reports the IE-Inland Empire/Riverside Co as having foreclosures, but it is different here. The desert is having great sales forecast, still. And last night the Newsfolk were half heartedly stating the “early snowbirds were back in town, have ya noticed it is slower driving now” chuckle chuckle. Rolling my eyes now.
To give you another example, when the weather over LA will get rain, omg, suddenly on the news it is STORM ALERT. And we get nary a drop.
All 3 of our local news channels are shills for the RE sector and massively in Mary BonoMacks back pocket.
The Desert Weekly, with what is happening around the valley etc, is over 3/4 NODs now.
The Desert Sun nee Desert Scum is decidedly PRO RE.
They have reported 1 or 2x regarding the Riverside Co, or IE-Inland Empire as having foreclosure upticks, but it is Different Here.
The Desert scum is pro development in reporting, pro marybonomack, and doesn’t speak to the illegal workers- because we have some.
The Desert Weekly is for what is happening around the valley, but 3/4 of it is now NODs
News channels are decidedly pro development etc.
Last nights bit was “oh did you see that the early snowbirds are in town and the driving is getting slower”. chuckle chuckle.
Another tidbit is that the news channels when there is rain in LA forecasted, Our weather report and news headline is STORM ALERT.
Nary a raindrop to be seen.
Rich Toscano of the Voice of San Diego deserves credit for consistently solid analyses and efforts to dig deeper into the numbers. Christopher Thornberg of Beacon Economics has also done good work.
The U-T, while providing lots of numbers more recently, still is misleading through headlines and choices of whom to quote on the data. There still is no effort to dig deeper into the numbers and the impacts of the ongoing changes. In contrast to the borderline cheerleading real estate coverage in the U-T, Dean Calbreath has done very solid economic columns.
Everyone forgets;
the North County Times
Thank the Lawd the NC Times is around to provide a bit of competition for the folks over at the SD Union-Tribune and to keep them honest
Yes, but it was the North County Times that published the Chamberlin propaganda.
Jon Lansner - O.C. Register (Orange County, CA)
Speaking of Lanser - did you guys see this BS?
http://lansner.freedomblogging.com/2009/10/23/oc-homebuying-cost-at-10-year-best-vs-renting/40913/
The State newspaper, S.Carolina (state wide circulation) a well know RE cheerleader in these parts. For years anything that may have a “negative” effect on RE in our area they would not cover it period. They would print a national piece, about Fla.or Calif, Az, etc…
Over the past two years an occasional honest piece has been printed, however it’s always placed on page 3b.
Lately they are back to promotion pieces.
I give them a resounding fail, two thumbs down.
wmbz, that is a good point. Probably many articles out of the fl/ca/nv area use those states as ’see what happened to those “bad” people’ and thereby inferring they are in the clear.
The San Francisco Chronicle and Marin Independent Journal were huge cheerleaders until it was painfully clear the bubble had burst and wasn’t coming back anytime soon. Lots of articles about how special we were in the Bay Area, how diverse our economy was, and how we’d never have problems as severe as other areas of the country. Anyone who took the bait is likely under-water on their mortgage.
Cheerleading has been replaced by articles about foreclosure seminars and community organizations trying to help FB’s hang on to “their” homes. Lots of sob stories without the obvious follow-up questions (obvious at least to everyone on this board)…so how is it you’ve been in your home for 20 years and you have $600,000 in mortgage debt and what exactly did you do with all that HELOC money?? What’s your income level and can it really support your $900,000 house purchase over the long term?
We’re far from “real estate, yuk!” but there are more “nightmare” stories popping up in the local press, that’s for sure. Mostly, it’s just quiet. All that keeping up with the Joneses has taken its toll.
I’m conflicted about the Chronicle; they seemed sincerely interested in what the housing bubble was, but like a 3 year old about rolly-pollys.
The Marin paper, however, never showed any interest in economics and their readers bear witness to that collective ignorance.
“I’m conflicted about the Chronicle; they seemed sincerely interested in what the housing bubble was, but like a 3 year old about rolly-pollys.”
Ben, for years during the bubble, breathless articles about 20%+ appreciation in home prices were front page center. Then when the trend line went negative, stories were brief and usually buried in the Business section.
Now there’s no denying we’ve just been through a tremendous bubble, the Chronicle is doing a decent job covering the reality of the situation for many families, but without connecting the dots….even with 2 years of price declines, prices are still out of whack with incomes and still up ridiculous amounts since the late ’90’s in the “more desirable” Bay Area communities…that pesky fact seems to be the 3rd rail no local journalist wants to go near. Gotta wonder how many of them are homeowners/FB’s themselves, and they just can’t go there.
that pesky fact seems to be the 3rd rail no local journalist wants to go near.
Good observation - also neighbors of writers,friends, teachers, colleagues.. what do you say to them after you point out the facts in print- ‘we skrood ourselves’ didja notice?
That’s because they are MARINFIDELS! (Thanks aladisane)
The San Francisco Chronicle and Marin Independent Journal were huge cheerleaders until it was painfully clear the bubble had burst and wasn’t coming back anytime soon.
The Marin paper was one of the worst cheerleaders in the country among respectable newspapers. Not a huge surprise in “We’re Special” County, I suppose, but egregious nonetheless.
The Voice of San Diego was pretty good among the places I cover.
In New York City, Gothamist gets a shout-out for this post.
http://gothamist.com/2006/03/29/real_estate_bub.php
Finally, Brownstoner, the Brooklyn real estate cheering section, gets a shout out for contrarian commenter The What, a black guy letting the whiteys (asshats) know the whole gentrification thing in central Brooklyn wouldn’t work out as planned. Predicted the financial crisis as well as the housing bubble bursting, as a result of the grasp of the obvious available to those not in the herd. I suspect that by “asshat” he means the rear end of the cattle in front of you.
Someone credit the NY Times. I can say this about the Times. Anything factual about housing was in the Business section, not in the Real Estate section.
I often like what I read in the WSJ, but then there is the occasional article which seems completely disconnected from reality. For instance, is this guy talking about the same Wall Street that just precipitated the greatest financial crisis since the 1930s, and which more recently used billions of dollars worth of bailout money as an opportunity to keep the bonus spigots open, rather than starting the financial system back up after the fall 2008 shut down?
* WRITING ON THE WALL
* OCTOBER 22, 2009
Loving Capitalism: It’s Complicated
Michael Moore asks what kind of economic role we want in the world
* By DAVID WEIDNER
…
Should we carry the risk? One of our greatest know-how exports was Wall Street’s financial sophistication. Until 2007, we were the unquestioned leader in managing financial risk. This led the world to pour its wealth into U.S. securities, bringing billions in revenue to U.S. financial institutions. That reputation for competency has been exposed, but Wall Street is savvy. Given the chance, banks, brokerages and hedge funds could probably seduce the world. The alternative is a reformed financial system that limits risk — one that applies scrutiny to exotic securities and their buyers. In part, our financial markets were able to lure foreign capital because they also had the reputation of being the fairest and most transparent in the world.
…
In retrospect, it looks like Wall Street has the best scam artists on the planet, yet they still have the audacity to continue paying their top managers gobzillions in bonuses.
“they also had the reputation of being the fairest and most transparent in the world”
Actually, if you compare US markets to overseas, then yes, US markets are the fairest and most transparent in the world. The least crooked among crooks, if you want to phrase it differently.
How about “Wall Street has the best public relations specialists”, aka propagandists?
I did finally think of one person although not a journalist…What about the long haired REMAX dude that use to appear on Fox bulls & Bears I believe..He was a relentless condescending cheeleader….I have not seen him around for a long time nor have I seen much of CoCorcan
For the Phoenix AZ area the columnist that called it a bubble and called the crash was Jon Talton. He was great! Naturally he was fired from the Arizona Republic newspaper.
Here’s an example of his work-
http://www.roguecolumnist.typepad.com/rogue_columnist/2009/01/dead-town-walking.html
That was quite the article. I’m surprised it was published in Phoenix at all!
The analysis of Pittsburgh’s reinvention was depressing, because it sounds as though no-one else will be able to duplicate it. But it’s probably true. I was in Pittsburgh last week and was so impressed at how well it is doing. Of course, when I was a kid going to visit grandma in Pennsylvania we avoided Pittsburgh because of the pollution.
As a native Pittsburgher, I especially enjoyed this part of the analysis:
“Pittsburgh had good bones: a longtime corporate headquarters center, with the capital and talent that attracts; a major banking center; the wealth of its manufacturing barons was for decades poured into building world-class universities and other community enriching institutions; it’s a real city with plenty of urban areas ripe to be reclaimed; it avoided the worst of racial and income polarization that destroyed Detroit and lurks in wait for Phoenix. Perhaps most importantly, it was never a metro area dependent on heavy population growth. The wealth it created came from real things, not the artifice of more Wal-Mart jobs serving more transplants from Minnesota and inland Southern California.”
I recall the Sacramento Bee’s coverage of “Aura” and “The Towers”, two ill-fated condominium projects that were dreamed up in 2004 and died when construction had barely begun in 2007. I cringed at coverage that were essentially advertisements for how wonderful it would be to pay a million dollars for a condo in a city that has no views. They would hold receptions to get deposits from future-FBs who would sip champagne while listening to a string quartet. Both of the young “RE moguls” went penniless.
OK the Sac Bee was great and there is no denying Jim Wasserman was on it. But it should be noted that the Press Democrat was no slouch and Michael Coit (sp?) was right up there. A stalking horse candidate could be the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Don’t forget the Merced Sun Star!
The SacBee was a mixed bag. Some early decent reporting about the housing bubble by Andrew LePage before he went to DQ. Wasserman took over just as the bubble was bursting and seemed to be in denial for quite awhile. Hey, at least he interviewed Ben in 2006.
My picks for the housing bubble’s ground zero (Merced-Modesto-Stockton-Sacramento-Yuba):
Best: J.N. Sbranti, Modesto Bee
Honorable Mention: some good stuff in Sacramento News&Review and Sacramento Biz Journal
Worst: Bruce Spense, Stockton Record (the headline writer should be shot!)
-Lander
Albany, NY Times Union “journalist” Christopher Churchill, bought, paid for and bent over rah rah girl for the realtor and small builder crime syndicate.
Times Union is guilty by association.
Most Schizophrenic: The San Jose Mercury News
1 day you will have a cheerleading article by Sue McAllister on the front page followed 2 days later with a more truthful article by Pete Carey buried elsewhere in the paper.
Mercury News
I have mixed feelings about these guys. From a bloggers point of view, they were the most comedic/entertaining.
What’s really scarey is that, with the financial problems of the LA Times, the San Jose Merc may become the west coast “newspaper of record”.
Disclosure: I worked for the Merc circa 1973-1974.
Continuing with scarey thoughts….
San Jose is the largest city in the US west of the Mississippi and north of Los Angeles.
“…most comedic/entertaining.”
From that standpoint, Gary ‘In the Bag’ Watts should get a blogger’s journalism award, no?
Back in the day (2006? 2007? Gee, I started reading this blog in 2005!) I would Ctrl-F for the word “Mercury”. Being in Boston (and a New Meixcan by birth) California holds little interest to me from a real estate bubble perspective, but Ben is spot on. On this blog, “Mercury” is gold.
In the Midwest, I’d nominate Ben Joravsky of the Chicago Reader as one of best, most consistent critical voices on real estate issues.
Joravsky has never focused much on the residential real estate bubble itself; instead, he’s historically been interested in local governmental corruption, quid pro quo, behind-the-scenes development deals, land grabs, sell-offs, property taxes, zoning issues — the real nitty gritty sausage-making that drove much of residential real estate bubble. There is certainly no one else in Chicago who does this kind of reporting on a regular basis, and I suspect that very few cities or metro areas have a reporter as willing to wade into the bureaucratic morass surrounding real estate.
It would help if you can give us some links. If not, I’ll do my best to research Joravsky.
For the midwest; please don’t forget the great Minnesota reporting; Pioneer Press and Star Tribune.
I’ll post a few links, Ben.
Lesson Learned: Aldermen in other wards are paying close attention to the sort of zoning complaints that lost Ted Matlak the 32nd Ward.
Sleight of Hand
Holy Terror: A developer has come up with a novel approach to marketing the Near North Side: sell it on the basis of its collection of religious institutions.
Easy Targets: The city’s new courthouse has to go somewhere. Is it a coincidence that the perfect site happens to be in a poor, black west-side neighborhood?
I’d also nominate Crain’s Chicago for good regional reporting on commercial real estate, developer woes (esp. litigation against developers), increasing inventory, etc. Unfortunately, most of the older stuff is only available to subscribers online.
All good stuff, ET. thx.
My top choice for financial news: The Financial Times (less jingoistic and provincial than the WSJ)
Top China banker warns on asset bubbles
By Geoff Dyer
Financial Times
China needs an “urgent” tightening of monetary policy to prevent the huge stimulus measures introduced this year from inflating stock and property bubbles, one of the country’s leading bankers has warned.
Qin Xiao, chairman of China Merchants Bank who warns about loose monetary policy.
“Monetary policy must not neglect asset-price movements,” he writes. “Therefore it is urgent that China shifts from a loose monetary policy stance to a neutral one.”
…
‘China needs an “urgent” tightening of monetary policy to prevent the huge stimulus measures introduced this year from inflating stock and property bubbles, one of the country’s leading bankers has warned.’
Barn door left open
Asset bubble in the sky
Hurry, shut the door!
I look forward to the huge K A B O O M!!
Is that the jiffypop balloon in the sky again?
Here’s another good’un. And as for the proselytizers of decoupling, I cannot wait to mock them severely when the China bubble finally pops. It is only a matter of how soon, not whether.
Where have all the green shoots gone?
Published: October 23 2009 20:08 | Last updated: October 23 2009 20:08
The excited chatter about green shoots back in April would have led one to expect lush foliage by now. Instead the cold season has been doggedly determined to make a protracted exit, in developed nations at least – prompting some investors to take off for more welcoming climes.
…
Across the Atlantic, the US Federal Reserve’s “beige book” offers a similarly mixed message. In a series of highly hedged statements, it said manufacturing and residential real estate were slowly reviving – but commercial real estate was sinking ever deeper.
…
The proselytisers of decoupling must be rejoicing – most of all over China, which this week announced third-quarter GDP was 8.9 per cent higher than the year before. The reliability of Chinese GDP figures is always in doubt, but this time they are as likely to understate as to overstate a growth push put on steroids by a monetary policy that puts quantitative easing to shame.
Powered by loose money, the emerging world remains brittle – and small. The world economy has yet to pull itself out of trouble.
…
Enjoy another mountain oyster, Megabankers!
Soros calls Wall St profits ‘gifts’ from state
By Chrystia Freeland in New York
Published: October 23 2009 23:32 | Last updated: October 23 2009 23:32
The big profits made by some of Wall Street’s leading banks are “hidden gifts” from the state, and taxpayer resentment of such companies is “justified”, George Soros, the fund manager, said in an interview with the Financial Times.
“Those earnings are not the achievement of risk-takers,” Mr Soros said. “These are gifts, hidden gifts, from the government, so I don’t think that those monies should be used to pay bonuses. There’s a resentment which I think is justified.”
Mr Soros, who joins a transatlantic chorus calling for limits on risk, leverage and compensation at big banks, said proprietary traders belong at hedge funds, not at banks, and that the compensation at Wall Street companies should be limited to prevent excessive risk.
“With the too-big-to-fail concept comes a need to regulate the payments that employees receive,” said Mr Soros, who will elaborate on his views in lectures in Budapest next week.
Some bankers have argued that limits on pay would make it difficult for them to retain their most talented risk-takers. Mr Soros agreed and said this would be a good thing.
“That would push the risk-takers who are good at taking risks out of Goldman Sachs into hedge funds, where they actually belong, because hedge funds take risks with their own capital, not with deposits and not with government guarantees,” he said
…
My vote for best journalist Southern California goes to the level headed economist with VoiceofSanDiego.com Rich Toscano, he always used facts, charts and logic to prove we were in a bubble
Worst So Cal reporter is easily George Chamberlain, talk about a cheerleader for housing, he easily ruined hundreds of people’s lives who listened to him.
What’s even better: Those of us who know Rich personally realize he is not trained as an economist. He thus does not suffer from the myopia which inflicts the vast majority of the professionally trained economics who appear to view the world through rose colored glasses. The profession as a whole certainly has not very well lived up to its reputation as “The Dismal Science” as of late.
Bring back Don Bauder… San Diego Union Tribune business column writer who used to expose scams & fraud.
I was a faithful reader of his column.. back when the U-T was a somewhat tolerable rag.
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/staff/don-bauder/
The Denver Post is generally a terrible newspaper. However, they do still employ Al Lewis. I think Lewis has done a great job of reporting on the whole debacle in spite of his crappy employer. He hasn’t always nailed it, but does have a lot of great columns and observations like this gem from 2007:
“Bear Stearns CEO James Cayne, 73, has denied reports in The Wall Street Journal that he smokes dope.
He’d be better off saying he does.
How else can one explain loaning billions of dollars to millions of deadbeats?”
Reading his stuff has been a breath of fresh air from a newspaper that now likely gets most of its revenue from the obituaries instead of realtors.
Lewis is great. How about the GJ paper or the Rocky Mountain News? The Daily Camera or mountain snow towns (Aspen, etc).
Its amazing to see how many cheerleaders kept their jobs and how many people who told the truth got canned. See Thornberg. Its amazing how much money the REIC pumps into newspapers and University Economists (ever see their list of biggest contributors, might as well be UC21, University of Centry 21). This is exactly why Americans should no longer pay attention to dead tree news sources and seek out blogs like this.
Ben,
It would be interesting to follow up the results of your poll by corrrelating the papers with the owners thereof - McClatchy, Knight-Ridder, et al.
Gannett. Murdoch.
Absolutely! Yes!!! Great idea DennisN…
Wow Ben,
Lots of really good comments, opinions, recommendations to consider and digest. We have a great gang at Ben’s HBB.
You sure do cover a lot of ground running this blog. Lot’s of smart and well informed people here.
Thanks again for all the patience with us and all of your hard work keeping it together and running.
+1
I’d like to belatedly thank the framers of the US Constitution, who provided First Amendment protections for Freedom of Speech. Without their efforts, I doubt many of us would be writing here.
And if we aren’t all active and careful, the Framers will watch us lose the Net Neutrality, which is what Freedom of Speech is all about.
Did anyone mention David Lerhrea (sp?) yet?!? What about the all-seeing Dr. Yun? PLEASE folks, let us have some respect for the pioneers of this debacle!
How you been beer&cigar guy…?
For reporting, I liked Shannon Behnken’s work with the Tampa Tribune. At times, it almost seemed like the newspaper felt compelled to “balance” her stories with a worthless puff piece from someone else.
Worst market observer in Florida — could there be any question? Hank Fishkind, the state’s preeminent captive intellectual. It seems like he’s called the bottom dozens of times. If only humble pie could be the basis of a competitive eating contest. Cue the seal!
Hello All!
We, retarded (literally), are still getting THIS:
B.C. home prices could hit new highs in 2010
BY DERRICK PENNER, VANCOUVER SUNOCTOBER 20, 2009
Central 1 chief economist Helmut Pastrick said the housing sales rebound has already surpassed the strength of the recovery from the 1991 recession….
and
He said that as buyers embrace historically low mortgage rates, that momentum “will carry into 2010, driving unit sales and prices to new highs.”
He predicted that, on an annualized basis, the overall average home price in B.C. will climb to a new high of $463,800 by the end of 2009, erasing recession-era losses, before advancing to $497,800 in 2010 and $534,800 in 2011.
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/real-estate/Recession+rebound+propel+housing+sales+prices+highs+forecast/2124533/story.html
Funny? It’s like we Canadians have this perfect example south of the border of how bad things can go, but we insist to repeat the same mistakes, only bigger.
Regards
arit reporting from the Iron-Bubble of Vancouver
My LA Times rating: Outstanding.
Bank bonuses are in Fed’s cross hairs
The regulator seeks to limit rewards for risky practices at the 6,000 institutions it oversees.
Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama administration’s “pay czar” under the $700-billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, decided to cut by more than half the average total compensation for top employees at the seven biggest recipients of TARP funds. (Jay Mallin / Bloomberg / October 22, 2009)
By Jim Puzzanghera and Martin Zimmerman
October 23, 2009
Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington - Escalating the government’s intervention in corporate pay practices, the Federal Reserve moved Thursday to restrict the ability of thousands of banks to pay bonuses in an effort to curb risky practices widely cited for helping to trigger the global financial crisis.
Under its proposal, the Fed would examine the compensation of any bank employees — including senior executives, securities traders and loan officers — who individually or collectively could significantly increase the amount of risk taken on by their employer. The central bank could order changes to policies that encourage too much risk.
The Fed’s action came as the Obama administration’s “pay czar,” as expected, took the unprecedented step of dictating changes to the pay packages of the highest-paid employees at the seven companies that received the most federal bailout money.
The dual steps taken Thursday came amid an unrelenting public outcry about the scale of pay on Wall Street in the wake of the financial crisis. Some experts predicted the actions could provide momentum for changes in corporate compensation beyond the companies directly affected.
“The debate over CEO pay fundamentally shifted last year when it became not just shareholders getting ripped off, but also taxpayers getting ripped off,” said Dan Pedrotty, director of investments at the AFL-CIO and a critic of high executive pay. “I think the outrage over all of these economic collapses is going to fuel reform.”
…
Without a doubt, the San Luis Obispo Tribune and writer Julie Lynem have been biggest shills for the REIC (their main source of ad revenue) on the California Central Coast.
We are still fed a weekly diet on “it’s different here” and “everyone want to live here in paradise” and reprinted press releases from the CAR and NAR, despite all of the evidence to the contrary.
It’s mind-boggling sad.
I like Fortune. They are not afraid to say what needs to be said when it needs saying.
I definitely second the opinion of this article. Thieves are a dime a dozen around the US prison community.
Who cares if Wall Street ‘talent’ leaves?
If lower pay lures some of Wall Street’s finest away, so be it. It’s not as if the best and brightest were doing a good job to begin with.
By Colin Barr, senior writer
October 23, 2009: 10:13 AM ET
NEW YORK (Fortune) — There’s no need to fear a Wall Street brain drain — despite the crackdown on pay by Washington.
On Thursday, White House pay czar Kenneth Feinberg outlined compensation restrictions at seven firms that got special bailouts, and the Federal Reserve proposed to review pay practices at 28 unnamed giant banks.
Critics warn that reining in pay makes it hard to keep talented employees. Hemmed in, institutions like AIG (AIG, Fortune 500),Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) and Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) could lose their best people.
These firms would then perform even more abysmally, if that’s possible, leaving them hard pressed to repay tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer-backed loans.
Still, we say Godspeed to this “talent.” After all, the traders and suits in the corner offices don’t exactly have an unblemished track record. In 2008, Citigroup, BofA and Merrill Lynch (since acquired by BofA) posted a grand total of $51 billion in losses.
…
I’d like to give props to the Business Week article who, at the height of the bubble, published a complex article on deferred interest and fees for granting subprime mortgages. It was the first time I heard about deferred interest. BW used the example of WaMu posting profits on a fully amort payment even if the FB only paid the Neg-am. That’s one way to earn a AAA rating. Just invent it!
Well no wonder these banks were raking in cash.
For Boston, the Herald is a winner, and the Globe is a loser. Mostly due the sources they quoted, with the Globe relying on the Mass Assn of Realtors and the Herald quoting those calling BS, notably the Warren Group. The Banker and Tradesman also reported reality.
Someone ought to mention the Economist magazine, which started arguing the U.S. had a housing bubble earlier than most.
Here is an article from 2005:
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=4079027
Barrons called the start of the housing crash in early 2006.
And don’t forget Danielle DiMartino of the Dallas Morning News:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/columnists/ddimartino/stories/DN-dimartino_27bus.ART.State.Edition1.90f03f2.html
She and thus they have to be in the top ten.
And Paul Muolo of the National Mortgage News.
It’s sort of amazing that anyone can say no one say it coming. This blog alone cited dozens of sources detailing what was going on.
As far as I can tell chicago had a full media blackout and still does.
Also, looked at a short sale this summer, 250k asked, 1600 sq ft, on the lake with eastview and balcony over the lake and parking. This seemed pretty good, but there were “multiple offers”, so I walked away. It did not go pending for months and just closed for 220k. Hmmm…those multiple offers really bid it up.
Here in Tucson, we’re still getting plenty o’ housing market BS from The Arizona Daily Star and Inside Tucson Business.
Midwest housing bubble reporting (Twin Cities)
Worst: Star Tribune
Best: Pioneer Press
There are only two daily papers, the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press. The former has a more liberal reputation than the latter, but compared with the rest of Minnesota, both are more liberal. I consider myself more liberal, and I was surprised to see the Strib’s happy talk about housing. Additionally, they carried Kenneth Harney as columnist, the Realtor shill. The Pioneer Press had much more nuanced reporting.
National/International publications housing bubble reporting
Worst: Kenneth Harney, shill of the Realtors
Best: blogs, housing and economy - sorry, I didn’t see much good Mainstream media reporting until the calamity became obvious. The Economist’s nice cover in 2005(?) with the falling brick was an exception.
Actually, the Economist (London) had a cover issue on the housing bubble in 2002 which centered on Europe as the bubble epicenter.
Not one post here about the Anchorage Moose. I don’t know the name of the paper in Anchorage, so I’m just guessing.
All of them folks up there must be cheerleaders on everything. I can think of one ex-cheerleader. You betcha!
I would tend to think the Alaskan housing markets would be hot, hot, hot, hot. Who wouldn’t pay big bucks to have great views of Russia from your living room window?
Huffington Post ++++++++++++…
By the way, if the Dems start meaningfully enforcing the Sherman Antitrust Act against Megabank, Inc and other cartopoly players in the FIRE sector, I will join the party tomorrow. I personally will not be satisfied until the FIRE sector as it now exists is dismantled. I’m FED UP.
Dems Go After Antitrust Exemption For Insurers
DAVID ESPO | 10/21/09 09:34 PM | AP
Read More: Antitrust, Insurance Industry, Obama, Reform, Politics News
WASHINGTON — Democrats launched a drive at both ends of the Capitol on Wednesday to strip the insurance industry of its decades-old exemption from federal antitrust laws, part of an increasingly bare-knuckled struggle over landmark health care legislation sought by President Barack Obama.
If enacted, the change would put an end to “price-fixing, bid-rigging and market allocation in the health and medical malpractice” insurance areas, said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Leahy said he would seek a vote on the plan when the Senate debates health care legislation in the next few weeks.
Leahy made his comments at virtually the same time the House Judiciary Committee voted 20-9 to end an industry exemption that dates to 1945. Three Republicans supported the move.
…
Ergon
I’m a Fan of Ergon 66 fans
And bring back the Glass-Steagall Act, and extend the Sherman anti-trust Act to cover ALL of Wall Street. Oh, and abolish the Fed too.
Screw ‘em all.
“price-fixing, bid-rigging and market allocation in the health and medical malpractice”
Are home prices somehow exempt from laws governing these illegal practices?
All leaky Leahy is doing is kneecapping, ala Chicago, the insurance people for opposing the Obama health debacle.
Agree with the Charlotte Observer for Mid Atlantic. Their series on Beazer and Down Payment Assistance, Sold a Nightmare, is here http://www.charlotteobserver.com/787/story/762690.html#
The Columbus Post Dispatch was all over DAP even before the Observer. Their series, Brokered Dreams, looked at Dominion Homes use of down payment assistance http://wwwphp.dispatch.com/reports/reports.php?story=dispatch/2005/09/21/broker.html . It was their coverage that got Congressman Tiberi, and eventually Congress, interested in the subject.
For national observers, how about GAO? While they didn’t call the big picture (house prices are insane) they were all over many of the details. DAP in 2005 http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0624.pdf , bad underwriting in 2006 http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06435.pdf , and weak regulation of subprime lenders in 2002 http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02419t.pdf
While on the subject of DAP and GAO, how about a special mark of shame for the local press in Atlanta, Indianapolis, and Salt Lake City, that all completely ignored the 2005 GAO report documenting high foreclosure rates in their cities?