[Consumer prices are likely to catch up eventually, say economists.] I'm not a big inflation hawk, ... but consumers are almost certainly going to be paying more. |
As you get higher interest rates renting is going to look better than buying. |
Builders will keep building as long as they can keep getting these prices. But I think there's a glut developing clearly in some markets and that clearly will put downward pressure on prices. |
Clearly, housing is going to be a drag on the economy; the question is how much does housing slow and how quickly. |
Congress deliberately designed the bill in a way that would ensure that private insurance companies would provide the benefit instead of the Medicare administration or a single designated provider. This design both substantially increased the cost of drugs and administrative costs in addition to making the drug program much more complicated for beneficiaries. |
Does he want to see it burst on its own, or is it appropriate for the Fed to move to deflate asset bubbles? |
First of all, it's very expensive to administer private accounts, especially if you let people manage these accounts themselves, ... Bush is vague on how he would set it up and make it work. |
Freddie Mac's problems might only raise mortgage rates 2/10 of 1 percent, ... But that could start a cycle of higher rates that could pop the [housing] bubble. If you hadn't had mortgage rates at historic lows, I'm certain the bubble would have burst already. |
Gore is keeping the existing system in place because it works -- using the budget surplus to add to the Social Security trust fund. So what's the point in dismantling it, |
Hawaii's home prices suffered in the 1990s because of economic trouble in Japan, ... If home prices in California reverse, it will have ripple effects. |
Hawaii's home prices suffered in the 1990s because of economic trouble in Japan. If home prices in California reverse, it will have ripple effects. |
He consciously promoted the housing bubble as a way of boosting the economy. |
He was the one who had the courage to let the unemployment rate fall. Very few people thought the unemployment rate could fall that low. |
Historically, rent prices and sale prices have moved together. |
Home and rental prices will come back together by home prices falling. I don't think landlords will be in any position to raise rates too much. |