Saturday, October 09, 2010

Surviving California $$$$

Silver Certificate

Even though it’s not really part of our mission statement, Dymphna and I blog from time to time on economic topics. It’s hard to avoid them, given the magnitude of what’s happening. The current financial crisis will reach its peak (or trough, depending on your point of view) sometime in the next one to five years, with consequences that are hard to predict, but are sure to be horrendous.

We correspond occasionally with a Californian named Bobbo, who has just started a blog that focuses on economic issues, particularly in his home state. Bobbo has extensive experience in the real estate industry, so Surviving California $$$$ features a lot of stories related to the housing bubble and the collapse of real estate prices.

One of the signs of the deepening crisis is the increase in the US housing inventory. More houses remain on the market unsold, despite a severe reduction in prices, because demand plummeted two years ago and has not rebounded. A related issue is the precipitous decline of the assessed value of real estate in Marin County, causing a critical reduction in revenue for the county government.

Another symptom of the same phenomenon is the nationwide reduction in middle-class spending, to the point where middle-class Americans are spending money at a lower rate than they have in more than twenty years.

Bobbo has posts on the debt crisis, the IMF, the Currency War, Euroland, the banking system, and much more. Gates of Vienna readers would be well-advised to drop by Surviving California $$$$ and light a match under Bobbo’s brand-new site meter.

3 comments:

sulber nick said...

Bookmarked. I'm European (English) but there's plenty here to interest me.

Henrik R Clausen said...

Another web site I heartily recommend is Shadow Government Statistics. It has a simple mission:

To provide honest statistics about unemployment, money supply and the Consumer Price Index.

While it might sound somewhat dry, it really isn't, for the site owner writes in an understandable language - and does spell out the consequences of the numbers he presents.

If our tax system was voluntary, I'd contribute to him.

Cobra said...

I live in CA but plan to move to another state.
The top ones on the target list are Idaho, Texas, North Carolina.
What do you think?
i have seen CA go from the golden state to the crappy state.
CA is screwed due to its voting pattern....