Other items of note

Paper Economy's S&P/Case Shiller tool shows Los Angeles continued down in June, dropping .4% from May. See my July post for more. Unfortunately this is looking two months in the rear-view mirror; expect more drama over the next three months!

Diana Olick's (CNBC today) "White House Has It all WRONG On Subprime" (be sure to watch the video).

Mr. Mortgage's (today) "FHA Plan: Bring a water gun to fight a fire". I wonder how much is political posturing, to appear to be doing something?

Tom Whipple's (Energy Bulletin / Falls Church News-Press 8/30/07) "The peak oil crisis: the quiet time".

... The oil market has been so fixated by the hurricane and credit crisis in recent weeks that little notice has been taken of a looming supply crunch. Last week’s market U.S. stockpile report had imports and crude stocks up a bit, but gasoline stocks dropping by a whopping 5 million barrels. ...

The likelihood of an imminent credit-crunch-induced recession seems far higher to OPEC officials at the minute than to Wall Street brokers. For OPEC, the credit crunch may be just an excuse to cover their inability to increase production....

Michael Kinsley's (Time magazine 8/23/07) "Your House Is Worth Less? Good".

... Since most families own their homes, the country is happier when real estate prices are going up. But it is healthier when prices are going down. Look at it this way: in the housing market, people fall into three categories. Some, mostly young folks, are trying to buy their first home. Some, at various stages of midlife, own a home but will trade up someday, or at least think about it. And some, mostly older, are trying to sell and downsize. Who is served by soaring house prices? Not the first group: rising prices make it hard for those people to get into the game. Not the second group: what it will have to pay for a bigger house is probably increasing faster than what it can get for the current one. ...

Mariel Garza's (LA Daily News 8/25/07) "Let mortgage fires burn on".

... I'm not sorry that real-estate prices are creeping down by the glut of desperate "for sale" signs all over Southern California. ...