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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Vosilla who wrote (71919)	10/13/2006 2:19:10 PM
From: Mike Johnston	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 110194

Average hotel rooms are $200/night, even in some obscure cities of Europe. But then again it costs to stay $500 at a decent hotel in Manhattan as opposed to $250 few years ago. And the beachfront $60 motel rooms in Florida are gone, replaced by now empty $500K (?!) high rise condos.

To: John Vosilla who wrote (71919)	10/13/2006 2:22:46 PM
From: Mike Johnston	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

"and socialism is so rampant?" Socialism is rampant in this country as well. Fannie Mae anyone ? I don't believe there is a country in Europe that has a socialized housing finance system ( i might be wrong) And what do you get when you combine socialism with fraud ?

To: John Vosilla who wrote (71919)	10/13/2006 2:34:36 PM
From: benwood	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

Having our currency fade away has help mask the systemic problems for a while. Thanks to the technological revolution (e.g. cheaper electronics and more reliable cars) and imported deflation from Asia, prices at home have only risen modestly compared to how much more it costs to travel abroad, something only a fairly small segment of the US notices. The credit bubble of course allows people to pretend not to notice, so long as they don't open their savings account statements. When Asian no longer imports a chunk of our inflation, reality will really bite our pocketbooks in the US, and hard. For other category items, I've been amazed at the price increases. The State of Washington wants to cap tuition increases to no more than 7% per year for the next so-many years. I have older cars and just had some repairs done recently on both -- I'm stunned at the increase expense for parts and labor compared to even three years ago, perhaps 40%.