This was another busy week for the national housing decline where worries about subslime spillover, further indications by the Fed that they underestimated the severity of the housing decline, plunging housing permits, and an outright depression in homebuilder sentiment all worked to finally solidify the fact that housing collapse is nowhere near the bottom.First up, Ron Napier, Head of Napier Investment Advisors joins CNBC in an excellent interview whereby he discusses his outlook for the US economy, and in particular the subprime mortgage and housing meltdowns and its spillover effects on the US consumer.
Napier points out that the Feds public message of containment is doublespeak and that the spillover on consumption is already occurring and can be plainly seen in the last few months of retail sales data.
Watch Napier’s excellent piece now on BNN!
Next up, Roger Nightingale, Economist with Millennium Global Investments joins CNBC to discuss his outlook for the US economy and the impact of the subprime mortgage meltdown.
Nightingale presents a decidedly pessimistic point of view pointing out that, measured in Euros or Pound Sterling, the latest stock market rally is really very weak and that it only looks spectacular through the prism of a dramatically weakening US Dollar.
Watch Nightingale sing now on BNN!
Next, David Wyss, Chief Economist with Standard & Poors, and Sean Egan, Managing Director of Egan-Jones Rating Company join CNBC to discuss the possibility of the market shaking off the subprime meltdown.
Wyss suggests that the meltdown is in the early stages and that S&P’s latest downgrades were based on subslime effects over the entirety of the next year while also pointing out that the housing decline will have to run its course before any bottom will be seen in the mortgage bust.
Leading to a slight skirmish between the two guests, Egan points out that the recent slew of downgrades to subprime securities is unusual and better ratings need to be in place before real visibility can occur.
Watch S&P dance now on BNN!
Next, ABX BBB index plummeting, flight to US Treasuries, Bear Stearns hedge funds worthless, Standard & Poors slashing ratings, more downgrades to come, as the Subslime continues to spread.
Watch the slime spread now on BNN!
Next, Doug Kass, President of Seabreeze Partners Management, discusses his outlook for the economy, and in particular the brokerage and hedge fund communities in the wake of the subprime meltdown.
Kass sees brokerage companies such as Goldman Sachs and the hedge fund communities as “the 21st century equivalent of the Wizard of Oz… sometimes deceitful, rarely magical and always immersed in leverage”.
Watch Kass talk Oz now on BNN!
Next, The Nightly Business Report takes a look at the truly depressed state of housing in Michigan.
With a slumping local economy and high unemployment, Michigan home prices have been falling substantially in recent months resulting in some of the nation’s highest rates of foreclosure.
Interestingly, Michigan may be a real harbinger of what is to come for the nation as a whole should the economy continue to weaken leading to recession.
Watch the future now on BNN!
Finally, an excellent and decidedly bearish special program produced by Bloomberg that seeks to shed additional light on the nature of the subprime meltdown and the outlook for the nation’s housing markets.
The program includes interesting interviews with Richard Syron, CEO and Chairman of Freddie Mac, Yale Economist Robert Shiller, Chriss Street, Treasurer of Orange County California, PIMCO’s Paul McCaulley, OFHEO’s Director James Lockhart, and private investors Marc Faber, Jim Rogers, and Ken Fisher.
Watch the “Wheels Come Off the Cart” now on BNN!
