MAJOR HOUSING DOWNER: Experts See Another Crash as the Tax-Credit High Wears Off (Guest in EDT)
In the wake of 2008’s economic collapse that spun the world into a global recession, the Obama administration appears to be turning America into a government-handout junkie.
First came the economic stimulus package. Then, Cash For Clunkers. Then, continued extensions of unemployment compensation. And now, as the $8,000 new-home-buyer tax credit—already extended months beyond its original time frame—winds down with the month of June, economic experts like WebToday columnist, Bob Rinear, are seeing another misguided government attempt to invigorate the market go out with a peep.
Even with home prices and mortgage interest rates remaining low, sales are declining in tandem with the false hope created by the tax credit. According to the Commerce Department, sales of new homes dropped 33 percent from April to May, nearly double that expected, marking the largest single monthly decline ever on record.
And yet, in his latest article (found by clicking on Bob Rinear’s link at www.WebToday.us), Rinear uncovers the most troubling aspect of the bad news—the fact that many responsible parties not only won’t identify such government-handout policies for the obvious failures that they are, but they’ll go so far as to manipulate the numbers in an attempt to validate these policies, further damaging the economy by misleading the public.
In this case, Rinear attacks the media:
“ . . . a talking head on CNBC attempted to tell us that housing was trending higher . . . How do you equate the lowest level of new-homes sales ever recorded, with ‘housing is trending higher’? Well, this genius says that you have to ‘average’ the last three months and you see that activity is still a few thousand units higher than last year. Excuse me? . . . You really want me to average two months of a government subsidy, with a month of reality? . . . I wonder how many trillions of dollars CNBC has cost its viewers over the past few years. With their constant cheering and turning even the most horrible news in history into an ‘uptrend,’ many get sucked into making absolutely horrible decisions.”
So, as Washington contemplates extending the tax credit again, and federal spending continues to outstrip revenues, is this a wise move? Where is the housing market headed from here? Is President Obama, during the G8 Summit this past week, foolish to be arguing with the Europeans who expressed their collective will to cut budgets?
Call Special Guests to get a clear big-picture economic view from Bob Rinear, expert economic analyst for www.WebToday.us, one of the oldest, most well-established daily conservative news websites on the Internet.
ABOUT ROBERT (BOB) RINEAR (pronounced reh-NEAR):
InvestYourself was founded in October 1997 by Robert Rinear, who owned several successful business ventures primarily in the jewelry industry. In fact, his introduction to the financial world began as the result of his experience timing the price of tangible assets, including gemstones, gold and silver, all on a daily basis—a talent critically needed to be successful in the jewelry industry.
As Bob Rinear saw the price of gold soaring in the late 1980s, he needed to find the causes of that move. What he found was intriguing. Political issues, global economics and even something as simple as the industrial output in Japan would move the price of tangible assets.
He needed to learn more.
As he became more “in tune” with the global economic process, he noticed that one of his best customers traded stocks and options on a daily basis. With Mr. Rinear’s views on the overall economic situation and “Charley’s” ability in picking stocks, they found a winning combination. But it still wasn't complete.
Once introduced to the intricacies of the equity markets, it didn’t take Mr. Rinear long to realize that he had a knack for predicting the everyday flows of the stock and options markets. He began to attend trading seminars and training camps with the desire to learn how to make profitable trades on a daily basis.
One thing became abundantly clear—none of the classes gave him the total picture about how to accomplish his goal. Something was still missing in regards to how to make a living by trading stocks and options. Likewise, he realized that not all opportunities came in just stocks and options. Sometimes it was a quick move in precious metals or Treasury bonds. Other times it may have been a move in a currency.
Not to be defeated, Mr. Rinear slowly developed his own trading style that began to produce profits. After taking what he learned from the seminars and injecting his own methods of calculating stock movements, options movements, currency, real estate and Treasury movements, a successful concept emerged. He expanded this trading concept into a workable platform that anyone could follow. That was the beginning of his newsletter “Market Insight & Outlook” (now the Financial Intelligence Report). From those first few issues it became clear that the public would benefit from his years of research. He decided to offer it to the masses.
From that humble beginning a company called “InvestYourself” was created. Its main goal is to help investors of every experience level gain the investing knowledge necessary to win in a tough game that includes enabling investors to grow in their knowledge of real estate, stocks, bonds and finances in general.