The Depression of 2008

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Posted By: Solomon Cramer

"NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- More home owners than ever are losing the battle to make their monthly mortgage payments.

Over 900,000 households are in the foreclosure process, up 71% from a year ago, according to a survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association. That figure represents 2.04% of all mortgages, the highest rate in the report's quarterly, 36-year history.

Another 381,000 households, or 0.83% of borrowers, saw the foreclosure process started during the quarter, which was also a record.

Additionally, the number of mortgage borrowers who were over 30 days late on a payment in the last three months of 2007 is at its highest rate since 1985."

full article: http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/06/real_estate/defaults_continue_climb/index.htm?postversion=2008030614>

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Just showing that the number of forclosures are a LOT more than 0.1%.

As others have mentioned, we're a long way from the '30s Depression or even the '70s recession. Inflation is moderate at worst, interest rates are very low, and we are near full employment. This could get ugly, but we're not there yet.

At least one positive thing about the dollar being hammered is it makes our exports more competitive and creates more protection against imports. Still, I think one of our country's biggest problems is allowing ourselves to be the world's whipping boy by our "friends" in the import/export business. Japan, Korea, etc. all sell a large percentage of their cars in our market, but we cannot export our products without excessive taxes? We don't need free trade, we need fair trade. I'm at least happy that the Japanese are only getting 60 cents on the dollar for the cars they export to the US.