Another person refusing to smoke the good stuff making its way around Wall Street. More warning signs – this time from Nouriel Roubini.
“For the last few weeks and months I have been writing dozens of detailed notes and blogs rebutting the utter nonsense that has been spewed – based on little or no data – on the alleged bottoming out of the housing recession. Even Alan Greenspan – the allegedly careful reader of macro data – had joined this cheerleading clown show and the National Association of Realtors spin of half-lies that “we are near the bottom of the housing recession”. The actual data that were coming out of the housing market in the last few weeks were clearly inconsistent with this cheerleading non-sense and spin. So, maybe these delusional optimists will now shut up for a while and listen to the numbers after today’s announcement that housing starts fell over 14% last month and that they are now at their six year low. Even worse, building permits, that are THE leading indicator of future housing activity, fell further by 6.3% and they are now at their lowest level since 1997.