Along the same vein here is an article from this weekend's NY Times by William Cohan (who wrote "Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World"): http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/22/opinion/sunday/was-this-whistle-blower-muzzled.html?emc=eta1&_r=0



Robert H. Scott, III
Associate Professor of Economics
Monmouth University
Bey Hall 235
732-263-5532
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-----Original Message-----
From: AFEEMAIL Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Wray, Randall
Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2013 11:19 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Cash home sales

timothy: horrifying or worse. And planned. It is the fruition of the ownership society. My related blog from today: http://www.economonitor.com/lrwray/2013/09/18/five-years-after-lehmans-did-we-learn-anything/

I do strongly recommend the Greg Palast piece that I cite. He makes the case that the question: "What would Goldman Think" guides all decisions from Clinton to Obama. Unfortunately it rings true. 

Remember that Blankfein is "doing God's work", presumably as a son of God, so it makes sense to correct the well-known bumper sticker that name checks another of God's offspring: "What would Lloyd Think?". There you've got US policy, and what is wrong with the US of A in a nutshell.

L. Randall Wray
Professor, Economics, University of Missouri-Kansas City Senior Scholar, Levy Economics Institute
Papers: www.levyinstitute.org/publications/?auth=287
Website: http//cas.umkc.edu/economics/people/facultyPages/wray/default.asp
Blogs: Great Leap Forward http://www.economonitor.com/lrwray/
NEP http://neweconomicperspectives.org/
Modern Money Primer: http://neweconomicperspectives.org/p/modern-monetary-theory-primer.html

________________________________________
From: AFEEMAIL Discussion List [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Wunder, Timothy [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2013 12:11 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [AFEEMAIL] Cash home sales

http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2013/08/15/report-half-of-all-homes-are-being-purchased-with-cash/?mod=e2tw

Reading this the implications scare me.

1.  A huge concentration of wealth is going on and nothing is stopping it.
2.  Housing prices 'rising' are in fact the result of these cash sales and are likely being financed via 'shadow' banking.  (ie the declining housing inventories is straight up market manipulation)

I don't even know where to begin with all of the possibilities.  60% of current home sales are cash sales right now; up from 20% in 2007.

If this is sustainable the implication for wealth distribution is terrifying.  If this is not sustainable the implication for financial crisis is terrifying.


Timothy A Wunder PhD
Clinical Associate Professor
Graduate Student Advisor
Department of Economics University of Texas at Arlington
817.272.3257