Sunday, April 28, 2013

Property: 'More Home, Less Asset'

More home and less asset? Only for those that long as they are not yet invested in real estate. For those who are already in the game the gargantuan unrealized gains bring smiles to their faces. Therefore the problem can simply be reframed as how to let those who are asset light become property owners. On this score I thought KBW had already fashioned a solution: public housing going for 4X the median income. So what's the problem?

If in the next year or so we have a Black Swan event and global asset prices collapse all the asset price problems we are facing now will evaporate and we shall have a very different set of problems. The point is that bull or bear markets there are opportunities and dangers. Some problems cannot be solved now and the trick is to not let it destroy you but ameliorate its impact, stick around long enough for the environment to be more supportive and then you act. There is a season for everything as in Ecclesiastes 3


For everything there is a season,
    a time for every activity under heaven.

A time to be born and a time to die.    
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
A time to kill and a time to heal.    
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to cry and a time to laugh.    
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
A time to search and a time to quit searching.  
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear and a time to mend.  
A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.


Meanwhile talk is just shiok. You thought you were involved and participating but actually better minds have cogitated and fashioned solutions. Don't be unhappy. If the solutions are good ones we ought to be happy and accept them. Just don't expect the perfect solution which would please all and sundry. That is only possible when the pie is expanding rapidly. Redistribution of the goodies which we are often forced to do these days will always bump up against the problem of one man's meat is another man's poison.

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