Last Tuesday the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by my friend Gary Shilling and Richard LeFrak. They offer a simple solution for the housing crisis: give foreigners who will come to the US and buy a home resident status, green cards).

“I have a funny feeling that we’re not in Kansas, anymore.” Like Dorothy’s sublime observation of the surreal in “The Wizard of Oz,” our taking stock of where we are in the vortex of this economic tornado leads us to the same scary observation.

This is no ordinary downturn. After the biggest credit bubble in history, we face a correction on an unimaginable scale. Make no mistake about it: This is a credit-cycle bust that the government cannot stop. The losses are already catastrophic. And the massive unwinding is nowhere near finished yet…

If you’re thinking of getting back into stocks, it’s better to arrive late than too early says Ben Traynor. Yes, losses this year have been spectacular. And the temptation to bargain hunt is strong. But Ben says investors should remember that they still have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lose a lot of money very quickly.

New home sales rose by 2.7% in September, according to the Commerce Department. Andrew Snyder says this is an important sign of a rebound in the property market. And that means adjusting your portfolio to include real estate investment trusts (REITs) like Post Properties (NYSE:PPS) and American Campus Associates (NYSE:ACC).

The Economist recently reported that “house prices are falling even faster than during the Great Depression”. The housing bubble kept inflating for far longer than most expected.

A typical financial tale – where nothing goes as hoped for, and everything goes as it should…*** The rise of speculative capital…pumping up a bubble with a chip on its shoulder…*** The three vicious cycles we must face…an interesting TIME cover…and more!

Kohn gives the wink and nod… GDP is revised up to .09%… Dollar Bulls dancing in the streets… Oil prices fall…

The latest data from the eurozone “looks like a resounding confirmation” of the single currency area’s resilience, said Unicredit.

Everyone is perfectly happy to let capitalism do its stuff – as long as they like the results. But cometh a correction and all of a sudden the press is full of whining pundits and meddling politicians.