I could almost hear the collective groans of disbelief as soon as readers read my forecast. It was a column I wrote almost three years ago, warning about the impending U.S. real estate crisis and projecting that home prices were set to tumble by as much as 40%. Turns out I actually under-estimated the scale of the bust. Prices have fallen much more than that in some areas – and may fall even further. The are obvious reasons for this. The economic recession. The evaporation of available credit. A huge increase in unemployment. And, of course, the mere fact that the housing market had simply risen to bubble-like proportions and needed to correct. But there’s a bigger problem – and it’s…

‘Committee to Save the World’ Fails Twice! It was 10 years ago this month that Time magazine gave us the Committee to Save the World:

Should U.S. debt still garner a AAA? One agency shows first signs of downgrade… Alan Knuckman offers “the most important indicator” in today’s market… Chris Mayer’s pair trade “the financial crisis will not undo”… Obama’s latest intervention… how the government plans to fix the derivatives market… A tech industry Patrick Cox says “you want to own” right now

I never thought an 18.6% decline could actually represent good news. But in an example of how desperate we’ve become for it – particularly concerning the U.S. housing market – many have jumped on the fact that it was the first time in 16 months that U.S. home prices didn’t drop by a new record. Wow… where’s that champagne? 

People of good intentions and progressive predilection are scratching their heads wondering just how President Barack Obama managed to turn himself into George W. Bush Lite with sugar-on-top just twelve weeks after that fateful walk down the US Capitol’s east stairway to the waiting helicopter. I’m hardly the first observer to note that Mr. Obama’s actions in the face of an epochal finance fiasco and economic collapse are a mere extension of the pre-January-20 policies, carried out by much the same cast of characters.

There are so many complications, economics wise, and there shouldn’t be, because as Ludwig von Mises once said, defining economics, “People Act.”  It’s just that simple!  Examples are everywhere.  Toyota is closing its plants for 11 days, and how many employees does this affect?  Let’s say 2,000, at $200 a day, for 11 days.  The loss in payroll to workers is a total of $4,400,000.  Toyota (NYSE:TM) will save $4,400,000, and the laid off workers will buy $4,400,000 less food, cars, gasoline, or whatever they won’t buy, because they have fewer dollars to use.

The world markets have begun a correction – and the governments are determined to stop it…the days of ’stuff lust’ are long gone. Replacing private spending with public spending…in the fight against global financial illness the Fed can’t cure the patient. The U.S. empire may be too old and tired to battle this downturn…the 50th anniversary of Cuba’s revolution…tune into the Critic’s Choice Awards on VH1 tonight and cheer for I.O.U.S.A.!…and more!

Dollar firms a touch versus the euro, pressuring gold… Key U.S. jobs data shows payrolls down 524,000 in Dec…  Investec cuts 2009 platinum forecast by 28 percent.

Citigroup Inc. (C) today (Monday) unveiled plans to cut more than 50,000 jobs in the “near term” and slash expenses by 20% to preserve capital as it faces a global slowdown that’s expected to push well into 2009.

Forget about the office Christmas party this year, says Bill Bonner. That’s if you are lucky enough to still have a job. Throughout the country, businesses and households are cutting costs. And this is only the beginning. Bill says the Obama government will try to take up the slack in the economy. But that will just create more debt problems in the long term.