By John Galt
February 8, 2011
It really is a pathetic indication when one of the nation’s allegedly conservative business publications decides to offer the Obamanation a bear hug and says “we’ll play ball even if our editorial pages never will” when a story is published with some seriously blatant overtones as is the case this morning. The Wall Street Journal published a story in this morning’s edition titled ‘Cash Buyers Lift Housing.’ The story by S. Mitra Kalita does paint a rosy picture for a real estate resurgence quoting the usual suspects in the industry as to how the cash purchases of bargains indicates a possible bottom in the hardest hit markets. Then this sentence in the middle of the story tells the reader that the agenda of the author and apparently the paper now have to be called into question:
The jump in real-estate purchases made with cash is another sign of the revival of animal spirits in the U.S. economy.
If that statement isn’t right out of the Obama economic handbook I do not know what is. This is the propaganda of the Wall Street-D.C. crowd, not Main Street America and reflects a total ignorance of reality.
Unfortunately for the author, the statement and the premise of the article is total bullcrap. Cash purchases made by investors are not an indication of a “bottom” in this case, it is an indication that the system is working and vultures have found selected bargains in certain markets. If this truly were a bottom in real estate, then why have did the United States hit historic lows for new home sales of properties under $300,000? If we are at a bottom, then why are we still seeing upwards of one third of all existing home sales turning out to be REO’s? And if we are even close to a bottom, then why are the banksters holding on to anywhere from four to six million properties in their shadow inventory and not processing foreclosures at a legal pace rapid enough to resolve the issues of the millions of delinquent properties nationwide? When the middle class returns to the real estate market in force, that is when a bottom can be proclaimed. Anything in the mean time is wishful thinking or an outright lie designed to expand the administration’s fantasy view of economics to make everyone feel good while they stand in line at the local food bank.
It is quite apparent the reporter could care less about the middle class participation in the economy by just grabbing a few stories that validate the National Association of Realtors and the Obamanation’s propaganda and putting it on page one they create rather than report the news. Welcome to the fold WSJ, maybe you can hire Robert Gibbs as your editorial page overseer next.
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