You need to go back and read (possibly for the first time) the history
of retailing and real estate for the past 40 years. You will find
upturns and wownturns. But none of them resulted in the all out bust
that you indicated would happen. You have the unfortunate habit of
writing in sensationalistic extremes...black and white, bust and boom,
etc.. The economic reality is that most activity is much milder than
that. Even the so-called dot-com bubble really did little more than
wipe out a lot of overvalued options and stocks with no underlying
fundamental value and force a lot of dot commers into realistic sources
of employment. Think of businesses with no plan and no source of
income other than venture capital funding like FooFoo.com and you will
see the reality of what happened in the dot com bubble..


Dick Chisel wrote:
Dick Chisel wrote that the housing bubble going bust would hurt the
whole economy.

dxAce then wrote:

All well and good, but it is THEIR money. Not MY money, not YOUR money, but
THEIR money. [implying that the -only- one to be hurt would be the home seller]

John S. wrote:

Yes, if the country isn't really going to collapse then what will the
problems be and what impact will they have.

Well, just for a start, here are two answers to your question of "what
will the problems be"...

On September 1, 2006, the Wall Street Journal wrote:

(Page A1, column 2)

"But retailers reported mixed sales for August, stoking concern that a
-slow housing market- may damp the fall and holiday shopping seasons".

and (Page C1, column 5 headline)

"Housing Chill Begins to Pinch Nation's Banks"

Let's see now...the housing bubble is causing the WSJ to express
concern, the retailers are worried and the banking industry is beginning
to get pinched.

Maybe it's time for you guys to drop them a note saying not to worry...

As John S. has been in the banking industry for 30 years, I will let him
figure out "what impact it will have".