Moreover, if we believe today's Strib online, the bear for now seems to have the upper hand.
Dow drops 300 points
Associated Press
Last update: July 26, 2007 – 11:50 AM
NEW YORK — Wall Street fell sharply today, extending its weeks-long streak of volatility after disappointing home sales figures added to investors' increasing uneasiness about the mortgage and corporate lending markets. The Dow Jones industrials fell more than 300 points, while Treasury yields plunged as investors moved money from stocks to bonds.
Investors who had been able to shrug off concerns about subprime mortgage lending problems and a more difficult environment for corporate borrowing were clearly worried once again. Anxiety increased after the Commerce Department reported that sales of new homes fell 6.6 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 834,000 units, more than triple what had been expected and the largest percentage drop since sales fell by 12.7 percent in January.
Disappointing results from home builders including Pulte Homes Inc. and D.R. Horton Inc. — squeezed by a sluggish environment from home sales and continued defaults in subprime loans — weighed heavily on the market.
Familiar names? "Pulte?"
"Horton?"
From the City of Ramsey homepage, you can choose DOCUMENTS off the top menu bar; and then do a search, as I did, for "Pulte" and "Horton."
What do you expect? I will save you the effort:
Pulte - 135 results
Horton - 131 results
Names from the Strib's article showing up quite frequently in City of Ramsey's official documents.
What does "Showing up a lot" suggest?
We know from the situation on ground and from recent Pioneer Press reporting that Ramsey Town Center is suffering from severe market malaise. We can read the current predictions that the dilemma will continue. We read in today's Strib that the entire stock market is suffering a similar ailment, because Pulte and D.R. Horton suffer too - and are big players in the housing market.
Pulte and Horton are several times bigger than all of Ramsey put together, and more diversified geographically. Yet, with the signs indicating a nationwide housing slump; who knows how severe their inventory pile-up is? Or how badly they suffer now, or how long into the future their suffering will last.
Ramsey can sit tight, and taxpayers pay.
These multi-billion dollar mega-builder firms are less flexible - they rely on profits, not taxes, and you cannot impose profits.
Unlike Ramsey taxes, profits have to earned.