Markets

What has the housing bubble told us about market efficiency, social psychology and economics? Quite a lot, I believe.In the aftermath of the housing bubble, one thing is for certain: we can throw out the inane "Efficient Market…

An article in today's Guardian says that London property prices are falling. In fact they fell over 5% in a single month.Asking prices in London fell 5.3% in August, according to the Rightmove house price survey - equivalent to a £21,000…

This weekend I am at my wife's family reunion so I haven't have a lot of time for blogging. But, I caught an interesting article in Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, which cites an IMF study which claims that property values in Sweden are…

As the first bubble economy to hit the skids and officially fall into recession, tiny Denmark deserves a mention. Statistics Denmark has released figures showing that house prices are falling in Denmark, which joins an ever-increasing group…

In psychology, cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling or stress caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a fundamental cognitive drive to reduce this…

Sterling has dropped 10 days on the trot, the most in 37 years. What does that tell us? Well, it tells me that people think the BoE will be cutting rates at some point soon. The Pound was over $2.10 in October 2007. Now it trades for…

According to Seattle-based Zilliow, nearly one-third of U.S. home buyers who bought in the last five years are now underwater. A full 45% of those who bought at the peak in 2006 have negative equity in their homes. Negative equity makes…

This chart from the New York Times demonstrates visually what happens when the Fed lowers interest rates too much: it skews simple economic decisions like what type of mortgage product to use, often with unintended consequences. Similarly…

This is one of those things that make you go hmm.... But, hey, this is what people really think.The housing downturn has been under way for a while now, so it's hard to believe that many homeowners could still think their homes are…

Haven't we been told time and again that much of the oil price rise was due to to external event risk like political instability and war? Well we've got this is spades and oil is still falling. Today, Russia has launched a war against its…