EPI for trade, union and min wages bullshit.

(to their credit they’ve laid off the immigrants)

1. They ask you if the stock market’s gonna go up. How the hell should I know? Economics tells you that I wouldn’t know.
2. They tell you that we’re gonna run out of oil. Not in your lifetime.
3. Some English major wants to argue with you about Marx. Unfortunetly they haven’t read him.
4. They tell you, “Oh, my uncle is an accountant”. That’s nice.
5. They say, “the weather’s bad today”. Leave poor weather alone.

Surely this is a description of most professional analysts?

AEI for war bullshit, CATO for (hugely predictable) tax bullshit, Heritage for culture war bullshit.

Since I’m looking for a house, I’d agree that Lereah’s remark is intuitively plausible if economically implausible. A house viewed in overcast or rainy whether looks plain dreary. But so long as buyers fear that someone else will make an acceptable offer on a well-located, well-maintained house, they will make an offer, rain or shine. That they were suddenly not doing so in March indicates that the market is shifting.

Nobody sticks up for poor ol’ Weather. Even if they say “nice Weather” it’s usually in the context of “I didn’t do my work because the Weather was so nice” – the Weather is to blame!. We need to have a WAP. A Weather Appreciation Day. Better yet make it a month. I vote February. In the meantime, when you go outside tomorrow, say “How’s it going, Weather, how is your day?” be it rain, or hail, or snow. The Weather will appreciate it.

Here’s more proof that the Weather gets short shrift:
http://wwwa.accuweather.com/kids/worst.asp
Where’s the fair and balanced “Best Weather Cartoon”?

I thought that was the effect of people not wanting to move while the kids were in school. I suppose we could look at what happens in the southern hemisphere for a control.

(kidding)….

I thought people buy homes (at least to some extent) to be protected from bad weather…

Journalists are lazy. Deadlines are tight.

Quotemills exist in lots of sectors. They’re the equivalent of Z-list celebs who’ll show up to the opening of a crisp packet. Camille Paglia for socio-bullshit, Rob Enderle for tech bullshit, and I’m sure that people could come up with other reliable Rolodex entries in their own fields.

David Lereah, NAR’s chief economist, said observers shouldn’t overreact to the sales gain, or to other short-term effects. “Although we’re expecting existing-home sales to gradually rise this year, and buyers are responding to the price correction, some unusually warm weather helped boost sales in January,” he said. “On the flip side, the winter storms that disrupted so much of the country in February could negatively impact the housing market.

http://www.realtor.org/press_room/news_releases/2007/ehs_feb07_existing_home_sales_improve.html