Re: Prime Time - Boom to Bust
@JohnRambo - Your logic is so ill it is astounding, I do hope that it doesn't influence anyone.
There are so many agencies at fault for the oversupply of credit in this country.
1.Financial Institutions - Their lending practices, 100% mortgages etc.
2.Government - Poor policies & planning.
3.Construction Industry - Landbanking, restriction of supply to meet demand etc.
4.Media - Talking up the economy and influencing people to get on the ladder.
5.Consumer - A belief that spending credit made them wealthy.
We now have a contraction of credit globally which is affecting this country.
1.Financial Institutions
- Now unwilling to lend at the high ratios they previously did.
-This requires people to save more (i.e. consume less) to purchase a home.
- The institutions are now hoarding money.
2.Government
- cutting back on public spending (transport & education), yet you say the household should continue to spend??
3.FDI moving jobs out of the economy
4.Construction Industry cutting large amounts of jobs, so much so we're about to go back to 1998 levels tomorrow.
How is the consumer supposed to purchase houses at previous rates when banks are unwilling to lend at that rate?
Is the consumer supposed to spend even more than they already have to cover the levels of unemployment that have occurred recently?
There are exogenous factors such as oil, exchange rate, competing countries for FDI, food inflation, inflation in general. These are things the Irish household has no control over. The result is our labour force is less competitive and things cost more for the household. This results in less wages available, less consumption, less taxes and less savings.
I'm sorry, but you can't blame the media or the doom & gloom people for that!
For houses to sell, they have to drop in value to meet banks valuations. For jobs to stay, we have to be more competitive (this means paycuts/work harder for the same wage and improved skills).
Spend Spend Spend and talking things up is just not the answer.