Ken Suzuki's blog on imeem

Oases

Ken Suzuki — Sat, 19 Nov 2005 06:58:14 -0000

If you ever rent a two-wheel drive Toyata Corolla and decide it would be fun to see how far into you can drive it into the world's largest sand desert (Arabia's Rub-al-Khali), think again. I'm serious. It sounds fun, but will seem less fun when you sink into the sand at dusk a good 10 Km from the nearest road.

If you fail to heed my sage advice, however, follow these instructions very carefully, and you'll be just fine:

1. Find the nearest oasis

2. Build fire at said oasis

3. Repeatedly think about how cool this story will be when told to your grandkids to stave off abject terror

4. eat whatever snacks you had in the car

5. In the morning, try to build sand ladders out of palm fronds to get your car out of the sand.

6. When that process clearly isn't working, wait for a friendly bedouin to happen upon you fortuitously just as you are running out of water (oddly, this "oasis" may not have actual water above ground!)

7. Watch in amazement as bedouin guy deflates your tires, and slowly drives your car out of its sandy grave

8. Thank kindly bedouin nomad profusely.

Hope this saves your life someday!

Camel Milk

Ken Suzuki — Sat, 19 Nov 2005 06:05:11 -0000

Camel milk is actually quite delicious if you just give it a try. Ask me about it sometime!

What Housing Bubble ?

Ken Suzuki — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 00:07:41 -0000

When I logged out of hotmail tonight, I was greeted by this delightful story on MSN:

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Banking/Homebuyingguide/P85323.asp?GT1=6653

reminding me that many Americans are not heeding the lessons of the dot-com boom and bust of just a few years ago.

This week's Economist notes that the median cost of a single-family home rose by 15% in the year to April, topping $200,000 for the first time ever - the fastest rate of increase since the 1970s.

Hmmm.. What was different in the 1970s? Oh, that's right, craaaaaazy double-digit inflation! Also, far lower household consumer debt. And high exposure loans such as interest-only mortgages were as rare as cheap gas.

So back to this crappy MSN article...

It reflects what I feel is the disturbingly low quality of economic analysis in the mainstream US press (not that I expect prize-winning journalism from MSN, but sadly, I've seen worse analysis in the real media at times). In one delightful passage the article cheerfully breezes past worries about a bubble by citing a single economist's opinion that he expects "more of a soft landing than a burst.":

"'The simple fact is we still have more buyers than sellers in most of the country,' he said in a statement on the [National Realtors] association's Web site."

website??? Whaaaaaa?

This isn't a quote but rather lifted from a statement on the National Association of Realtors' website! That's right... this article's sole evidence that there is no housing bubble comes from an economist who is paid by the people who make money selling houses!

MSN's sponsors for the article? Home mortgage lenders.

Quickly, buy your shovels before they run out! There's gold in them hills!