I’ve always felt it is a bad idea to give advice about investments online and I’ve expressed that before in other posts. There are just too many variables to consider and a blog is not the proper medium to discuss it. Should the blogger have a moral obligation? Yes, but they should also have the freedom to express their opinions.

Lastly, I think it’s idiotic for anybody to literally take stuff from a blog and make investment decisions. Then again, people have been known to do worse.

I just don’t understand how predictions that aren’t worth the electricity it takes to display them on your screen can be in anyway seen as useful. It’s static.

I don’t mind talking about something, like say employment issues. That’s actually interesting, and employment statistics do work their way into the housing statistics. So saying: “Starbucks laying off 600 employees locally, that will hurt real estate prices” that would be okay. But to claim that real estate prices will fall because Starbucks is laying off 600 people, that’s absurd.

I was following this thread today, not the PI article. Perhaps your comment was out of context?

IMHO, personal attacks should not be tolerated in any venue. What is wrong with civil debate?

I dislike labels such as “bubbleheads” (I personally do not use such). I equally do not like labels such as “those Realtors”, yet they happen often from both ends.

The conversation today was completely civil on this post. I was enjoying watching Eleua, Synthetic, Kary and Q-Diddy work things out.

Kary has just as much right to his opinion as you and I. To single him out is unfair. FWIW, I often disagree with Kary. So What?

Eleua and Synthetic have never needed a referee that I have ever seen. They seem to be able to take care of themselves.

The dig on “sites like this” and today’s Kary quote from the PI article today “Kary Krismer, a Keller Williams agent and contributor to Seattle Real Estate Professionals, said he would prefer the online discussion to focus on “useful topics” such as marketing strategies and potential legal pitfalls.”

Most people I know find topics of discussion between peers who are not in the real estate industry quite “useful”, and “sites like this” that encourage and support “foolish” activities in the minds of some, are really quite useful to many people. Maybe not Kary, but many others.

It really is time we stopped being us against “the bubble bloggers”. That term should be dropped from our vocabulary. It is never said as a compliment and “the bubble bloggers” have added great value and balance to the discussions.

Fair enough for me.

Nobody is giving advice. People are asking for and giving opinions.

If I say, “Buy WM at $4.80, because the yield is attractive and the risk of bankruptcy (this week) is less than 25% and this should fit well with your risk tolerance and financial objectives,” then I am giving advice.

If someone asks me what I think about bank stocks in the long run, that is no different than if he asked me if I liked the new Indiana Jones movie. I gave my opinion, and my reasons for this are all over the internet. If he goes “all-in” on WFC OCT puts at the $25 strike, that’s his cross to bear.

I’ve given my opinion on several subjects, not least of which is real estate valuations. Whenever somone asks me if they should buy or sell, all I do is take them through MY thought process on what is important to ME. If it helps them, then great. If it is of no value, then they got what they paid for.

So far, nobody has called me and complained.

BTW, 20c on the dollar by 2010.

I don’t think there is anything conservative about investing in real estate or mortgages in the near future. That is a grope for yield and will likely end in tears.

Forcast for bank stocks: lots more pain, huge number of bankruptcies, and a very decent shot at a systemic failure. Bank stocks are going to bounce around like a red rubber ball as investors sell off banks because of their insolvency, while they are buoyed by the US Treasury and The FED insisting that the system is healthy (but give us another $1.3T, just in case it is not).

Part of the reason I react to bubble bloggers on real estate is I remember anonymous people on Internet sites talking up or down various stocks. They’d try to obtain large gatherings who would worship and follow what they said. One in particular I recall switched his call from bullish to bearish after the stock he was promoting had dropped significantly, and right at the point in time it took a significant and sustained bounce. No accountability at all for his actions. Just a lot of people who made bad financial decisions listening to him. And now in this thread we see the bubble bloggers are apparently many of the same people!

Hmmm

Kary is a reader.

Doesn’t he get to voice his opionion? His opinion is that it their actions are foolish.

Q-Diddy had the same opionion

I have the same opinion, as well.

Everybody gets to keep their opinions.

I saw no name calling, Kary was describing actions.