Obfuscation Economics

How Fed Policy Dulled the Employment of Basic Human Intuition

Here's a Piece by Michael Shermer that makes a lot of sense. It should be required reading for anyone trying to make sense of the mortgage meltdown and the current credit crisis. Of course, more government oversight is going to fix everything, right?

Yesterrday a friend of mine invited me to scope out some properties going up for auction in the Western part of our county. In one case the amount owed was substantially above assessed value and all of them seemed skewed in that category. There was about $85,000 owed on a piece of property assessed around fifty thousand. When we actually drove up to the odd parcel in a depressed neighborhood we had to work real hard to justify offering a fraction of that.

Our little road trip served to underscore Michael Shermer's observations as my friend quickly crossed that one off of his list.

Update: In Light of this, I'm Still Trying to Understand Real Estate Values in Chicago...

Here's What $1.65 Million Will Get You There
Hat tips to Atlas Shrugs.