US economists worried about mortgage losses, consumer debt

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Source: AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US economists are becoming increasingly concerned about America's ailing mortgage market and and the debt burden being carried by tens of millions of households, according to a survey released Monday.

"NABE members are increasingly concerned over the short-term risks associated with subprime mortgages and other forms of indebtness, while they continue to cast a wary eye on inflation," said NABE president Ellen Hughes-Cromwick who is also the Ford Motor Company's top economist.

A total 52 percent of respondents cited the threat of subprime mortgage defaults and "excessive indebtedness" as their biggest concern, up from 32 percent of those polled in August of last year.

Aside from wiping out the profits of major banks, such as Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, the housing downturn has also forced hundreds of thousands of Americans into foreclosure.

Read more: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gdYhXNL98sjlqrhsV1TOGOS2aoXw

[Birthmark]

1. Good for the US economists

Not bad for professionals. They're only four years behind some of the folk that post here.

I wonder if they are surprised? The older I get the more inclined I am to believe that all it takes to become an economist is the ability to calculate and an infinite capacity for surprise. Too cynical?

[DCKit]

3. Guess that means the majority of us are over-qualified for their jobs...

should their bosses decide to fire the dead wood and hire competent analysts, say anyone living within their means on <$40K/year with a couple of kids.

Feel like Cassandra much? Rodney Dangerfield even?

[Birthmark]

4. Oh, lighten up!

It was only half-serious.

It is true that many people have been pointing to credit and sub-prime as problems for years, though. I could probably dig up some of my old posts from four years ago, but that's more effort than I care to undertake at present.

[tom_paine]

5. Not cynical enough. You left out the ability to coat shit with sugar

and sell it as a "new and improved flavored popsicle" to idiots.

They aren't behind anyone. They know. But they are paid to be faslsely optimistic. And if a person's paycheck depends on them making a "mistake" you can bet your ass they will make that "mistake" over and over and over...

[flashl]

2. With all of the creative structures, vehicles, shadow banks, derivatives in triple digits,

and companies reporting profits with no profits, how can any economist know exactly where 'we' are?

Monitoring consumers at this point is pure misdirection.

[krkaufman]

6. Our debt load is one of the next dominoes to be concerned about.

Any significant economic downturn affecting jobs will put the first real stress on Americans' record indebtedness, pushing bankruptcies and foreclosures beyond the current subprime crisis.