December 29, 2008
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED HOW A WORD, IDIOM OR PHRASE ORIGINATED IN THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE?
All of the terms examined in 2008 will be in the realm of politics.
Please read the attached pdf posting on the origin of “Hybrid Bankruptcy” to see the results of my research. jim-c-quiz-hybrid-bankruptcy
As always, I would appreciate your feedback.
1) Did you find the posting informative?
3) Can you provide a better Moment of Zen?
December 7, 2008
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED HOW A WORD, IDIOM OR PHRASE ORIGINATED IN THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE?
All of the terms examined in 2008 will be in the realm of politics.
Please read the attached pdf posting on the origin of “Executive Orders” to see the results of my research. jim-c-quiz-executive-orders1
As always, I would appreciate your feedback.
1) Did you find the posting informative?
3) Can you provide a better Moment of Zen?
November 30, 2008
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED HOW A WORD, IDIOM OR PHRASE ORIGINATED IN THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE?
All of the terms examined in 2008 will be in the realm of politics.
Please read the attached pdf posting on the origin of “Deflation” to see the results of my research. jim-c-quiz-deflation
As always, I would appreciate your feedback.
1) Did you find the posting informative?
3) Can you provide a better Moment of Zen?
August 25, 2007
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED HOW A WORD, IDIOM OR PHRASE ORIGINATED IN THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE?
There has been a flood of articles and explanations about the current credit crunch, which is exacerbating the sub-prime loan debacle and also has escalated the decline in the residential real estate market. If we take a moment to isolate on the real estate market, it is apparent that we are experiencing the classic “Boom & Bust” economic cycle.
As stated in a previous posting, the real estate market is cyclical in nature – values go up and values come down. The key is to try to keep these cycles from germinating a recession or depression. Once again, however, the steady and rapid rise of residential values over the last five years has fed investor expectations (greed) beyond the point of reason.
This current economic boom in residential real estate probably peaked in 2004-2005, but that did not stop further investment. As a result, real estate values remained artificially high until fear stepped in, and the values dropped, as the speculators left the market for other opportunities.
In 2007 we are starting to see more clearly the consequences of not only the speculation in real estate, but also the speculation in the financial market by channeling huge amounts of funds into mortgage backed securities. The investors believed the big lie and forgot the basic tenants of investing; now, we can only guess at the depth and breadth of the real estate bust.
The “Boom & Bust” economic cycle has been around for well over 100 years, and the fundamentals are essentially always the same; however, we never tire of being mesmerized in the morality play by the two primary actors – greed and fear.
Please read the attached pdf posting on the origin of “Boom & Bust” to see the full results of my research. As always, I would appreciate your feedback on the attached pdf.
1) Did you find the posting informative?
2) How would you improve this posting?
3) Can you provide a better Moment of Zen?
August 17, 2007
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED HOW A WORD, IDIOM OR PHRASE ORIGINATED IN THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE?
One very unique economic/financial event, a credit crunch, happens to be peaking in the month of August, 2007. We all are aware that the real estate market is cyclical in nature – values go up and values come down, but the general trend in America over the past several cycles has been positive.
The credit crunch or credit squeeze also appears to be cyclical in nature – credit standards relax, then they tighten. The definition from Encarta is as follows: “finance credit squeeze: a situation in which the amount of available credit in an economy is restricted and so slows down economic activity.”
Most experts state that the term credit squeeze originated in the early 1950s and it generally had a very narrow meaning to refer only to a reduction in the supply of credit. However, the phrase credit crunch originally involved the process known as disintermediation – a decline in savings-type deposits at banks and savings and loans that result in a decline in bank lending.
So what is so unique about the current credit crunch – is it really that much different from past economic cycles? A more encompassing view of a credit crunch is now based on any non-price constraint on bank lending, not just disintermediation. In addition, the securitization into mortgage backed bonds has allowed the investment risk to be spread globally.
Therefore, the meaning of credit crunch, just like other words and phrases, has evolved well beyond the early 1950 – 1960s interpretation.
Please read the attached pdf posting on the origin of credit crunch to see the full results of my research. As always, I would appreciate your feedback on the attached pdf.
1) Did you find the posting informative?
2) How would you improve this posting?
3) Can you provide a better Moment of Zen?
