G-7 Meets as U.S. Housing Slump Adds Pressure to Global Growth

[NVMojo]

yep, now the rest of the globe is worried about US housing.

September 15, 2006

Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven nations gather in Singapore today with a U.S. housing slump clouding their previously optimistic outlook for global economic growth.

Sales of U.S. existing homes have declined every month since G-7 officials last met in April, and the National Association of Realtors predicts house prices will drop this year for the first time since 1993. The International Monetary Fund yesterday branded the slowing U.S. housing market a ``key risk'' to global expansion.

``With the world's most dominant consumer likely to retrench in the aftermath of a bursting of its housing bubble, the rest of the world can hardly be expected to sidestep this blow,'' said Stephen Roach, chief economist at Morgan Stanley in New York.

Some G-7 members are already worrying. The Bank of Canada last week left interest rates unchanged in part because U.S. spending might ``slow more rapidly than expected.'' European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet this week cited the U.S. real estate market as a source of concern.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aheM2E8si0Z8&refer=uk

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

1. Fucking MORONS Running Our World

The human race is doomed. Intentional or not, we're completely FUCKED, and being ruled by MORONS.

[PeaceProgProsp]

2. Countries that used the money they made

off of selling consumer goods to US consumers (who financed their purchases with inflated home values) to invest in their own middle class will be fine. Countries that used that money to make their wealthy class wealthier at the cost of their working class won't be find.

Countries that will be fine but that hate us because of the way the US has behaved recently are not going to help us out. Countries that only made their rich richer won't be in a position to help the US.

[NVMojo]

3. ...and stupid overseas investors will not be fine if they invested in

the almost totally bankrupty USA.