Stall The Ball

It seems I'm not alone in thinking the banks are in for a serious bump. As I posted the other day.....

So don’t get me wrong, I’m not wishing for a crash, but at the same time I don’t think the large institutions, the organised groups or the government are desperately trying to keep the prices inflated for the good of the common folk. I don’t think they give a rat’s ass about some young couple trapped in negative equity for the next 15 years.

I do think they care desperately about the bottom line, be it fees, interest charges or stamp duty returns.

So the question is, are the banks, the government and most of all the estate agents deperately trying to keep prices from crashing? Are the horror stories true or just a shameless attempt to keep the golden goose laying eggs.

Today we have a story from the Independant pushing the "Ah it'll all be fine" story.

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/worst-of-building-downturn-over--top-economist-1314068.html

However, Morgan Kelly, an economist at UCD, says the total private debt of companies and households of €350bn threatens the Irish banking system.

"We are going to see banks on life-support with very big bail-outs. The precedent for this is what happened in the Nordic countries in the early 1990s, when governments had to take over the banks," Prof Kelly said.

But note the headline from the Indo.

Worst of building downturn over -- top economist

I'm with the comment

one economist says one thing..another the opposite....
who has more to gain from positive media coverage?

I'll add newspapers to the list of groups that need the housing market to stay up. Otherwise all those glossy ads and glossy inserts wouldn't generate lots and lots of revenue.