House of Cards

CNBC drives me nuts sometimes – must everyone shout? – but they do have some of the best financial journalists out there.

On my flight to Atlanta last night, I watched 'House of Cards' – an excellent piece of financial journalism and story reporting by David Faber.

The special talks about the sub-prime mortgage crisis from all angles – the buyers, the lenders, the analysts and the Fed. There's a certain political wing that puts all the blame of our current condition on minorities. But when seen in aggregate, no one escaped blame. People lied – on mortgage applications, to Wall Street, to insurance companies, to other consumers and to other countries. Financial models were calculated based on a never ending rise in asset prices, which beggars belief.

I fear the housing market will be in the crapper for a long time. The supply of homes simply will not align with demand for a long time. Immigrants are leaving, robbing many areas of the bodies to fill these homes. Jobs are disappearing, reducing the population that can afford to buy one.

Relatedly, this census will be an interesting one. Much of the growth, and the decline, is felt in the Sun Belt. Without jobs, I wonder if there will be another mass migration. Will people return to their hometowns to be closer to their network of family and friends?