You be Peter; It's my Turn to be Paul

We're hearing from His Obamaness and the Unicorns  about the housing market  recovery. Which turns out to have been a non-recovery.

Instead it was another exercise  in extorting money from the frugal and productive and transferring it to the politically lucky.  Yep -- the "tax credits,"  federal handouts for people fortunate enough to be in the market during that brief period when the  government decided to deck the  GDP with boughs of folly.


A slice of the evidence is reported in an article on the "recovery" as it exists in Corn Country's Golden Circle.

Stimulus spending, credits spurs building

Seth Moulton, vice president of Classic Builders in Ankeny, said home building was strong the first four months of 2010, with federal tax credits driving sales. Then the tax credits ended in April and sales dropped off....

...Rick Tollakson, chief executive of Hubbell Homes, said the West Des Moines developer is waiting to see how the market rebounds after the tax-credit falloff. The market "hasn't just died," but it has slowed. 


The lesson is  that there's plenty of demand for houses by people who can get their neighbors to pay a hefty share of the cost. It isn't  as though the neighbors really want to, of course. It's that if they refuse,  His Obamaness will send the IRS around  to confiscate their houses.

---

If you have little else to do, you might care to spend a few minutes pondering  the headline. :)


Economy has life, but it waits for consumers.
.