Capitalism 2.0

Blog Traffic Patterns

Capitalism 2.0 community traffic patterns for the year.

Real Estate Investment in Possible Non Bubble Areas

By Randolph

According to the 2006 HSBC report, A Froth-Finding Mission, Detecting US Housing Bubbles and associated spreadsheet model, not all local real estate bubbles are created equal.  In fact, the Case Shiller Index reveals that a handful of metro markets may well be seeing price recoveries.  Denver, for example, looks to be one of those on the leading edge of the recovery, having potentially already come through the worst of it.  Others, such as my own San Francisco, have yet to really even start into an honest correction cycle (another CSI view of superbubble San Francisco).

Is it time to start investing, or at least preparing to invest in non-bubbly metro areas?

(Topic suggested by a reader)

Every Breath Ben Bernanke Takes

By Randolph

Ironically, this video spoof is even more relevant today than when the kids at Columbia Business School put it together over a year ago.

We can only dream of what the Fed would have been like under Dean Hubbard, sadly.

Call for Authors

Capitalism 2.0 is currently looking for blog authors.  We're looking for folks with interesting things to write in line with the central theme of this blog:  Capitalism, version 2.0.  What that really means is sort of up to you to describe, and for others to read.  Above all else, we believe that direct publishing of mature, intellectually grounded information is rapidly becoming a fundamental force shaping our modern society, and ultimately changing the economic landscape.

General themes which tend to come up are economics, social implications of economic policy, financial markets, the role of technology, and geopolitics.  But things aren't always heavy and dry.  We like to ground our lofty ideas and heady analyses in stories about stuff we observe in the real world. 

This is no academic journal, there are plenty of those already.  Nor is this a ranting political soap box, there are even more of those.  This is a place for mature, intellectual adults to converse about stuff that matters.

Topics in the past have ranged from:

• Grass roots analysis of the largest real estate asset bubble in US history, particularly in light of the stunning silence and denial that a bubble or any problems at all existed.
• Analysis of the wildly popular virtual world Second Life and the associated, almost entirely unverified and consequently largely false media hype.
• Discussions about the falling US dollar and rising metals prices, and how that was causing everyday US coins to become worth more than their face value.
• Hypothetical discussions about advanced networks modeling group behaviors during bubbles and crashes.
• Explorations of how online computer games could be used by terrorists and organized criminals to launder money.
• Why quarterly earnings estimates should be eliminated and why financial analysts are all but useless.

...but there's more!  That's where you come in.  Write about anything you want, so long as it's mature, informed, intellectual, and relevant.  How and why it is relevant, is really up to you...

If you're interested drop me an email.

Random Observations on Iceland

By Astrid

(This is going to be the first of my two posts on my recent trip to Iceland. This post will focus on Iceland the country. The second post will focus on Iceland the travel destination.)  Link to the pictures.

Iceland is a small Nordic country in the middle of the North Atlantic, halfway between Europe and North America. Aside from the climate (more on that in the second post), I found Iceland to be a thoroughly pleasant and progressive country that will warm the heart of Bay Area folks who love to proclaim "it's different here." The people I meet were well scrubbed, pleasant and English speaking. I found Icelanders on average to be on par with physically attractive than the residents of your typical upper middle class coastal bedroom community, but less tanned and more confident.

It's the PRICE stupid!

By Randolph

Listen to the cacophony of despair oozing out of the mouths of our mainstream media and politicians.  It would be comical if not for the pathetic nature of it all.  All these whining shills and self proclaimed experts seem willing to cackle about everything under the sun ... except for price.  What do I mean, read on...

Pop!

By Randolph

The residential real estate bubble has finally started to pop!  Some readers will know that I am a long-time author at Patrick.net, one of the biggest real estate bubble blogs.  I've authored many dozen articles there, including a few which involved a good amount of original research and analysis.  One notable result has been The Bubblizer model (Excel), which has been featured on this blog since the beginning.

But now we've entered a new phase of the housing bubble blog-o-sphere.  I call this phase "The Coming of the Trolls".