Doom and Gloom? I Read a Book by David Wiedemer & Robert A. Wiedemer

[Jason Merchey]

I read Aftershock, the latest edition, by the brothers Wiedemer. It was fairly dark, much about our economy being a multi-bubble economy, the weakness in housing for various reasons (including the 50% or so cash transactions and the REITs buying up quite a bit), and inflation scares, our massive debt problem, the impending meltdown of the dollar, politicians being inept, and the prescription of getting out of real estate/bonds/securities and getting into gold and inflation-based securities, etc. Basically supply and demand followed by more about supply and demand. Some of it was over my head because of my conversance with economics, but I think I get the gist.

How do you all feel about the idea of being defensive, scared, and reacting as though s&it is about to get real, vs. staying the course with responsible use of leverage and so on? One other little caveat I heard was that there will be a major increase in the number of apartments coming online in the next year or so, and that those two things - the investor participation in the market and the expected reduction in demand - will negatively affect a buy and hold strategy.

I am a little scared. Obviously I don't want to be left holding the bag just like you all don't. And a little confused, because Paul Krugman counsels forgetting about the debt for now and getting our jobs house in order. Any thoughts?