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Chance of double-dip recession is high: Shiller

NEW YORK | Tue Jul 27, 2010 10:28am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The state of the economy is worrisome and there is a high possibility of a double-dip recession, one of the property market's most well-known economists said on Tuesday.

Robert Shiller, professor of economics at Yale University and co-developer of Standard and Poor's S&P/Case-Shiller home price indexes, told Reuters Insider he does not know where home prices may be headed, but believes the economy may be on a precarious path.

"For me a double-dip is another recession before we've healed from this recession ... The probability of that kind of double-dip is more than 50 percent," Shiller said.

"I actually expect it."

Shiller said he is unclear where home prices are headed.

"I don't know," he said. "I am taking a "wait-and-see" attitude," he said.

U.S. single-family home prices rose more than expected in May, reflecting robust spring sales spurred by homebuyer tax credits, the Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller home price indexes showed on Tuesday.

For Reuters Insider interview see:

link.reuters.com/qac69m

For graphic on S&P/Case-Shiller index see:

link.reuters.com/nyp79m

(Reporting by Jennifer Rogers; Writing by Julie Haviv; Editing by James Dalgleish)

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Comments (3)
AdamSmith wrote:
The Fed is giving a huge subsidy to the wealthy by loaning banks as much money as they want to borrow at zero percent interest. The banks then invest that money in US Treasury’s, making hundreds of billions profit, risk free.

Where does that profit come from, thin air? No, the Fed is giving away to the wealthy, by stealth, the long-term capital of the middle class.

Meanwhile corporate America is outsourcing any job in America that is done by intellect (as opposed to direct physical labor) to the masses of India (population 1.139 billion) where the supply of mental labor is almost limitless.

Any American college student today who decides to go into any science or intellectual career is facing a future of lower and lower income prospects, for life.

A permanent double-dip recession is probably our future.

Jul 28, 2010 12:44pm EDT  --  Report as abuse
nazik wrote:
I used to have high regards for Mr. Shiller’s opinions. Now I am not sure if I should take him seriously anymore. For example, in an interview with Bloomberg TV in June of 2009, he said “My guess would be that home prices are going to level off — they’re not going to keep falling,”. Mr. Shiller now says he doesn’t know where the home prices will go down or won’t say the prices will go down because its unpopular thing to say. Though his case-shiller index that he co-founded has some validity his opinions are questionable at best.

Jul 28, 2010 3:29pm EDT  --  Report as abuse
jonordy wrote:
I suppose I would be looked at as the evil wealthy but I assure you the Fed nor the banks are helping me out. Getting a commercial loan for real estate right now is extremely difficult regardless if the risk is virtually null for the bank. We have areas in our town that I’d love to begin revitalizing, create jobs, get money flowing again and halt the recession in my little community but the big banks can’t loan. Granted I’m not a real estate guy, but run a small cap electronics corporation with around 500 employees that manufacture all of our products down to the boards here in USA. We have closed our manufacturing plants overseas and in Mexico and brought the jobs back home and increased our margin doing so. Our call centers are all in the USA which I will say is not a good business. We have as many PHDs in various R&D programs as we can reasonably afford.
I am the evil corporate American they speak about. Fact is I really don’t care about money as it relates to luxury, big houses and cars. I enjoy building things, having ideas and being able to make those things come to fruition which takes money. My honor is a prize I will not tarnish and I would find it impossible to take comfort in unscrupulous gains whether it be a penny or a billion dollars. Most guys I know who are successfully building businesses feel the same as me and those who are scammers of which there are many and see riches as their goal are eventually weeded out or get into politics. Sure having a yacht and Ferrari would be neat but those like me can never be driven by such things as buying those things are fundamentally money wasted. We don’t believe any CEO should be paid over a million dollars a year unless they have a substantial risk through prior ownership of stock, have built a business or they themselves are the business. You cannot justify giving that much reward without any risk because nobody can truly be worth that much merely stepping into a CEO position. The shareholders through board proxy should have the right to pay anybody whatever they want, but that doesn’t mean it’s not stupid.
In my optimistic view, I have no doubt that we will see a double dip and but have little chance for deflation. To many smart people are sitting on too much cash to allow prices to fall much. At the same time I don’t see a business environment going forward that has any growth potential so those people with cash won’t risk anything with nothing to gain. Now if they said they were going to lower corporate taxes so that we could export products at competitive prices, all systems go. That corporate tax break doesn’t go in my pocket, it goes directly into growth and lower prices to consumers. Unless I have lobbyist in Washington if I was to hypothetically pocket the corporate tax break and my competition invests it into there company, guess what, eventually they take my market share and I go out of business or they buy us out and cut out the fat which would be the overpaid exec me.

Aug 04, 2010 1:17pm EDT  --  Report as abuse
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