The economic facts are poor

A good sentiment to have when listening to market analysts was expressed by the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." Look at the facts and not the views.

The facts are not good for housing. Housing starts are below a level which is similar to what we have found in other deep recession during the post 1970 period. However, the starts were at a much higher level in 2005. Building permits are flat. Industrial production has gone negative and capacity utilization has fallen. PPI continued to stay in the 7% range, so slow growth with inflation seem to be the continued theme in the US, stagflation lite.