I wonder if he regrets calling us Chicken Littles, and denying there was a housing bubble. I wonder if he regrets ruining his reputation, doing the evil work of his REIC masters.
But here he is, still employed by Harvard, talking about how we can get out of the housing crash that he denied could ever happen.
And here's his classic rant against HP'ers, who were calling for his resignation at the time, from 2006:
September 24, 2006
"HOUSING BUST AHEAD." The headline hints of catastrophe: a dot-com repeat, a bubble bursting, an economic apocalypse.
Cassandra, though, can stop wailing: the expected price corrections mark a slowing in the rate of increase -- not a precipitous decline.
This will not spark a chain reaction that will devastate home owners, builders, and communities. Contradicting another gloomy seer, Chicken Little, the sky is not falling.
Cassandra can stop wailing, and Pollyanna can stop cheering. Home prices in some regions are moderating, but for a nation inured to CNN's headline-of-the-moment, this moderation does not rate high on the Richter scale of cataclysm.
- Nicolas P. Retsinas is director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies, at Harvard University.
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14 comments:
Sometimes with guys like Retsinas I'm not sure if they're corrupt, or if they're just dumb.
Here he is in 2002, saying how government deserves great credit for inflating the housing bubble to come:
http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/media/hero_home_ownership.htm
Why does anyone still regard Harvard as some kind of paragon of intelligence, correctness and higher learning?
Didn't Bernanke come from Harvard as well?
Let's face it. The academia of economics are a bunch of complete freaking morons.
Retsinas... total monkey.
What they don't understand is that 0% rates DON'T FIX the ECONOMIC and HOUSING PROBLEMS, so 4.5% isn't going to stop the meltdown.
yep...but i wish now i could remember why Harvards endowments way, way outpaced Yale...I do now, it was because yale refused to stop spending within their means during one downturn and instead spent savings and principle while harvard did not and came back stronger when the come back came
Oh, paybacks ARE a bitch. Here's a bit of synchronicity
Harvard's lost $8 billion already because of the housing crash
We asked them to fire Retsinas and kick the REIC off their campus. They did not. And then karma took care of the rest
_______
Harvard Hit by Loss as Crisis Spreads to Colleges
Harvard University's endowment suffered investment losses of at least 22% in the first four months of the school's fiscal year, the latest evidence of the financial woes facing higher education.
The Harvard endowment, the biggest of any university, stood at $36.9 billion as of June 30, meaning the loss amounts to about $8 billion. That's more than the entire endowments of all but six colleges, according to the latest official tally.
Harvard said the actual loss could be even higher, once it factors in declines in hard-to-value assets such as real estate and private equity -- investments that have become increasingly popular among colleges. The university is planning for a 30% decline for the fiscal year ending in June 2009.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122832139322576023.html
You know, looking back at it, I think this one sentence is the most perfectly wrong sentence ever written. I hope schoolkids 1000 years from now are taught this:
"This will not spark a chain reaction that will devastate home owners, builders, and communities"
Man, he got it exactly, perfectly, 100% wrong.
That's hard to do.
nice...they use the June Figures for the endowment in the story.
I'd like to see some current figures.
"Harvard University's endowment suffered investment losses of at least 22% in the first four months of the school's fiscal year,"
Gawd, can you IMAGINE just how MUCH MORE money they have lost from May of this year till NOW???
I bet they LOST THIER ASS !
HAHAHAHAHHAH ROFL !!!!!!!
Why are all these discredited people still around?
Let's call the next depression the Great Discredit.
Why does anyone still regard Harvard as some kind of paragon of intelligence, correctness and higher learning?
Good question. I consider a Harvard (aka White Collar Criminal U) degree nothing more than entry into a big club where criminals are allowed to steal from the rest of the world.
Just why the F does Harvard need a Joint Center for Housing Studies? It might be nothing more than an advocacy group for real estate people, builders, and developers.
Also, how much do you want to bet their advocacy is for the form of suburban and not urban housing? In which case they should be called the Joint Center for Sprawl Studies.
that guy obviously has to pay for sex... just like Spitzer, who went to Harvard for his JD.
@guy n. cognito:
nothin wrong with payin for some strange if it helps you concentrate. That was JFK's stance, I was told.
http://www.yowazzup.com/tag/eliot-spitzer
The man is an idiot, a fool, a laughing stock. And so is Harvard mgmt - they refuse to hire him because they are arrogant pricks.
Evidently Harvard is a club and could careless about merit.
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