March 29, 2009

In September 2006, Nicholas Retsinas, Harvard's REIC poodle, said that "Cassandra can stop wailing" and "Chicken Little, the sky is not falling"


And now, we all know how that turned out.

You wonder if REIC shills like Nicholas Retsinas were corrupt, or if they were just stupid and incompetent.

With Retsinas, I think it's a bit of both.

His salary is paid by the REIC, through their bribes to the JCHS. And then you combine that with my sense that the dude is just simply stupid, had never read "Manias, Panics and Crashes" and didn't have the intellectual curiosity to dig into what was going on in the mortgage market and with his REIC masters.


So Nicholas Retsinas, we salute you. You screwed your nation. You embarrassed yourself and your institution. And you were horrifically, historically wrong, for the whole world to see.

Nicely done. Nicely done indeed.

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.

9 comments:

blogger said...

In case you're so inclined to send him a nice note (or some tea bags):


Nicolas Retsinas
Lecturer in Housing Studies, GSD
Director
Joint Center for Housing Studies

Office Address
Non Resident

Mailing Address
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Mailbox HUD
79 JFK Street

Contact
Phone: 617-496-3676
Fax: 617-496-9957
Email: nicolas_retsinas@harvard.edu

Paul E. Math said...

Bijon Frise.

Anonymous said...

I always laugh that he called people Cassandra as an insult. Poor fool was too ignorant to know that her curse wasn't being able to tell the future, the curse was that she would never be believed but was always right.

So yes Nicolas, you dumb fuck, we were all Cassandra's and proud of it! And if you'd been doing your job properly, and had a greater intellect than that of a fruitfly, then maybe you wouldn't be sitting with egg on your face right now. The internet is great though, his comments preserved forever more for posterity, cross indexed with posts like this. It must really make his blood boil knowing that people can call Nicolas Retsinas out as a shill and a fraud, with proof, and there's nothing he can do about it!

Anonymous said...

Retisnas, Swann, and Norman should start one of those traveling seminars:

"Careers through stupidity and arrogance. Be remembered and reviled."

Anonymous said...

Manhattan Total Inventory are at a six month high

http://www.urbandigs.com/charts.html

Anonymous said...

Keith, as Paul Math said, the dog in the picture is a Bichon Frise, not a poodle. Bichon Frise's are dummer than poodles, but have a nicer disposition.

The thing about calling people Cassandra is that it was a correct label - Cassandra correctly warned of bad things to happen, and people around her just ignored her warnings. That's what happened with Real estate and the economy.

Devestment said...

Dude, how many times do I have to tell you, thats a Bichon Frise. I'm sure we went over this at least 2 years ago.

blogger said...

I think it's funny.

Poodle to me

Anonymous said...

I don't recall any comment here regarding Obama's pick of this esteemed scholar for his trasition team.

Buy gold online - quickly, safely and at low prices