How can people afford to buy in Manhattan

you have to decide if you want to be treated seriously or continue as the class clown.

Oh, am I about to enter sophomore year when I have to make up my mind?

done

period

Dig deep, it will sink in. The point is the WORSE the rich-poor divide, the more of bifurcated housing market you have. Duh.

From your link," The top 10% of city taxpayers (about 345,169 payers) accounts for 71.2% of the city personal income tax. The top 1%, or about 34,598 people, pays 43.2% of the total burden."

Do you read the crap you right? so the rich poor divide is 43% top 1% 71.2% top 10%... dig deep dumbass

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Unfortunately Keynesian economics has made us a nation addicted to government spending to the point that we are willing to forgive the vast amount of waste and misallocated spending - and lack of revenues to support such spending.

It is partly government spending and exposure to liabilities that has gotten us into this mess. We have been spending outrageous amounts on defense (a lot of which is wasted and lost to fraud) and were involved in two theatres of war WITHOUT asking for any sort of greater sacrifice or even making the slightest effort to finance them. I am talking about well over $1 trillion just in Iraq alone.

We have spent hundreds of billions backing institutions that shouldn't exist - and ironically making them even more influential - and continue to put US taxpayers on the line with exposure to Fannie and Freddie plus god knows what other systemic risk exposure (there is no actual number given the lack of transparency and how convoluted the derivatives/capital markets can be). Government spending in this realm has allowed these financial institutions to continue to threaten us instead of reducing such risks.

Obama's fiscal stimulus spending has been a near complete waste and has served to address political needs rather than actually improve employment.

Without any discipline, restraint or willingness to restructure our economy, asking the government to spend more is like spending $50 billion to reopen abacus factories. We are spending money we don't have on unnecessary goods/services and in risky, unhealthy industries that are not going to help us transition our economy.

It is all about transition and restructuring - both of which are not easy and will be painful in the short-term, but they are inevitable and will manifest themselves one way or another. The emphasis on wasteful government spending simply allows vested interests time to delay such changes and continue to eat from the fiscal/monetary policy trough.

We had an opportunity to restructure and refocus our economy after 9/11 - instead Greenspan and a complete lack of regulatory oversight helped blow up a speculative bubble that greatly misplaced our economy's resources and energies. In 2008/9 we were given another chance to de-emphasize the importance of finance/debt in our economy and de-lever... but instead we levered up more.

If you haven't figured out by now, a lot of the economic/financial rules you learned have been broken in order to support the interests "losers" that became "winners" back in 2008/9. Continued support for blind Keynesian spending is unfortunately the keystone in the economic dogma that has allowed this spending/borrowing Ponzi scheme to continue for the benefit of the few and at the expense of the many.

Ultimately, there is no political support to significantly cut spending now or in the future. "More spending/borrowing" has become the solution for "too much spending/borrowing" and only a significant crisis will bring this cycle to an end. No one is adult enough to bite the bullet and accept the consequences of our irresponsible actions; instead they just call for more Keynesian "solutions". There is a place for government spending, but our economy cannot depend on it as it has for decades now - because we can't afford it.

If we don't learn how to live within our means today, we are just making it more difficult in the future when we are forced to.

AvUWS: Do facts matter at all to your analysis?

Are you aware that while Greece (and Italy to a lesser extent) does have a major problem collecting taxes, none of the Euro crisis states are "big spenders" by European standards and, except for Greece, all were running primary surpluses before the housing bubble collapse? And that every Keynesian analysis of Obama's stimulus said it was far too small and far to directed towards the least effective stimulus (tax reductions for the rich) to do anything other than slow the decline (which it did)?

Memito: Why are you blaming Keynes for the crony capitalists?

Keynes's goal was to save capitalism by using government to eliminate unnecessary unemployment. The crony capitalists' goal is to use the government to redistribute income and wealth to the established economic elites. These are not even remotely similar.

The cronyists use whatever arguments serve their purposes: they want to reduce the deficit when the government is funding middle class needs, but the deficit doesn't matter when they are promoting profitable wars, changing the law to allow pipelines to avoid paying for the damage they'll cause or tax cuts for the rich; they are Keynesians when they want to expand unneeded military spending, but not when it comes time to make irresponsible and incompetent creditors pay the price for their destructive lending.

We do not have a Keynesian policy elite. A Keynesian would say 10% unemployment is a national disgrace and an entirely avoidable policy failure. Keynes argued that when people are sitting around unemployed, it is far cheaper to put them to work than to leave them lying around miserable losing their skills. A Keynesian would point out that investing is the only way to get richer in the future and when, as now, the private sector can't find anything profitable to invest in but the public needs are overwhelming, the government's job is to invest.

The government can borrow at 0%. The return on mass transit, repairing the dikes and bridges, primary research, renewable energy, reducing carbon outputs, medical research, primary education, building engineering schools, creating banks that won't repeatedly blow up the world economy, regulating Wall Street, polluters and CEOs who destroy their companies, even just getting people off their couches to clean the streets is all far higher than 0%.

What we can't afford -- and what we have -- is a government that is NOT investing.

unfortunately, facts don't seem to matter to most people any more.

neither the media nor the government has effectively communicated to the general population the substance of what you're saying. the obama administration has made fair too many conflicting and confusing statements starting with the terrible mistake of quoting a ceiling on the unemployment rate that was immediately exceeded.

it is compelling to think that too much debt got us into this problem so the answer is to cut back. the mere fact that no politician has the guts to say that cutting government spending is the ultimate job killer says it all.

I heart finance guy.

I liked your last post Financeguy!

finance guy--why should "fixing the dikes" be an objective?? they're fine, thank you...haha...sorry

great post, as always--thanks for your effort

>columbiacounty
about 2 hours ago
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unfortunately, facts don't seem to matter to most people any more.

What is columbiacounty's prescription for America?

What we need is great leadership.
https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

FG for Prez!!

NYCMatt - yes you are right, I know very few people who own. My attorney, RE broker and banking friend each own a small studio and I have 1 friend in finance who owns a ridiculous 4 bedroom apartment. Even though I make the least out of most of my friends, I seem to be the only one interested in buying! Everyone else thinks it's smarter to rent.

And yes, there are many lucrative industries to be in right now other than banking and finance. I think being in the right place at the right time in any industry can lead to a big salary.

FG for Prez!!

Why?

Apt23 is looking for the most negative person she can find. Unfortunately on is ruled out for being an ape, and the other is older than John McCain , so there's financeguy.

On -> one

fg - what are you 12? how naivee, too easy..

"the government is funding middle class needs"

11 charged in massive $1B LIRR pension fraud: feds
nypost

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/traffic/traffic_news/audit-excessive-perks-for-nj-turnpike-employees-20101019-apx
"[toll worker] with a base salary of $73,469 earned $321,985 when all payouts and bonuses were included.

http://gothamist.com/2010/06/04/mta_salaries_like_239148_for_a_cond.php
"A Long Island Rail Road conductor who retired in April, made $239,148"

Secret Robert Rizzo Pension Fund Contained $4.5 Million
huffpo

etc, etc, etc....ahh all isolated cases, until found out..

you are correct though, these middle class gov't paupers can't feed obese spawn on these dimes..

"time to make irresponsible and incompetent creditors pay the price for their destructive lending. "

what?? this Administration PROPPED UP the banks, because that's who they seek donations from...

do you understand irony?

government IS investing.. and it's investing in Wall Street since that's where they get the most ROI from our tax dollars, not actual bridges and infrastructure...

Goldman Sachs was top Obama donor
CNN (too many links, se thinks spam)

you're almost like a case from the onion.