Ireland, Greece governments have both announced that all banks deposits will be government insured. Now Germany has announced the government guarantee of 500 billion in deposits of Hypo Real estate Bank. So much for coordination between governments. With USA banks having close about $1.7 trillion in uninsured deposits that are facing withdrawal; it can’t be more than a few weeks away that the next round of major stress hits and requires the government to raise insurance limits from $250,000 to unlimited; at least for some period of time. Let’s hope the government can start looking forward enough to get ahead of the panics and start proposing solid methods to jump start the credit markets and calm the negative psychology of the USA market that has now spread world wide.

“BERLIN/LONDON (Reuters) – Germany said on Sunday it would guarantee more than 500 billion euros ($693 billion) in private deposit accounts to protect savers from the worst global financial crisis since the 1930s.

Fellow European Union country Ireland last week promised to guarantee all deposits in its banks, prompting some depositors in Britain to move savings to branches of Irish banks and drawing criticism of a fragmented EU response to the crisis.”

Click here to read the full article at Reuter’s.

The congressional approval of the $700 billion plan to help the US financial sector is a huge step in the right direction.  However, is it enough?

Even if Paulson’s $700 billion price tag was reasonable two weeks ago, it might be too little today.  Warren Buffet suggested “It will cost more to solve this problem today than it did two weeks ago”

Not less than 48 hours have passed since Congress approved a $700 billion bailout plan for the US financial sector and we are beginning to hear discussion from European leaders about strategies for stabilizing the economy across the pond.

President of France, Nicholas Sarkozy went on record as saying that it was time to “literally to rebuild the foundations of the financial systems”.  The leaders of the major EU economies indicated that the intend to rewrite the accounting rules to limit the amount that bank need to write off.

After many years in the real estate industry I have realized the need for a useful housing forecast tool.  There are many tools available that gauge current market demand or price.  However, economists, businessmen and anyone else with an interest in housing may be frustrated by the absence of tools for forecasting future trends in the housing market.


Rheuban Partners, realizing the need for relevant data for forcasting the housing market, have such a tool in the works.  Within the coming months Rheuban Partners will be releasing The Rheuban Housing Confidence Index.  This index will be the most powerful tool available for forecasting the housing market.