closures since 2006, said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's chief economist, in McLean, Va. There are an estimated 1.4 million excess vacant units on the market. In some markets, like Phoenix, vacant units account for 79 percent of sales.
``The rate at which foreclosures are adding to supply are twice the previous post-World War II rate,'' said Doug Duncan, vice president and chief economist of Washington-based Fannie Mae.
According to Moody's Zandi, there are 12 million homeowners whose homes are valued for less than market value — a number he expects will grow to 15 million by October 2009. ``There are in excess of 1 million extra homes on the market that will take two years to work off,'' even with the low housing starts, Zandi said.
``The problem is that there is a huge excess supply, somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-11 months vs. the normal rate of five to seven months,'' Duncan added.
Housing starts — near 2 million in 2005 — dropped to 1.34 million in 2007 and are projected to drop to 940,000 in 2008, and 780,000 in 2009, said Maury Harris, Chief U.S. economist for UBS Investment Bank in New York. ``The financial crisis can't get much better until housing starts stabilize,'' he said.
But that is not likely to occur soon. Zandi predicted housing starts will hit a post-WW II low in the next three to six months — an outcome reflected in Commerce Department data showing the slowest pace of new single-family home construction since August 1982.
It is a credit crunch that extends beyond housing mortgages and builder financing and into all areas of lending, as evidenced by the number of delayed deals and deals that have been canceled because of an inability to obtain funding.
``Lenders are tightening credit for all types of loans, including mortgages,'' said Freddie Mac's Nothaft.
``The collateral damage of the government takeover of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae is that it meant no one was safe,'' said Zandi — including money-market mutual funds that are a strong source of business financing and commercial paper.
Michael Moran, chief economist at Daiwa Securities America Inc. in New York, agreed.
The October consumer confidence index from the Conference Board, a New York-based business research group, underscored that. That index fell 23.4 points from September to October to an all-time low of 38, compared to a reference point of 100 in 1985. In addition, the number of consumers expecting business conditions to worsen surged to 36.6 percent, from 21 percent in September, and the percentage of consumers expecting fewer jobs in the months ahead jumped to 41.5 percent from 26.9 percent.
With job losses expected to average 150,000 over the next six months, compared with an average of 75,000 in the first eight months of 2008, economists remain uneasy.
``There is a lot of dismal news,'' Duncan said. ``The equity value of homes has been falling and hit consumers hard. The extraction of home equity has declined. Consumer credit delinquency is rising, consumer credit demand has plummeted and real estate losses have broadened in the last two to three months.
``There will be a lot more cumulative deterioration in the market and foreclosure activity because of loans that were made to investors and all the subprime loans made to people with poor economic credit,'' he said.
Moran offered an even-bleaker view: ``The declining wealth of households will weigh on the household sector for a significant time,'' he said.
``I don't think we will see vigorous spending for a long, long time because households have to repair their balance sheets,'' which have been damaged by stock market losses and lowered home values.
``I expect moderate economic activity for five years,'' Moran said.Yes. Every other major language added String templating years ago: Scala, Kotlin, Python, C#, JavaScript, etc. Java is many years late and the Java implementation doesn't seem appreciably better.

OTOH, sometimes Java is more careful and wiser with adding features. Scala, Kotlin, Python, C#, JavaScript all added async/await language constructs for concurrency years ago. Java had nothing similar and many said Java was falling behind. Today, Java seems much nicer because JDK 19's virtual threads are a much nicer concurrency solution. And every other language is stuck with this async/await junk baked in to the language.The cliff-dwelling stonecrop, Hylotelephium cauticola ‘Coca-Cola’ makes a striking feature in late summer and autumn when masses of flat, deep-pink flowerheads appear on the sprawling glaucous stems, which are themselves tinged with pink. Its flowers are extremely attractive to late-flying butterflies and bees.
This versatile sedum can be grown in a number of locations, including coastal gardens, pots and containers, green roofs, at the front of borders, in alpine gardens or hanging over walls.
For best results grow Hylotelephium cauticola ‘Coca-Cola’ in full sun in well-drained soil. Divide clumps every few years to improve flowering.
Hylotelephium 'Coca Cola' is known for attracting bees, butterflies​/​moths and other pollinators. It has nectar/pollen rich flowers.
Is Hylotelephium 'Coca Cola' poisonous?
Hylotelephium 'Coca Cola' has no toxic effects reported.
:
Gears of War 3 Launch PartyPosted: September 13, 2011
Brothers to the End
Vancouver, Canada - Gears of War fans were treated to free bandanas, air brush tattoos, locust skewers, and a chance to play horde mode with their'squads' at the Gears of War 3 Launch Party (Sept 10, 2011).
Whether on twitter, through xbox live emails or just by word of mouth, Gears fans lined up at the docks in Vancouver for a chance to play Gears of War 3.
The vancouver docks at the foot of main street provided the perfect industrial setting for the event. They even had tubs of 'used cooking oil' sitting around. Props?
Those lucky enough to have tickets (earned if they visited the butcher - save-on-meats - for locust meat 2 days prior to the event), also got a free Gears T-shirt!
Is Locust meat kosher?
It was a really fun event and although there were lines, it moved fast. One fan in line-up even said that it was much better than the Gears of War line at this year's PAX. Probably true as most lines at this year's PAX were ridiculous.
The event was organized in a way that you move with your squad of 5 to the various stations. When you first arrive, and get through the first line, you receive your Gears of War bandana (and t-shirt if u have a ticket). And if you don't have a group of 5 friends, you meet some random people and form a squad.
The ballot station is next. Here you enter a drawing for a wood carving of the gears logo. It was neat watching the wood carver at work.
Wood carver showcasing his carving skills. Wonder why he didn't just use his lancer...
Once that's done, you move on to the Air brush tattoo station where you get your very own tattoo. It's the most popular game tattoo done apparently.
And then it's off to the grub station where they gave us Locust meat on a skewer with a side of crickets.
Mmm that was some tasty locust..oh and the crickets weren't bad either. Tasted like sunflower seeds.
We had to wait in two more lineups before we actually got to play the game. Each squad was given two chances to play starting on Wave 8. Our squad didn't do that well, considering only a few of us even knew how to play. I remember having to revive my teammates more than a few times. But it was fun nonetheless. New weapons, levels and characters, Can't wait to play more!
On your way out you could also choose to take your photo with the lancer in front of a green screen. And they also handed out free Energizer batteries for your controller! Woohoo!
The staff of the event were dressed in army gear with bloody noses etc. They said they didn't advertise this event as much as their last launch because they feared masses of fans would show up like they did at the Halo launch.
Gears of War 3 comes out Sept 20th, 2011. Midnite launch at Cambie Best Buy, Sept 19th.
Radiation Party, SPAM & More - PAX 2011Posted: September 10, 2011
Penny Arcade Expo 2011
Aug 26-28
Seattle, WA - Well, another PAX has come and gone and let me just say, that the lack of sleep was worth it! I've survived another PAX!! Although, I missed out on getting a 3-day badge this year, the PAX-related events made up for it and I had a wonderful time overall.
The Adventure begins
Arriving at the border, there was only a 5 minute wait and from the 'oh that's the video game show', the Customs Agent had already encountered other PAX-goers. What could go wrong? Well, little did we know we'd get pulled into a Radiation party, invite only...
So apparently, the Customs Agents detected a large amount of radiation around the time we crossed