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We should learn several lessons from the property crisis in the US 1. The government has unwisely promoted massive property ownership, hence encouraging people to borrow more and financial institutions to ease the restrictions on lending. As an illustration, George Bush's speech in 2002 below is retrospectively catastrophic: @scrap the downpayments@ is the worst... 2. Brokers and other intermediaries of the mortgage business had all incentive to encourage prospective home-buyers to engage into loans they could not afford: they are paid proportionally to the size of the loan (and of the interest rate) at the time of the transaction, hence not bearing any of the default risk. Their compensation method should be reviewed.

Nice sense of humor in a dramatic situation...

Analysis from John Mauldin about how close the World now is of an economical collapse and deep depression. Construction Lending: The Next Shoe to Drop Lehman at the Center Iceland Guarantees What? Letters of Credit: Going, Going Gone? What to Do and Where Do We Go from Here? London, Stockholm, and California I have been writing for almost a year that the next shoe to drop on US banks would be commercial construction lending. Today we look at some hard numbers. We look across the pond to sort out the problems in Europe. We look at the consequences of the losses stemming from Lehman. Then we look at one of the more serious consequences of the banking crisis, one that will bring the crisis home to you. Finally, we look at what the various governments of the world must do in response. It may not be fun, but it should be interesting. And it is important. Feel free to forward this letter to anyone who asks why we not only need the bailout but will need even more coordinated government action...

Go compare the ads: The original Apple ads "Get a Mac" "Happy New Year" And the Microsoft answer Vive la competition!

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Way, way back in 1981, Apple ran a provocative ad headlined "Welcome IBM. Seriously." The ad was in response to IBM's debut of the company's first personal computer -- a market Apple helped pioneer years earlier, and which Big Blue's entry was set to further legitimize. Apple's competitors in the mobile market aren't taking out ads (yet) welcoming the iPhone, but they sure sound grateful. Earlier this month, Nokia's CEO publicly thanked Apple for showing the industry and consumers the exciting potential of mobile devices. Tuesday, an executive with Access Systems, a company that makes mobile device software for phone manufacturers like Sony Ericson and Samsung, thanked Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) for helping it sell new products. "We're probably one of the ones capitalizing the most on the iPhone," said Albert Chu, vice president of global marketing and alliances for Access, during this week's Mobile Content & Marketi...