In conservative Ecuador, that's a dangerous political platform; and that's why, even though I realize it's only Monday, I'm nominating Maria Soledad Vela as Broadsheet's woman of the week.

Because Ecuador has solved all its other problems. This politician sounds about as serious as Cicciolina and likely to have as good a career. Anybody remember Pat Paulsen?

While I don't disagree with your assessment of the condition of housing stock in LV, I don't believe subprime loans in and of themselves are the source of their housing market's problem. LV was becoming massively overbuilt since the mid-90's, and supply exceeded reasonable demand. The subprime catastrophe was the result of builders and sellers devising marketing plans to play to the major emerging supply: subprime. After all, a seller/builder does not have to sell to anybody based on their financing; unacceptable financing is a legal reason to reject an offer. I know that in a regular seller's market (1995-2003 or so) unusual financing with a greater risk of not closing generally gets rejected. But since subprime financing allowed for higher sales prices and higher sales volumes (due to a larger pool of buyers with less money/credit/income), builders/sellers saw it as a way to keep the boom times going.

As a guy on Bloomberg put it today: the two areas most affected by the housing bust are 1) in the Great Lakes due to unemployment; and 2) LV/AZ/FL/SoCal, which were overbuilt. Subprime might have exacerbated the problem, but these areas' problems were caused by greed.

And no--I am not "required" to produce it. I'm not applying for a job or publishing anything. Demanding that I pull it out of my hat is just an underhanded way of derailing the discussion.

Well, true, just like you are not "required" to STFU after making a wild claim you can't back up, although continuing to argue the point after a broad libel like that simply makes you look ridiculous. Otherwise, you show the emotional maturity of your shoe size.

It will become obvious to all that we are not in recession after we see the effects of Iraqi oil, which has been paying for the War of Liberation there for some time now, on the American economy. This was made possible by the discovery of WMDs with a note attached saying "To Bush, Mom and Apple Pie" in Saddam and Osama's love bungalow we found outside Baghdad with the help of flower-throwing crowds. The best thing you all can do is drive to Disneyworld in your SUVs.

Now, if there are no more questions, Supreme Chancellor Cheney must return to his undisclosed location.

Commie rat bastard stuff, boy. You be careful with that, you hear? Me an' Luke don' like that Russkie stuff, and neither does no one else here in Carver Creek.

(redneck off)

AL, you may already have been referred to the work of Fernand Braudel, whom Schama draws some of his inspirations from. Braudel was the first historian to really flesh out the effects of global trade and ideas, from Mexican silver to Spanish military spending to Chinese tea sales to financing the British Raj to Southern cotton prices to African colonialism to...

So why are separatist movements all the vogue now

Nothing new in that. After Waterloo and the Restoration of the Bourbons, the prevailing philosophy in the 19th century was one of controlled separatism, that is certain monarchies/empires were permitted to be sovereign, others were not (ie., Greece as a nation was good, anything part of Austria-Hungary was not, etc.) Since the multinational dinosaur empires (A-H, Germany, Russia, Ottomans) all fell by 1919 Wilson's vision was one of national determination for everybody, but coordinated in the League of Nations (going back towards the goal of Cloots). The disasters of 1933-1945 made such a coordination imperative, and is still seen as such today.

Since the Cold War ended though these ethnic minorities have been breaking the structures imposed on them to keep the CW boundaries clear and defined. Now, more than ever, through the EU, NATO and other organizations, we are closer than ever to realizing Cloots' vision--unless GWB's friends and the Fundamentalists wreck it in the US.

A few years back, Alan Greenspan encouraged Americans to go out and get an ARM, knowing fully that Americans using their homes as ATMs was the last leg propping up the US economy.

That is not what AG said in his remarks. He simply pointed out that many Americans could have saved quite a bit of money over the period 1998-2004 by financing their house on the shorter end of the yield curve, in lower priced, adjustable mortgages, by pointing out the difference in spreads between a 30 year rate and a 5/1 ARM. He was correct then, and correct now. In early 2003 I took out a 30 year 5/1 ARM at 4.125%, instead of the 30 Year fixed at 5.75%. I just refinanced to a 25 Year fixed at 5.875%. I saved 1.625% cost difference per year on my mortgage, as the following illustrates:

$240,000 loan @ 4.125% = $9,900 interest first year (without factoring interest reduction from amortized principal)

$240,000 loan @ 5.75% = $13,800 IFY

That's a savings, in simple terms, of $3900 first year with approximately the same savings in years 2-5 as well. Years 6-30 would have been the same as it turns out, as fixed rates are still in the high 5's or low 6's.

Greenspan NEVER encouraged consumers to buy any products, nor did he advocate using the house as a piggy bank or buying anything without sufficient equity/investment.