Housing Comments from the NY Times

". . . .Washington Mutual Inc., one of the nation's largest residential mortgage lender, had announced that it was closing ten ( or 38%) of its loan processing centers, which would result in a 2,500 person staff reduction. Well, in the grand scheme of things, 2,500 workers is not even a rounding error. But we have not yet experienced the housing bust, five consecutive months of declining used home sales notwithstanding.

But if we do have a housing bust -- and we likely will if Bernanke does not soon declare a ceasefire -- then a lot more than a rounding error of workers could be lining up for unemployment insurance. The cutback in spending by these unemployed would have a, excuse the Keynesian _expression, multiplier effect on total spending in the economy -- adding some homeowners not associated with the residential real estate industry to the length of the unemployment lines." read the whole story here