Effects of Housing Meltdown Spread - Housing Meltdown Spreads As Companies in Myriad Industries See Lower Profits, Sales

NEW YORK (AP) -- It was supposed to be contained slump, but there's no avoiding it any more: The housing sector's woes are spreading, squeezing makers of everything from the fireplace to the kitchen sink.

The market's two-year meltdown has already claimed a number of obvious victims, from the homebuilders who overextended themselves trying to satisfy unsustainable demand, to aggressive lenders who scuttled vetting procedures to cash in on commissions -- but the recent round of earnings reports indicates the turmoil is more widespread than people first expected.

"We look at the overall (housing) market and say there's still correction that lies ahead of us," Home Depot Chief Executive Frank Blake told investors last week, as the company cut its earnings forecast for the year.

Publishers, who derive the lion's share of their revenue from advertising, joined in Thursday, saying housing's downturn led to lower real-estate advertising.

Media General Inc., publisher of the Richmond Times-Dispatch and The Tampa Tribune, said Florida's economic troubles -- due in large part to one of the most severe regional housing declines -- led to a 75 percent drop in quarterly earnings.

"Florida's economy has dramatically reversed, driven by an adjustment in the housing market following several record-breaking years," the company said in a statement.

I believe the music will stop momentarily, and there are only a few chairs for the hundreds of millions of people going round this circle - and the chairs are already occupied by some well-known Internationalist Bankers.

I wrote elsewhere that this is also an opportunity for people who are barely or not even millionaires, themselves, to instantly trade up or acquire reasonably located land, at bargain prices and at very favorable terms - unlike those forced to surrender their property.

It is wrong, though. You can't treat hearth and home as a commodity, as something to be auctioned, and then reauctioned, and so on. Society needs stability. When things are set right, perhaps soon, that society will have a shot - not now.

So, I say it's an opportunity. But one must do well with their new property. Bring people to The Church. Build Churches for the Catholic bishops, priests and remnant who can make use of them, etc. Even just support for natural goodwill and natural charity, helping the poor, easing matters for widows and orphans, adoptions, and so on. It's such a long list. And there are people with such natural goodwill. Try to find them with a goodwill that stems from a confession of Catholicism, of genuine Catholicism, and that might prove more difficult.

Otherwise, it's just mere speculation, property passing through hands, and all that stuff - you just can't take with ya.