Weekly update. 11/02/2012

Now, that's over. Two years of standing around, now down to business. Fast. One piece at a time, stocks first. The sell-off has not been a repudiation of Obama's re-election. It began in Europe and Asia, issues deepening there, not improving. Some certainly sold stocks in fear of higher taxes on capital gains (an extra 3.8% right now, including sellers of homes, courtesy of ObamaCare), and they are right, but that's not nearly as important as weakening global trade undercutting corporate earnings. Housing will benefit from this week’s decisions. Had Romney been elected, Republicans' compulsive hatred of Fannie and Freddie would likely have resulted in premature efforts to shut them down before any private market for mortgages had been revived. There is no telling what clamp would have put on the FHA in exchange for the bailout that it needs for no fault of its own; now it will get what it needs -- and the nation needs