Los Angeles Times - "How we cashed in before the housing crash" (1-20-08)

"Though I would like to claim special powers to read the future, I was really just resisting the market mania of the time. The tech stock bubble was fresh in my mind, as was the early-1990s real estate boom. At the height of our most recent real estate run-up, there was constant talk of new reasons the market would not fall: immigrants, endless demand for scarce land in sunny Southern California and so on."

Los Angeles Times - "Black Tuesday? Update" (1-20-08)

"Good morning. The global stock market sell-off is a story worth tracking, as the U.S. housing slump slowly but surely does damage to investors and economies across the world. Who knew that liar loans and serial refis would end so badly? (I know, I know, you knew). Single-day losses of 5% to 7% in global markets (6.8% in France, 7.2% in Germany, 5.5% in Hong Kong) are eye-opening. U.S. markets, of course, are closed for the King holiday, but futures trading today indicates Tuesday could be very ugly on Wall Street. From Reuters: 'Dow Jones industrial average futures dropped 546 points or 4.5 percent. Should the Dow close lower on Tuesday by the amount the futures suggest, it would rank as the fourth-largest point loss ever for the index.'"