Harvard 2006: Housing boom will not end in a crash.

peilthetraveler · Apr 8, 2012

http://www.650and408homes.com/articles/2006/art_26.html

Obama went to Harvard, didnt he? Yep, those elite ivy leaguers sure have their fingers on the pulse of the economy.

Tsing Tao · Apr 8, 2012

Why does anyone listen to a bunch of academic suits?

peilthetraveler · Apr 8, 2012

Because people have been trained to believe that just because someone went to a more expensive school, that they are smarter than them when its actually the opposite...they basically just paid more for pretty much the same product.

Case in point is starbucks. People will pay $3 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks, when they can make the same cup (perhaps even a better tasting cup) for 25 cents at home.) Why do they do that? Because they have been trained to believe that if you pay $3 for a cup of coffee, its better. (even if its not.)

dumb_mother · Apr 8, 2012

Quote from peilthetraveler:

Because people have been trained to believe that just because someone went to a more expensive school, that they are smarter than them when its actually the opposite...they basically just paid more for pretty much the same product.

Case in point is starbucks. People will pay $3 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks, when they can make the same cup (perhaps even a better tasting cup) for 25 cents at home.) Why do they do that? Because they have been trained to believe that if you pay $3 for a cup of coffee, its better. (even if its not.)

people who earn their way into an ivy league are in general way smarter than people who attend a random state school or community college. all the people that get in simply due to connections are about the equivalent. don't mix the two because they are quite different pools of people. if i was paying for advise and expertise in any field- (think consulting or investment banking) in general i would much rather pay a 8% commission to someone that earned their way into an ivy league than a 2% commission to someone who went to my local community college.

the comparison to starbucks is just foolish because anyone can walk into starbucks and buy a coffee- not anyone can post the grades and test scores necessary to gain admittance into an ivy league school.

denner · Apr 8, 2012

Quote from dumb_mother:

people who earn their way into an ivy league are in general way smarter than people who attend a random state school or community college. all the people that get in simply due to connections are about the equivalent. don't mix the two because they are quite different pools of people. if i was paying for advise and expertise in any field- (think consulting or investment banking) in general i would much rather pay a 8% commission to someone that earned their way into an ivy league than a 2% commission to someone who went to my local community college.

the comparison to starbucks is just foolish because anyone can walk into starbucks and buy a coffee- not anyone can post the grades and test scores necessary to gain admittance into an ivy league school.

Good post and on point.

Alot of the criticism towards the econ profs at these Ivy League Schools is warranted. That's not to say that they aren't exceptionally bright individuals, but they are political shills. Everybody basically knows that economics has become such a corrupted pseudo-science, but that should not malign the overall reputation of the academic institutions.

Like you've mentioned, it's an apple and oranges comparison between gaining admissions into a Harvard, Princeton, Yale, etc and a local community college.

In general, Peil is basically a dipshit.

newguy05 · Apr 9, 2012

"Although housing prices are stretched, it is hard to see the catalyst for a crisis in the market," says Nicolas Retsinas, director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard. "The overvaluation looks pretty well balanced by longer term supports for house prices, so we may just see a few years with little action. Houses will revert to being something to live in rather than money makers."

love it

ralph00 · Apr 9, 2012

I'd rather be governed by the first 100 names in the Boston phone directory than 100 graduates of Harvard (or Yale!)

noob_trad3r · Apr 9, 2012

Bush graduated from Yale. That pretty much tarnishes Ivy League schools for me.

Scataphagos · Apr 9, 2012

Quote from peilthetraveler:

Because people have been trained to believe that just because someone went to a more expensive school, that they are smarter than them when its actually the opposite...they basically just paid more for pretty much the same product.

Case in point is starbucks. People will pay $3 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks, when they can make the same cup (perhaps even a better tasting cup) for 25 cents at home.) Why do they do that? Because they have been trained to believe that if you pay $3 for a cup of coffee, its better. (even if its not.)

Not even $.25. More like $.06/cup.

Eight · Apr 9, 2012

Quote from Tsing Tao:

Why does anyone listen to a bunch of academic suits?

One big pitfall in human thinking is that the good answers have to be the complicated ones. If you get to know some people that are the ones that come up with the very simple but good answers consistently then you are in good company.