"Wall Street Tunes Into Housing Boom - or Bubble"

According to the article, investment strategists are spending less time with stocks and devoting more time...to the housing market.

Seems that some people are starting to realize that the housing bubble will not only effect homeowners, but the economy as a whole - sound familiar, dear reader?

"Real estate is a topic that has vaulted to center stage," say Ethan Harris, chief U.S. economist at Lehman Bros. "The real reason the topic is hot and belongs on the front page of research reports is that the housing market is becoming more of an engine of economic growth, but is also the biggest risk to future growth if the boom goes bust."

While the stuffed shirts on Wall Street try to predict what the impact of the housing bubble bursting while have on the economy, our own Dan Denning is way ahead of this trend. For months, he's been warning his readers that this unstable house of cards that our economy is depending on is threatening to crumble at any second...and now it looks as though people are starting to listen...

What will happen next though, is anyone's guess...

*** The eleventh tropical storm this season may be brewing in the Gulf of Campeche the largest oil field region in Mexico and the home of the biggest offshore production centers - pumping out 1.2 million barrels a day.

This, along with the recent power outage in Iraq, could threaten oil production - raising prices even higher than $65 a barrel.

The "shutdown of production in Iraq is an ominous sign of just how vulnerable those supplies are to the strained Iraqi infrastructure," Kevin Kerr told MarketWatch today.

"The deliveries of oil to the Ceyhan (Turkey) port have all but stopped due to lack of power and at this rate, there will certainly be an impact on crude supplies," said Kerr. "There really is nobody with spare capacity right now."

There are "just too many uncertainties to expect these prices to back off by much," Kerr said, and it all may be setting crude up to head toward the key $70 mark "very shortly."

*** Recently, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened to cut off oil supply to the United States if there is any sign of aggression toward his country from the U.S.

In a good representation of what not to do in a situation such as this, televangelist Pat Robertson called for the assassination of Chavez.

Apparently, Chavez is growing more and more distrustful of the United States, speaking out against President Bush, and saying that the U.S. government has a conspiracy to topple his government and is plotting to assassinate him.

To this, Robertson, who is the founder of the Christian Coalition of America and a former presidential candidate, had this to say:

"You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war...and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."

"We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator," he continued. "It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

We can't imagine why Chavez would think that anyone wanted him dead.

Bill Bonner is the President of Agora Publishing.  For more on Bill Bonner, visit The Daily Reckoning.