Robert Shiller thinks the risk of a double dip recession is not great with the exception of the housing market....

"I think there is a definite risk of a turn down again in home prices, if home prices decline 10% or 20% more, we are in big trouble."

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty finally decided he would have to do something that the Bank of Canada can't, or won't: tighten the availability of easy mortgage financing.

$3.5 Billion erased by buying at the top of the market in 2006 and walking away at the bottom in 2010.

From the Globe and Mail

It's a deal so big and so bad that one observer mused it was the city's worst property transaction since a group of Native Americans were swindled out of the island of Manhattan by Dutch settlers.

That means the investors who put up the original equity among them two California pension funds and the Church of England have seen their investments wiped out. Those who provided money for the mortgages, depending on the level of risk, will also take heavy, and in some cases total, losses. The owners defaulted on their loans, and at the end of January, said they would hand over the property to creditors rather than file for bankruptcy.