3. Florida's Deflationary Spiral Continues...

Decision-making patterns in one area have a way of spilling over into others, especially when those decisions involve what, for most of us, will be the largest expenditure in our lifetimes, a home. So it's fascinating to see how the deflationary spiral is playing out in Florida, one of the regions of the country hardest hit by the real estate oversupply and deflationary unwind.

Late last week a piece in the Broward-Palm Beach Times offered a window into the psychology of this deflationary unwind. The attitudes toward real estate evident in this article will almost certainly leave a lasting impression that impacts financial decision-making in other areas.

"Home sales, although higher than last year, are still dismally low, and foreclosures have skyrocketed," the article reported. "Owners saddled with giant mortgages face off against buyers who won't fork over a penny so long as prices keep falling. "Nobody wants to lend, nobody wants to spend, no one's got money," says Joseph Altschul, a local lawyer who's helping many condo buyers sue to get their deposits back."


4. Ideal Vacation: A Heavy Dose of Slow-Wave Sleep

As the secular shift in consumer behavior continues, so too does the shift in aspirational priorities. This is affecting even the vacation market. The point is not that all consumption ceases, or that we store money under our mattresses in bizarre fits of risk aversion, but that both the pace and prioritization of what we consume going forward will change. Where we once favored speed, immediate access and high energy activities, we can now expect to see an increase in aspirations toward slow-paced, private and low-energy activities. The former is associated with positive social mood trends and bull markets, the latter, negative social mood trends and bear markets.

Consider the following article that recently ran on Slate.com, "Sleep Tourism: The world's best places to catch some shut-eye."

The article's final paragraph contains a hefty does of attitudes explained and predicted by socionomics:

"When you think about it, it really shouldn't be that hard to find supersleep. But we have made our homes and cities bad places to sleep, full of the "luxurious discomforts of the rich." Whenever you read about the number of people with insomnia or sleeping problems, it seems like a harsh verdict on the whole state of civilization and a call to return to the snow cave. The tragic figure of our times lies on the world's most pricey mattress, designed with our best science, tossing and turning until the dawn comes in."