It has value for sure. Plenty of rec room space, nice neighbours and a prudent but comfortable lot size. It is a 1960s bungalow. Just like the 1960s bungalow I lived in when I was in kindergarten except it is not semi-detached. But what is it worth? The tax assessment says it has gone from 90% of the purchase price while the newspapers say it is likely worth a little more than we paid in 2006 but a little less than it might have sold for in early 2008. While it has the mystery of the furnace, the windows are tight, the shingles are new and the sinks don't leak. But what is it worth? People ask that sort of thing these days, some more than others:

Housing starts are down sharply across the country - by 11 per cent in January to 153,000, on a seasonally adjusted annual rate basis, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said yesterday. Total urban starts are now down more than 40 per cent from a year ago. In Alberta, a willingness to take on more risk in good times may help explain why numbers are now shooting in the other direction, said David Bromwich, Calgary-based bankruptcy trustee. "We had a phenomenal rise in real estate in Alberta, and also we've enjoyed a very, very healthy - perhaps overblown - economy in Alberta for years now. There's been a pervasive feeling that the sun would never set. Well, it just did."

First, I hate a gloater but during that time of the eternal day, we endured unending superiority from certain sectors over Alberta being more blessed and therefore more worthy. I trust the opposite is the accepted wisdom with those same coat-tailers and carpet-baggers. Or should it be? Are we not all victims? Maybe we are all not victims of anything so much as people who have replaced hockey stick shaped graphs of one sort or another for goat entrails. Second, Jay makes a very good point in yesterdays comments which can be distilled into the idea that "worth is value" or "handsome is as handsome does" or some other such pithy quip.

Obama made something of the same point yesterday evening during his press conference. He was quite open that all of this is about confidence, not wealth. But wealth follows confidence. And confidence comes from a pay cheque and employment creates pay cheques. Dividends follow pay cheques and employment. I have no issue with any of this. I also like the use of bully pulpit in this headline as it captures the moment well. "Bully pulpit" is not a reference to the schoolyard bully but is akin to "bully for you!" It is a call to confidence. That requires recognition of what is real and what is false. Bubble economies are false. Unregulated fanciful securities are false and perhaps even unconscionable transactions needing voiding by law. A good roof overhead is true as are reward for work and vegetables in the garden and canned goods in the cold room.

Unrelated update: I had no idea I was taken to be posting anonymously, especially as my name is to the right. h/t Flea.