Best Business Commentary

How not to alienate your job network

Networking is important, but many “unemployed people make networking missteps, prolonging a job hunt,” says Joann Lublin in The Wall Street Journal. First of all, don’t publicly trash-talk your old employer—generally, “broadcasting bad news about your job is a bad idea.” Another “common flub” is inappropriate name-dropping—your prospective employer might dislike the person. If you’ve ignored past entreaties from a potential job contact, apologize before asking for a job. And keep in mind, networking “is supposed to be mutually beneficial,” so offer help while you ask for it.

How far down is the housing floor?

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“Until they are more affordable, houses won’t sell,” says Irwin Kellner in MarketWatch, and prices have a long way to fall. From 1984 to 2000, “when lots of homes were bought,” housing prices were 2.8 times the size of median family incomes. Now they are 3.5 times higher, and it is a 20 percent fall in prices to get back to 2.8. If you think that’s too steep a drop, you’re “ignoring how fast home prices rose in the first half of this decade,” doubling in most parts of the country. “Sellers could always hold the line and wait for family incomes to rise,” but they’ll have to wait awhile. In the meantime, people will buy only “if the price is right.”