WHAT WILL THE SLUMP TEACH US?

Hopefully there is some knowledge to be gained by thiseconomic slump. A hefty 76% of GlobeSt.com readers believe we'lllearn that we're just in another cycle. Almost a quarter of you(23%) think it's too early to tell what will happen and only aminiscule 1% of you assume the industry will be invincible afterthis. Peter Hauspurg, chairman of Eastern Consolidated was niceenough to give us his opinion on this week's poll.

"The lessons from the slump will be forgotten as soon as themoney comes back. It really is too early to tell. We're justgetting into it. People want to know when we'll hit the bottom andI'm always asked, is that bottom here or not? I hope it endstomorrow. It feels like the train wreck is just sort of starting.Once money is poured back into this industry, lenders will lend andbuilders will build. Now that we don't have anything to lend thedevelopers are stopping.