Chart of the Week: Price of a Home in Gold

To allow for some perspective and filter out the "noise" of fluctuations in the value of the dollar, economists often look at the price of an asset in terms of gold, the only other international standard. The chart below shows the median price of a US home in gold, and clearly shows the burst of the housing bubble beginning in 2008 after peaking in 2001:

The following chart is another revealing comparison. It shows the yield spread for Greek bonds.  The basis points difference between German bonds, considered a safe investment, and the bonds of a country in dire financial straits is becoming wider, approaching a full percentage for 2 year bonds.  Greece is therefore facing ruinous expense in refinancing its huge public debt with short term bonds yielding a whopping 10% and long term bonds 8.8%: