Let us first stipulate that houses themselves are unique entities, but similar enough that we can consider them comparable if not fungible. (In this, they are like any financial asset.) Let us further restrict them in acknowledging that there are significant transaction costs: one’s liquidity preference should not prefer housing to, say, cash-equivalents or marketable […]
by Linda Bealecrossposted with Ataxingmatter Inequality as a critical cause of the financial crisis? As readers know, Ataxingmatter is premised on a concept that I have called “democratic egalitarianism.” that This is the idea that sustainable democracy requires forces that push economic and other resources towards a more equal distribution rather than permitting resources to […]
by Dan Crawford I haven’t the time to check it out, but here is a note and link to a Senate bill on offshoring: The Senate is scheduled to vote TODAY on the Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act (S. 3816) to set a time limit for debate and cut off a filibuster. The […]
The Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, and the Bank of Japan are considering further quantitative easing. It’s an explicit statement, as with the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, or implied by the fact that the foreign exchange intervention will eventually be sterilized if the policy rule is not changed, as with the […]
by Linda Bealecrossposted with Ataxingmatter Extending the tax cuts for the wealthy–the discussion continues The New York Times asked me for my views of Robert Samuelson’s recent argument in the Washington Post that extending the tax cuts for the wealthy made sense because they would otherwise cut back their spending, tax cuts for them will […]
Robert Waldmann D. Keith Johnson, a former president of Clayton Holdings, a company that analyzed mortgage pools for the Wall Street firms that sold them, told the [financial crisis inquiry] commission on Thursday that almost half the mortgages Clayton sampled from the beginning of 2006 through June 2007 failed to meet crucial quality benchmarks that […]
by Mike Kimel Unemployment Rates, an International Apples to Apples Comparison Cross posted at the the Presimetrics blog. One of the things we all know about America is that labor laws are more flexible here than in other developed countries, so we have lower unemployment rates than in other countries with relatively more rigid labor […]
From the LA Times op-ed page comes this piece by an entrepreneur: I’m a venture capitalist and an entrepreneur. Over the past three decades, I’ve made both good and bad investments. I’ve created successful companies and ones that didn’t do so well. Overall, I’m proud that my investments have created jobs and led to some […]
Robert Waldmann Majority Whip James E Clyburn proposed extending the Obama tax cuts. Some assert that he means the Bush tax cuts on income under $250,000. I sure hope he means that Obama tax cuts. I have been arguing for some time that the Democrats should propose permenent extension of the Bush cuts on income […]