It’s still not “free trade” in a sense anyone but the self-delusional Greg Mankiw could describe it, but there are some gains accruing to China. As the Chinese economy moves from agriculture to producing more goods and services, two things have happened. Energy demand has gone up: And people have been able to afford services […]
Is there a sane purpose to this? As long as more homeowners default on mortgages, losses to financial institutions will mount. Those losses already exceed $400 billion, and some analysts believe they will top $1 trillion before the housing carnage is over. By comparison, Congress has authorized $650 billion so far to fight the Iraq […]
The best comment I’ve seen on a blog in a long time. That is why he gets the big bucks.
The editors of the WSJ agree with Brad DeLong that the Fannie/Freddie problem is that their short-term cash flows may be(come) impaired: The most immediate danger is that investors will shrink from rolling over the debt of the two companies, leading to a run a la Bear Stearns….With so much on the line, we’ve been […]
Go. Read. Express Sympathy. Suggest he to donate the speaking fee to CEPR or the EPI.
John Carney at Dealbreaker notes the official reason the White House prefers that the government takeover Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: The reason the Bush administration is leaning toward bringing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship rather than backstopping the two home mortgage companies is that concern about moral hazard problem. Bailing out Fannie […]
So the good news yesterday (h/t Felix) is that, even as he was voting to eviscerate the Fourth Amendment, Barack Obama urged a change to bankruptcy law. The devil is in the details (the “median cost” of a home in NY State won’t keep anyone living in their house in Westchester or even Rockland County, […]
In honor of this post (from another blog whose political posts I’ve stopped reading; Hilzoy is in good company*), I have decided today to shave off my beard and mustache.** After all, David (“Axis of Evil”) Frum is always right, as John Holbo originally documented: This sentiment or intuition or feeling (whatever you call it) […]
From me, at least, goes to Hilzoy and the off-my-reading-list-for-politics Obsidian Wings: while I’d ordinarily assume that economists signing on to “John McCain’s plan” were signing on to the actual document he had released, the fact that those 300 names were released within hours made me wonder whether all of them had had a chance […]
I don’t like talking about stocks. I believe the market is rigged, that the allocations do not favor the investor who is not also a senior executive of the company and/or a member of the Board of Directors, and that reported profits and losses on a quarterly basis is a lousy way to run a […]