The mortgage servicing abuses continue: by Yves Smith Repeated Foreclosures on an On-Time Borrower Demonstrates Failure to Fix Servicing and Fallacy of “Save Banks at All Costs” Policy It was obvious at the time of the various mortgage “settlements” that the Administration’s policy was to make only cosmetic fixes in a badly broken servicing […]
The stock market has reached stall speed. What is a stall speed? “An aircraft flying at its stall speed cannot climb, and an aircraft flying below its stall speed cannot stop descending. Any attempt to do so by increasing angle of attack, without first increasing airspeed, will result in a stall.” (wikipedia) What does it […]
28% of US Labor is expected to hold low-wage jobs in 2020 according to the EPI and is the same percentage as what existed in 2010. While real median hourly wages on average dropped 2.8% for all occupations between 2009 and 2012, lower wage occupations saw a much larger drop of 5% or more for […]
I see that the low productivity in the United Kingdom is still a mystery. (WSJ article by Paul Hannon). Since the beginning of 2013, productivity in the UK has been stalled. Last week I posted a model of effective demand that showed how productivity stalls at the effective demand limit. This model is new and […]
‘Food desert’ is not a common idea on people’s minds, but we also tend to say “Let them eat cake” when it comes to obesity. Michael Pollan suggests: Stay out of the middle of the supermarket; shop on the perimeter of the store. It is not just what you eat but how you eat. “Always […]
No sooner do I comment on the difference between tax planning and tax avoidance than Richard Murphy points out that several multinational corporations are having their tax deals looked at for potential violations of the European Union’s state aid rules. As The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal report, there are three cases currently under […]
Tyler Cowen has a post at the New York Times about how war can rejuvenate the economy in various ways. We need to be very careful not to jump on him and accuse him of being a war-monger. I remember when many people jumped on me for recommending a recession based on Christina Romer’s speech. […]
by David Zetland (re posted from Aguanomics) Who has the right to leaked water? SM sent this question a few months ago: My thesis is about conjunctive water use and the hydrologic externalities that arise from a change in water use (e.g., increased irrigation efficiency or canal lining). I am focusing in the canal seepage/lining […]
(Dan here) Ceres has published a recent report on growing corn for ethanol costs-relating to water use, where corn is grown, and why. The report includes the impact on global food prices. David Zetland at Aguanomics points us to a growing concern about the increasing use of natural gas (and fracking). Is natural gas the next […]
by Joseph Joyce The ECB’s Daunting Task Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank, and the members of the ECB’s Governing Council are receiving praise for the initiatives they announced last week to avoid deflation (see here and here). The immediate impact of the announcement was a rise in European stock prices. But the […]