Rumors of the housing market’s demise are probably premature. Yes, inventories are rising and price appreciation has slowed – and even some small price declines have been reported in Boston and anecdotally in San Diego. Also activity has slowed in some areas, like Northern California. But overall, inventories are still in line with a healthy […]

Actually, I suspect that Iain Murray failed to read the post by Andrew Samwick before Iain wrote: The aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita have proved a massive breeding ground for what former OECD Chief Economist David Henderson has termed “Do-it-Yourself Economics” (DIYE), which he defines as “firmly held intuitive economic ideas and beliefs which […]

Jesselee captures Congresswoman’s Jean Schmidt’s comments in full. Let’s focus on one sentence each from her original rant v. her retraction. From the rant: He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message, that cowards cut and run, Marines never do. From the retraction: Mr. Speaker, my remarks were not directed at any member […]

Whereas President Bush has praise for the small reduction in overall spending passed by the House arm-twisting hoping to reduce aid for the poor and education, he objects when the Senate sprinkles in a few energy tax increases to partially offset the tax cut extensions dubbed by Senator Santorum as the Tax Increase Prevention Act. […]

While Kash covers some recent revelations about the 2001 Cheney energy task force, James Hamilton designs an exam essay question: Sometimes I like to base exam questions for my students on recent news. Here’s an exam question to see how thoroughly students understand the economic issues associated with today’s allegations about oil companies and the […]

It seems the war between sensible moderate Republicans and their rightwing party leaders insures that government spending will not be reduced. Arlen Specter wanted to slash pork barrel spending, which alas angered the conservatives who only pretend to be fiscally responsible: Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), has angered colleagues facing reelection in 2006 by cutting $1 […]

Interestingly, Bush and Cheney seem to be quite willing to alienate independent and moderate voters. Cheney says that people who question the administration’s handling of Iraq intelligence before the US invasion are “dishonest and reprehensible“, while Bush calls those who criticise his decision to go to war when they first supported it “irresponsible“. It turns […]

CNN/Money suggests that the evidence for the end of the national housing boom is… ahem… building: NEW YORK (CNN/Money) – The pace of home building slowed sharply in October as higher mortgage rates began to bite, a government report showed Thursday, in the latest sign that the housing boom may have peaked. Housing starts fell […]

Yesterday PGL provided us with a nice example of how simple theoretical trade models (such as the Stolper-Samuelson model) may tell us little about the actual effects of trade. His post reminded me of another good paper that attempted to take a close look at how the Mexican economy has fared since joining NAFTA: Aaron […]

Karl Rove sent us his chief attack dog tonight: Vice President Dick Cheney added his voice on Wednesday to the chorus of Republican criticism of Democrats who have accused the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence on Iraq, calling it “one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city.” “Some of the […]