While the Unknown Professor may have a more favorable view of how Andrew McCarthy interpreted this Wall Street Journal story than I did, I agree with his statement: While a violation of insider trading laws requires a number of criteria to be met … at the minimum it requires that an insider initiate the trades […]
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports that the starter rate for the one year Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) is now over 5% for the first time since early 2002. Click on graph for larger image. The above chart uses the month end rates as reported by the MBA. Interest rates bottomed in May/June 2003 and […]
I ask simply because of this statement: The weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) indicates that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist appears to have a very good defense to suspicions about whether he traded on inside information in selling his HCA stock. Specifically, there is a paper trail showing he set his […]
NPR recently ran a story about the proposal to increase the nominal price of a stamp from $0.37 to $0.39 noting that this approximately 5% increase will be the first increase since mid-2002. Before Donald Luskin starts wondering about tax increases versus prices increases again, let’s consult with this source for a history of nominal […]
Lawrence Kudlow defends President Bush’s decision to use Federal funds to address the aftermath of Katrina. While I also applaud the President’s decision, a couple of Kudlow’s arguments strike me as absurd: Bush knows, even if others have forgotten, that the terrorists are carefully watching the U.S. government’s response to the natural disasters in New […]
Some of the first signs of Katrina’s effects on the US’s national economic statistics were contained in this morning’s release of the estimates of August personal income and spending. From the news release: Personal income decreased $5.3 billion, or 0.1 percent, and disposable personal income (DPI) decreased $7.4 billion, or 0.1 percent, in August, according […]
Byron York tries to paint Mr. Earle as a prosecutor who abuses his business to shake down companies such as Sears: A grand jury in Travis County, Texas, last September indicted eight corporations in connection with the DeLay investigation. All were charged with making illegal contributions (Texas law forbids corporate giving to political campaigns). Since […]
Tyler Cowen has an interesting theory as to the “economics of magazines” as an explanation as to why the National Review has such incredibly dumb op-eds from their econopundits: Most popular political magazines live and die by direct mail. The “burn rate” of non-renewals is very high, and either advertisers or donors will care about […]
As the Commerce Department confirmed that real GDP grew at an annualized rate of 3.3% during the second quarter of 2005, this AP story is suggesting that growth will slow for the rest of the year: The 3.3 percent growth rate for the April-to-June quarter was unchanged from an estimate made a month ago. That […]
I wish to say well done to two conservatives. First, Arnold Kling was also offended by this National Review nonsense. The other well done goes to the National Review for more wisdom and honesty from Bruce Bartlett: I was asked to testify before a hearing of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee. I made it clear […]