Via Brad DeLong, this pretty much speaks for itself: AB

Many thanks to AB for this paper and for posting Chart 6, which was accompanied by this discussion: Taking into account the influence that declining nominal mortgage interest rates have on cash flow affordability leads to a quite different assessment of current home prices than does the simple home-price-to-income ratio. To demonstrate this, we compute […]

After reading Kash’s first housing post, I read the paper he cited, “Are Home Prices the Next Bubble?” (FRBNY Economic Policy Review, Dec 2004). While there is a lot to chew on, I share Kash’s skepticism. In particular, the authors rely heavily on quality adjusted housing prices to reach their conclusion that there is no […]

Johan Goldberg’s latest over at National Review Online had one line I just could not resist: By my very rough guess, since 9/11 National Review Online and National Review have run probably 500 articles from serious scholars to folks like me … The topic was Peter Beinart’s A Fighting Faith, which has received various reviews […]

Stephen Roach is apparently unconvinced by those who argue that there is no housing bubble. From today’s Financial Times (subscription required): Five years after the bursting of the equity bubble, America has done it again. This time, it is the housing bubble. But this speculative excess may be the cruellest bubble of all – and […]

OPEC has decided to cut back on production. OPEC’s official price target is $22-$28 per barrel, yet this decision to cut back production when the price of oil is still above $40 indicates that they actually seem to prefer prices far higher than this official price target. As The Economist puts it, OPEC seems to […]

The November PPI report was released today. It came in a bit above expectations: The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods advanced 0.5 percent in November, seasonally adjusted, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. This increase followed a 1.7-percent gain in October and a 0.1-percent rise in September… […]

Not to turn this into a TV blog, but seriously, in what sense is Jenn more capable than Kevin? (And no, being on the cover of Maxim does not count.) AB

The company that produces Humvee Protective Plates has on its webcite this press release dated August 30, 2004, which noted: Some in Congress have accused the military of being lax in its provision of adequate protection equipment. During an April House Armed Services Committee hearing, Chairman Duncan Hunter (RCA) rebuked Army officials for not moving […]

So Bush is looking for a plan to squander our Social Security retirement funds? The Onion has a plan that the fans of the Seattle Seahawks might rejoice as is not squandered on another tax cut for Bill Gates. OK, the Hawks are a game behind the Packers and the Vikings and tied from the […]