The homeownership rate is now back where it was forty years ago. So what did all that federally-subsidized homebuying over the past decade accomplish? There was a lot of malinvestment, and a lot of politically-favored interest groups that got richer, writes Ryan McMaken. This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Clay
Just in case you have any thoughts that people at the Fed might have become slightly less dovish on inflation, rest assured, they have not. Today on Squawk Box on CNBC, Chicago Fed president Charles Evans averred (Pardon the all caps, but that’s how the transcript came in): EVANS: WELL, I THINK EMPLOYMENT GROWTH HAS BEEN VERY GOOD FOR QUITE A
In 2014, the US homeownership rate fell below 65 percent, which means it’s back to where it was during the 1970s and much of the 1990s. Various federal agencies have long made homeownership a priority, and have introduced a bevy of government and quasi-government programs including the GSEs like Fannie Mae, FHA-insured loans, VA-insured loans, the
There’s nothing bad about drilling for oil. And there’s nothing bad about the fact that the industry has created a lot of jobs. It is problematic however, that the industry is highly leveraged and reliant on easy money policies to keep the exploration and drilling going. Similarly, there was nothing bad about building a lot of housing during the
In recent years, home price indices have seemed to proliferate. Case-Shiller, of course, has been around for a long time, but over the past decade, additional measures have been marketed aggressively by Trulia, CoreLogic, and Zillow, just to name a few. Measuring home prices has taken on an urgency beyond the real estate industry because for many,
According to CBC News : The Bank of Canada shocked markets today by cutting its key overnight lending rate by a quarter of a percentage point, citing the economic threat posed by plunging oil prices. The drop in oil prices is unambiguously negative for the Canadian economy,” Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz said in a morning news conference.
At The Daily Caller , Mark Thornton wonders if the Fed has any plan at all, or if it’s just afraid to do anything in the face of such a weak economy: Despite encouraging employment numbers, the Fed has decided not to increase its interest rate, Bloomberg reports . The central bank believes that inflation will run below its two-percent target
The Birth of Korean Cool , by Euny Hong, Picador Press, 2014 Those of us who have reached a certain age remember the late 80s and early 90s when we were told that the Japanese were taking over the world. We bought their cars. We played their video games. We used their technology for pretty much everything. The Japanese were destined for world
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