According to real estate site Zillow, almost 16 million homeowners owe more on their mortgage than the underlying collateral is worth. At the same time, the LA Times reports that 90% of these underwater homeowners are current on their mortgage payments.
Kudos to Bob Murphy for his incisive exposé and demolition of Krugman’s statistical legerdemain in today’s Mises Daily. It is not only an enlightening piece but also a delightful read.
As the Christian Science Monitor noted, Tokyo Skytree opens as the tallest tower in the world. It is a broadcasting and observation tower and so it does not qualify as a skyscraper and therefore it does not signal a global economic crisis. However, with regional records being set in the Pacific Rim, China, India, and Europe as well as a new world record skyscraper in development in Saudi Arabia it reinforces the warning signals from the Skyscraper Index.
Peter Boettke has an excellent commentary over at Coordination Problem, “Is This How the Myth of the Laissez Faire Herbert Hoover Was Invented?”. He concludes, “Herbert Hoover was as much of a laissez faire president as Barack Obama has been or the leaders in Europe have been. From a free market perspective, the steps taken since 2007 have turned a market correction into an economy wide crisis and then a global crisis.
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Warren Buffet’s father Howard was a great member of the Old Right. From the Rothbard archives, here at LvMI, here is a letter from Howard to Rothbard. Robert Wenzel has a great analysis of this:
