Archive for June, 2009
« Previous Entries401k Investment Education
Submitted by Businomics Blog
In my spare time I’ve been working on a start-up business in investment education, initially focusing on helping employees learn about their 401k plans. Our new website is now up and running: www.abcInvesting.com. (Some features are not yet operational.) Take a look and let me know what you think. There’s lots of [...]
The Newest Data on Foreign Exchange Reserves
Submitted by Econbrowser
The IMF has released its estimates for 2009Q1 reserves (COFER data). Below I update and extend my recent post on the dollar as a reserve currency.
Figure 1: US dollar (blue, right scale), US dollar plus 60% of unallocated reserves (green, right scale), and log nominal value of US dollar against major currencies (red, [...]
Housing Affordabilty Index: 7.2 Point Drop in May From Rising Home Prices: Market Reached Bottom?
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
The National Association of Realtors’ Housing Affordability Index remained high in May (171.6%) by historical standards (see chart above, data here), but fell by 7.2 percentage points from April’s record high of 178.8%, mostly because of the increase in the median home price from $166,000 in April to $172,900 in May.
The [...]
Banking Fact of the Day
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Number of bank failures this year so far: 45 (FDIC data here, click on “Produce Report”).
Total Assets of the 45 failed banks: $36.965 billion
Total Bank Assets of All 8,246 FDIC-insured banks: $13.542 trillion (data here)
Failed Bank Assets as a Percent of Total Bank Assets: .27% (or about 1/4 of 1%)
Bottom Line: The [...]
New Vanguard Economic Momentum Index: Economic Recovery is Near, Recession May Be Over
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
The general improvement in global financial conditions since March has fostered a marked improvement in investor sentiment and led many to inquire when (rather than if) the current U.S. recession will end. Increasingly, market commentary has focused on evidence of “green shoots” that would suggest the rate of economic deterioration is at [...]
Markets in Everything: Backyard Urban Farming
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
MyFarm was started by Trevor Paque, a young mortgage broker, who decided in 2007 to get out of the office and take up farming. Hardly a new idea, but Paque took a new approach. His business plan called for building, planting, and harvesting vegetable gardens in small overgrown, weed-infested patches of soil [...]
Persistent Myths and Fictions in Feminist Scholarship: The “Scholarly” Merchants of Hype
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Over the years, the feminist fictions have made their way into public policy. They travel from the women’s-studies textbooks to women’s advocacy groups and then into news stories. Soon after, they are cited by concerned political leaders. President Obama recently issued an executive order establishing a White House Council on Women and [...]
Cedar Rapids, Iowa; One Year Later
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Sorry for the light posting over the last few days - I’ve been on a road trip since Saturday, and for the last 24 hours or so many of the Blogger blogs have been unable to accept new posts (it’s still not fixed yet, I found a way around it). And I’m [...]
Quote of the Day
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.
~Margaret Thatcher
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Bondage in the Bond Age: A California View
Submitted by unsettling economics
In the midst of the Bush-Obama balance sheet bailout, one group stands out in its importance — bondholders. I know — a couple of times some bondholders have had to take a haircut to protect other investors.
Here in California, with our $24 billion deficit, it seems like nothing — absolutely nothing — [...]
New Papers on International Finance: Crises, Puzzles, and Exchange Rates and
Submitted by Econbrowser
Summertime is conference season, especially for those of us who don’t live close to a major airport hub. The first conference I attended was the NBER’s International Seminar on Macroeconomics, co-organized by Lucrezia Reichlin and Ken West. The conference was broken up into several sections: Financial Crises, International Economic Puzzles, Exchange Rates and [...]
VALUE JUDGMENTS
Submitted by The Capital Spectator
It’s been a tough year for value stocks. Is that surprising? No, although it reminds that Mr. Market prices certain slices of the equity market differently throughout the business cycle.
For the year through June 26, the rebound in equities has been powered mostly by growth stocks, according to Russell indices. As [...]
Credit Default Swaps: Self Regulating?
Submitted by Businomics Blog
One common proposal for the new financial regime is regulation of credit default swaps. A CDS is like life insurance on a bond. (Here’s my simple explanation, and my view of what went wrong with CDSs.) A good example of a call for regulation is an article by my friend Bert Ely, [...]
THE GREAT EXPERIMENT BEARS FRUIT…SO FAR
Submitted by The Capital Spectator
One day we’ll look back on 2009 and wonder what all the confusion was about. All will become clear and we’ll know when the recession ended, when the bull market began anew and how and why the cycle turned. Meanwhile, we’re wondering if the data du jour can be trusted.
Judging by [...]
On grilling the Fed Chair
Submitted by Econbrowser
I got a bit angry at accounts of the latest appearance of Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke before the U.S. Congress.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
Bernanke faced open hostility from lawmakers who barraged him during a Congressional hearing over his handling of the financial crisis and the central bank’s role in reshaping the banking [...]
Links for 2009-06-26
Submitted by Econbrowser
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has put together some very useful timelines of the financial crisis, if you want a handy reference for what happened when in both the United States and around the world.
The BEA reported that disposable personal income increased 1.6% between April and May. In the absence of [...]
New Financial Regulations: Trying to Fix Self-Correcting Problems
Submitted by Businomics Blog
In the midst of the banking crisis, the Obama administration is considering sweeping financial regulations. But before fixing problems with a sledgehammer, let’s assess which of these problems have fixed themselves. It turns out that many of the private sector errors that helped trigger the financial crisis are not going to be [...]
Home Prices and Consumer Spending
Submitted by Businomics Blog
Some friends have been debating the role of housing prices in consumer spending, stimulated by two recent articles in the Wall Street Journal’s Real Time Economics blog. First, Charles Calomiris, Stanley Longhofer and William Miles wrote that effect of housing wealth on consumption is about zero. Then, Atif Mian and Amir Sufi [...]
More on the Male-Female SAT Math Test Gap
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
It’s well known that for the SAT mathematics test, a) male high school students in the U.S. have higher scores on average than females, b) the gap is large and statistically significant (+30 points), and c) the male-female math test score gap has persisted over time, since at least 1971, and probably [...]
Chart of the Day: Med. Equipment, Canada vs. U.S.
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Source: Fraser Institute
“Advocates of single-payer health care systems tend to promote the allegedly lower monetary costs, but they ignore the lack of access to medical resources,” said Brett Skinner, Fraser Institute Director of Health, Pharmaceutical and Insurance Policy Research and lead author of the peer-reviewed study: “The Hidden Costs of Single [...]
Reason.tv: Obama Care
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Reason.tv
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Reason.tv: What If Government Ran Health Care?
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Reason.tv
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New Blogs
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
News from 1930: A daily summary based upon news from the Wall Street Journal from the corresponding day in 1930.
John Stossel’s Take: ABC News’ Co-Anchor of “20/20″ offers his libertarian views on the economy, education, health care and politics.
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ECRI Leading Index: First Pos. Growth in 22 Months
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
NEW YORK, June 26 (Reuters) - A gauge of future U.S.economic growth rose, and its yearly growth rate turned positive, raising hopes that the end of the recession is insight, a research group said today. The Economic Cycle Research Institute, a New York-based independent forecasting group, said its Weekly Leading Index (WLI) [...]
Milton Friedman on The Phil Donahue Show, 1979
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Part 2 here.
Part 3 here. (Starting at about 1:00 in this segment is the famous part where Milton Friedman “schools” Phil on “greed.”)
Part 4 here.
Part 5 here.
In 1979, Milton Friedman appeared on The Phil Donahue Show and discussed The Great Depression, the New Deal, the auto industry, auto (Chrysler) bailouts, greed, [...]
