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Lucas van Praag is enjoying himself: “It is preposterous that The WSJ would even consider publishing such effluent.” — WSJ
Jürgen Habermas says he’s not on Twitter. Shame — Jonathan Stray
“Propping up house prices is now an explicit goal of the US government” — FT
Real estate bubbles are more dangerous than stock-market bubbles. Thankfully, they’re also easier to spot — Dsquared
Very pretty country-by-country CO2 emissions chart — Junk Charts
Identity cards on the internet? Maybe it’s a better idea than it sounds — Time
Index social security to the number of kids you have — Economist
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“Propping up house prices is now an explicit goal of the US government” — FT
Isn’t part of the financial meltdown caused by overheated real estate market? Buyers over-borrowed, and banks over-lent, and houses went up to levels unsupported by facts on the ground?
So why aren’t we trying to bring real estate price DOWN closer to their real value? Why isn’t the government trying to encourage mortgage re-negotiation, so distressed owners have both the means and the incentives to keep paying, instead of walking away or being foreclosed on? Why not give banks both carrots for renegotiating and sticks for not doing it? My friend and I were puzzling over this last summer and couldn’t understand why government wasn’t doing this, as it was fairly obvious (if we could see the solution and we don’t presume to be especially smart, surely the government experts understood it too). I’m still puzzled.
Artificially propping up price might work if the problem was not so severe; but with the massive scale of over-heated real estate market, it won’t work. In fact, such tactic is nothing more than gimmickry and serves to only prolong the illness, suppressing symptoms without addressing the cause. It kicks the can down the road, while the market languishes and zombie banks run amok. Oh gosh, we are so not out of the woods!
Identity cards on the Internet – no, no, and no. Here’s why. http://wp.me/pJhAL-2z.