Brett Favre’s House
[caption id="attachment_26479" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Former Packers quarterback Brett Favre's home. Corey Wilson/Press-Gazette"][/caption] A story in the print edition of Sports Illustrated on the sale of Brett Favre's house in Green Bay captured my attention. I can't find it online but it appears to have taken its cue from an October 2 piece in the Green Bay Press-Gazette. There’s no “for sale” ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on October 22, 2008 11:46
Financial Crisis and Moral Hazard
Lance Paddock, in his best Mr. Rogers imitation, asks, "Can you say moral hazard?" Unfortunately, the notion of "too big to fail" means that those who behave badly often keep the benefits when things go well but pass off the negative consequences of failure. UPDATE: Via Greg Ransom, I see that Cato's Gerald Driscoll has a good analysis of the proposed Fannie ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 24, 2008 06:15
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Bailout Debacle
The widespread rumors of a government bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have already had dramatic consequences, perhaps creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Iain Dey and Dominic Rushe, writing for The Times of London, note that, "The two companies lost almost half their market value last week as rumours of a government bail-out swept the stock markets, hammering share ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 13, 2008 07:53
Obama’s ‘Sweetheart’ Home Loan
The Manufactured Outrage of the Day comes to us from Joe Stephens and his page A3 piece for today's Washington Post, "Obama Got Discount on Home Loan." Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 2, 2008 15:15
Subsidizing Home Ownership
Ezra Klein jumps on a growing meme the home ownership isn't all it's cracked up to be and that the government should stop subsidizing it. He points to Paul Krugman, who argues in today's NYT that it's time to rethink our decades-long bipartisan consensus that home ownership should be encouraged. While everyone stresses the advantages of owning ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 23, 2008 13:32
President of the United States: Chief Job Placement Official
It's not change when he offers four more years of Bush economic policies that have failed to create well-paying jobs,… --Barack Obama, Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: Final Primary Night I heard that and the first thought that went through my head was, “Since when did the President of the United States become in charge of placing people in well paying jobs?” ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 5, 2008 22:33
Economic Hysteria
Alan Reynolds over at the Cato Institute puts the current financial crisis into perspective, and notes that the current financial crisis isn't nearly as a bad as many people seem to thing. Media hysteria over the mortgage crisis is almost certainly misleading countless people about prospects for the real economy. The US economy is likely in recession. Yet even that conclusion may ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 14, 2008 11:58
McCain the Interventionist
I've long thought that American politics and the fact that we have an activist/interventionist government when it comes to economic policy leads to a race to see who can pander the most to voters, or at least a sub-class of voters. John McCain's new "plan" to bail out the greedy and stupid when it comes to mortgages is another ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 13, 2008 12:19
Recession, Depression, or Neither?
There's no doubt that the U.S. economy is in a downturn. The cost of petroleum has skyrocketed, creating all manner of ripple effects throughout the economy. The "housing bubble" has burst in several cities and the sub-prime mortgage industry has gone bust, leaving many people upside down in their houses or facing -- or experiencing -- foreclosure. Bear-Stearns sold ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 1, 2008 06:41
Buyers Trashing Houses After Foreclosure
A "significant" number of people are willfully destroying their homes before complying with eviction notices as a means of exacting "revenge" on banks for foreclosing on them. This, in turn, has created a black market cottage industry where bankers bribe people with cash payments for leaving peaceably. Megan McArdle doesn't understand the pointless destruction, observing that it's "hardly the bank's ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on March 29, 2008 08:14
