Before the 2007 housing bust, financial analysts who raised questions about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s shaky finances were dismissed as cranks. So it’s worrying to see a thoughtful critique of another taxpayer-backed monolith—the Federal Housing Administration—receive a similar brush-off. The flap centers around an American Enterprise Institute paper “Is FHA the Next Housing Bubble?” by Wharton real-estate finance professor Joseph... Read more
Archive for the ‘Debt’ Category
Italy’s Debt: A Hangover From Joining Euro
November 17 | Posted by mrossol | Debt, Economics Tags: EuropeBy MATTHEW DALTON European authorities are treating Italy’s debt problems as the product of a dysfunctional political culture. The chorus from Brussels and Frankfurt is that dispassionate technocrats, armed with help and advice from the euro zone, are needed to introduce essential reforms into a hidebound economic system. But a closer look at the numbers reveals Italy’s heavy debt burden isn’t a... Read more
Who Would Bail Out the European Central Bank?
August 31 | Posted by mrossol | American Thought, Debt, EconomicsAnd who is talking about this? ============== By BENN STEIL AND PAUL SWARTZ Week after week, market watchers hang on the German chancellor’s every pronouncement about the euro-zone’s debt travails, so one might be forgiven for thinking that Germany has been propping up the whole troubled enterprise. In fact, the European Central Bank has for the past 15 months been manning the front... Read more
Stocks Hit by Obama Oration – WSJ.com
August 10 | Posted by mrossol | Debt, Liberal Press, Obama, The LeftThe Left cannot see it… ================ By JAMES FREEMAN Ever since Watergate, Washingtonians have responded to every political scandal by saying that “It’s not the crime; it’s the cover-up.” Perhaps they should develop a corollary for budget disasters: “It’s not the downgrade; it’s the White House reaction.” Stock-market historians may soon be debating which did more to drive yesterday’s sell-off: the Friday decision of... Read more
