A word to the wise.. ======== By Matthew Lynn LONDON (MarketWatch) — Much like Greece, Hungary was one of those small, slightly peripheral countries that most people in the financial markets probably thought they could get through a career without ever worrying about very much. With a population of slightly less than 10 million, and with a total gross domestic product of less than... Read more
Archive for the ‘Economics’ Category
Chinese Foreign Aid to USA
December 5 | Posted by mrossol | American Thought, EconomicsEconomist Mark J. Perry at american.com, Dec. 2: Let me break from [the] consensus about China’s currency policy and present an alternative position: In the best of all possible worlds for the United States, China would use its labor and capital to manufacture consumer products like clothing, footwear, furniture, electronics, and appliances and send $300 billion worth of these products to... Read more
The United States of EPA
December 1 | Posted by mrossol | Economics, Environment, The LeftIf you can’t legislate, let the EPA do it… ======== Here’s one good way to consider the vote in 2012: It’s about whether to re-elect President Lisa Jackson, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, which these days runs most the U.S. economy. The EPA heaved its weight against another industry this month, issuing a regulation to sharply increase fuel economy. Under this... Read more
What Housing Risk?
December 1 | Posted by mrossol | Debt, EconomicsBefore 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
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
