Lower Loan Limits Coming: Muted Impact?
Saturday, July 2nd, 2011 Posted in Micro News | No Comments »A study released by George Washington University reveals that the Federal Housing Association’s (FHA) current loan limits are larger than necessary to serve its targeted market of first-time and low to moderate income borrowers.
“Just Say No” to Corn and The Ethanol Hustlers
Monday, June 7th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »There is a real danger that Congress will remain oblivious to the economic and scientific realities of ethanol and take us down the wrong path by mandating a huge increase in ethanol production. Washington might have a love affair ...
Want Some Cheap Oil? We’ve Got Lots in the U.S.
Sunday, June 6th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »With oil prices hitting record levels above $100 a barrel, the economy in either a slowdown or recession, and with Venezuela threatening to end oil exports to the United States and Nigeria's oil production held hostage to internal strife, the ...
Fiscal Policy: Too Little, Always Too Late
Monday, May 31st, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »"The history of anti-recession efforts is that they are almost always initiated too late to do any good. The chart above (click to enlarge), based on recession timelines from the National Bureau of Economic Research, shows the enactment of stimulus ...
Price Controls Lead to Empty Shelves in Zimbabwe
Monday, May 31st, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »NY Times: Robert G. Mugabe has ruled over this battered nation (Zimbabwe), his every wish endorsed by Parliament and enforced by the police and soldiers, for more than 27 years. It appears, however, that not even an unchallenged autocrat can ...
Farming: The Most Pampered, Protected and Subsidized Industry in America
Sunday, May 30th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »The farm legislation proceeding through Congress symbolizes much of what's wrong with Washington. It's government by inertia. We do today what we did yesterday, because politicians draw their power from distributing benefits and various interest groups feel entitled to receive ...
Mandatory High School Econ Test for Congress?
Monday, May 24th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »From today's WSJ's editorial "The Kids Are All Right" NAEP reported this week that 79% of twelfth graders passed the first-ever national economics test. Holy Hayek. The test included technical questions on price floors, opportunity cost, and the supply curve. One question ...
Remember: The Government Has No Money to Give
Monday, May 24th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »Appearing before Congress, Mr. Bernanke told Democrats what he thought they wanted to hear. The former academic economist blessed a "fiscal stimulus package," as long as it is "explicitly temporary." How new federal spending can be "temporary," he didn't say, ...
ECN 101: If You Tax Something, You Get Less of It
Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »Leave it to the Democratic majority in Congress to fight rising gas prices and growing dependence on foreign oil by imposing a windfall-profits tax on U.S. petroleum companies, while refusing to let them tap America's vast oil and gas reserves ...
Investigate Big Congress, Not Big Oil
Friday, May 21st, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »The simple fact is that the prices of oil and gasoline are determined by supply and demand—which neither private oil companies nor speculators have any power to dictate in their favor. If they had such market mastery, then why didn't ...
