Tuesday, March 17, 2009

A Trillion Here, A Trillion There, and After a While You are Talking Real Money!

A J. Paulson tells me:

"And I can remember when John Kennedy held the budget to $98 billion because
he was unwilling to be the first President to go over the $100 billion limit.
"

You know what? I can too!

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Home loans in the US: the biggest racket since Al Capone?

Willem Buiter, in his Maverecon blog on the FT, has some rather nasty things to save about our fetish of protecting homeowners from foreclosures. Hmmm.

In "Home loans in the US: the biggest racket since Al Capone?" he asks: "What are the costs of foreclosure? Who bears them? Are the private costs smaller than the social costs?"

Professor Buiter is Professor of European Political Economy, London School of Economics and Political Science; former chief economist of the EBRD, former external member of the MPC; adviser to international organisations, governments, central banks and private financial institutions.