If others have suggested this I missed it. Dave Schuler makes an excellent point about demographics and personal consumption. There are about 80,000,000 Baby Boomers, those born in the post-war generation over the 19 year period between 1946 and 1965. Divided by 19 that comes to about 4.2 million per year on average. That means […]
Archive for August, 2010
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Is It Time To Relax Frannie’s Underwriting Criteria?
Posted by Tom Lindmark on August 29th, 2010
Like Felix Salomon, I’m left a bit puzzled by the statements Joe Nocera makes in his piece in the NYT today with regard to the housing market. He suggests, without offering any specifics, that more homes would be going into the hands of investors were it not for government policies that makes it difficult for […]
Tags: The Latest Round Of Housing Fixes
Posted by Tom Lindmark on August 29th, 2010
If insanity is properly defined as doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results, then the Obama administration would seem to be fairly described as a group of lunatics. Housing Secretary, Ray Donovan, said this morning that they have more tricks up their sleeves to turn around the housing market. According […]
The Climate Change Movement Falls On Hard Times
Posted by Tom Lindmark on August 28th, 2010
Walter Russell Mead has a smart take on the decline in the fortunes of the Green Movement. His summary of the current state of its affairs is a classic: A year ago giddy environmentalists were on top of the world. The greenest president in American history had the largest congressional majority of any president since […]
The Public Pension Monster
Posted by Tom Lindmark on August 28th, 2010
If you missed it, there’s a good opinion piece in the WSJ Friday edition by Arnold Schwarzenegger. It focuses on the California public pension dilemma (catastrophe?). He’s talking his side of the controversy but it’s worth a read. What struck me were two graphs that accompanied the piece. Here they are: Focusing on the second […]
Unemployment: Not A Pretty Picture For Those Who Found Jobs
Posted by Tom Lindmark on August 26th, 2010
Here’s some sobering analysis from the WSJ regarding unemployment: Of the 6.9 million workers who lost jobs during the recession that they’d held for at least three years, only about half were reemployed by January 2010. And 55% of those who did find work were earning less than before. Workers between ages 20 and 54 […]
Mexico’s Civil War Gets Uncomfortably Close
Posted by Tom Lindmark on August 24th, 2010
The war in Mexico is getting a little too close for comfort. From the AP: The first bullets struck El Paso’s city hall at the end of a work day. The next ones hit a university building and closed a major highway. Shootouts in the drug war along the U.S.-Mexico border are sending bullets whizzing across the […]
