Facing the potentially insurmountable challenge of a slow economic recovery in an election year, Democrats have looked for …
housing
January Jobs Report: Good News for the Economy, Bad News for the Pessimists
Some Obama opponents are struggling to find a cloud in the silver lining of January’s jobs numbers, which estimated that there was a 243,000-job boost and a big drop in the unemployment rate, from 8.5% to 8.3%, last month. …
The Gaping Hole in Obama’s Economic Plan: Housing
Obama’s plan for boosting the economy may seem huge—he proposed $447 billion in tax breaks and spending in his speech on Thursday night—but according to some economists, none of it will work until the problem that caused the …
The Real American Crisis: Housing
While everyone focuses on the pathetic, dangerous political theater of the fabricated debt ceiling crisis, here’s a crisis that is actually responsible for the stunted recovery. Bank of America has joined Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase and others in bulldozing homes to reduce the housing supply. It is the latest indication of how desperate …
There Shouldn’t Be an Expensive Home Entitlement
David Streitfeld of The New York Times is a terrific reporter (just ask Joe Klein). For several years now, he has done terrific work on the slow and painful collapse of the housing bubble. This piece, which leads the Times today, strikes me as good news—even though it is going to cause some heartache for folks trying to buy and sell in …
Florida Loses Its Mind. Again.
If you think that Snooki has relationship problems because of overly strict drinking laws, or that the Bernie Madoff story is a cautionary tale about overly intrusive financial regulation, you’re probably a Florida politician. Because the geniuses who run the state have decided that its economic distress is the result of overly strict …