A few thoughts on the links here
Notice Michael Tomasky’s calls for higher taxes. He says:
If there is one core attribute that makes Democrats Democrats, it is that they believe in government, which means you have to believe in taxes, which in turn means that you especially believe in taxing the incomes of the rich, which is only logical because, as the depression-era criminal Willie Sutton explained when asked why he robbed banks, "that’s where the money is".
And, that’s exactly why I am not a Democrat – and that goes for a lot of other people as well. People want lower taxes, not higher. Hello? Now, maybe I’m misreading him, but it sounds like ‘soak the rich’ to me. What would be more productive is an end to tax loopholes (including mortgage interest deductions, by the way). But, I see this whole ‘tax the rich’ stuff as a losing political strategy for the reason Tomasky himself later gives.
Some other thoughts: the Toronto real estate piece shows you that Toronto (and Vancouver) are two bubble cities that are way overpriced. The day of reckoning is coming. And then you have the Australian boom time piece. Yet again, I am thinking real estate bubble when I read it.
Last thought: the Worthwhile Canadian Initiative piece doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Can someone explain this one to me, please? Loans create deposits – not the other way around. This is why the Fed has been pushing on a string. So when Nick Rowe says “Changes in the stock of money are always supply-determined, never demand-determined,” I would say “Changes in the stock of credit are always demand-determined more than supply-determined.” And I care a lot more about credit than the money stock when excess reserves are piling up by the hundreds of billions.
- Mississippians Go to Church the Most – Gallup
- Higher Inflation Is a Lousy Cure for Meltdowns: Caroline Baum – Bloomberg.com
- Econbrowser: The new normal
- Alford: My Nominee for Worst Macro Paper, Ever (Courtesy the Feds Ministry of Truth) – naked capitalism
- Hussman Funds – Weekly Market Comment: The Federal Reserve’s Exit Strategy: Unlegislated Bailout of Fannie and Freddie – February 16, 2009
- Kolumne: Münchau – Problemzone Deutschland | FTD.de
- The New Generation Leaving Ireland – BusinessWeek
- Randall Wray: Wall Street Still Doesn’t Get It
- Bashing the rich won’t work for Obama. But other rallying-cries might | Michael Tomasky | Comment is free | The Guardian
- FT.com – Martin Feldstein – Let Greece take a eurozone holiday
- Fed’s Hoenig says fiscal strains pressuring Fed | Reuters
- Big firms drop support for US climate bill | Environment | guardian.co.uk
- Worthwhile Canadian Initiative: Fallacies of composition and decomposition: the supply of money and reserves
- Economy headed for ‘boom-time’ growth: Westpac
- International Real Estate – House Hunting in … Toronto – NYTimes.com
- FT Alphaville – Isabella Kaminska – The US is not a viable concern anymore – Duncan
- Poll: Large majority opposes Supreme Court’s decision on campaign financing – washingtonpost.com
- Wrongfully convicted Colorado man to be paid $4.1 million – latimes.com
- MPC voted 9-0 to halt quantitative easing | Business | guardian.co.uk
- The Big Picture – Deficit Hawks Want New (or double dip) Recession
- American joblessness: Message: we fixed it | The Economist
- On Gold "Bubble," Soros Neglects to Say He’s Been Buying – MarketBeat – WSJ
- Studies: Foreclosures to Keep Pressuring House Prices – WSJ.com
- Keynes can help the eurozone | George Irvin | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk