It's happening fast and furious now. It's starting to feel like late summer 2008 IMHO. All 50 state Attorneys General are now involved in a joint investigation. JP Morgan Chase drops it's use of MERS (see Part 4). And Citi circulates a research note from a Professor that suggests the problems are much deeper than … Continue reading High Noon: Banks vs. The Law – Part 8
Day: October 13, 2010
High Noon: Banks vs. The Law (Mortgage Foreclosures) – Part 7
I know the story is getting old. This is my 7th post on the subject, but it is snowballing and casting a huge shadow on the economy. The potential exists to freeze mortgage/housing markets for a few years, run up legal costs into the hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars, and even, potentially … Continue reading High Noon: Banks vs. The Law (Mortgage Foreclosures) – Part 7
High Noon: Banks vs. The Law (Mortgage Foreclosures) – Part 6
Felix Salmon starts to bring out why the foreclosure mess is much bigger, and potentially much messier, than the banks or politicians are letting onto now. In The enormous mortgage-bond scandal: You thought the foreclosure mess was bad? You’re right about that. But it gets so much worse once you start adding in a whole bunch of … Continue reading High Noon: Banks vs. The Law (Mortgage Foreclosures) – Part 6
The Economy: Back to the Future, only Worse
Regular readers and my students in class can probably detect a distinct pessimism in my comments on the U.S. economic prospects. They are right. I am pessimistic. Not necessarily because things have to be gloomy (they don't - there are alternative policies), but because I just don't see the politics allowing such policies. Instead, we … Continue reading The Economy: Back to the Future, only Worse
Economics is an Odd Social Science
From Reviving Economics: (mainstream) Economics may be the only social science where when human behavior doesn't fit the model, humanity is blamed for the failure to conform to it rather than the model being required to explain the behavior.
Nobel Memorial Prize Winners: Mortensen, Diamond, and Pissarides
The 2010 winners of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (often incorrectly called the Nobel Prize for Economics) are Peter Diamond, Dale Mortensen, and Christopher Pissarides. They did work on search models, labor markets, and unemployment. In particular, their work helps explain why even when there are more job openings … Continue reading Nobel Memorial Prize Winners: Mortensen, Diamond, and Pissarides
High Noon: Banks vs. The Law (Mortgage Foreclosures) – Part 5
Ok, continuing the series on the mortgage foreclosure crisis here. For background on the legal side of the problem see Part 1 and for a humorous look by Jon Stewart at the crisis see Part 2. For a clue to how the problems may be far more serious than the mere "paperwork glitches" that the … Continue reading High Noon: Banks vs. The Law (Mortgage Foreclosures) – Part 5
Hamilton Explains Why Deflation Is Bad
James Hamilton at Econbrowser explains why deflation is bad:. It is also quite clear to me that deflation-- an increase in the number of goods you can buy with an individual dollar-- can be even more destructive. Since this may be less obvious to many readers, let me review some of the reasons why I … Continue reading Hamilton Explains Why Deflation Is Bad
High Noon: Banks vs. The Law (Mortgage Foreclosures) – Part 4
We start to get at the root of the problems in the foreclosure crisis with this article from the Washington Post. Essentially, the big banks decided that in the 1990's that the existing laws governing real estate transactions and deed recording were inconvenient. They thought they had a better way. But rather than pushing for … Continue reading High Noon: Banks vs. The Law (Mortgage Foreclosures) – Part 4
EconProph 