Archive for March, 2008
Bloomberg
Matt writes: What I’d really like to see Bloomberg do with his career, though, is invest some of his vast wealth in starting up a new policy analysis and advocacy center focused on issues of big cities and urbanism. Outside of the sub-set of urban issues that have to do with inner-city education policy, there’s [...]
North Carolina
Even though I grew up in Raleigh, watching the sleepy capital city turn into one of the nation’s growth juggernauts, it still boggles my mind that the state now has three metropolitan areas among the country’s thirty largest. I’m even more boggled to see that the state may prove decisive in this year’s Democratic primary [...]
Huh?
New Census estimates are out for metropolitan areas. In an attempt to educate its readers, the New York Times goes to an economist at the Dallas Fed for comment: “Last year, job growth in Texas was triple that of the nation, so it wouldn’t be surprising to find that people are choosing to move here, [...]
More on Mortgage Bailouts
It should be clear that I’m coming around on the idea of providing assistance to struggling homeowners, for a number of different reasons. A big one is that the case for concern about moral hazard grows weaker by the day. In looking at McCain’s mortgage assistance plan (which is, basically, there will be none), you [...]
Like Bush, Only More So
I’m trying to figure out McCain’s angle here. As best I can tell, he must figure that offering a mortgage policy solution that’s far stingier than that put forth by one of the least popular presidents in modern times will burnish his maverick image, thus earning him more press cred. And then maybe the press [...]
Tom Tancredo: Enemy of Social Security
Evidence.
Housing Market Update
Yesterday, the new S&P/Case-Shiller Index numbers for January came out, and the picture, nationally, is grim. The 10 and 20 city indexes were both down around 11 percent, year-over-year, which just about matched the drop in the Washington metropolitan area. It’s very important to note, however, that the price decline for the region as a [...]
Trade-offs
Let me first congratulate BeyondDC on putting together a really exciting transit vision for the nation’s capital. His long-range transit plan, like those at Greater Greater Washington, helps to get us thinking about what is possible and achievable. Also, they’re really fun to look at. At some point in the near future, I’ll have more [...]
Too Big to Fail
As a homeowner saddled with loans I can afford, not facing foreclosure, I’d be lying if I said that proposals to help out those who borrowed way too much don’t irk. And at the same time, I don’t mind arguing that it’s right for the Fed to do the things it needs to do to [...]
Density Measures
Austin Contrarian has now put together weighted average densities using Census tracts for most of the nation’s large metro areas. Interesting stuff.