Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The wonders of academia

›
I became a full professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2001. Among the responsibilities of full professors are (1) to evaluate...
3 comments:
Sunday, August 29, 2010

Did Californians break their contract?

›
Mark Thoma , whom I admire, approvingly posts Michael O'Hare's letter to his students. Professor O'Hare says something that re...
11 comments:
Friday, August 27, 2010

Maybe we are more like Homer Simpson than Spock

›
I saw Juan Carrillo of the USC economics department present a very nice paper testing auction theory using experimental data . The only prob...
Thursday, August 26, 2010

What is the correct downpayment?

›
If required down-payments are too low, we get the nonsense of the past several years. I am reasonably sure zero is too low. If required do...
4 comments:
Tuesday, August 24, 2010

In praise of Lawrence Yun

›
As Robbie Whelen notes in the Wall Street Journal, it could not have been fun to be Lawrence Yun, the National Association of Realtors chie...

No more goosing with tax credits please.

›
The July Existing Home Sales number of 3.8 million units was abysmal--it was 1980s bad. I am guessing that a lot is it is that July gave ba...
Sunday, August 22, 2010

Is housing the best way for low-income people to build wealth?

›
I was thrilled to be invited to the Future of Housing Finance conference held at the Treasury Department and co-sponsored by HUD this week. ...
7 comments:
Friday, August 20, 2010

Rankings

›
The US News rankings of colleges came out the other day, and I will confess that I enjoyed the fact that we at USC moved slightly ahead of U...
2 comments:

Bill Gross' big idea

›
At Tuesday's conference on the Future of Housing Finance, Bill Gross suggested that anyone who was current on a Fannie/Freddie loan shou...
2 comments:
Monday, August 16, 2010

Where should transit $$$ be spent?

›
I flew to Washington today for the big conference on the future of housing finance in the US. When I arrived at Dulles, I checked to see ho...
2 comments:
Saturday, August 14, 2010

What is a renter?

›
Richard Florida , among others, has suggested that the United States overindulges in homeownership, and that rental housing gives flexibilit...
3 comments:
Thursday, August 12, 2010

Silliness

›
I keep running across pieces saying that urban farming can "save" Detroit. Agriculture makes up 1.3 percent of GDP for the Unite...
1 comment:
Tuesday, August 10, 2010

One reason why Steven Slater might have lost it

›
I was listening to the inimitable Larry Mantle on KPCC this morning. The topic was spectacular job-quitting moments, and was, of course, ...
1 comment:
Friday, August 06, 2010

Two stories in this morning's papers and the future of house prices

›
Firserve says that house prices will not regain their previous peaks in the sand state until 2025, and it will be even longer in places like...
2 comments:
Thursday, August 05, 2010

Pithiness from Chicago

›
Diane Swonk is good at summarizing : Moreover, government interventions (most notably regulation and austerity programs) are more likely t...
1 comment:

David Oser's take on Fannie and Freddie

›
The opening paragraph and closing paragraphs of his stimulating piece : Some mistakes are so egregious and yet so uncorrectable that no on...
5 comments:
Monday, August 02, 2010

Add Metros to the Chinese List

›
From Planetizan : With 420km of network, Shanghai's metro overtook the London Underground, which has a total of 402km. But the rate of...
1 comment:
Saturday, July 31, 2010

Chinese Highways

›
China now has about 65,000 kilometers of freeway criss-crossing the country. In 1989, the number of kilometers was zero. To get a sense o...
7 comments:
Friday, July 30, 2010

There they go again

›
I enjoy David Brooks. From everything I can tell, he is smart and has a good heart. I would guess he is a terrific dinner companion. So I...
1 comment:
Thursday, July 29, 2010

Steve Malpezzi is not happy

›
He blogs : When I first heard of HAUP, I was excited, but my excitement quickly turned to disappointment. Among other problems, it require...