Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the fall of 2008, one of the hotly debated topics was whether the mortgage banking industry as a whole made systematically bad business decisions because they looked to be profitable, or because the government made them do it. The first study out the gate to claim the government made them do it was flawed in ( Read more... )

For the first couple of centuries, American Conservatism was a pretty diverse group. Which, when you consider the diversity of opinion among our nation's Founders, is as it should be. Some followed the lead of Alexander Hamilton, and were concerned with building a mighty financial system. Some followed the lead of Thomas Jefferson, regarded banks ( Read more... )

Like many business and economics outlets, the Motley Fool is doing a one-year retrospective on the Lehman Brothers collapse. In one article, they explain something I thought I understood better than I did ( Read more... )

In 2006, Nouriel Roubini told a gathering of the International Monetary Fund that the United States faced, well, pretty much the recession we're living with today: A sudden sharp decline in housing prices, an oil price shock, sudden declines in consumer confidence, and a deep recession. He said that waves of mortgage defaults would lead to failures ( Read more... )

I was answering a rather befuddled query, wherein someone appeared to think the reason he couldn't get a car loan was the stock market's continual decline.

"A more meaningful question might be, "How low is it likely to fall?""
Of course, I'm cheating. I'm redirecting your question slightly, to one that I happen to know the answer to ( Read more... )

I was asked how long it would be until the result of this year's economic stimulus package would be evident.

"The National Association for Business Economics just said it'll be the second half of the year"

Because I'm not a member, and don't have the cash to spare to join, I'm afraid I have to rely on media reports. According to the Wall Street ( Read more... )

Luckily, not for me. But one of the bloggers I've been following makes clear just how much has changed over the last couple of decades. The poster is a man who works as a programmer in his day job, then goes home to work some more as an organic farmer.

( Cut for those who don't need more recession-induced angst )

The question I had answered claimed that the government had lied for a year over whether we were in a depression, and looked for bets on how long it'll be before they admit we're in a depression. Here's my reply:

Actually, using the most common definition of recession, it couldn't be proven we were in one until the end of January.
The most common ( Read more... )

So, I was reading the investment news over at Morningstar. Now, most of the time, I successfully ignore the banner ads I get as a "freeloader" who doesn't pay them a subscription; when I look, they're trying to convince me to move my investments to another brokerage, or buy a car that costs as much as my home did, or for a manufacturer of ( Read more... )

There's a concept I've been trying to find a way to express. I happened to find it on another blog, so I'll take the liberty of quoting the discussion. To understand the discussion, it helps to know that economists use "widget" to mean "whatchamacallit" or "thingamabob": basically, any consumer good that's made in a factory. After mentioning some ( Read more... )