Items of Interest:
Treasury Takes Aim at Mortgage Rates
Wall Street Journal:
Treasury Considers Plan to Stem Home-Price Decline -- Rates Could Be as Low as 4.5% for Newly Issued Loans
The Treasury Department is considering a plan to revitalize the U.S. housing market by reducing mortgage rates for new loans, according to people familiar with the matter.
The plan, which is in the development stages, would use mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to bring loan rates down as low as 4.5%, a full percentage point lower than the prevailing rates for 30-year fixed mortgages...
discussion:
Noah Rosenblatt / Manhattan Real Estate: Housing Supply Fix? Grant Investors A Tax Exemption Benefit
Little professor / House Price Crash News Blog: Wall Street Journal: US eyes plans to lift home sales
Calculated Risk:
WSJ: Treasury Considers Plan to Lower Mortage Rates to 4.5% — From the WSJ: Treasury Considers Plan to Stem Home-Prices Decline The Treasury Department is considering a plan to revitalize the U.S. housing market by reducing mortgage rates for new home loans ... The plan, which is in the development stages, would use mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to bring loan rates down as low as 4.5%, a full ...
David Cho & Neil Irwin / WashingtonPost.com:
New Treasury Plan May Lower Mortgage Rates — The Treasury Department is considering plans being pushed by trade groups to intervene directly into the mortgage market to dramatically force down rates and stimulate the moribund housing market, according to idustry sources familiar wih the matter.
Paul Kedrosky / Infectious Greed:
Readings: Bookstaber on Bailouts, Mortgage Plan, etc.
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Tamar Lewin / New York Times:College May Become Unaffordable for Most in U.S. — The rising cost of college — even before the recession — threatens to put higher education out of reach for most Americans, according to the annual report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Washington Monthly, DownWithTyranny!, Donklephant, DailyHowler.com, The Big Picture, Wonkette, Kevin Drum, Whiskey Fire and Brilliant at Breakfast
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Ken Thomas / Associated Press:
Automakers plead for aid, but Senate votes lacking — Imperiled automakers and their union worked feverishly Wednesday to sell a skeptical Congress on a $34 billion aid plan, promising labor concessions and restructuring...
Automakers plead for aid, but Senate votes lacking — Imperiled automakers and their union worked feverishly Wednesday to sell a skeptical Congress on a $34 billion aid plan, promising labor concessions and restructuring...
Related:
Kimberly S. Johnson / Associated Press:
UAW to renegotiate labor terms, suspend jobs bankDiscussion: Donklephant
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Oliver Hart & Luigi Zingales / Wall Street Journal:Economists Have Abandoned Principle -- Twelve months ago nobody could have imagined government interventions we now take for granted.
This year will be remembered not just for one of the worst financial crises in American history, but also as the moment when economists abandoned their principles. There used to be a consensus that selective intervention in the economy was bad. In the last 12 months this belief has been shattered...
Discussion: Growthology and LewRockwell.com Blog
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BeSpoke:Oil: Drop the 1 -- Less than five months after trading at $147.27 on July 11th, crude oil is now down $100 from that record high. Pretty amazing given that it started the year under $100.
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Matthew Wurtzel / TheDeal.com:Sign of the Apocalypse: Cramer to SEC — Today's sign of the Apocalypse: Jim Cramer's campaign to become President-elect Barack Obama's Securities and Exchange Commission chairman...
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Tim Kane / Growthology: The Bankruptcy Pledge — Every recession is a critical test of an economy's resilience and flexibility, both in terms of purely operational linkages and more importantly in terms of political tolerance for change. We often hear politicians claim the rhetorical mantle of change …
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- How Long Will The Recession Last?- Anthony Karydakis, Fortune
- The Survival of Free Trade Is Threatened - Martin Wolf, Financial Times
- Central Banks Should Learn To Embrace Inflation - K. Rogoff, Guardian
- We Have Crossed The Financial Rubicon - Michael Flynn, Reason
- Sheila Bair's Mortgage Miracle - Editorial, Wall Street Journal
- Will Euro Survive the Current Crisis? - Martin Feldstein, Project Syndicate
- Only New Thinking Will Save the Global Economy - Mohamed El-Erian, FT
- The Fight of the Year: Krugman vs. Shlaes - Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Forbes
- Economists Have Abandoned Principle - Oliver Hart & Luigi Zingales, WSJ
- Moving Beyond the Bailout State - Steve Fraser, The Nation
- The Swiss Bailout Method Is the Best of the Lot - Thomas Cooley, Forbes
- Why Wall Street Always Blows It - Henry Blodget, The Atlantic
- 'Recession' Might As Well Be Reason to Rejoice - Amity Shlaes, Bloomberg
- Avoiding the Horrors of "Stag-Deflation" - Nouriel Roubini, Financial Times
- Why Is Early Retirement Sacrosanct? - Irwin Stelzer, Weekly Standard
- What Is Economic Stimulus? - Richard Rahn, Washington Times
- Union-Caving Doesn't Merit Taxpayer Help - Mark Perry, IBD
- Federal Budgets Behaving Badly - David Leonhardt, New York Times
- All Short-Term Rates Should Be Set To Zero - Willem Buiter, Maverecon
- Fed’s Kroszner: Don’t Blame the Community Reinvesment Act - WSJ
- More on the 'Did FDR Prolong the Depression?' Meme - Paul Krugman
- Just How Big Is This Bailout? Let's Go To The Charts! - Big Picture
- Auto Industry: Who Gains From Detroit’s Pain - Rick Newman, Flow Chart
- Just How Big of a Downturn Are the Automakers Facing? - Econbrowse
