Comments on: Economics

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 05:11:14 +0000

Max related to the effects on normal people, not the market players or banks.

I’ll check out other people, but I was familiar with Max and we are in the middle of a meltdown.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 05:01:24 +0000

i'm really going to miss maxspeak. i'll second the suggestion on brad delong. also, i don't really know enough about economics to know if i'm getting good information or bad, but i like angry bear too.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 22:05:52 +0000

That works if you have people around with cash, but down here everything is leveraged, and there are a lot of properties sitting around vacant with “for sale” signs. They are going to be that way for a while. If you try to rent out a condo short-term you have to turn on the utilities and arrange for clean up in the local market. A lot of the home owner’s covenants don’t allow rentals in the subdivisions.

The current property taxes are based on the inflated prices, and they are going to have to come down, because taxes, insurance, and utilities are all spiking while the value of homes is dropping like a rock.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 21:11:58 +0000

Regarding rental housing: The foreclosed homes are being bought by investors for pennies on the dollars. The investors are going to rent out these homes. Thus all that is happening is that former homeowners become home renters. Sorta the same scam as the Great Depression, which similarly transferred real tangible wealth from the have-nots to the have-mores.

– Badtux the Economics Penguin

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 04:59:51 +0000

I’ll check him out, Jim. Max just made a lot of sense to me because he related to problems I had experienced.

My academic life wondered from Slavic literature and language to Computer Science, and then Criminal Justice, so I managed to avoid everything beyond the intro macro courses.

By: Jim Bales

Jim Bales — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 04:46:11 +0000

Have you looked at Brad DeLong's website? I suspect at least part of his appeal to an academic like me is his, well, academic viewpoint. Do you find that his style works for you?