Posts under ‘Economics’

Violent rioting in Berkeley (where have I heard that before?).

So, the local house-selling industry acknowledges that condos aren’t selling. Ya think?   And, by gosh, something’s got to change!
Federal restrictions have backed banks away from making loans to condominium builders and buyers. At the same time, some industry professionals want to make it easier to build smaller homes. The regulations that need to be [...]

From my favorite liberal, Mickey Kaus:
The home “weatherization” jobs in the stimulus bill were subjected to Davis-Bacon wage regulations–a favorite of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department–under which federal Labor Department officials establish “prevailing wage” rates that must be paid…a year was wasted on mindless, union-demanded bureaucratic attempts to disingenuously replicate the labor market. Did Obama not know this [...]

¡Ay caramba! This woman racked up $555,000 in student loan debt to attend medical school (the story originally said it was a Caribbean school).
It is the result of her deferring loan payments while she completed her residency, default charges and relentlessly compounding interest rates. Among the charges: a single $53,870 fee for when her [...]

Doug in comments reminded me that Missoulapolis has not blogged the latest REIC story in the Missoulian Monday.
A few factors this year seem to be leading some new buyers into the local market despite the inventory. The economy has pushed down prices, and the homebuyer tax credit coupled with low interest rates are drawing some [...]

Another fascinating emperor-has-no-clothes moment, courtesy of Newsweek and a JAMA article from last year.
The placebo effect-that is, a medical benefit you get from an inert pill or other sham treatment-rests on the holy trinity of belief, expectation, and hope. But telling someone with depression who is being helped by antidepressants, or who (like my friend) [...]

Patterico has uncovered what appears to be curiously similar letters-to-the-editor by “Ellen Light” and “Mark Spivey” appearing in publications all over the country - decrying the Republicans,  supporting ObamaCare and so forth.
Whoever is behind this doesn’t seem to realize that the dupes can be uncovered with a simple Google search…anyway it made me wonder how [...]

This sounds like a good move, but let’s hope the software vendor who just lost this $18 million contract is from out of state, yes?
Anyway, the governor probably saved the Labor Department and business end-users from a mess of transition headaches. Software projects are ugly (and don’t ask me how I know).

Heh, they say this like they actually knew or something.
…while economists predict the worst is over and recovery is on the horizon in 2010, no real job growth is expected for at least another year.
“It won’t feel like a recovery until there’s job growth, which won’t happen until 2011,” said Patrick Barkey, director of the [...]