Hah-vahd economist and Libertarianism A to Z author Jeffrey Miron gets to the heart of the housing bubble which will not be popped:
Attempts to prop up the housing market just delay an inevitable reallocation of resources from housing to other activities. It is a misguided attempt to bail out homeowners who purchased houses they could not afford, and to help bankers holding assets backed by housing.
Read the whole thing at Miron's excellent blog.
[*] Cringe at the awfulness of the headline allusion.
Thrill to Miron talking about his new book:
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Attorney|9.7.10 @ 5:56PM|#
Miron was a contributor to an excellent issue of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy devoted to the recession. Other contributors inclued Richard Epstein, Ron Paul, and Arnold Kling. It was the spring 2010 issue.
Can be viewed hier.
Roger Meyers, Jr.|9.7.10 @ 5:57PM|#
Hey egghead, sing "Fair Harvard"!
Fist of Etiquette|9.7.10 @ 5:59PM|#
I'm all for considering the implications of your policy stances (obviously) but at some point you have to settle on what you think is right or wrong. Consequential libertarianism, pragmatic as it may be, seems lacking any principled thought behind it.
Attorney|9.7.10 @ 6:02PM|#
Consequential libertarianism has interim uses, mainly to show liberals that many of their programs will not make people better off.
Fist of Etiquette|9.7.10 @ 6:13PM|#
You're just not adequately funding those programs.
|9.7.10 @ 8:10PM|#
+100
Jeff P|9.7.10 @ 6:00PM|#
Redd Foxx didn't make enough movies.
|9.7.10 @ 6:24PM|#
Redd Foxx didn't make enough anything. Once we have ghola technology, I think he should be brought back.
|9.7.10 @ 6:14PM|#
there is not a better example of the problems of gubermint allocating resources than housing:
1. Subsidy to the middle class
2. a rather capricious decision that "homeownership" makes people better citizens, without any evidence at all (it makes them better at expecting subsidies).
3. Ironically, subsidy of single family homes encourages sprawl. Although I think people should be free to live in suburbia, that is with the caveat that it not be subsidized.
4. Belief in borrowing, borrowing, borrowing, the Fed as a secular God, and finally the idea that you are worthless unless you are materially well off. (Don't get me wrong - you can accrue as much as you want, but I think its stupid to work hard for a rock countertop).
Draco|9.7.10 @ 7:52PM|#
Libertarians who speak of any tax break as a "subsidy" make me sick. I don't care what the break is for.
cynical|9.7.10 @ 11:18PM|#
That's because you're irrational, and put more stock in the names you attach to equations than the actual math.
Max|9.7.10 @ 9:11PM|#
Thrill to Miron? Is Gillespie gay?
Milt|9.8.10 @ 5:07AM|#
Don't be silly. The gay do not wear black.