WhyTheHeck

Next to “plastics” the most famous line in The Graduate might have been where Benjamin announced to his father that he was going to marry Elaine Robinson.  Mr. Braddock firsts proposes congratulating the Robinsons (who Benjamin says haven’t been told), then Elaine (ditto) and finally asks:  “When are you going to pop the question?”   Benjamin [...]

Government sanctioned home ownership, while encouraging paying off mortgages.

For the higher ups in charge of the fiasco they call a recovery plan!

Unlike the real estate brokerage cartel, the real estate mortgage lending/refinancing business is reasonably competitive and there is no obvious market failure. 
However, we cannot underestimate  the importance to the economy of reducing transactions costs for residential real estate.   (In case you have missed our other postings on this topic, perhaps because you’ve been living in Biosphere [...]

This Posting sumamrizes the Best of the Ideas from the only website paying $1-million for Yours

Food labels have listed ingredients for decades.  Some people ignore them while others read them before making a purchase decision.   No one questions the value of the information to the consumer, though.
Appliances have been sporting Energy Star labels for two decades too.  Once again, some people ignore them while others don’t, but no one questions [...]

Many commentators have lamented the fact that people did not spend their stimulus checks in 2008, but saved them instead. Obviously, the “stimulus” only works if people spend it. Recent examples of those commentators would be Bruce Bartlett (New York Times 12/24/08), Ed Glaeser (Boston Globe 1/5/09), and Scott Lehigh (Boston Globe 1/9/09). No one has suggested the solution proposed below, which would hugely incentivize spending a tax cut or stimulus check, while at the same time providing a windfall to consumers at no additional cost to the government. So to those commentators and everyone else, we offer the following lesson in the new field of “stimulus economics.”

Almost every house sold includes a real estate commission of 5% or more. Eliminate that real estate commission – or vastly reduce it – and the value of every house theoretically rises 5% with no change in price. This would facilitate selling by the owner and/or create more equity in the owner’s house if they don’t sell. While 5% more equity will not solve the housing crisis, it would put a noticeable dent in it…and that 5% might otherwise have been taken out of the government bailout fund. This posting shows how to do exactly that

The author points out that an enormous chunk of the bailout money, covering >65 retiree health expense, could be saved simply by having retirees go into Medicare HMOs. They eliminate most of the need for “gap” coverage now paid by the automakers. These HMOs are so popular that a million more seniors join voluntarily every year. If someone wants unfettered Medicare instead, that’s their choice which they can pay for, not a taxpayer obligation.

 
The solution to the housing crisis –and part of the solution to our economic downturn — is right at America’s doorstep. Let a million more well-to-do immigrants into the country, to buy and rent the unused units, and to start spending money.
 
There is no other choice.  The solution certainly won’t come from within the US [...]