The end of the housing affordability argument?
The Council of mortgage lenders says that yesterday’s interest rate raise “will leave more households financially stretched“, with an especially marked impact on the two million people close to coming off fixed rates. Are we hearing the end of the argument that housing remains “affordable” thanks to low interest rates, despite the high ratio of prices to incomes?
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Spreading greed
According to economist Robert H Frank, economics students become more selfish as a result of spending years immersed in the study of economic theory that is based on the idea that people act selfishly (or “rationally”, as economists describe it.
What effect does living in a neo-liberal capitalist society that is based on exactly the same assumptions have on people?
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Counter-signalling web-sites
Since I read this post on countersignalling, I have been bothered by a feeling that there was a good example I could not bring to the front of my mind. I just realised what it was: ugly websites. (more…)
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Good Regulation, bad regulation
If the continual tightening of regulation in the financial sector good or bad? It depends.
It appears that subjecting Wall Street investment research to legal pressure to be more independent has made things better. The effect has been that sell side analysts are now reasonably willing to make sell recommendations. (more…)
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Off-shoring professionals work
I have blogged before on the increasing off-shoring of professional jobs. The issue continues to attract comment from bloggers, with Richard Murphy arguing against expecting large scale off-shoring of professional work. I think he is wrong. (more…)
How to pay CEOs
Eric Rasmusen has an interesting proposal on how to pay CEOs. I think the underlying ideas is right, but I see one danger in his proposal, and one aspect of motivation that he is missing. (more…)
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Immigration and the economy
Putting together the information from these articles from the Christain Science Monitor and the Washington Post, (found via Greg Mankiw’s blog) once more emphasis the enormous economic benefits of immigration. It also demolishes the arguments of those “concerned” about immigration, in Britain as well as the US. (more…)
Don’t blame the city for job cuts
It is common to hear the City being blamed for pushing companies into cost cutting strategies. I never really believed this, and now comes some solid evidence that Wall Street does not like job cuts. The City is not likely to be different.
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Technology confuses everyone
A blog post by a leading IT security expert explains why the market for security products fails because buyers are unable to evaluate products. This is a more striking example than those I presented earlier because it concerns sophisticated professional buyers like banks and intelligence services. (more…)
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How to exploit monopolies and distort markets
Here are a few ways in which a company can exploit a strong market position to extend an existing monopoly, eliminate any remaining competition, and extract the greatest revenues at the lowest cost. (more…)
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