11 Comments

Government programs for lending and government programs for nutrition are more similar than not.

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I wrote a comment about the price action for housing from 2006 to 2012 but it is clearer with graphs so I made it a hastily put together blog post. The TLDR is that housing prices were heavily driven in that period by the over building of units, as seen by the vacancy rates plus the difference between housing starts and housing completions. We don't need idiosyncratic explanations for the housing market when supply and demand does an excellent job on its own. For those interested

https://sebwassl.blogspot.com/2022/11/2000s-housing-price-drop.html

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The crony-capitalist corruption problem is made worse by our lobby-capitalist corruption and the idea that processed cereal is better than steak or ground meat is ridiculous. And dishonest.

Like so many college-educated elites' BS. Like so much COVID advice & mandates.

Normal folk need far better lifestyle guidance, and especially more truth about what is known and what is not known.

Sugar-water should NOT be paid for by taxpayers - tho limited milk and 100% fruit juices should be eligible. Inv Sun's "Rice & beans + a cot to sleep" might be the most healthy incentivizing policy, but that's too drastic a step for today's politics - tho it might be possible for homeless camp re-location.

They talk about a carbon tax - but where is the obesity tax talk? I'd much prefer taxing sodas or plastic straws over banning them. Miles Kimball (Noah Smith's econ advisor) has lots of notes that SUGAR should be considered a mild poison and lots of obesity is based on insulin changes.

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On housing, Tim Lee's graphs seem excellent, better than most of Kevin Erdmann's, with Tim talking about 2006 overbuilding as seen by the drop in new starts after that. Tho he doesn't mention interest rates nor mortgage money availability. Also his FRED graphs end at 2016-ish so the last 5 years are missing. Arnold's use of "momentum" for the housing remains OK for me, tho Tim's note on 3 false bottoms is strong enough against to think he's also OK.

Sort of like chocolate vs pistachio taste, not whether the sky is lime green.

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_I_ find political constraints more plausible that some unknown technical constraint. As for amounts, as Lincoln said, "A mans legs should be long enough to reach the ground."

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Whatever "triggered" the Great Recession (housing?) is of little importance relative to the policy mismanagement of the Fed in allowing inflation expectations to remain below target (even when employment was nowhere near a maximum)

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