Blog entries tagged regulation

FHA Needs Funds: You Read It Here 6 Weeks Ago

Nick Will — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:30:26 +0100

Okay so reading this blog is like getting the news 6 weeks early. Granted, I thought it would make the news at the end of September, and here it is in today's Times:

The Federal Housing Administration said Thursday that its cash reserves had dwindled significantly in the last year as housing prices slumped and many of its borrowers defaulted on their mortgages.

Still, government housing officials stressed that the agency, which insures loans made by private lenders, Read More...

First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit to 04-2010 This Week?

Nick Will — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:27:23 +0100

The Seattle Post PI.com is reporting that after clearing a Senate hurdle this week that the New Home Buyer Tax Credit of $8,000 is widely expected to pass congress this week to extend the credit into the spring season of 2010, which would be most welcome across the country. The program essentially creates a refundable $8,000 tax credit for qualified first-time home buyer tax credits (some limitations apply and "first" doesn't always mean "first"). This is very welcome news.

School Zones & Tickets: A Few of My Favorite Things

Nick Will — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:07:34 +0100

Cars who pass busses with children aboard them, drivers who talk on cell phones through school speed zones, they deserve tickets and fines wrapped up in string - these are a few of my "favorite" things...

The Houston Chronicle this morning reports that State Troopers (these are state police who have jurisdiction over all roads in the states) will be riding on school buses a la federal air marshals I guess, ready to ensure drivers who pass stopped school buses with kids aboaRead More...

FHA In The News Next Week: More Funds Needed?

Nick Will — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:59:24 +0100

From Dina ElBoghdady at The Washington Post yesterday and today. News about the critical FHA program this week will be that it likely needs additional funds from congress. The controversy is likely to have a flavor of the bail-out debate infused with how important the FHA loan program is to the recovery of the housing sector. From the articles:

The Federal Housing Administration has been hit so hard by the mortgage crisis that for the first time, the agency's cash reserves will drop belRead More...

Business Ethics: Doing Well by Doing Better

Nick Will — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:29:11 +0100

In the 1990's there was a lot of discussion about "The Third Way" -- something "between" the private and public sectors. I had an opportunity to study the thinking at the time both in undergraduate and graduate school with the preeminent thought-leaders at that time. Truly I now believe that idea was merely an attempt to appease the prevailing dogmatic anti-regulation thinking of the prior 25 years, before Reagan's "government IS the problem" mantra.

Now today, I don't thinkRead More...

Liberal Handwringing Gets It Wrong

Nick Will — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:18:49 +0100

Leftward liberals and rightward conservatives are both missing the mark when it comes to how they're framing economic issues. While some partisans of any stripe may have a roughly correct conclusion here and there, the reasoning involved is rarely enlightening for "pocket-book centrists" - a term for the majority of Americans simply concerned with living a comfortable and fair American dream. This morning, the much vaunted cultural critic Frank Rich writes in The Times that:

No less unRead More...