MONTREAL - i love neon, telus theatre, 08/30/08

What to Read

The Washingon Post collects some book recommendations:

We asked a number of smart people -- inside and outside economics and finance -- to scan their bookshelves for answers. Though there is no single book that can sum up and explain the current conditions, we asked each of our contributors for one book they would recommend to their neighbor, their daughter, their aunt, their barber, priest, rabbi or best friend to help them gain some perspective on these volatile times.

Click through to the article to see the answers.

MONTREAL - balloons, mile end, 08/30/08

The Palins: Fans of retirement saving

A friend writes:

Thought this might interest you, since you once blogged about Obama's failure to take advantage of tax-advantaged savings. Here is Governor Palin's financial disclosure form. Turns out her husband is a rather astute saver -- taking advantage of both his company's (BP) 401(k) plan and setting up (pre-1996) a SAR-SEP IRA for his commercial fishing business. He's also nicely diversified in various funds, both domestic and international.

McCain veep pick is not a member...

...of the Pigou Club:

Palin just signed a bill to suspend Alaska�s gasoline tax until Aug. 31, 2009, actually implementing in her state what John McCain advocated this year on the national scene....The bill, signed Aug. 25, also suspends taxes on marine fuel and aviation fuel for a year.

Source.

Vacation

Hmmm. Did I tell you I was going on vacation? Because I am. For one blissful week. I'm going to shop, eat, read, and drink. Be back in a week!

mish: mango, raspberry, and kiwi

{ bella figura 'please be my bridesmaid' card by pepperinapress }

ok, first, i know i'm not supposed to torment those who have already made all their decisions just days before their weddings with new things. i know. but i feel bad to just skip over mishmash29 here, who is getting married in a couple of weeks, so here goes.

mishmash29 said...

Our wedding is on 9/14/08 and our colors are "mango, raspberry, & green." In keeping with the fruit theme, I like to say "mango, raspberry & kiwi".

delicious. happy long weekend to my friends here in the states, and congratulations mish!

















{each photo links to its shop}

Sachs on the Digital Divide

Jeff Sachs reports some good news:

The digital divide is ending not through a burst of civic responsibility, but mainly through market forces. Mobile phone technology is so powerful, and costs so little per unit of data transmission, that it has proved possible to sell mobile phone access to the poor. There are now more than 3.3 billion subscribers in the world, roughly one for every two people on the planet....

In Africa, which contains the world�s poorest countries, the market is soaring, with more than 280 million subscribers. Mobile phones are now ubiquitous in villages as well as cities. If an individual does not have a cell phone, they almost surely know someone who does. Probably a significant majority of Africans have at least emergency access to a cell phone, either their own, a neighbor�s, or one at a commercial kiosk.

LONDON - on the street, soho & brick lane, 08/28/08

contest news and other tidbits

hello all! am back, sorry. work is kicking me lucky charms this week. that makes no sense, mainly because i'm at work still, haven't eaten, and am all kicked charm-wise. the magazine has opened a can of whup-ass that will not be closed. but enough of my excuses!

first, mari of bel canto (featured just last week) wrote to tell me weddingbee.com is having a contest giving away a $75 gift certificate to her amazing shop, but you must act before 8pm PST *today* (that's midnight 11pm eastern time, for the math challenged like myself. i had to count on my fingers, as always.) yes, in less than 4 hours. sorry for the short notice! contest is easy -- just pick which piece you like best!

second, in blatant and hopefully forgiveable self-promotion, i was so surprised to get an email about blog features and it was actually a feature on my own sadly neglected-while-i-blog little etsy shop! thank you so much to lynn at the handcrafted wedding, who picked one small star as her daily feature back on the 21st. i can't tell you how encouraging that is, given my struggles to keep up with things recently. the handcrafted wedding has been a sidelink on here since almost the beginning -- a great resource, please check it out!

there was definitely something else i was supposed to tell you today, and i can't think of what it is, and i don't want to waste any more of your precious bel canto contest-winning time. more soon!

Things I Love: Almost Fall Edition

I'm back friends. And as the days get a little shorter and the temperatures a little cooler, I find myself looking squarely into my very favorite season. I love everything about fall: football games, a hot pink J.Crew Jackie cardigan and my favorite jeans, apple cider, the kids Halloween costumes at OldNavy, the perfect pair of brown boots, the smell of a new, perfect pink eraser (even adults should be able to buy new school supplies).

So, I thought I would put together my list of almost fall favorites. These things will help me transition into the nights of extra blankets and pumpkin pie.

A Note From Cards

O.K. I know I am not a teacher, but I can pretend with these cute notecards.

Bananna Republic Silk Wrap Dress
Have I mentioned to you all that the husband and I both have our 10 year high school reunions in October? So, I am on the look-out for a good night time dress that doesn't look like it is trying too hard. I think this lovely number says, yes, I was in the math club, but I also enjoyed a good Jack Daniel's Watermellon Cooler from time to time.

The Kate Spade Halle Wedge

One word - YUM. I treat myself to a new pair of black work shoes in the spring and the fall. Love these, but the price is a little steep. Good thing Jessica Simpson has been taking time off her day job to design shoes. These are almost as good as the Kate Spade version.

The J. Crew Jacinda Jacket in Honey Glaze

This would be great with jeans for a Saturday and equally great with some navy work pants for a Monday meeting. Love the wearability.

What are your almost fall favorites?

The Political Divide

Peggy Noonan, one of my favorite political commentators, does a nice job of summarizing a key difference between the political parties:

Democrats in the end speak most of, and seem to hold the most sympathy for, the beset-upon single mother without medical coverage for her children, and the soldier back from the war who needs more help with post-traumatic stress disorder. They express the most sympathy for the needy, the yearning, the marginalized and unwell. For those, in short, who need more help from the government, meaning from the government's treasury, meaning the money got from taxpayers.

Who happen, also, to be a generally beset-upon group.

Democrats show little expressed sympathy for those who work to make the money the government taxes to help the beset-upon mother and the soldier and the kids. They express little sympathy for the middle-aged woman who owns a small dry cleaner and employs six people and is, actually, day to day, stressed and depressed from the burden of state, local and federal taxes, and regulations, and lawsuits, and meetings with the accountant, and complaints as to insufficient or incorrect efforts to meet guidelines regarding various employee/employer rules and regulations. At Republican conventions they express sympathy for this woman, as they do for those who are entrepreneurial, who start businesses and create jobs and build things. Republicans have, that is, sympathy for taxpayers. But they don't dwell all that much, or show much expressed sympathy for, the sick mother with the uninsured kids, and the soldier with the shot nerves.

Neither party ever gets it quite right, the balance between the taxed and the needy, the suffering of one sort and the suffering of another. You might say that in this both parties are equally cold and equally warm, only to two different classes of citizens.

Ec 10 is now in Gen Ed

For those few blog readers who have followed the saga of how economics fits within the new General Education requirements at Harvard, here is the latest news:

The Committee reached a decision on Social Analysis 10: Principles of Economics. When both semesters of this course are taken for a letter grade, it will meet the General Education requirement for Empirical and Mathematical Reasoning or United States in the World, but not both.

My opinion: This is a reasonable compromise among a variety of competing viewpoints.

LONDON - on the street, soho, 08/27/08

#360: a real conversation.

(looking at a postcard from a friend who traveled to greece)

him: is it strange that i'd rather be in the woods than look at ruins?

*silence*

me: i'd rather go to a spa.

*silence*

Seeds of a Mess

A reader calls my attention to this article from 2003:

New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae

The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac....

Among the groups denouncing the proposal today were the National Association of Home Builders and Congressional Democrats who fear that tighter regulation of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing.

''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.''

Feldstein on the Housing Market

Marty thinks he has a plan to keep underwater homeowners from defaulting without either burdening taxpayers or abrogating existing contracts.

I have proposed a programme of �mortgage replacement loans� that I believe would stop the downward spiral of house prices. The basic idea is to provide an incentive to stop defaults among those who now have positive equity but are vulnerable to a further price decline. The federal government would offer every homeowner with a mortgage the opportunity to replace 20 per cent of that mortgage with a low interest government loan � up to a loan limit of $80,000 (�55,000, �44,000) � that reflects the government�s lower borrowing rate. Creditors would be required to accept this partial mortgage pay-down and to reduce the monthly interest and principal by the same 20 per cent. That mortgage replacement loan would not be collateralised by the house but would be a loan that the government could enforce by lodging a claim on an individual who does not pay.

With the mortgage replacement loan, people who now have a mortgage equal to 90 per cent of their house value would see that mortgage fall to just 72 per cent of the house value, implying that it would take a very unlikely price fall of more than 28 per cent to push those individuals into negative equity.

Sounds like a free lunch? As far as I can tell, his "mortgage replacement loan" scheme involves tricking homeowners into accepting a deal that is not really in their self-interest. For very little in return, they give up the option of future default. So count me as skeptical.

But I agree with Marty when he says, "This is a difficult problem and there are no easy solutions."

Dynamic Scoring

Bob Carroll reports:

Recent research on President Bush's tax relief in 2001 and 2003 has found that the lower tax rates induced taxpayers to report more taxable income. In particular, the reduction in the top two tax rates induced taxpayers to report more taxable income�an increase in the size of the tax base�to such an extent that this positive behavioral response likely offset roughly 25 percent to 40 percent of the static revenue loss of lowering the top two tax rates.

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LONDON - on the street, hoxton & soho, 08/26/08