Brace yourself for the backlash. University of Colorado sociologist Tim Wadsworth has a study out in Social Science Quarterly suggesting that more immigration leads to less crime. During the 1990s, the incidence of serious crime dropped in many places in the U.S.—but fastest in the cities with the largest increase in immigrants. That conclusion comes from studying [...]
Is it wrong to be relieved that some white-collar crime is still old-fashioned and easy to understand? Today authorities arrested two people charged with trying to sell information about upcoming Disney earnings to hedge funds. According to the SEC complaint, Bonnie Jean Hoxie, an assistant to a Disney executive (who Dow Jones identifies as corporate [...]
If you’re anything like me, you’ve been watching the sovereign and bank bailouts in Europe and asking, “Okay, but what’s in it for me?” Well, here is your answer: cheaper gas.
The Senate passed its financial reform bill. Huzzah! What did the Senate wind up with after three weeks of such intense lobbying and debate? First, I’ll run through the big, headline-grabbing changes. Then the real fun begins: the changes that are coming which you probably haven’t been hearing as much about. Just remember that Congress [...]
The other day I spoke with University of Chicago economist Raghuram Rajan. Rajan made a big splash at Jackson Hole back in 2005 when he stood up in front of a room full of prominent economic policy makers and gave a speech about all the risk that was building up in the financial system. He said we [...]
Last week Shaun Donovan, who runs the Department of Housing and Urban Development, said that it might make sense to modify the mortgage interest tax deduction. Sacrilege! Giving people a tax break for buying a house is one of the great middle class subsidies. Donovan knew he was on shaky ground when he said it, [...]
This USA Today article, which talks about the average personal tax rate being at a 60-year low, is getting a lot of attention. The conclusion is pretty fascinating: Americans paid their lowest level of taxes last year since Harry Truman’s presidency, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data found. Federal, state and local taxes — including income, property, [...]
Yesterday, Fannie Mae said that it would need another $8.4 billion to cover losses on the home loans it backs, and today the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees both Fannie and sibling Freddie Mac, said that the ultimate taxpayer tab of supporting the two housing giants is still unclear. That’s the [...]
Apparently, the stock market took a little tumble last week while I was away on vacation. Now that I’m back, things are looking so much more cheery. Here we are, at 4 p.m., and the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq are all up by more than 3%. I’ve been asked to write a blog post about [...]
