Student loans now total over $1 trillion and delinquency rates are rising.  Many young people are burdened in their 20’s with tens of thousands of dollars of student debt.  Some commentators have pointed to student loans as the “next subprime.”  What does this mean?  Does it mean that student loan defaults are expected to . . . → Read More: Student Loans: the Next Subprime?

I am worried that societies and/or their governments have chosen to commit taxpayers to underwriting the solvency of banks. Economic research has shown clear benefits to financial intermediation. The collection of savings creates a pool of funds that can be used to finance business expansion. Banking is very important to economic activity. The United . . . → Read More: Why Must We Have These Large Banks?

Last month the Federal Reserve released minutes from the March 13 FOMC meeting.  These minutes suggest that the members perceived the economy to be improving.  The knee jerk reaction of market observers was to conclude that Fed easing policy was closer to being over than they thought before the release of the minutes.  Treasury . . . → Read More: Why are Long-Term Rates So Low?

The United States Employment Situation for March indicates a cooling of job growth that is consistent with our forecast, although somewhat more pronounced than our forecast. It was the services part of the economy that had the greatest slowdown in job creation, from 204 thousand in February down to 90 thousand in March. And, . . . → Read More: The U.S. Jobs Report: March 2012

David R. Henderson has a nice piece on property rights.  The title of this post is a quote from Henderson’s article.

It’s a nice piece with three example of “policy issues’ that cause conflict and one that does not cause conflict.  Here’s his first paragraph:

Should restaurants allow smoking or not? Should schools teach . . . → Read More: No Smoking, Except for Bob Lucas