SAVE CATO

Posted on March 9, 2012 by markinaustin

A few of you are strong economic libertarians.  A few of you are strong social libertarians.  I maintain many libertarian positions as do most of the rest of us here, and I have always found Cato’s web page worth the read.  I think all of us should read this:

http://www.cato.org/SaveCato/

and this:

http://volokh.com/2012/03/09/koch-v-cato-skip-olivas-observations/

Some of us will also find this worthy as background material, because it centers on the kind of important philosophical matters Cato raises that could indeed be silenced:

http://baselinescenario.com/2012/03/08/the-koch-brothers-the-cato-institute-and-why-nations-fail/#more-9955

Partisan Democrats may think Cato is already a tool of Republicans, so I would not bother to recommend these articles at PL.   I think that any of you here from “left” to “right” who have ever gone to Volokh or to Libertarianism 101 recognize the difference.  When we argue policy, we may line up with the “platform” of one party far more than another, but political parties live first for self perpetuation by getting elected, which means raising money and votes, not to have true discussions of why policies make sense from a philosophical perspective.  We have some well established strains of political philosophy.  Libertarianism is one of them.  I want Cato to survive.

Filed under: koch bros, Libertarians | 12 Comments »

Morning Report

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Brent Nyitray

Vital Statistics

Last Change Percent
S&P Futures 1363.5 2.9 0.21%
Eurostoxx Index 2518.8 4.6 0.18%
Oil (WTI) 106.65 0.1 0.07%
LIBOR 0.4736 0.000 0.00%
US Dollar Index (DXY) 79.665 0.526 0.66%
10 Year Govt Bond Yield 2.04% 0.03%

Markets are rising this morning after Greece successfully completed its sovereign debt restructuring and the BLS released its jobs report. Over 95% of bondholders tendered after Greece said it would trigger a collective action clause compelling participation. This should pave the way for another 130 billion in aid. While the market clearly does not consider the crisis solved – the new bonds are trading at a 22% yield in the when-issued market – this should at least put Greece on the back burner for a while. The 10-year is down 6 ticks, while mortgages are flat.

The BLS released its February Employment Situation report at 8:30 this morning. Feb payrolls came in a bit higher than expected – 227k vs 210k expected. The unemployment rate was flat at 8.3% and in line with expectations. The labor force participation rate edged up slightly from its Jan lows. Earnings and hours were up a hair. Professional and Business services added the most jobs, along with health care. Government and construction were flat.

CoreLogic released its monthly Market Pulse yesterday (you need to register to get it, but it is free). They note the building economic strength and signs of improvement in the real estate market. They note that the recovery was initially driven by productivity-increasing capital investment, which allows companies to increase output without increasing hiring. Productivity growth is tapering off, which suggests that business has pretty much extracted all it can from existing employees and will need to start hiring to increase output.

The report notes that 25% of MSAs are now experiencing price increases. The ones that are lagging the most are the ones with clogged foreclosure pipelines – for the most part judicial foreclosure areas. Just more proof that politicians who want to slow foreclosures in the hopes that keeping supply off the market will stabilize prices are shooting themselves in the foot. Of course some politicians are incorrigible. To be fair, most of these measures are small-ball things that won’t change the dynamics of the housing market, but will allow the administration to say they are “doing something” about the housing crisis. For some reason, letting the market clear does not constitute “doing something.”

Do you look at Zillow to get an idea of what your house is worth? The Washington Post dissects the Z-estimate and its accuracy. Punch line: Neighborhoods with high turnover tend to have Z-estimates closer to actual sales prices than neighborhoods with lower turnover. While it can be a useful (and fun) number, take it with a grain of salt.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 48 Comments »