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Richard Thaler joins *Economic View*
Marginal Revolution —
His first column is on behavioral economics and mortgages; excerpt: Some critics contend that behavioral economists have neglected the
obvious fact that bureaucrats make errors, too. But this misses the
point. After all, wouldn’t you prefer to have a qualified, albeit
human, technician inspect your aircraft’s engines rather than do it
yourself? The owners of ski resorts hire experts who have
previously skied the runs, under various conditions, to decide which
trails should be designated for advanced skiers. These experts know
more than a newcomer to the mountain. Bureaucrats are human, too, but
they can also hire experts and conduct research.
Homer Economicus
Calculated Risk —
This piece "Mortgages Made Simpler" by Richard Thaler, is a discussion of the proposed Obama Administration regulatory requirement that lenders offer consumers "plain vanilla" mortgages. From the Treasury regulatory reform ...
links for 2009-07-05
Economist's View —
... Mortgages Made Simpler - News Analysis - NYTimes.com
Embezzlement Leads to Bank Run in Virtual World - Cheap Talk ...
Sunday morning links
The Mess That Greenspan Made —
... - Bloomberg • QE just acting as a sugar rush for insolvent banks that deserve to fail - Telegraph • Trichet Says Deflation Risk Has Yet to Materialize in Europe - Bloomberg • Australia Faces the ‘Full Brunt’ of Global Recession - Bloomberg • Venezuela assumes control of Spanish-owned bank - AP • Dubai Shares Tumble Most in a Week on Oil - Bloomberg • Europe Tests Banks, and Worries - NY Times HOUSING • Mortgages Made Simpler - NY Times • Another wave of foreclosures is poised to ...
July 4th Weekend Linkfest!
The Big Picture —
... Real Estate
• So Many Foreclosures, So Little Logic (NYT)
• Zero Down Is a Foreclosure Factor (Duh)
• Cracked Houses: What the Boom Built (WSJ) EZ credit + Unscrupulous Builders = Falling apart new houses
• Negative Equity + Subprime = Default (NY Fed)
• Thaler on Mortgages Made Simpler (NYT) The behavioral economist on how to avoid another mortgage meltdown
• Another wave of foreclosures is poised to strike (LA Times) ...
Sunday links: short ban redux
Abnormal Returns —
... How can we help people make sense of complicated financial products like mortgages? (NYTimes also ...
Sowell's A Conflict of Visions
EconLog: Library of Economics and Liberty —
... in today's Washington Post is about health care industry lobbying, which fits well with the left's narrative that our health care would be fine if it were not for those evil profiteering private sector actors. The other difference between left and right concerns information and decision-making. Richard Thaler speaks for the left. Some critics contend that behavioral economists have neglected the obvious fact that bureaucrats make errors, too. But this misses the point. After all, wouldn't you prefer to have a qualified, albeit human, technician inspect your aircraft's ...
The Finest of the Flavors
The Baseline Scenario —
Richard Thaler has a simple argument for plain-vanilla financial products. Mike at Rortybomb deals with some of the predictable objections. This is also similar to Adam Levitin’s position on credit cards, which I wrote about a while back.
I’m in favor, although I don’t think it will be enough to simply make the vanilla ...
links for 2009-07-13
J. Bradford DeLong's Grasping Reality with All Eight Tentacles —
Paul Krugman: Boiling the Frog: Creeping Disasters for the Economy and the Planet
Calculated Risk: Second Stimulus Debate: Geithner vs. Krugman and Delong
Siobhan Gorman: CIA Had Secret Al Qaeda Plan ...
Thaler vs Posner on Consumer Financial Protections
FinanceProfessor.com —
This is excellent. If you have been following the controversy about consumer Financial Protection at all you probably know that the administration has asked for simpler and safer products. This has angered many on each side. For instance (From NPR) Fed Chair Bernanke and US treasury Secretary Geithner have taken different sides in the issue: ...
