I'd like to start off by recommending this article on why the current economic situation cannot be solved with prescriptions from any of the modern economic theories over at Jesse's Café Américain. It's a very good read.
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Next, I have two items on Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA). Frank held a town hall meeting (available here) back in Massachusetts this week. I have only seen clips so far and have it recorded on my DVR. Frank usually makes for some entertaining, if frustrating, sound bytes.
And speaking of Barney Frank sound bytes, he was quoted in the Boston Globe this week saying, "I've always said that the American dream should be a home - not home ownership." You can read the entire article here which discusses a shift in the Obama policy away from home ownership. There is a lot of talk on what Frank has said and when he said it. I came across this particular quote in this article on Market Ticker which was accompanied by a video of Frank in 2005. One priceless quote from the video:
But those who argue that housing prices are now at the point of a bubble seem to be missing a very important point. Unlike previous examples, where substantial excessive inflation of prices later caused some problems, we are talking here about an entity, homeownership, homes, where there is not the degree of leverage that we have seen elsewhere. This is not the dot-com situation. We had problems with people having invested in business plans for which there was no reality and people building fiber-optic cable for which there was no need. Homes that are occupied may see an ebb and flow in the price at a certain percentage level, but you will not see the collapse that you see when people talk about a bubble.It is fun to find quotes from the past where a politician says something that is contradicted or proven wrong at a later point. Frank clearly gets the housing bubble wrong here. However, on the point of home ownership, we should read the next few lines of the same speech:
So those of us on our committee in particular will continue to push for homeownership... I also want to express... a very important point that sometimes gets overlooked. Homeownership is an important part of our policy, but it is not the entire housing policy of the Federal Government; nor is it the entire housing need of the Nation. Some people will never own. There will be people who choose not to own; there will be people who for their economic circumstances will not be able to own. And there is no conflict between promoting homeownership and recognizing that decent, affordable rental housing will also be very important indefinitely for tens and tens of millions of Americans.While Frank missed the bubble and advocates public policy in favor of home ownership, he clearly stated in this speech that it cannot be achieved by everyone.
Source: THOMAS - Congressional Record, June 27, 2005, Page H5182-H5183.
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Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) is very ill with brain cancer. In an acknowledgment of his mortality, Kennedy sent a letter to the powers-that-be in Massachusetts on July 2. The letter can be viewed here.
Kennedy shows the world that he is still a politician by asking that state law be changed to allow Gov. Deval Patrick (D) to appoint an interim Senator in the event of Kennedy's resignation or death. Massachusetts passed a law in 2004 which removed the Governor's authority to make such an appointment.
The text of the law in its current form can be found here. The legislature passed the law with a 2/3 super-majority after Republican Governor Mitt Romney vetoed the bill which was intended to remove his power in case Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) were to defeat George W. Bush for the Presidency.
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