wealth

Commercial real estate has been regressively “freed” from debt – leaving the rental value to be pledged to banks as interest. This un-taxing of land rent has been a major factor inflating the real estate bubble on credit, much as…

James K. Galbraith writes that the National Committee on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform's underlying budgetary analysis is faulty because it rests on the false premise that a country can involuntarily default on a fiat currency it…

by Michael Hudson Now that President Obama is almost celebrating his willingness to renew the tax cuts enacted under George Bush for the super-rich ten years ago, it is time for Democrats to ask themselves how strongly they are willing to…

by Annaly Capital Management One of the goals of QE is to raise asset prices, as we have been told by Chairman Bernanke and Brian Sack among others, which should stimulate wealth-effect consumption. Leaving aside all of the obvious hazards…

by Rick Bookstaber This reflects my personal opinion, not the views of the SEC or its staff. I just finished reading Robert Reich’s new book, Aftershock. The critical points of the book are well presented in his pre-publication New York…

The chart below is from today's morning Breakfast with Dave missive by Gluskin Sheff's David Rosenberg. How do you fight against losses this large? Like Richard Koo and David Rosenberg, I believe the monumental hit that balance sheets of…

Will Wilkinson has a post up at his blog called "The Indeterminacy of Income Growth" (pointer to Steve Randy Waldman). He makes a number of points about inflation indices which leads him to conclude that it really can't be said…

There is a new graph on the internet that will be seen and discussed at length in the coming days and weeks.  It shows how household net worth has changed over the past 59 years. The graph below, originally from Macro and Other Market…

It would seem so from the statistics compiled by the New York Times. The article leads in by suggesting the rich are 'losing their home but given the talk about strategic default earlier in the year (see here), you should wonder whether…