Malthus Returns — With a Vengeance Jeremy Grantham’s latest quarterly newsletter is devoted to looming resource scarcity — and its consequences. As Grantham himself allows, it’s not a cheery subject; it’s not for nothing that economics is known as the “dismal science.” But if you respect Grantham (and I do), it’s worth a read.Read More
“Hedonics,” Defined After almost 13 years, I finally popped for a new (home) office chair yesterday. The chair I retired — actually, handed down to son #2 — was an ergonomically correct, (then) state-of-the-art job purchased from a Relax the Back store in Manhattan for almost $800 in early 1998. Truth be told, it was...Read More
Renting vs. Buying: How Interchangeable? Carla Zeineh, 22, and her husband recently began shopping for a home in Irvine, Calif., and discovered that with a 5% mortgage rate, her monthly payment on a $350,000 two-bedroom home with 20% down could be less than the $1,800 month that they pay in rent on their two-bedroom condo....Read More
