“Rising Treasury Yields Quiet Investors’ Concerns” –WSJ Headline (11/14/19). Stock swooned last Summer, sort of, when the dive in interest rates — combined with uncertainty over trade wars, Brexit, and whatever else was in the air — convinced people that something nasty might be just over the horizon. Fast forward a couple months. Interest rates...Read More
“Assume You Don’t Need What You Need” If you want to know how economists think, a good start is jokes about economists. So, consider this classic about a physicist, an engineer, and an economist all stranded in the desert: They are hungry. Suddenly, they find a can of corn. They want to open it, but how?...Read More
Mortgage Rates Pop 25 Basis Points Monday “Economists have predicted nine out of the last five recessions.” –Paul Samuelson Just because economists have been predicting, wrongly, for years now that interest rates are about to rise doesn’t mean that it won’t happen. Someday. In the meantime, there are periodic tremblors, suggesting that rates won’t stay...Read More
Comparing Housing — and Auto — “Apples & Oranges” Heard the one about the physicist, the chemist, and the economist stranded on a desert island? A can of soup washes ashore — but the three (hungry) professionals have no way to open it. The physicist says “We could drop it from the top of that...Read More
