On The Economic Populist you might have noticed the middle column. We try to list other sites and blogs who have exceptional insight and writing on what is happening in the U.S. economy.

Sometimes though, one cannot say it better but miss those who did.

Must Read #1

Calculated Risk's The Housing Tax Credit: NAHB Projections. Pretty astounding that on a $8k-$15k tax credit for new homebuyers, it actually costs:

The NAHB has also been arguing to expand the tax credit from $8,000 to $15,000. But using $8,000 per home buyer - and estimating 5 million home sales over the next year - the total cost of the tax credit would be $40 billion.

According to the NAHB this would result in 383,000 additional home sales. Dividing $40 billion by 383 thousand gives $104,400 per additional home sold!

Hey, that's efficient!

Must Read #2

Ritholtz overviews a new study which shows states with anti-predatory lending laws have less foreclosures and defaults.

Must Read #3

The Baseline Scenario, The Problem with Securitization, points out the Fed proping up the derivatives market is not out of time and money to do so. Here is the original New York Times article.

The New York Times has a story on “Paralysis in the Debt Markets” which says, basically, that credit has dried up because of lack of demand for asset-backed securities. In English, that means that since no one wants to invest in securities that are made out of home mortgages, the people who originate mortgages have no place to sell the mortgages to, so they don’t have any money to lend. And this is also true of commercial real estate, student loans, and so on. For example, “A once-thriving private market in securities backed by home mortgages has collapsed, from $744 billion in 2005, at the peak of the housing boom, to $8 billion during the first half of this year.”

The response of the Fed has been to prop up the securitization market by buying the stuff itself when no one else will buy it. But that program is reaching its provisional limit — according to the times, the Fed has bought $905 billion out of a budget $1.25 trillion in securities — and with the Fed hawks on the warpath, it is likely to be pulled before the private market recovers.

This is especially true since the private market may never recover.

Must Read #4

The Financial Time overviews how financial reforms are being stopped or on the wane as lobbyists beat them back.