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2. Fannie, Freddie, and the Subprime Mortgage Market
- Author:
- Mark A. Calabria
- Publication Date:
- 03-2011
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The recent financial crisis was characterized by losses in nearly every type of investment vehicle. Yet no product has attracted as much attention as the subprime mortgage.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Markets, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- United States
3. Herbert Hoover: Father of the New Deal
- Author:
- Steven Horwitz
- Publication Date:
- 09-2011
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Politicians and pundits portray Herbert Hoover as a defender of laissez faire governance whose dogmatic commitment to small government led him to stand by and do nothing while the economy collapsed in the wake of the stock market crash in 1929. In fact, Hoover had long been a critic of laissez faire. As president, he doubled federal spending in real terms in four years. He also used government to prop up wages, restricted immigration, signed the Smoot-Hawley tariff, raised taxes, and created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation-all interventionist measures and not laissez faire. Unlike many Democrats today, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's advisers knew that Hoover had started the New Deal. One of them wrote, "When we all burst into Washington ... we found every essential idea [of the New Deal] enacted in the 100-day Congress in the Hoover administration itself."
- Topic:
- Economics, Markets, Political Economy, Financial Crisis, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- United States and Washington
4. The Case for Auditing the Fed Is Obvious
- Author:
- Arnold Kling
- Publication Date:
- 04-2010
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Recently, the Federal Reserve has significantly altered the procedures and goals that it had followed for decades. It has more than doubled its balance sheet, paid interest to banks on reserves held as deposits with the Fed, made decisions about which institutions to prop up and which should be allowed to fail, invested in assets that expose taxpayers to large losses, and raised questions about how it will avoid inflation despite an unprecedented increase in the monetary base.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Political Economy, Politics, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- United States
5. The Citizens' Guide to Transportation Reauthorization
- Author:
- Randal O'Toole
- Publication Date:
- 12-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Sometime in 2010 or 2011, Congress expects to decide how to spend the $250 billion or more of federal gas taxes and other highway user fees that will be collected over the next six years. The process of doing so is called surface transportation reauthorization. A major point of contention in this law is how much of our transportation system should be centrally planned and how much should be built and operated in response to the needs of actual transportation users.
- Topic:
- Economics and Infrastructure
- Political Geography:
- United States
6. Does the Doctor Need a Boss?
- Author:
- Michael F. Cannon and Arnold Kling
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The traditional model of medical delivery, in which the doctor is trained, respected, and compensated as an independent craftsman, is anachronistic. When a patient has multiple ailments, there is no longer a simple doctor patient or doctor-patient-specialist relationship. Instead, there are multiple specialists who have an impact on the patient, each with a set of interdependencies and difficult coordination issues that increase exponentially with the number of ailments involved.
- Topic:
- Economics, Health, and Human Welfare
- Political Geography:
- United States
7. Greenspan's Monetary Policy in Retrospect
- Author:
- David R. Henderson and Jeffrey Hummel
- Publication Date:
- 11-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Is Alan Greenspan to blame for the current housing bubble and the ongoing financial crisis? A growing chorus charges the former Federal Reserve chairman with being an "inflationist" whose loose monetary policy caused or significantly contributed to our current economic troubles. However, although Greenspan's policies weren't perfect, his monetary policy was in fact tight, and his legacy is one of having overseen low and stable inflation and a striking dampening of the business cycle.
- Topic:
- Economics
- Political Geography:
- United States
8. How Did We Get into This Financial Mess?
- Author:
- Lawrence H. White
- Publication Date:
- 11-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- As policymakers confront the ongoing U.S. financial crisis, it is important to take a step back and understand its origins. Those who fault "deregulation," "unfettered capitalism," or "greed" would do well to look instead at flawed institutions and misguided policies. The expansion in risky mortgages to under qualified borrowers was encouraged by the federal government. The growth of "creative" nonprime lending followed Congress's strengthening of the Community Reinvestment Act, the Federal Housing Administration's loosening of down-payment standards, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development's pressuring lenders to extend mortgages to borrowers who previously would not have qualified.
- Topic:
- Economics and Government
- Political Geography:
- United States
9. Is the Gold Standard Still the Gold Standard among Monetary Systems?
- Author:
- Lawrence H. White
- Publication Date:
- 02-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Critics have raised a number of theoretical and historical objections to the gold standard. Some have called the gold standard a “crazy” idea. The gold standard is not a flawless monetary system. Neither is the fiat money alternative. In light of historical evidence about the comparative magnitude of these flaws, however, the gold standard is a policy option that deserves serious consideration.
- Topic:
- Economics and Government
- Political Geography:
- United States
10. Asset Bubbles and Their Consequences
- Author:
- Gerald P. O'Driscoll Jr.
- Publication Date:
- 05-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- In the past, the federal government has introduced moral hazard in the banking system through deposit insurance. Banks underpriced risk because of the federal guarantee that backed deposits. After banking crises in the 1980s and 1990s, deposit insurance was put on a sound basis and that source of moral hazard was mitigated. In its place, monetary policy has become a source of moral hazard. In acting to counter the economic effects of declining asset prices, the Federal Reserve has come to be viewed as underwriting risky investments. Policy pronouncements by senior Fed officials have reinforced that perception. These actions and pronouncements are mutually reinforcing and destructive to the operation of financial markets. The current financial crisis began in the subprime housing market and then spread throughout credit markets. The new Fed policy fueled the housing boom. Refusing to accept responsibility for the housing bubble, the Fed's recent actions will likely fuel a new asset bubble. The cumulative effects of recent monetary policy undermine the case for free markets.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, and Markets
- Political Geography:
- United States