Category Archives: Economics

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The “Affordable Housing” Problem To no one's surprise, housing costs skyrocketed under President Biden

Heather Long, formerly of CNN and late of The Washington Post, now the Chief Economist for Navy Federal Credit Union, tweeted out an interesting economic graph, showing the rate of increase in home prices during the last five years. She wrote:

The Case-Shiller US Home Price Index is up 52% since January 2020.

That’s great news for anyone who owns a home. But it’s onerous for anyone who wants to buy.

The typical mortgage cost is basically double now versus 2020. And that $330,000 home price in 2020 is now ~$500k.

Home prices have cooled a bit this spring. Many sellers are reducing prices a bit and offering incentives. But it’s barely moving the needle on the big picture of the past 5 years.

The problem with inflation is that it can be reduced or even halted — though the Federal Reserve Board’s target is for 2% inflation, not no inflation at all — but inflation normally creates its own baseline: while the rate of increase may slow, absent a serious recession, prices almost never drop to where they were prior to inflation, though they did due to the housing market crash, between 2007 to 2012. Continue reading →

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Why should it be illegal to do something for money that is perfectly legal to do for free?

The title of this article is something I have asked about the repugnant profession of prostitution, but a guest column in The Philadelphia Inquirer doesn’t like the notion that a person could choose to make a live organ donation for filthy lucre:

The legalization of human organ sales would only undermine human dignity

A measure in New York state offers tax credits to living organ donors. That’s reignited one of medicine’s most contentious ethical debates: Should we legalize the sale of human organs?

Continue reading →

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Throwing good money after bad

It was thanks to Robert Stacy McCain that I saw this tweet from the Defender of the Republic.

Britney Spears has a guesstimated net worth of $60 million, according to Forbes, or perhaps a paltry $40 million, estimated by Celebrity Net Worth. The Defender wondered why no one could help a clearly wealthy and attractive woman. I know virtually nothing about Miss Spears, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the answer is that no one has helped her because she doesn’t want to be helped.

Which brings me to the more serious:

Only two people have successfully completed the Kensington ‘wellness court’ so far. The Parker administration wants to expand it.

Nearly two-thirds of the more than 40 people brought before the court since late January have dropped out of treatment within days, and then failed to appear at follow-up hearings.

Continue reading →

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Why don’t we return to charitable giving? Why must everything be through the government?

It was back in 2023 that one of my fellow parishioners at St Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church told us that the Estill County Community Food Bank was losing the ‘extra’ money coming from the federal government in COVID-19 ’emergency’ money was ending. The parish council then decided that we would take up a quarterly extra second collection specifically for the Food Bank, and I’m happy to say that most of those second collections netted slightly over $1,000 for the organization.

I thought of that when I saw the tweet on the right from WPVI-TV in Philadelphia, and the following (brief) story:

Delaware Food Bank loses nearly 1M meals after Trump administration ended food aid funding

Continue reading →

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Can The Washington Post be saved? The newspaper industry has updated as much as possible, but it's still 18th century technology.

We have previously reported on how owner Jeff Bezos’ decision that The Washington Post not make any endorsement for President in 2024 cost the newspaper hundreds of thousand of subscriptions.

But now columnist Joe Concha of the New York Post says that Mr Bezos is doing what is necessary to save one of our nation’s newspapers of record:

Three cheers for Jeff Bezos, fighting to save The Washington Post from itself

By Joe Concha | Thursday, March 6, 2025 6:52 PM EST

Jeff Bezos is one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs — but making his Washington Post staffers face reality may be his toughest-ever career challenge.

A long time ago in a media galaxy that now seems far, far away, the Post was one of the most respected newspapers in the country, capturing 68 Pulitzers in the process. Continue reading →

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Not everything has to be a federal government project!

Under our 47th President, the sensible people in charge are looking at all of the spending in which the federal government engages. With the FY2024 federal budget deficit at $1.83 trillion — that’s trillion, a thousand billion, or a million million dollars — and FY2025 possibly going to be more, the Trump Administration is taking a battle axe to spending where it can, because a battle axe is what is needed. Tiny little cuts by going over everything with a fine-toothed comb will never work, because there’s always some purportedly good reason to spend for someone’s pet project. The battle axe method is the right thing to do, and then, after that is done, we can check to see if anything truly essential was cut and needs to be restored.

Trump administration freezes $12 million meant to help Philly plant thousands of trees

Continue reading →

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The Washington Post conflates current house painting fashion with race

The Washington Post published an article on neighborhood gentrification on Sunday, and a lot of readers, to judge by the comments, saw it as completely racist. Perhaps, just perhaps, not everything is about race.

The house color that tells you when a neighborhood is gentrifying

A Washington Post color analysis of D.C. found shades of gray permeate neighborhoods where the White population has increased and the Black population has decreased.

By Marissa J. Lang and John D. Harden | Sunday, March 2, 2025 | 6:00 AM EST

If you live in an American city, chances are you have seen this house: Its exterior is gray with monochromatic accents. Maybe there’s a pop of color — a red, blue or yellow door. The landscaping is restrained, all clean lines and neat minimalism. Sleek metal address numbers appear crisp in a modern sans-serif font. Continue reading →

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Joy Reid and DEI: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

With the news that MSNBC has cancelled Joy Reid’s prime time show, my Twitter feed filled up with the laments of the left over that, and the inevitable complaints that she was fired because of raaaaacism the network hates black women. Former Representative Jamaal Brown (D-NY) tweeted:

Joy Reid educated a nation every single night. She is a beacon on MSNBC and all of media! Shame on MSNBC for this. SHAME SHAME SHAME! We have to build our own multimedia empire. Anchored in truth, and justice and humanity. We stand up for Black people, and GAZA and the LGBTQ, and oppressed people and vulnerable people everywhere! And we will never stop!

I absolutely support the right of Dr Brown — he tells us that he’s an “Ed.D.” in his Twitter handle — to build his own multimedia empire! We have freedom of speech and of the press in this country, and anyone can say anything he wishes, can start and try to build a show, at network, a publishing empire, whatever.

Elie Mystal, whom Dr Brown included in his tweet, is the “Justice Correspondent and Columnist” for The Nation, the socialist-left opinion journal, so he had plenty of space to express his opinion.

The Value of Joy

By canceling Joy Reid’s cable news show, MSNBC has not only silenced a brilliant host: It’s silenced the next Black voice you haven’t yet heard.

Continue reading →

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Beware the Ides of March!

Happy St Valentine’s Day!

I awoke this morning to a tweet from Libs of TikTok, noting that yet another federal judge has tried to block President Trump’s ‘pause’ in foreign aid spending.

Judge orders Trump administration to temporarily allow funds for foreign aid

by the Associated Press | Thursday, February 13, 2025 | 11:53 PM EST

WASHINGTON — A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to temporarily lift a three-week funding freeze that has shut down U.S. aid and development programs worldwide.

Judge Amir Ali issued the order Thursday in U.S. district court in Washington in a lawsuit brought by two health organizations that receive U.S. funding for programs abroad.

Newsweek noted that Judge Ali was one of President Joe Biden’s last judicial appointees, confirmed by the then Democrat-controlled Senate after the election. Continue reading →