FG and Adam W. both flagged this: Homeowners who ‘strategically default’ on loans a growing problem. The article begins: “Who is more likely to walk away from a house and a mortgage — a person with super-prime credit scores or someone with lower scores? Research using a massive sample of 24 million individual credit files has found that homeowners with high scores when they apply for a loan are 50% more likely to “strategically default” — abruptly and intentionally pull the plug and abandon the mortgage — compared with lower-scoring borrowers.”
El Jefe Jeff E. recommended this piece by famed economist Arthur Laffer, in The Wall Street Journal: Taxes, Depression, and Our Current Troubles. Jeff’s comment: “Arthur Laffer makes interesting comparisons of today’s monetary policy with that of the Great Depression. The Fed has increased money supply 100% in recent months. A tax increase may be the tipping point.”
GG recommended this piece by a Cato Institute fellow: The growing debt bomb
Items from The Economatrix:
Oil Prices Dip Below $69, Supplies Jump
Fallen Money-Market Fund Makes $1 Billion Distribution
IMF: No Full Recovery Until 2015
UK: Jobless Claims Show Demise of Slump May Be Exaggerated
Treasuries Fall After 5-Year-Notes Auction
UK: HSBC Staff Carrying Personal Alarms in Case of Customer Rage
Devaluation Remains Bank’s Secret Weapon
Britain About to Lose AAA Credit Rating