Using a new comprehensive research framework, the Economic Policy Institute estimates that proposed international trade deals with Korea and Colombia would displace up to 214,000 jobs and expand the American trade deficit by $16.8 billion by 2015.
Writing in The New Republic, U.S. Rep. Brad Miller of North Carolina offers ideas for dealing with the housing mess:
The toxic assets backed by mortgages are impossible to value. The concern that taxpayers would get fleeced buying toxic assets from the financial industry was well justified. Whole mortgages are not hard to value at all. There are frequent, well-publicized auctions of mortgages with a sufficient number of informed, sophisticated buyers. The auctions are an almost perfect pricing mechanism. The problem for the financial industry is not the difficulty of valuing troubled mortgages; the problem is that many mortgages are not worth much. There are obviously many considerations in the price, but distressed mortgages generally sell for about 30 to 50 cents on the dollar at auction. And any honest valuation of many second liens would be pennies on the dollar.
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If the government could purchase, either by voluntary sale or by eminent domain, distressed mortgages for 30 to 50 cents on the dollar, there would be ample room to reduce the principal to make the mortgage affordable. In other cases, the government could buy the home in exchange for cancelling the mortgage and enter into a long-term lease with the former homeowner.
A new analysis from the Economic Policy Institute finds that 1.3 young workers (ages 16-24) have abandoned the labor market since the start of the recession. During that time, the share of young workers participating in the labor force has fallen to 54.7 percent from 59.1 percent.
Policy Points will be updated on a reduced schedule during the week of March 1, 2010. Please check daily for updates.
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