Needy states using housing aid cash to plug budgets, By Shaila Dawan, May 15, 2012, New York Times: “Hundreds of millions of dollars meant to provide a little relief to the nation’s struggling homeowners is being diverted to plug state budget gaps. In a budget proposed this week, California joined more than a dozen states that want to help close gaping shortfalls using money paid by the nation’s biggest banks and earmarked for foreclosure prevention, investigations of financial fraud and blunting the ill effects of the housing crisis. California was awarded more than $400 million from the banks, and Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed using the bulk of that sum to pay the state’s debts.The money was part of a national settlement valued at $25 billion and negotiated with five big banks over abuses in their mortgage and foreclosure processes. . .”
Day: May 18, 2012
Cross-National Social Mobility
A secret to social mobility: inherit your job from your dad, By Miles Corak, May 17, 2012, Globe and Mail: “In an article that appeared earlier this year, The New York Times described the extent to which rich parents can expect to see their children grow up to be rich adults, as well as the likelihood that the poor raise children destined for poverty. Surprisingly enough, the article came close to concluding that if Americans are interested in living the American Dream – where family background has little influence on adult outcomes – they should move to, of all places, Denmark, or if crossing the Atlantic seems daunting, then, as a second best, to Canada. Indeed, Denmark has been a darling of sorts ever since Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett highlighted in their book, The Spirit Level, that Danish life is so much better along a whole host of dimensions because income inequality is so much lower. . .”