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361. Anatomy of a Train Wreck: Causes of the Mortgage Meltdown

Author:
Stan J. Liebowitz
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Independent Institute
Abstract:
Why did the mortgage market melt down so badly? Why were there so many defaults when the economy was not particularly weak? Why were the securities based upon these mortgages not considered anywhere as risky as they actually turned out to be? This report concludes that, in an attempt to increase home ownership, particularly by minorities and the less affluent, virtually every branch of the government undertook an attack on underwriting standards starting in the early 1990s. Regulators, academic specialists, GSEs, and housing activists universally praised the decline in mortgage-under- writing standards as an “innovation” in mortgage lending. This weakening of underwriting standards succeeded in increasing home ownership and also the price of housing, helping to lead to a housing price bubble. The price bubble, along with relaxed lending standards, allowed speculators to purchase homes without putting their own money at risk. The recent rise in foreclosures is not related empirically to the distinction between subprime and prime loans since both sustained the same percent- age increase of foreclosures and at the same time. Nor is it consistent with the “nasty subprime lender” hypothesis currently considered to be the cause of the mortgage meltdown. Instead, the important factor is the distinction between adjustable-rate and fixed-rate mortgages. This evidence is consistent with speculators turning and running when housing prices stopped rising.
Topic:
Economics, Government, Markets, Financial Crisis, and Minorities
Political Geography:
United States

362. Poverty in Palestine: the human cost of the financial boycott

Publication Date:
04-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
In April 2006, key donors including the US A, EU, and Canada suspended international aid to the Palestinian Authority government (PA), following the overwhelming victory of Hamas in parliamentary elections. The Government of Israel had previously suspended the transfer of the tax and customs revenues it collects on behalf of the PA.
Topic:
Government and Humanitarian Aid
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, Middle East, Israel, and Palestine

363. Modernizing the Intelligence Surveillance Act

Author:
David Kris
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
In December 2005, the New York Times reported, and President Bush confirmed, that the National Security Agency (NSA) had been conducting electronic surveillance of international communications, to or from the United States, without obeying the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA). The disclosure ignited a wildfire of political and legal controversy, which continues to generate heat, if not light, today.
Topic:
Government, Intelligence, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States and New York

364. Committing to Prosperity: Moving Forward on the Agenda to Renew Pennsylvania

Publication Date:
03-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
Pennsylvania is at once the same and different, three years after the release of the 2003 Brookings Institution report “Back to Prosperity,” which proposed a new vision for how Pennsylvania might revitalize its cities, towns, and regions in order to compete more energetically in today's global economy.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:
United States and Pennsylvania

365. The Implications of Service Offshoring for Metropolitan Economies

Author:
Howard Wial and Robert Atkinson
Publication Date:
02-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
In the months running up to the 2004 election the issue of off- shoring—the movement of jobs from the United States to other nations—seemed to be on the front pages of newspapers every day. Some of the concern was about the loss of manufacturing jobs to lower-wage countries such as China and Mexico, a process that had been going on for decades. The offshoring of service jobs, though, was something new. Service workers—including college- educated professionals—who previously thought their jobs immune to foreign competition began to worry about this new source of job in security. Policymakers concerned about the American standard of living wondered whether service offshoring would eliminate the United States' advantage in high technology industries.
Topic:
Demographics, Economics, Government, and Poverty
Political Geography:
United States, China, and Mexico

366. More COPS

Author:
John J. Donohue III and Jens Ludwig
Publication Date:
03-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
It would be unrealistic to expect crime to continue dropping sharply as it did in the 1990s, but that is no reason to undermine the progress brought by successful policies. With recent FBI data showing crime on the rise, it is time to reconsider the massive de-funding of one of the most successful federal anti-crime measures of the 1990s: the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Policing Services (COPS) program. The program, authorized by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, provides grants to state and local police to hire additional officers and adopt aspects of "community policing."
Topic:
Civil Society, Crime, Development, and Government
Political Geography:
United States

367. Corruption Threatens China's Future

Author:
Minxin Pei
Publication Date:
10-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
Corruption poses one of the most lethal threats to China's future economic development and political stability. Illicit activities such as bribery, kickbacks, theft, and misspending of public funds cost at least 3 percent of GDP. Corruption also undermines the legitimacy of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, fuels social unrest, contributes directly to the rise in socioeconomic inequality, and undermines China's environmental security. The prevalence of corruption in China is rooted in the country's partially reformed economy and absence of genuine political reform. Corruption in China has spillover effects beyond its borders. To protect its own interests and encourage China in its transition toward a more market-based economy and open society, the United States should rely on mutual legal cooperation to assist China in its struggle against corruption.
Topic:
Corruption and Government
Political Geography:
United States, China, and Asia

368. Roots of Radical Islam in Central Asia

Author:
Martha Brill Olcott
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
The history of the development of Islamic radicalism in Uzbekistan, and in Central Asia more generally, is a potentially contentious one. There is very little agreement either within the policy community in the United States or in Central Asia itself as to what Islamic radicalism is and who among devout Muslims should be considered as posing a threat to the secular regimes.
Topic:
Development, Government, and Religion
Political Geography:
United States, Central Asia, and Uzbekistan

369. What Can the United States Learn from the Nordic Model?

Author:
Daniel Mitchell
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Some policymakers in the United States and Europe argue that it is possible to enjoy economic growth and also have a large welfare state. These advocates for bigger government claim that the so- called Nordic Model offers the best of both worlds. This claim does not withstand scrutiny. Economic performance in Nordic nations is lagging, and excessive government is the most likely explanation. The public sector in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Iceland consumes, on average, more than 48 percent of economic output. Total government outlays in the United States, by contrast, are less than 37 percent of gross domes- tic product. Revenue comparisons are even more striking. Tax receipts average more than 45 per- cent of GDP in Nordic nations, a full 20 percent- age points higher than the aggregate tax burden in the United States.
Topic:
Economics and Government
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

370. PolicyWatch #1316: Special Forum Report: Libel, Terrorism, and the Assault on Academic Freedom

Author:
Judith Miller and Ruth Wedgwood
Publication Date:
12-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
On November 15, 2007, The Washington Institute held a Policy Forum with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Judith Miller and Ruth Wedgwood, the Edward B. Burling professor of international law and diplomacy and director of the International Law and Organizations Program at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. The following is a rapporteur's summary of their remarks.
Topic:
Civil Society, Government, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States