Readers of my latest Am Law Daily article may’ve seen an announcement at the end about my upcoming presentation at the Henry George School of Social Science. The notice just went out, so here’s the abstract:
College Education: Certain Debt, Uncertain Income. Soaring costs for education, together with limited job opportunities and stagnant wage growth, place substantial financial and psychological burdens on students.
Noted columnist and researcher Matt Leichter reviews tuition inflation, cuts in public funding and the business of lending to students. Mr. Leichter will also propose reforms to the system of financing college education.
Here’s the event info:
6:30 PM, Friday, December 20, 2013.
121 E. 30th St. (between Park Ave. & Lexington Ave.)
New York, NY 10016
I’m excited to present on the topic, and I hope that readers in the NYC-area will attend.
The Last Gen X American 
Get them to webcast it, Matt!
They might.
Matt Leichter performing live! I got to try an make this!
Of course, KO. You’re the only person I know who’s knowledgeable on the topic and can keep me honest.
Source of Henry George obsession finally uncovered!!
Shilling for that sweet, sweet Clinton-ian speech money!!
(Kidding).
Again, I would like to point out the interplay of progressive dollar debauchment/ZIRP printing and the “amazing” resurrection of coastal California real estate prices.
http://www.deptofnumbers.com/asking-prices/california/san-francisco/
(Dig the post 2011 75th percentile chart…)
Note, there is no intrinsic limit on the supply of fiat dollars – but there most certainly is a limited supply of Med-climate coastal real estate.
Wondering how HG would feel about the expropriation of dollar savers and the exsanguination of California taxpayers in order to habitually save the ass of California land speculators…
Should we expect advocacy of a federal property tax on coastal real estate?
Yes, cas127, I’m selling out, and soon I’ll start a PAC and make 18 percent loans to it to get rich.
As to the SF market, I’m seeing the inventory at a record low, half of what it was in 2011. That looks like supply and demand, not dollar-printing. It could be banks holding foreclosures off the market, but that’s HG’s argument not Fed policy.
As for HG, he’d probably point out that the dollar-savers and the land-savers are the same people.
“That looks like supply and demand, not dollar-printing.”
If you are a high net worth dollar saver being heavily diluted by Zimbabwe Ben, you move out of savings held in the form of Treasuries/dollars (which, being fiat, are subject to no supply constraint other than Government probity – heh…) and hoover up the geographically limited supply of highly favorable real estate in climate attractive coastal areas (draining for sale inventory and driving up prices in diluted dollar terms).
Limited supply land holds its value much better than unlimited supply fiat – that’s what I mean when I say Zimbabwe Ben is gutting the dollar as a store of value.
I’m not even sure if this is controversial, as it is pretty much understood that ZIRP is intended to kick dollar savers in the assets – out of Treasuries/bank accounts/etc and up the risk ladder.
But while the Fed “plan” is to goose employee-hiring ventures/investments, it looks like some/most/all of the migrating savings/investments may be pouring into real estate (a lot of it employee irrelevant *existing* housing).
Meanwhile, Ma and Pa Kulak in Paducah are having the earning power of their retirement savings de facto reduced to zero so that coastal California real estate speculation can be re-ignited.
Interest rate manipulation on the part of the Fed is an extremely blunt instrument – the exact result is hard to control/predict (witness 2002-2006).
Similar outcome with regard to various government contortions to spike US “aggregate demand” (as though we really know what the “right” AD is at any given point) – it looks to me like a decade or so worth of AD punch bowl spiking has helped Chinese employment levels a lot more than less competitive US employment levels.
All the government manipulations (of interest rates, etc) are a doomed attempt to paper over (literally in some cases) the US’ greatly diminished competitive position vis a vis China.
We can’t pay the rent, and we seem to think that shooting the dog full of meth will somehow fix the problem.
It won’t/hasn’t – it is just creating other problems (like one incredibly juiced dog).
“It is worse than a crime – it is a blunder.”
See my response on my other post.