The View from Abroad
More than half of French respondents would move to the U.S. if they could, according to a 17-country survey by Reader's Digest.
Not surprisingly, the survey also finds that most people abroad support Obama. Full article here.
Dynamist Blog
Best Live Debate Blogging
So Many Plans!
Commentary lists here and here, from Greg Mankiw.
I won't say every plan is better than the Senate bill--that Hubbard-Mayer idea, for instance, seems like a huge, unnecessary subsidy for people like the Postrels, who have lots of equity in their houses but would save money by refinancing at 5.25%--but that political Frankenstein isn't hard to beat. At this point, I'm leaning toward the do-nothing camp. Either that or concentrate entirely on shoring up commercial paper and other good loans. I'm afraid we'll wind up with the worst of all worlds: an incredibly expensive, distortionary bailout that doesn't solve the problem.
The Permanent Income Hypothesis Vindicated
From Martin Feldstein's column:
The US Congress and the Bush administration enacted a $100 billion tax rebate in an attempt to stimulate consumer spending. Those of us who supported this policy generally knew that history and economic theory implied that such one-time fiscal transfers have little effect, but we thought that this time might be different. Our support was, in the words of Samuel Johnson, a triumph of hope over experience.
In the end, our hopes were frustrated. The official national income accounting data for the second quarter are now available, and they show that the rebates did very little to stimulate spending. More than 80% of the rebate dollars were saved or used to pay down debt. Very little was added to current spending.
Computer Basics Everyone Should Know
Some seem obvious, but you almost certainly don't know all of them. [From David Pogue.]