Tuesday Links Top Secret

The banks’ contribution to the economy has been overstated – The Economist

THE huge sums earned by banks and their employees over the past 30 years is a recurring puzzle. How has finance done so well for itself and why haven’t its returns been competed away?

Double Dip? Seven Reasons Why Not – WSJ

It will be a long while before residential real estate becomes a good investment, but the price pattern nonetheless suggests that the market has easily compensated for the gyrations surrounding the tax credit.

Top Secret America, A hidden world, growing beyond control - WaPo

The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.

On Spain’s Housing Collapse – The Globe and Mail

Mr. Cadena’s family are part of an estimated 1.4 million Spaniards now facing court action over unpaid mortgages. During the late 1990s and 2000s, a freewheeling mortgage market gave Spain the highest rate of homeownership in Europe and possibly in the Western world, at 85 per cent. But property values quickly collapsed across Spain – falling more than 40 per cent in Barcelona – at the same time as 2.5 million jobs were wiped out, so there are now a million Spanish families in which all the members are unemployed.

British Home Prices Set to Fall 20% by 2012 – The Telegraph

In total, the group predicts a collapse in house prices of 23pc from the start of 2010 – a deeper drop than the 19.3pc crash during the recession.

Oil and Louisiana Real Estate – NYT

“Here’s your problem,” said Mr. Wilmott, president of the Baldwin County Association of Realtors. “Imagine we’re on the balcony of a condo that I’m trying to sell you, and you look out and see this.”

PMI Slashes Home Sales Forecast by More Than 50% – DS News

The company’s analysts now expect sales of existing homes to rise a modest 2.9 percent for the year to 5.31 million units. That’s a sharp downgrade from a mere month ago, when they were predicting we’d see a 6.1 percent annual gain.

Senate About to Extend Jobless Benefits – WSJ

On Tuesday, Democrats are likely to get the 60 votes they need to extend the benefits through November. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both Maine Republicans, are expected to support the measure, after Democrats agreed to drop unrelated items and trim the bill to $34 billion. Democrats had originally introduced a $120 billion bill that included such items as aid to cash-strapped states

Why the financial reform bill won’t prevent another crisis – Bill Black, CNN Money

Studies show that college students are frequently willing to cheat on tests and to refuse to report cheating by others. Why are economists unwilling to understand that these same people often continue to cheat as VPs and CEOs?

Solving Haiti’s Housing Problems with Old Tires, Bottles – WSJ

Made from used tires, discarded bottles, cardboard, Styrofoam and other waste materials, Mr. Reynolds designs and builds these homes to be essentially energy self-sufficient.