Unions

Plenty of information out there on unions and the role they play in our economy. This is esecially the case now that states are considering limiting their power to collectivly bargin. There is a great recent Q and A piece. This is more from a previous post. Enjoy

More on Debt

Another interesting piece on our National Debt. This time it does not come from an Op-Ed piece. A slightly different angle, interesting non the less. This issue is not going way.

Options When it Comes to Debt

Here is a good piece be David Brooks (from the NY Times... Op-Ed). He points out how unrealistic it is to get a handle on our debt problems by small tweeks in our spending. His point is that we have to change what we think of our role of the government. Money quote:

The coming budget cuts have nothing to do with merit. They have to do with the inexorable logic of mathematics. Over the past decades, spending in nearly every section of the federal budget has exploded to unsustainable levels. Each year, your family’s share of the national debt increases by about $12,000. By 2015, according to Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the former director of the Congressional Budget Office, Moody’s will downgrade U.S. debt.

Rent Controls

A recent and relevent article on rent controls in NY. (H/T: Mankiw)

Higher Education and Competition

The economics of higher education is an interesting one (and an excellent final position paper for those looking for a good topic). There is the difference between teaching universities vs. research universities (Temple is the latter). There is the competition between private universities vs. public universities (Temple the latter). And as highlighted in this article the difference between wealthy universities with large endowment vs. relatively poor ones with small endowments (again, Temple is the latter).

This has been very relevant lately. The reason is that the government has been pushing the wealthy universities to spend some of that endowment money to help the students. The result (to quote the article):

"Getting into Harvard is like winning the lottery twice," said Barmak Nassirian, an executive with the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admission Officers. "You're getting into Harvard, and if you don't have the adequate resources, you're getting into an institution that has the financial resources to package you properly."

So the natural question that comes up for economists are "should these universities have to spend their endowmnets?" and if so, "how does a place like Temple University (without those endowments) compete with the larger wealthy institutions?"