This morning on KQED Public Radio, NPR gave a disturbing report about FreddieMac and U.S. homeowner’s, including Bay Area homeowner’s, ability today to refinance their home mortgages. NPR said FreddieMac, a pseudo-federal government agency that helps U.S. residents from all across the nation buy homes, is betting homeowners won’t be able to refinance in the [...]
Author Archives | Keith Burbank
About Keith Burbank
Keith earned a master's degree in economics in 1995, and since then has worked as an economist in consulting, journalism, college teaching, and government. Most recently, Keith spent five years as an economist and lead benefit-cost analyst with FEMA on $350 million worth of mitigation grants to the State of Florida after four hurricanes in 2004 and three more hurricanes in 2005 ravaged the state. FEMA hired Keith as the first economist for disaster field work. Since that time, Utah State University admitted him to its PhD program in applied economics, but he hopes to complete his studies at the University of California at Berkeley in behavioral economics and international development and trade.Manufacturing in these United States
January 29, 2012
This morning’s San Francisco Chronicle has an interesting story about the future of manufacturing in the United States. The story is written by Andrew S. Ross in his, The Bottom Line column. See page D1 of the Chronicle. Ross says that a report by Boston Consulting Group says manufacturing is going to make a comeback [...]
Housing and the state budget
January 26, 2012
Last week I said I would comment on how the state budget proposed by Governor Brown is expected to affect California’s housing market. I expected some changes in tax rates affecting housing, but after reviewing a summary of the budget, there are no changes to tax rates. In the budget summary, the writers of the [...]
Thinking about California’s debt?
January 22, 2012
On the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle today is a story about Governor Brown’s desire to see California pay off its debt. The debt is money the government of the State of California owes to people who have bought bonds issued by the state. Why does the governor want to pay off the [...]
The governor’s tax proposal
January 18, 2012
In his State of the State speech, Governor Brown said he wants to raise taxes on the wealthy in California as well as increase the sales tax. Taxes will be used by the state government for state programs, and at least some state Republicans would like to avoid a tax increase. According to a recent [...]
Are we getting better?
January 14, 2012
Browsing in the Oakland Public Library today, I came across a book about economics with an interesting title: Getting Better. I checked out the book, and I started reading this evening. What I read got me thinking about The Great Recession in the United States, about our housing crisis, and about the lives of Americans, [...]
January 30, 2012
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