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EDITOR'S CHOICE -- SCOTT SUTTELL
Cleveland Fed president sees no easy solution for housing market blues

Blog entry: September 2, 2010, 11:48 am     |     Author: SCOTT SUTTELL

A few thoughts and links for the day:

  • There's still a lot of work to be done to address the housing crisis, as Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland president Sandra Pianalto sees it.

    Speaking at a housing conference today in Washington, Ms. Pianalto said the size and complexity of the housing crisis meant that “no one-size-fits-all short-term remedies would work,” according to the Real Time Economics blog of The Wall Street Journal.

    “Our research has led us to understand that the housing market collapse is the result of a destructive cycle that feeds on itself,” Ms. Pianalto said. “In our region, mortgage delinquencies led to a high number of foreclosures, which led to an oversupply of housing, which led to home prices depreciating and borrowers and financial institutions taking on big losses.

    “To break this cycle, a coordinated set of policies is needed to target multiple points of the breakdown in the housing market,” she said.

    Ms. Pianalto also outlined proposals to alter the Community Reinvestment Act to give banks incentives to better maintain houses they own so as to improve resale values and enhance communities.

    “These included giving banks more CRA-related credit if they shift more resources to the hardest hit neighborhoods regardless of whether they have physical branches there and providing them with credit for ‘acquiring, tearing down and rehabilitating distressed properties,' ” The Journal reports.

  • A new study that shows single, childless women between 22 and 30 outearned their male counterparts in 2008 is getting a lot of attention today.

    This chart of the top 50 metro areas shows Cleveland is one of the markets where this trend holds true, as women in that demographic earned 4% more than men.

    USA Today says education is the key.

    "Young women are going to college in droves," according to the report from Reach Advisors of New York. "Nearly three-quarters of girls who graduate from high school head to college, vs. two-thirds of the boys. But they don't stop there. Women are now 1.5 times more likely than men to graduate from college or earn advanced degrees."

    Armed with degrees, the newspaper notes, young women command higher salaries.

  • One of the new cast members of “The Amazing Race,” the very successful CBS reality show which gets its season premiere on Sept. 26, is a tremendously impressive young man from Chesterland.

    Connor Diemand-Yauman, 22, is the student body president at Princeton. He lists his hobbies as “singing in our a cappella group, volunteering, speech/debate, acting and sports.” (Is that all?)

    His partner in the race, Jonathan Schwartz, is his best friend.

    Mr. Diemand-Yauman has a good sense of humor on his “Amazing Race” bio, listing Princeton, N.J., as the favorite place he has visited — at least I assume that's a joke — and offering this description of what he'd do if he won the show's $1 million prize: “Withdraw the full amount in one-dollar bills, put it in a kiddie pool, jump in, jump out and take a shower (apparently money is really dirty).”

  • Cleveland resident Mark Hopkins has a quick, sobering letter to the editor of The New York Times in response to recent stories about the end of combat operations in Iraq and the continuation of the war in Afghanistan.

    Mr. Hopkins writes simply, “The saddest thing about reading the names of the American casualties in Afghanistan is to read their ages: 18, 19, 20, 21. They were children when the war began.”

  • SeatGeek.com, which analyzes the prices of second-hand ticket transactions, finds that the Cleveland Browns are playing in the NFL game this season where you can buy a ticket for the cheapest price.

    “It'll cost you $41.87 per ticket to watch the hapless Cleveland Browns play the hapless-er Bills. Near Buffalo. In December,” The Wall Street Journal writes. “On second thought, maybe they should be paying you.”

    The most-sought-after game is the Sept. 9 season opener featuring the Minnesota Vikings at the New Orleans Saints. The cost for a ticket to that one? $372.39.



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