Report October 2007

The optimistic view of the subprime mortgage sector is that it makes the availability of credit for home purchases more egalitarian, extending it to those otherwise regarded as a high credit risk. The authors of a new Levy Institute Public Policiy Brief, however, are not as sanguine about such developments.

Contents:

NEW PUBLIC POLICY BRIEF

• Cracks in the Foundations of Growth: What Will the Housing Debacle Mean for the US Economy?

CONFERENCE

• Economists for Peace and Security: War and Poverty, Peace and Prosperity

WORKSHOP

• Future National Survey of American Jews

NEW WORKING PAPERS

• Recent Trends in Household Wealth in the United States: Rising Debt and the Middle-Class Squeeze
• A Simplified “Benchmark” Stock-flow Consistent (SFC) Post-Keynesian Growth Model
• Female Land Rights, Crop Specialization, and Productivity in Paraguayan Agriculture
• Implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in India: Spatial Dimensions and Fiscal Implications
• The Effects of a Declining Housing Market on the US Economy
• Who’s a Jew in an Era of High Intermarriage? Surveys, Operational Definitions, and the Contemporary American Context
• The American Jewish Committee’s Annual Opinion Surveys: An Assessment of Sample Quality
• On Various Ways of Measuring Unemployment, with Applications to Switzerland
• A Post-Keynesian View of Central Bank Independence, Policy Targets, and the Rules-versus-Discretion Debate
• The Fed’s Real Reaction Function: Monetary Policy, Inflation, Unemployment, Inequality—and Presidential Politics

LEVY INSTITUTE NEWS

• New Research Scholar
• Upcoming Event
• Workshop: International Comparisons of EconomicWell-Being

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

• Publications and Presentations by Levy Institute Scholars