Dum Waxes Wroth over Housing, Jobs

Dum opines on today’s housing report:

Today’s new home sales report was at the top of the expected range. In good times, this would be cause for the stock market to rally, and bonds to sink. Instead, the report was met with a gigantic yawn. In a way, that is remarkable. Even though the numbers were better than February’s (both sales and median price were up), the numbers were still worse than last year. Sales were down 1.9% and prices were down 4.9%, both compared to last year’s numbers.

What is needed are jobs. The jobs that are being created are largely at $10/hr. and less. $10 per hour translates to about $1750/month before taxes are taken out. That income will service a maximum mortgage of about $125,000 if the applicant has no other debt. Very few houses are to be had on either coast or in Chicago for under $200,000, and not many as low as $200,000.  If no one can buy entry level houses, then, as a practical matter, no one can move up to a larger, more expensive home.

Strong action needs to be taken to bring prosperity levels for the average American worker bee up to those in Germany and Switzerland. That is unlikely for as long as corporations dominate U.S. politics. Too bad the U.S. Supreme Court lacks the honesty to respect the wishes of the founders of the country. The original corporation laws, understood by every signer of the Declaration of Independence and understood by both the Democrats and the Whigs (Jefferson, the font of ideas for the Democrats  and Hamilton, occupying a similar position for the the Whigs) were specific that corporations were primarily to benefit the public, not the private interest. Giving corporations political rights would have been anathema to founders. Honesty and integrity certainly seem absent from the right wing of the current court, and this is nowhere more evident than in a ruling expanding political rights for a group never intended to be given any of the rights of natural persons.