I could never bear to watch myself, but in case there’s someone else who might, the video of my Bob Fitch memorial lecture (Explaining what goes on in the world: in memory of Bob Fitch) is up here.

The New York Fed is out with a new paper (“Payment Changes and Default Risk: The Impact of Refinancing on Expected Credit Losses”) that shows that reducing monthly mortgage payments “significantly” reduces future default risks. (Abstract follows.) The details of the paper strike me as less interesting than the fact that this basilica of High Finance is arguing that some degree of debt reduction is prudent—bolder than anything that a mainstream politician would ever say. Remember, these are the folks who had David Graeber in recently to talk about debt (and debt forgiveness). Payment… Read More