This paper uses the prisoner's dilemma game to explain why the financial services industry refuses to provide financial relief to homeowners even though the failure to provide meaningful relief has exacerbated the decline in home prices and has led to more foreclosures and losses for the industry

This paper contains nine different essays on Social Security reform and multi-pillar pension plans. The nine topics are: 1. Transition costs2. Progressive indexation3. Government guarantees on private accounts4. Life cycle investing5. Impact of add-on accounts on Social Security solvency6....

The goals of this paper are to discuss issues pertaining to the valuation of portfolios, mutual funds, and exchange traded funds (ETFs). The analysis presented here indicates that many commonly reported ETF and mutual fund PE ratios used by investment companies are highly misleading. The paper...

This paper utilizes data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to assess changes in housing equity and mortgage affordability across age groups between 1985 and 2005. The tabulations presented here indicate the share of the population with negative equity and the share of the population...

This paper considers the impact of population aging on tax competition among states. The analysis presented here suggests that fiscal impacts associated with tax competition will be substantially larger once the baby boom generation retires

As the election of 2008 approaches most of the attention of investors and workers is on mortgage defaults, the banking crisis and the stock market. Important changes occurring in the labor market are being overlooked. The monthly unemployment rate in August 2008, 6.1%, is around the 70th...