
Alan Greenspan: Triple Skilled Immigrant Quota - babyshake
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121865515167837815.html?mod=hpp_us_pageone
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mynameishere
_He did offer one suggestion: "The most effective initiative, though
politically difficult, would be a major expansion in quotas for skilled
immigrants," he said. The only sustainable way to increase demand for vacant
houses is to spur the formation of new households._

Think about it. Shifting the demographics of a country, screwing with the
labor supply, and for what...? To prop up housing prices.

Jesus, idiocy.

It has been observed that there are two types of inflation. "Good" inflation,
and bad inflation. When the price of gasoline, eggs, or candy bars goes up,
it's bad. When the price of stocks [1], houses, or labor goes up, it's good.

In fact, it depends entirely on whether you are an asset holder or prospective
asset holder. Many people hold houses, while few hold warehoused candy bars.
Hence, the confusion. Corporations are managed by people who 1) Hold candy
bars (viz, goods), 2) Hold houses, and 3) Do not hold labor. Thus, they will
do what they can to inflate the price of particular goods, property, and
deflate the price of labor. The value systems of the different classes are
opposite in this respect.

In fact, I think it would be _great_ if housing prices dropped 90 percent.
Guess whether I own a house or not.

[1] Only Warren Buffett groks this. He once claimed that he wish all of his
stock dropped in price by 50 percent (iirc)

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byrneseyeview
He's not 'manipulating' the market. He's trying to end the manipulation. The
_global_ supply/demand imbalance in real estate is lower than the _local_
demand, and so by allowing people from overseas to come to the US, he's
rectifying that.

It's not like he's advocating the kind of immigration we usually get
(uncontrolled, unskilled, non-English speaking, general more statist/leftist
people from Mexico).

And I don't think one should define good or bad inflation i terms of one's
personal portfolio. The only relevant question is whether prices send accurate
signals: if we have increasing oil prices because the cost of extracting oil
has risen, that's good inflation no matter who benefits from high oil prices.

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johnrob
Whether or not you support skilled immigration, the idea that we would change
our stance on the matter because of home prices is absurd.

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byrneseyeview
"Whether or not you believe _X_ , the idea that we would change our stance on
the matter because of _new circumstances that make it a better idea_ is
absurd."

Or did I misread you?

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hugh
Whether or not you believe in _burning criminals at the stake_ , the idea that
we would change our stance on the matter because _it's cold outside today_ is
absurd.

(The point being that X in this case is an important issue of policy and Y is
a transient, small-beer problem that X wouldn't really solve much anyway.)

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silverlake
Most people consider the real-estate bubble to be a massive shock to the
financial system that could quite easily lead to a severe recession and the
government takeover of $1 trillion in Fannie & Freddie debt (plus another few
hundred billion for FDIC). You won't hear anyone in the know describe this as
a "small beer problem".

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bootload
This title is not related to the article which is about "housing" and
"investment".

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natrius
That sounds like a square on a Scrabble board.

