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Daily Archives: September 17, 2008

Paulson: Housing Is the Root of the Problem

By | | News commentary, Planning Disasters
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“I’ve consistently said that when we looked at our financial institutions,” Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson said Monday, “the root of the problem lies in this housing correction.” Housing prices went up — and banks and other financial institutions invested in mortgages. Housing prices went down — and banks and other financial institutions failed.

Why did housing prices go up? Because of supply constraints. We know that home builders can meet almost any demand if there are no constraints on land. We know that because, as the latest home price indices reveal, the fastest growing metropolitan areas in America — places like Dallas and Houston — did not suffer from housing bubbles and are not now suffering any serious correction.

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High-Speed Rail Part 7: The Benefits of California HSR

By | | Planning Disasters, Transportation
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The costs are exorbitant and rising. The risks are staggering. And the benefits? Even if you believe the Authority’s optimistic assumptions, you pretty much need a magnifying glass to see them.

What are the benefits claimed for the rail network? Less traffic congestion, less energy consumption, less air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, economic development, and, of course, saving people’s time.

Congestion: With or without rail, the EIS predicts that highway congestion will be far worse in 2020 than it is today. With rail, highways parallel to the rail lines will have an average of 3.8 percent less traffic than if rail is not built (p. 3.1-12). Rail will do most on the L.A. to San Diego route (which will probably be one of the last segments to be built), taking 7.9 percent of cars off the road. It will remove 6.6 percent of cars on the Bay Area-to-Central Valley portion. Elsewhere the relief will be less than 3.5 percent.

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