PBS NewsHour - Making Sen$e

By “hits,” I mean Merle Hazard’s Golden Newbie Euro-crisis Euro-tunes, as well as the Internet views that they’ve been garnering. Monday’s post: The Pain in Spain Falls Plainly from Merle’s Brain. Yesterday’s: Erin Go Broke. And today, the world debut of the Joe Green classic, “Capital is Mobile.” _pap_embeddable('news01s4792q101c',322,212,{ pap_usecache:true }); Watch a larger version of the video here. For all three, as well as tomorrow’s German “Ode to Joy,” credit where credit is due: Mandolin: Frances Cunningham, one of a very few to have played the bouzouki at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry. She has recorded with Nashville country and bluegrass artists and toured the world with Six Mile Bridge, a Celtic rock band. Camera: Tom Noser and Matt Westerman Editor: Bob Burns The post The Hits Just Keep On Coming appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

Today’s post puts the economic woes of the Emerald Isle to music. The lyrics are Hazard’s, though I confess to have taken crack at them myself and then, at some risk to my ego, sent both sets of lyrics — mine and the master’s, our names not included — to several eminent economists for a vote. Mine lost in a unanimous decision. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the digital universe for being able to salvage them here, and to encourage you to similarly carpe diem, as explained below. You, at least, will not be competing with — but FOR — the master. My lyrics: (also to the tune of “Danny Boy”) *Oh Danny boy, your banks, your banks are wailing; From glen to glen, they loaned to housing new; The boom is gone, and all the banks are failing; Erin goes broke, or Europe sees you through.* *Investors, they will only keep you solvent Should you agree, your belt to tighten more; But how can Ireland employ all the Irish If firms cut costs, by showing workers to the door?* *Oh Emerald Isle, you could perhaps raise taxes But foreign firms would turn your greenfields brown, And when a firm quits town your folk it axes, Leaving Erin further broken down.* *What’s Paddy’s choice, then? What could be the cure? — oh Danny boy, damned if you do or you don’t? Revive the Irish punt and throw away the Euro, Then tell your lenders where to shove the dough they’ve loant Then tell your lenders where to shove the dough they’ve loant.* We’ll be continuing all week with new country country songs by Mr. Merle. If you haven’t already, you might like to watch yesterday’s ditty about Spain’s economic plight. And for the lyrically-inclined, he and I re-extend our invitation to enter our Making Sen$e contest. Got a lyric or two about European debt woes? Iceland’s? France’s? Luxembourg’s? Post them (or a link to a video of you singing them) in the comments below. And here’s the best part: Merle will record the winning lyrics, and we’ll post his rendition of your work here. You can even copy it for your home answering machine. The post Erin Go Broke appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

The first of this week’s series of posts from the ever-melodic, ever-economic Merle Hazard debuts today: a ditty on the plight of Spain. (Watch a full-size version of Merle here). And stay tuned- we’ll be posting songs from Merle all week. Meanwhile, he and I invite you and your inner balladeer to join in and enter a Making Sen$e contest. Got a lyric or two about European debt woes? Portugal’s? Belgium’s? Lichtenstein’s? Post them (or a link to a video of you singing them) in the comments below. And here’s the best part: Merle will record the winning lyrics, and we’ll post his rendition of your work here. You can even copy it for your home answering machine! Here’s an example, also about Spain, to get your creative song-writing started: When we…kill a bull We cut off the ears and the tail Killing bulls…is a sport For a bull is not too big to fail The post The Pain in Spain Falls Plainly from Merle’s Brain appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

This will not come as news to our Twitter followers (tweetees?), but we spent last weekend at the annual economics convention, held this year in Denver. Every January we buttonhole economists of various stripes and political persuasions to pose a question or two. In 2009 we asked, “How come you didn’t see the crisis coming?” and their predictions for the year ahead; last year, “How should we fix the financial system?” with William Black, Andrew Lo, Ben Friedman and a humorous take with “stand-up economist” Yoram Bauman. This year’s questions were more general: What has surprised you most in the proximate past and what most worries you looking ahead? Exclusively for our website, we’ve edited together some of the most intriguing — and worrisome — responses. The post What Worries Economists in 2011: From Lower Housing Prices To a Crisis in Europe appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

More from the strategic default debate today. Economist Luigi Zingales of the University of Chicago, also in our original story, argues there are damaging spillover effects (“negative externalities”) when homeowners strategically default. “By walking away, not only do you damage the lenders,” Zingales said, “but you damage the community which you leave and you damage everybody else who in the future will try to borrow because the cost of borrowing will be higher.” You can watch Florida banker Bill Valenti, who argued in Wednesday’s post that a mortgage is a moral obligation. And tomorrow we finish the series with a University of Arizona law professor who argues that walking away is the moral high road for homeowners. The post Who Do You Hurt When You Walk Away? appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

We’ve been concentrating on the housing crisis over the past several days here on the Business Desk. For the rest of the week we’ll be focusing on the issue of strategic default. If you’re an underwater homeowner who can afford your mortgage payments, is it right to walk away? In our broadcast story, we featured folks both for and against. We also provided an interactive tool from KQED in San Francisco that helps with the decision. But what’s the substance of the debate? Is a residential mortgage all that different from a commercial one, or isn’t it? When you borrow to buy a home, the home is collateral. Does that imply that the lender expects you to default, or doesn’t it? This week we thought we’d webterview some folks on either side of the debate and explore the ethics of “strategic default” in a little more detail. First: It will probably not surprise you that Florida banker Bill Valenti, whom we interviewed on the show last April, still feels strongly about his borrowers honoring their contracts. “When you make a promise to pay or a promise to do anything you have an obligation, a moral obligation, to stand by your word,” says Valenti. We’ll spend the rest of the week with two other experts: an economist and a law professor. Stay tuned; their arguments may surprise you. The post Strategic Default: Right or Wrong? appeared first on PBS NewsHour.