My weekend project concludes:
The Capital Spectator contemplates the definition of a neutral federal funds rate, and thinks "of the old quote from Justice Potter Stewart on the issue of defining pornography: Tough if not impossible in the abstract, 'But I know it when I see it….' He doesn't see it yet.
There is a bunch of stuff on the housing bubble from Calculated Risk. The coolest -- even if not the most convincing -- is the color-coded bubble map constructed by a couple of physicist (presumably slumming in alleys of the dismal science). There are also items on housing indicators, the growing prevalence of interest-only loans in some markets, and hints that the end is near. Barry Ritholz at The Big Picture sees something similar.
While we are on the topic, Kash has a nice post over at Angry Bear documenting the trends in adjustable and fixed mortgage interest rates. He sees a secular trend in the demand for adjustable-rate mortgages, interprets this (sensibly) as a means for individuals to obtain financing they could not afford at the fixed-rate charge, and sees rocky roads ahead. Meanwhile, Brad Setser predicts "an imbalanced world economy looks set to get even more imbalanced." And though this counts as today's blog review, The Big Picture links to a New York Times review of the global housing-price whatever-it-is. (More with the week-in-review theme, earlier in the week TBP posted on the UK as a leading indicator of U.S. fortunes, housing price whatever-it-is and all. The picture isn't pretty.)
Speaking of Kash, he has a terrific post on different measures of labor-earnings growth. He apologizes that it is on the "econ-geeky" side, but it really ought to be read by anyone interested in these statistics.
Michael Mandel adds the "Son of Tech Boom" to the list of soft-landing scenarios.
John Irons directs you to his list of "what you might have missed in the [federal] budget and elsewhere."
Moving to Europe, Edward Hugh explains why he thinks Italy is in deep trouble. And then the Italians explain it themselves. (More bad news for Italy here.) Edward also gives us a heads-up on an interesting discussion at Euractiv.com on the aftermath of the French and Dutch constitutional votes.