Housing dip is good for the economy, columnist says

John Tamny

Worried that another dip in U.S. home prices will cause a double-dip in the economy? Don’t, said Forbes columnist John Tamny — editor of RealClearMarkets, a senior economist at H.C. Wainwright Economists and a senior economic advisor to Toreador Research and Trading — because artificially propping up housing prices isn’t the answer to this country’s economic woes. On the contrary, he argued, such a response from the federal government would “continue to distort real market signals on the way to more investment in housing. We’d be doubling down on an economic bet that previously helped put our financial system on its back.” He continued, “if economic growth is the goal, the best thing we could do would be to let houses and mortgage securities find their natural, market clearing level.” [Forbes]

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