It's Friday Night! Party Time! Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!
The rhetoric on immigration is coming out in full force, most of it divorced from labor economics realities. Below are two lectures by George Borjas, considered the top Labor Economist in the U.S.
Costs of Immigration
Immigration Policy and the Economic Impact of Immigration
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GAO report in Spanish
This is just a side thing, but I found this almost amusing. Over on the bottom right is the RSS feed of the latest GAO reports. The GAO, for the most part, has been rock solid in their reports, probably one of the most free of bias of our government agencies, including the lovely and seemingly wrong way too much of the time CBO.
So, I look over and I see GAO-10-869, Finanzas del Consumidor: Factores que Afectan la Educacion Financiera de las Personas con Conocimientos Limitados del Ingles, August 4, 2010.
Wow. The title says Consumer Finance:. Factors which affect the financial education of people with limited English language skills.
Of course that is true, but why publish a GAO report in Spanish when the people who are going to read it, i.e. government officials, odds on, will not understand a word of it?
Somehow publishing a report in Spanish is also not going to help most Americans financial illiteracy, which is obviously an epidemic levels and they speak the language.
Unfortunately it is the government who obscures issues with language. Everyone knows what a rip off is, but an amortized 18 month loan with limited income verification, subject to a 20 page document in size 4 font on mediation and payment terms, including securitization might not be so clear.