http://affordablehousinginstitute.org/blogs/us Affordable Housing Institue Mon, 12 May 2008 12:50:49 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en   A town is a business that sells quality of life and competes with other towns to attract real estate tax payers.  It spends its revenue on infrastructure that enhances quality of life and enables it to attract more workers and real estate tax payers.  Some towns are so attractive, relative ... http://affordablehousinginstitute.org/blogs/us/2008/05/too-many-houses-part-1-the-un-growing-city.html What with my work with Slum Dwellers International, I've been spending inordinate time thinking about SDI's members, which are federations of local savings co-operatives, and hearing descriptions of what they will do with money (as we're calling it in SDI lingo, a Spend) if they get it from SDI's in-development ... http://affordablehousinginstitute.org/blogs/us/2008/05/mission-entrepreneurial-entities-mees.html  Should policy be driven top-down (large units of government creating the program and distributing resources) or bottom-up (local units of government inventing independently)? It's a puzzle, Batman   If you ask around the world, the great body of experts will tell you that programs have to originate nationally first.  In the last ... http://affordablehousinginstitute.org/blogs/us/2008/05/when-top-down-doesnt-work.html [Continued from yesterday's Part 1.]   Yesterday, in search of the answer to whether the sweeping reforms proposed by Treasury Secretary Paulson might be enacted any time soon, I posed the question: is the current catastrophe big enough?   Paste one on the nearest financial crisis   We saw how Shay's Rebellion led to the Constitution, ... http://affordablehousinginstitute.org/blogs/us/2008/05/catastrophe-is-a-precondition-to-financial-reform-part-2-postwar.html The last few weeks have revealed gaping fissures in our financial liquidity system.    What do you mean, we outran our boundaries?   Will they lead to meaningful reforms, such as the sweeping reforms proposed by Treasury Secretary Paulson?   As treasury Secretary, I pray they do   It's evident to me they should be – with ... http://affordablehousinginstitute.org/blogs/us/2008/05/catastrophe-is-a-precondition-to-financial-reform-part-1-pre-depression.html