links for 2008-12-07

• Treasury Trashes Housing Market
  The Treasury Department has just executed one of the few maneuvers possible to make the housing problem worse than it is: a preannouncement of possible subsidized rates for new mortgages to take effect sometimes in the future. (story here in the Wall Street Journal which just reports the plan and doesn't predict the consequences). ….
  (tags: finance economy POSIWID error USA politics)
• Vancouver's melting pot makes a terrific cultural stew
  But Vancouver isn't solely Chinese; a full 50 percent of the population speaks a language other than English as their childhood tongue. There's a huge Punjabi population (Anglo-Indian) that supports an immense section of Indian commerce, a large number of Somalis from Africa, a large number of Iraqis who were granted asylum here and a heavy contingent of other people of Muslim descent whose women stroll the streets in trendy, attractive, silk head scarves. Vancouver is the way it is because Canada welcomes the arrival of immigrants moving here for political reasons.
  (tags: Canada Vancouver multiculturalism)