And now, from the annals of the financially imprudent:

It is the latest twist in the gravity-defying world of the high housing prices and exotic low-rate mortgages: As monthly payments on adjustable-rate mortgages are starting to balloon, many Americans have found a way to put off the day of reckoning.

They are refinancing with new adjustable-rate mortgages that keep monthly payments low --- for now, that is, though their payments will likely rise even higher in the future.

They also most assuredly think it's a good deal to buy furniture on those plans that promise "no payments until 2008!"

But this kind of imprudence is increasingly what it takes to sustain a middle-class residence in American cities:

In New York, the supply of apartments considered affordable to households with incomes like those earned by starting firefighters or police officers plunged by a whopping 205,000 in just three years, between 2002 and 2005.

Some might say this is a bad thing. But there are plenty of economists to argue otherwise:

In the San Francisco Bay Area, the percentage of households earning more than $100,000 a year rose to over 30 percent in 2000 from approximately 7 percent in 1970, said Joseph Gyourko, a professor of real estate and finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. "Is that area worse off?" he asked. "At least so far, there’s a lot of evidence that economically they’re better off."

And if the city is economically better off, who really cares about the people? After all, says Prof. Edward Glaeser of Harvard:

There’s a whole lot of America that does a very good job of taking care of the middle class. The great sprawling edge cities of the American hinterland provide remarkably cheap housing, fast commutes, decent public services and incredibly cheap products available in big box stores. As a New Yorker, I understand the view that exile from New York is consignment to hell; but that’s not accurate. The majority of middle-class people that have moved out have presumably found themselves better lives out there.

So, Prof. Glaeser presumes that people are not being forced away from the neighborhoods they grew up in by rising housing prices, but rather lured to the hinterlands by the prospect of buying cheap plastic crap at Wal-Mart. They're maximizing their utility, after all. If they found it preferable to remain where they were, they would have just plucked the required funds off they money tree...

Remember the disaster relief calamity last year in New Orleans? Well, the Republicans do, and they're doing something about it:

The Department of Homeland Security, responding to months of criticism and ridicule, is revamping several of its core disaster relief programs, enacting changes that will include sharply cutting emergency cash assistance for victims of major disasters, and more carefully controlling access to free hotel rooms.

Immediate emergency aid would not exceed $500 under the new rules, instead of the $2,000 per family previously allowed. And it would be handed out only after identities and addresses were checked. Such precautions were not taken consistently last year after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, an oversight auditors said led to fraud and abuse of up to $1.4 billion.

So, those shocking scenes from the Superdome, the Convention Center, and Louisiana highways, where thousands of people not affected by the storm at all showed up to take advantage of the ample free food, water, and lodging in air-conditioned comfort --- those won't be repeated.

"It seems to be working out very well for them", said Barbara Bush, gazing at thousands of people basking in the luxury of a cot on a a few spare feet at the bottom of the Astrodome, days later. Well, that won't happen again. What a relief.

By the way, remember all those folks who we're not supposed to call "refugees", who got sent hither and yon on jetliners to remote places which I guess we're not supposed to call "refugee camps" --- am I the only person who's creeped out by how completely they've vanished from the national discourse? Just asking...