Reading around — Feb. 9

NY Times: You Try to Live on 500K in This Town

To many people in many places, it is a princely sum to live on. But in the neighborhoods of New York City and its suburban enclaves where successful bankers live, half a million a year can go very fast.

Related from NY Times: Bailout Needs Some Strings Attached to Limit Pay

WSJ: Hong Kong Feng Shui Masters Gain New Cachet With Bank Clients

NY Times: A Site Chronicles Ways to Adapt in the Downturn — Two editors who were laid off from Condé Nast Portfolio have hitched their wagon to the downturn by starting up a Web site, Recessionwire.com.

ReadWriteWeb: What Are You Looking At? Google Details Results of Eye Tracking Study

NY Times: Drilling Down: Not All Ad Clicks Are Created Equal

Econbrowser: Will a Home Purchase Tax Credit Help Boost House Prices? — from Kash Mansori, senior economist for Jefferson Wells International: If my hunch is correct, then all the house purchase tax credit will do is to modestly increase the number of houses sold each month… with no noticeable impact on house prices.

Washington Post: Plug Pulled on Md. Legislature’s Facebook, MySpace for Fear of Viruses

Calculated Risk: Fed’s Yellen: Economic Outlook and Community Banks

Many community banks have significant commercial real estate concentrations, and these loans are a particular concern in the current environment. At present, the performance of such loans has deteriorated only mildly. But, as I suggested earlier, we can’t count on that situation to continue, since the downturn in commercial real estate construction is just getting started and is likely to be quite challenging.

NY Times: Wall Street’s New Pariah Status

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