I was on Gary Eichten’s show for two hours last week. Mid-day is a flagship program at MPR. Gary is a delight to work with and he is one of best interviewers in the business.  The first hour focused mostly on the economy. The second hour devoted more time to The New Frugality.

Some pieces on the housing market, boosting college attendance among low income familes, why carrying a mortgage into retirement is a mistake for most people, and answering listener questions.

Housing: Time to Pull the Plug on Government Support. Bloomberg BusinessWeek columnist Chris Farrell tells why tax policies and mortgage relief that artificially prop up home values are forestalling a real recovery

Improving college attendance in Mprnewsq.

Carrying a home mortgage into retirement can increase anxiety. Star Tribune

Getting Personal. Marketplace Money

My colleague Stephen Smith used these two clips to introduce a discussion we had about the the history of consumption and the New Frugality. Household Finance Corporation was a major lender to working and  middle class families. It was during the 1930s that buying on installment was presented as the “new thrift.” The depression years were when ”many of the important groups in society cooperated in redefining ‘thrift’ as wise spending, rather than saving pure and simple,” according to the Coolidge-Consumerism Collection at the Library of Congress.

My favorite line in the Household Finance Corporation video: “Household loans are made to get families out of debt.”

The other clip is from the early 1950s. The war was over, and families were moving to the suburbs, buying homes and cars. The purchases were made on borrowed moeny. Ford is making the case for owning two cars in Two Ford Freedom.

Senate negotiators are working on new Wall Street rules to prevent the next crisis. President Obama wants strict limits on too-big-to-fail financial institutions, but it looks like Senators are moving away from tough restrictions in an attempt to reach a bipartisan compromise. The critics of financial regulation reform warn that if you come down too hard on Wall Street you’re limiting “financial innovation.” Here are some thoughts on financial innovation for the Marketplace Morning Report.

And this is a very thoughtful paper evaluating financial innovation by Robert Litan, an economist at Brookings Institution and the Kaufman Foundation. He takes a serious look at the topic and ends up with a positive vote of confidence.  It’s worth reading.

I still have a lot of catching up to do. But here are some recent efforts.

Star Tribune

BusinessWeek

Marketplace Money

Conversations with Joy Cardin, Wisconsin Public Radio. You can listen to it here.