MCI-Verizon Merger Approved

MCI today announced the certified results of its shareholder vote that approved its merger with Verizon. The company said that the results show 64.6% of outstanding shares and 88.2% of votes cast were in favor of the merger. Also today MCI's Board of Directors declared a special dividend of $5.60 per share in accordance with the merger agreement. The special dividend will be paid on October 27 to shareholders of record at the close of business on October 17.

"Little evidence of a housing bubble"

A paper in this quarter's Journal of Economic Perspectives by Himmelberg (the Fed of NY), Mayer (Columbia) & Sinai (Wharton) says that their "analysis reveals little evidence of a housing bubble." We'll see if they know what they are talking about. Myself, I am skeptical myself since part of their analysis involves constructing new measures for evaluating the cost of home ownership because existing measures (which seem to indicate prices are exuberant) are not adequate. Whatever.