News
Fox Business | Consumer Confidence Rises to 3-Year High
U.S. consumer confidence rose in February to a three-year high amid improved optimism about the economy and income prospects, according to a private sector report released Tuesday.
CNN Money | How the rich became the über rich
There's a growing income gap in America, but it's not necessarily between the rich and the poor.
WSJ | Home Sales Data Doubted
Realtor Group May Have Overstated Number of Existing Houses Sold Since 2007
CNN Money | Home prices near 2009 lows
Home prices took a big hit at the end of 2010, even as the economy gained steam.
Fox News | In sign of growth, businesses are borrowing again
Now that demand is up and business is finally improving for many companies, they're doing what they always do at the beginning of an expansion — calling the bank and asking for a loan.
Econ Comments
WSJ | The Showdown Over Public Union Power
At last, politicians and voters are fighting back against the most potent lobby for government spending and ever-higher taxes.
Cato Institute | Madison Protest: Unions Are Angry -- but Wisconsin Should Go Even Further
Chaos in government. Tens of thousands of angry protesters in the streets. Schools closed. Yes, Wisconsin looks a lot like Egypt this week. But while Arabs are fighting to end extraordinary overreach by government, Wisconsin union protesters are fighting to preserve it.
AEI | A Healthy Crisis at a UN-Backed Health Fund
The UN-backed effort to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria is in trouble. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Minyanville | Fiscal Stimulus in the US: Too Much or Not Enough?
In response to the Great Recession, net consolidated fiscal stimulus in the US was modest at best. Cross-country data analysis raises question of whether US should have stimulated more
National Review | Social Security’s No Afterthought
The long term matters less when the short term is sufficient to do you in.
Minyanville | Is the Mortgage Interest Deduction Doomed?
While eliminating the MID may sound like a popular, hard-line approach to expensive government subsidies for the housing market, the reality is it's not going anywhere anytime soon.
Blogs
The Atlantic | What's at Stake in Wisconsin?
I understand why Democratic politicians are supporting the unions in all of this--they're very dependent on these unions for money and political legwork. But I don't understand why the wonks and the outside activists are so determined to turn this into a high-profile fight to the death.
Public Sector Inc. | JFK ... union buster?
The nation's public-sector union movement received a big boost in 1962 when President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order allowing federal employees to form unions. However, Kennedy's order only required federal agencies to "meet ... and confer" with unions "with respect to personnel policy and practices and matters affecting working conditions, so far as may be appropriate subject to law and policy requirements."
Reports
RCM: Wells Fargo | Economics Group
Weekly Economic & Financial Commentary
Mercatus Center | Out with the BRICs, Time for the TIMBIs
China and Russia are very differently positioned for the future, facing fundamentally different demographic trajectories and technical and trade opportunities, than the TIMBIs.
