News
WSJ | Sweden's GDP Surges
Sweden's gross domestic product surged in the fourth quarter of 2010, rising the most since records began, easily beating forecasts and offering further support to the Riksbank's plans to raise interest rates during 2011.
NYT | Oil Drilling to Resume in the Gulf’s Deep Waters
The Interior Department said Monday that it had approved the first new deepwater drilling permit in the Gulf of Mexico since the BP explosion and spill last spring, a milestone after a period of intense uncertainty for industry and a wholesale remaking of the nation’s system of offshore oil and gas regulation.
WSJ | Italian GDP Grew 1.3% in 2010
Italy's economy grew 1.3% last year as it recovered from the recession in 2009 and its budget deficit shrank to 4.6% of gross domestic product, national statistics agency Istat said Tuesday.
CNN Money | Gas prices up for 7 days in a row
Fresh off a 27-cent jump last month, gas prices were up slightly in a daily survey by motorist group AAA, as the price of crude oil backed off recent highs.
WSJ | Canadian Growth Gives Lift to Leader
Canada's economy grew significantly faster than expected in the final three months of 2010, giving Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority government a boost ahead of a possible election this year.
CNN Money | Manufacturing at nearly 7-year peak
Manufacturing activity in the United States climbed in February to the highest level in nearly seven years, a purchasing managers' group said Tuesday.
NYT | U.S. Plans for Trade Are Stalled
President Obama has made expanding exports a centerpiece of his plan for accelerating the economic recovery, but in recent weeks, his trade agenda has nearly ground to a halt amid partisan feuding.
WSJ | Fannie, Freddie Stuck In a Dividends Circle
For the first time since the financial crisis, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are showing glimmers of profitability. But the two mortgage behemoths still ask the Treasury Department every quarter for billions of dollars in cash, most of it going right back out the door to pay dividends to the same U.S. agency.
Econ Comments
Washington Times | RAHN: Deliberately making Americans poorer
Obama’s energy policies hit hardest below the poverty belt
WSJ | A Union Education
What Wisconsin reveals about public workers and political power.
Washington Times | FEULNER: Ruled by regulation
Consumers’ choices range from expensive to more expensive
WSJ | Why Koch Industries Is Speaking Out
Crony capitalism and bloated government prevent entrepreneurs from producing the products and services that make people's lives better.
Washington Times | BACON: Money doesn’t matter in Wisconsin union battle
Collective-bargaining struggle determines teacher effectiveness
WSJ | The Political Math: Washington - Dollars = Plus for States
The federal government isn't simply bleeding money. Because of its addiction to red ink, it's bleeding power, which is starting to flow away from the nation's capital and out to the states. This is the little-recognized reality behind the remarkable political upheaval being seen in state capitals.
Independent Institute | Why Boom Is a No-Show: A Lack of Net Investment
Although the economy is showing some signs of revival, many people wonder why it hasn’t roared back, as it did after most previous contractions.
Blogs
AEI: The American | Flushing Money Down the Toilet
One of the most ridiculous regulatory actions of the past few years (and that is a stiff competition) has been the move to require low-flow toilets in the interests of water conservation, even for those areas in which water is not in short supply.
Forbes: Community of Liberty | Enterprise, Not Greed, Creates A Better World
Greed: The word itself has become central to the political debate over the budget, taxes, union benefits, what constitutes ethical behavior, and the shape of our society.
Independent Institute: The Beacon | Politics and Government “Investment”
Just as the words “government” and “efficiency” should never appear in the same sentence, so is true of “government” and “investment”.
Reports
AEI | World Population Prospects and the Global Economic Outlook: The Shape of Things to Come
This paper examines global demographic prospects to the year 2030 and assesses the influence that impending population trends may have upon economic performance in coming years for the world as a whole and the major regional economies. A reasonably reliable assessment of prospective global trends to 2030 is feasible today because the overwhelming majority of people who will be living in that future world are already here, alive today.
Heritage Foundation | Housing Finance Reform: No Need for a New Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
Given the task of producing a plan to develop a new housing finance system in light of the 2008 crisis and the failure of both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—a task that everyone agrees will be extremely complex—the Obama Administration decided to punt. Rather than one detailed plan, it produced brief summaries of three very different ones, leaving the nation to wonder what the Administration really wants.
