News
MSNBC | Nevada's boom ends in record number of empty homes
The figures are another striking example of how the housing crisis has pummeled Nevada, casting a new light on the severely weakened market after years of boom.
CNN Money | Will global economy be hit by Japan?
Japan is at serious risk of falling into a recession due to Friday's tragic earthquake and tsunami, according to many leading economists. But Japan could recover quickly, sparing the global economy a significant shock.
Bloomberg | Import Prices in U.S. Increased 1.4% in February on Oil, Food
Prices of goods imported into the U.S. rose more than forecast in February, led by gains in crude oil and food.
Econ Comments
WSJ | Japan and the Broken Window Fallacy
As the French economist Frederic Bastiat once observed, reconstruction activity yields no net gain in a society's wealth.
WSJ | More Mortgage Mischief
Elizabeth Warren revs up her Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
AEI | Economic Aftershocks: Four Big Repercussions
A calamity like Japan's massive 9.0 earthquake last week is certain to rock Japan's economy and, in turn, global commerce. There is no good way to put a number on this coming shock, though one early assessment was the fall of more than six percent in Japan's Nikkei stock market index on Monday.
WSJ | Carbon and Democracy
Congress gets ready to overrule the EPA on cap and trade rules.
Bloomberg | Four Ways the U.S. Can Help Japan, Also Itself: Amity Shlaes
This week of horror has generated record good will in the U.S. toward Japan.
Fox Business | How Will Japan’s Economy Survive?
Even the most unreconstructed bull will tell you that what they see happening in Japan scares them, and it’s not just because of the unspeakable, horrific loss of human life and the destruction from the massive earthquake and tsunami, costs for which the Insurance Information Institute now estimates may likely rank as “the worst in the history of the world.”
EconTalk: PODCAST | Townsend on Development, Poverty, and Financial Institutions
Robert Townsend of MIT and the Consortium on Financial Systems and Poverty talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about development and the role of financial institutions in growth.
Forbes | Why Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme
Want a recipe for ruckus? Merely suggest that Social Security might be a “Ponzi scheme”.
Blogs
EconLog | Gene Smiley on the Great Depression
One of the commentators, mark, on Arnold's post today on the Great Depression noted that Gene Smiley has a book out on it. The book is excellent. I asked Gene to put in a few thousand words the highlights of the book as one of the articles in The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. He did so and I use his article as a reading when I teach about the Great Depression.
Café Hayek | What Summers really really meant
I recently wrote about Larry Summers’s statement about the economic impact of the tragic events in Japan.
Cato@Liberty | Economic Freedom in India
Today Cato released the Economic Freedom of the States of India 2011 report (co-published with Indicus Analytics and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation) in Washington and New Delhi. India has been growing at high rates since it implemented market reforms in the early 1990s thus notably improving its level of economic freedom.
The Economist: Free Exchange | Japan update
ALL eyes remain focused on the situation in Japan, where rescue operations continue after a massive earthquake and tsunami. Concerns about damaged nuclear reactors continue to mount, and the extent of the catastrophe isn't yet clear.
NRO: The Corner | The Other Pension Crisis: Employer-Sponsored Plans
Unfortunately, this pension crisis isn’t the only one looming.
WSJ: Real Time Economics | Most Don’t Turn to Government in Tough Times
In some circles, there’s a belief the government safety net creates more problems than it solves because it makes it too easy to be out of work.
Reports
AEI | ObamaCare and the Dodd-Frank Act: What Would Hayek Say?
It is likely that Hayek—were he alive today—would have the same views as US conservatives about ObamaCare and the Dodd-Frank Act, the signature achievements of the Obama administration and the Democratic 111th Congress.
Mercatus Center | Do We Need the 30-Year Fixed-Rate Mortgage?
Are the benefits of the FRM worth the costs? Would the FRM disappear if Fannie and Freddie were no longer financing it? Are there mortgage alternatives that balance the needs of consumers and investors without exposing the taxpayer to inordinate risk? This paper seeks to answer these questions.
