News
CNN Money | House votes to kill Obama mortgage plan
The House passed a bill Tuesday to kill a signature Obama administration program that helps homeowners stay in their homes but has faced criticism as ineffective.
WSJ | Regulators Unveil Mortgage-Lending Rules
Federal regulators proposed far-reaching changes to lending rules that eventually could raise the cost of borrowing for most homeowners, kicking off what is likely to be a furious effort by the housing and banking industries to soften the proposal.
MSNBC | Type the Title You Want People to See
Falling home sales, prices create fresh headwinds for recovery
WSJ | Korean Economic Growth Hits 8-Year Peak
South Korea's economic growth in the final quarter of last year slowed slightly from the prior three months but accelerated from the year-earlier period, bringing the full-year growth rate to the highest in eight years, which will likely add to rising inflation pressures.
Fox Business | Obama to Lay Out Plan to Curb U.S. Oil Imports
President Barack Obama will set an ambitious goal on Wednesday to cut oil imports by a third over 10 years, focusing on energy security amid high gasoline prices that could stall the U.S. economic recovery.
CQ | GOP Unveils Bills to Wind Down Fannie, Freddie
House Republicans unveiled a series of bills Tuesday to hasten the federal government’s departure from the mortgage market, a move that acknowledges a single major piece of housing legislation would be unlikely to advance.
WSJ | Housing Market Shivers
January's 3.1% Price Drop Stirs Fears of 'Double Dip'; Only Two Big Cities Gain.
Econ Comments
Financial Times | Dodd-Frank Fails to Meet Test of Our Times
The financial system on which Dodd-Frank is being imposed is far more complex than the lawmakers, and even most regulators, apparently contemplate. We will almost certainly end up with a number of regulatory inconsistencies whose consequences cannot be readily anticipated.
Investors | Community Reinvestment Act: Separating Fact From Fiction
Acorn clones using the Community Reinvestment Act to shake down banks aren't happy with our campaign to expose the truth about the CRA's central role in the financial crisis.
WSJ | 'Skin in the Game'
But not for Fannie, Freddie and the FHA
Washington Times | LUGAR: Sweet deal for Big Sugar
Government interference costs billions in higher prices and lost jobs
Blogs
AEI: The American | Why Ezra Klein’s ‘Easy Solution’ to Social Security Is No Such Thing
So this “easy solution” to Social Security relies on ignoring everything we’ve learned about the trust fund over the past three decades and imposing marginal tax rates that most countries in the world long ago abandoned. The worrying thing, and the thing that prevents a truly bipartisan solution to Social Security, is that to too many people on the Left these issues just don’t occur to them.
The Atlantic | The Rich Really Are Different: Their Incomes Fluctuate More
This is one of the reasons that we can't fix all our budget problems with higher taxes on the rich--if we do that, revenues are going to collapse dangerously every time there's a recession.
AEI: The American | Income Mobility in the Dynamic U.S. Economy
The dynamism of the U.S. economy is frequently underappreciated. Several recent studies provide new evidence that American households experience considerable mobility over time in income, earnings, and wealth.
Political Calculations | How Much Do Public School Teachers Really Make Compared to Private School Teachers??
Mark Perry put up the public vs private school teacher income data for 2007-08 in a table format. We took that data and put it into graphical form, then added the median income data for full-time, year-round workers from the U.S. Census just to compare.
NRO: The Corner | Pension-Crisis Deniers Never Sleep
The question of whether states will be allowed to change the benefits for current retirees will depend on the courts, but the reality is that when there is no more money, there is no more money.
NRO: The Corner | Oil, Oil, and Not a Drop . . .
Gasoline at the pump has risen 67 percent since inauguration day 2009, although it has just been announced that the United States has the largest reserves of recoverable fossil fuels in the world (gas, oil, coal, etc.).
Washington Times: Water Cooler | Cash for Clunkers 2: The Return of Government Motors
Ready for another cash for clunkers program? It looks like General Motors is attempting to replace it's own consumer incentives with tax payer money.
Reports
RCM: Wells Fargo | Consumer Confidence Slips in March
Consumer confidence dropped to a three-month low as consumer expectations dropped 16 points, likely reflecting consumer concerns about higher gasoline prices.
