News
Reuters | U.S. gallon of gas jumps to $3.76, could see $4-survey
Pump prices less than 10 pct below record high
ABC | Drivers Start to Cut Back on Gas as Prices Rise
At the pump, some early signs that Americans are conserving fuel as gas prices soar
Fiscal Times | Consumer Spending Slowdown Threatens Recovery
Consumers are struggling. Despite the pickup in job growth in recent months and the big 2 percent cut in payroll taxes starting in January, their inflation-adjusted spending in the first quarter appears to have grown at only about half the fourth quarter’s 4 percent clip.
WSJ | Economists See Growth Accelerating Later in Year
The U.S. economic recovery is expected to gain momentum over the rest of the year, despite a sharp pullback in growth during the just-finished first quarter, according to economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.
CNN Money | IMF cuts economic forecasts for U.S.
The global recovery is moving at two speeds, with emerging countries like China still expanding rapidly as advanced economies like the United States grow at a snail's pace.
Fox Business | Trade Deficit Continues to Squeeze U.S. Economy
Tuesday, analysts expect the Commerce Department to report the deficit on international trade in goods and services was $44 billion in February, up from $27 billion in mid-2009, when the economic recovery began.
CNN Money | China posts quarterly trade deficit
China posts quarterly trade deficit.
Econ Comments
WSJ | Cap and Evade
How Senate Democrats maneuvered to kill a bill to rein in the EPA's carbon rule.
WSJ | How to Get a Real Education
Forget art history and calculus. Most students need to learn how to run a business, says Scott Adams.
AEI | The Gas Revolution
It would be best if politicians left well enough alone and allowed the marketplace to compete over the uses of natural gas, but politics and energy have always mixed like gin-ethanol and tonic, so don't count on it.
NRO | The Rich Aren’t Getting Richer
Actual super-wealthy households saw their income decline.
Fortune | Failure is less of an option
So says Dun & Bradstreet's latest look at U.S. business trends.
Blogs
Café Hayek | Obama embraces regime uncertainty
Maybe massive unspecified changes in the regulation of the health and financial sectors wasn’t such a good idea in the middle of a recession.
Calculated Risk | Unofficial Problem Bank list at 982 Institutions
Here is the unofficial problem bank list for Apr 8, 2011.
Café Hayek | The ‘con’ in econometrics made visible
Ed Leamer’s brilliant paper, Let’s Take the Con out of Econometrics makes the point that classical statistical tests don’t hold when you go on a fishing expedition.
Daily Capitalist | The True Cost Of TARP
Click on the link to Garett Jones’s interview at Reason on the “true legacy of TARP.” He makes some good points.
Calculated Risk | Schedule for Week of April 10th
The key reports this week are March Retail Sales on Wednesday, and the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Friday. The monthly Trade Balance report will be released on Tuesday, and Industrial Production/Capacity Utilization on Friday. Also J.P. Morgan (Weds) and Bank of America (Fri) report Q1 results this week and they might provide comments on foreclosure issues.
AEI: The American | Just How Is Medicare Spending Our Money?
One of President Obama’s first acts as president was to declare that he was going to create an “unprecedented level of openness” in government. Apparently, that does not include the Medicare program.
Calculated Risk | Economic Outlook and Downside Risks
Here is a brief update to a list from last month with my view if the risk to the economy is increasing or decreasing:
WSJ: Real Time Economics | Government Shutdown Would Delay Economic Statistics
A partial shutdown of the U.S. government would delay the release of economic data, possibly complicating policymakers’ efforts in managing the economy.
Cato@Liberty | Do We Need China to Fund Our Mortgage Market?
Earlier this week I repeatedly heard the claim that if the federal government does not guarantee credit risk in the mortgage market, foreigners won’t buy U.S. mortgage-related debt. Before we test whether that claim is true, let’s first determine just how important are foreign investors in the U.S. mortgage market.
Reports
RCM: Wells Fargo | Economics Group
Weekly Economic & Financial Commentary
Cato Institute | The Trade-Balance Creed: Debunking the Belief that Imports and Trade Deficits Are a "Drag on Growth"
A nearly universal consensus prevails that the goal of U.S. trade policy should be to promote exports over imports, and that rising imports and trade deficits are bad for economic growth and employment.
