News
WSJ | Canada's GDP Expands 3.9%
Gross domestic product growth was marginally below the consensus call of 4%, and also undershot the Bank of Canada's 4.2% forecast.
USA Today | Economic problems stubbornly linger
Don't look now, but the economic recovery that barely exists in the eyes of many Americans is 2 years old.
Financial Times | US looks at takeover guidelines shake-up
The US justice department is considering a shake-up of the guidelines used in approving takeovers of US companies, pointing to a possible shift in antitrust policy under the Obama administration.
CNN: Money | Home prices: 'Double-dip' confirmed
Home prices hit another new low in the first quarter, down 5.1% from a year ago to levels not reached since 2002.
CNBC | Japan Recovery Takes Hold, But Debt Downgrade Looms
Japan's economy offered more signs of recovery from the deadly March earthquake on Tuesday, but Moody's rating agency warned both growth and government action may fall short of what is necessary to bring Tokyo's ballooning debt back under control.
Econ Comments
Newsweek | Austerity Works
In bemoaning the pain of fiscal responsibility, the Democrats show they still haven’t learned the lessons of Europe.
WSJ | More Weather Deaths? Wanna Bet?
Contrary to what many environmentalists would have us believe, Americans are increasingly less likely to be killed by severe weather.
NYT | Can I See Your License, Registration and C.P.U.?
Inescapably, computers will be playing an ever larger role in our lives. But exactly what tasks will they be allowed to perform, and how will we use government regulation to evaluate the risks associated with new technologies? These questions will be increasingly pressing as innovations strain the longstanding rules that regulate modern life.
WSJ | In Vino Veritas
P.J. O'Rourke with a modest proposal for a more honest politics.
Source | Check Out What GDP Growth Would Look Like If the Government Were Using The Right Inflation Numbers
The most recent real GDP number for Q1, was weak. If this were an ordinary recovery following a deep recession, the economy would likely be growing 5%-7%. This is why the recovery doesn't feel like a recovery.
Bloomberg | Ryan Says Rich Should Pay More as Sanders Defends Entitlements for Wealthy
Lawmakers who have spent years battling over taxing high- earning Americans are trading places when it comes to cutting their entitlements. Democrats say Social Security and Medicare have endured because they offer benefits to people of all incomes, and accuse Republicans of trying to kill the programs by stripping away their beneficiaries, beginning with the rich. Republicans say the fairest way to curb the deficit is to scale back the programs for those who need them least.
Blogs
NRO: The Corner | The Party of Doing Nothing
While Democrats disagree with Republicans about how to reform Medicare — as Bill Clinton says he does — they shouldn’t feel that they can just sit on their hands and do nothing. This is especially true in the face of the Trustees’ Report and its conclusion that, even in the best-case scenario, the ACA has failed to address Medicare funding issues.
Calculated Risk | Schedule for Week of May 29th
There will probably be a series of weak economic reports this week, including Case-Shiller house prices on Tuesday, the ISM manufacturing index on Wednesday, May vehicle sales also on Wednesday, and the May employment report on Friday.
Forbes | 5% Growth: Not Magical Unicorns, The Return of Gazelles
Advocates of robust economic growth are very used to being ridiculed by those who say it cannot be done. Reagan was ridiculed (“voodoo economics”) for his prescription of lower tax rates and a strong dollar. That growth recipe, when adopted despite the ridicule, propelled the Dow Jones Industrial Average from around 900 (no typo) to well over 10,000.
Heritage Foundation | The Unstimulated Obama Economy
The economic news that’s really sticking in the Old Gray Lady’s craw is revised data released last week that shows the economy’s growth stuck at 1.8 percent, slow consumer spending, stagnant wages, higher prices for gas and food, the poor housing market, flagging consumer confidence and a recent Labor Department report showing a higher-than-expected rise in claims for jobless benefits.
Cato@Liberty | How Fannie and Fed Caused the Crash
If you watched the HBO movie Too Big to Fail, you wouldn’t get much sense that government actions — easy money, the homeownership mania, HUD and Fannie’s push to lend to non-creditworthy borrowers — played a major role in the housing bubble and subsequent financial crisis. Sounds like this book would make good supplemental reading for viewers, along with Johan Norberg’s Financial Fiasco.
Reports
Cato Institute | Economic Self-Flagellation: How U.S. Antidumping Policy Subverts the National Export Initiative
In January 2010, President Obama announced a goal of doubling U.S. exports in five years. The "National Export Initiative" has since become the centerpiece of the administration's trade policy agenda.
