News
Bloomberg | Oil Rises; SocGen Sees 65% Chance OPEC to Raise Output Quotas
Crude rose, reversing earlier losses, amid speculation the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may reduce supply in response to slowing demand.
WSJ | Obama to Lose Top Economic Adviser
Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, will leave his position by the end of the summer, marking the latest shake-up in President Barack Obama's economic team.
Bloomberg | Oil Rises; SocGen Sees 65% Chance OPEC to Raise Output Quotas
Crude rose, reversing earlier losses, amid speculation the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may reduce supply in response to slowing demand.
Market Watch | Housing market is ‘sobering,’ or it’s time to buy
Lower-priced homes lost their value at about three times the pace of homes at the higher end, MarketWatch’s Amy Hoak writes in her column today. In part, that’s because those were the homes that saw some of the steepest gains as the housing bubble inflated.
CNN: Money | Economy makes people sick, literally
Thirty-five percent of middle class Americans said they or someone in their household has experienced a physical symptom of stress related to the economy, according to a recent report by First Command Financial Services, a financial service provider.
WSJ | Regulatory Delay Stokes Unease Over Dodd-Frank
Banks, investors and companies are scrambling to cope with uncertainty caused by regulators' delays in fleshing out the Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law, amid fears the holdup might disrupt the $583 trillion derivatives market and spark a wave of lawsuits.
National Journal | State Department Nears Final Stages of Oil-Sands Pipeline Assessment
The State Department is heading into the final stages of deciding on whether to issue a presidential permit expanding a controversial oil-sands pipeline between Alberta and the Gulf Coast, taking comments on its Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement until midnight on Monday.
Econ Comments
Washington Post | Political labels Obama doesn’t deserve
This aspect of Obama’s is beginning to play a crucial role in his management of the economy. The fact remains, no matter what Obama says — and almost no matter what he does — the business community deeply feels that he is unsympathetic to them and their goals. They say all they want to do is make an (honest) buck, but to do that they need consistency, predictability and — it would be nice — a pat on the back.
Financial Times | When China becomes number one
How will it feel when China becomes the world's largest economy? WE may find out quite soon. A few weeks ago, the International Monetary Fund issued a report that suggested China would be number one within five years.
Politico | Obama's biggest deficit is time
Against that backdrop, one wonders why the Obama administration promised voteres that if this muddled collection of legislative goop was signed into law, unemployment would never rise above 8 percent.
CNBC | China Offical Warns Risks in 'Excessive' Holdings of US Assets
China should guard against risks from "excessive" holding of U.S. assets as Washington could pursue a policy to weaken the dollar, a senior official at the State Adminstration of Foreign Exchange said in comments published on Tuesday. The U.S. has taken an expansionary fiscal and monetary policy to stimulate economic growth and the U.S. may find it har to resist the policy temptatn of weakening the dollar abroad and pushing up inflation at home.
AEI | Feds to Biotech Firms: Shut Up
A federal judge sentenced the former head of the biotech compnay to six months of home confinemnet this spring and fined him $20,000. His offense? Issuing a single press release about a drug.
Bloomberg | What Paul Krugman Misses About 1937 Redux: Echoes
What it if it just keeps going? That’s the question Americans are asking as they consider last month's 9.1 percent unemployment rate, still so high 33 months after the crash of September 2008. Scholars of economic history are asking another question: Are we repeating 1937?
RCM | An Entirely Predictable Economic Dip
Contrary to the popular view among economists that currency devaluation is necessary during periods of economic hardship, debasement works against the very investment that drives company formation and job creation given the tautological reality that any returns on investment will come back in cheapened money.
Blogs
Mercatus: Neighborhood Effects | Great Myths of the Great Depression
The New Deal deficit spending helped boost the economy and bring the unemployment rate down to single-digit levels, but fear of deficits limited the scale of New Deal programs and caused Roosevelt to reverse course and cut back on spending in 1937, just as the economy was gaining momentum.
WSJ | Zombie Consumers May Chomp Into Growth
On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve is expected to report that consumer credit outstanding rose by $5.5 billion in April after a $6 billion increase in March. This is hardly an encouraging development. For one, much of the recent rise appears to come from record-high levels of student-loan debt, which will depress the spending power of the next generation of Americans.
WSJ: Real Time Economics | Most Americans Haven’t Planned for Retirement and Other Areas of Concern
The financial status of American households may be even darker than we thought.
Reports
AEI | Another Slowdown
It seems difficult to escape the conclusion that Greece will default on some of its debt, thereby destabilizing the debt markets in Ireland and other southern European countries, including Portugal, Spain, and even Italy.
Cato Institute | As Promised, Free Trade Agreements Deliver More Trade: Manufacturing Exports Receive an Extra Boost
As Congress and the administration decide the fate of pending free-trade agreements (FTAs) with Korea, Panama, and Colombia, advocates and opponents will likely point to the experience of other recent bilateral and regional trade deals to support their positions.
