News
Washington Times | Boeing urges judge to toss NLRB case
South Carolina aircraft plant at issue in lawsuit.
Bloomberg | U.S. Industrial Production Rose Just 0.1% in May
Output at factories, mines and utilities rose 0.1 percent after no change the prior month, figures from the Federal Reserve showed today. Economists projected a 0.2 percent gain, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. Factory production climbed 0.4 percent, led by the biggest gain in business equipment output in four months.
Washington Times | CBO: ‘Great deal of the pain’ of downturn still to come
Congress’ official scorekeeper said Tuesday that the United States will continue to see slow economic growth for the next several years as job openings and a lack of demand for goods and services continue to block a speedier rebound.
Fiscal Times | Hidden Costs of College Raise Total to Extreme Levels
Numbers don’t lie, but they can cheat. Experts say the average cost of tuition, room and board, and general fees is $16,140 for a public four-year university and $36,993 at a private school. Meanwhile, the average student debt graduates with $24,000 — if they make it through four years. Those numbers may sound big, but as any parent with a child (or two) in college can tell you, they represent only a small part of the overall tab.
Bloomberg | Crude Oil Futures Rise After Bigger-Than-Forecast Decline in U.S. Supplies
Supplies fell 3.41 million barrels to 365.6 million last week, according to the department’s weekly report. Inventories were estimated to decrease by 1.8 million barrels, according to a Bloomberg News survey. Demand for distillate fuel, a category that includes diesel and heating oil, tumbled 5.2 percent to 3.6 million barrels a day, the lowest level since January.
Market Watch | June home builder index falls to nine-month low
Home builder confidence deteriorated in June, hurt both by the glut of cheaper existing homes on the market as well as rising building material prices, a trade association said Wednesday.
Econ Comments
WSJ | A Welfare State or a Start-Up Nation?
After one generation, a one percentage point difference in growth rate becomes a 25% difference in per capita income.
Financial Times | How China could yet fail like Japan
Until 1990, Japan was the most successful large economy in the world. Almost nobody predicted what would happen to it in the succeeding decades. Today, people are yet more in awe of the achievements of China. Is it conceivable that this colossus could learn that spectacular success is a precusor of surprising failure? The answer is: yes.
Politico | The real costs of U.S. energy
But the dirty little secret behind America’s energy policy is that the real price we pay for gas or electricity is far larger than what we see at the pump or on our utility bills. The less obvious costs of our energy choices affect our health, the environment and national security.
Washington Times | RYUN: Republican energy crisis
Genuine conservatives shouldn’t use taxpayer dollars to subsidize natural gas.
Politico | Repeal withholding of small-business payments
Imagine you own a business that puts a new roof on the local high school. After you do the work, the school pays only 97 percent of what it owes you. Why? On the off chance you may not pay your federal taxes.
Minyanville | Why Leading Indicators Are Lagging: Economy to Accelerate in Second Half 2011
Leading indicator models are misinterpreting the recent "soft patch" because such indicators are essentially blind to the factors that have actually caused it.
Blogs
Café Hayek | This Was the Heart of What Hayek Warned Against in his ‘Road to Serfdom’
Challenging George Will’s case against trade-adjustment assistance, Eric Salonen analogizes such assistance to compensation that government pays to people whose properties are taken by the building of a hydroelectric dam. This analogy is faulty. Unlike with land, almost no one has a property right to a job – for to have a property right to a job would be to have a property right to the manner in which other people spend their money.
