News
Market Watch | Oil rises on softer dollar, Greek bailout optimism
Crude-oil futures edged higher Tuesday, as relative optimism about Greece’s debt situation and a softer dollar helped support prices.
Market Watch | Japan disaster recovery confronts funding dilemma
More than three months after the earthquake and tsunami ravaged Japan’s Tohoku region, reconstruction moves ahead at an uneven pace, and so does the debate about how the government will fund it.
National Journal | Banks are Finally Lending, But Some Fear They Aren't Charging Enough for the Risk
Investors want loans. Banks want to boost their revenues. But recent data has caused analysts and regulators to fear that in their bid for business from corporate borrowers, banks aren’t charging enough to cover the risks they are assuming.
Bloomberg | To Avoid Double-Dip Recession, Remember Lessons of 1980s: Echoes
Is our economy headed back into a recession? A look at a past double-dip, the recessions of 1980 and of 1981-1982, suggests we are due. That double-dip also suggests the Federal Reserve should raise interest rates earlier and faster than you might think.
MSN | China's ticking time bomb
the fast growing economy is fueled by low paid migrant workers who have watched others profit from their sweat. How much longer will they be willing to do it?
Econ Comments
Washington Times | EDITORIAL: Retire the kernel, release the gas
Era of fuel subsidies should end.
NYT | Banking’s Moment of Truth
Capital matters. Let me put that another way. The current fight over additional capital requirements for the banking industry, eye-glazing though it is, also happens to be the most important reform moment since the financial crisis broke out three years ago.
National Journal | FTC Investigation: Is the Oil Industry Manipulating Gas Prices?
After months of more expensive gasoline driven by wildly fluctuating oil prices, the Federal Trade Commission has launched an investigation of oil and gas markets to determine whether or not they engaged in anti-competitive conduct and price manipulation.
Politico | Toward better patent reform
The America Invents Act, and a similar bill in the Senate, have been introduced to "reform" our patent system. Both bills, however, weaken our unique U.S. system by forcing out courntry to harmonize U.S. patent standards downward to the level of the weaker systems in Europe and Asia.
AEI | Effective Intellectual Property Protections are Key to Future
Some political leaders apparently don't see the value in IP protection. Some have explicitly said they would not agree to anything that improves domestic Indian laws and World Trade Organisation standards from 20 years ago. One negotiator went so far as to say his hands were tied, as any new IP protections would be in breach of the existing Indian law -- refusing to recognise that a change in existing Indian law is exactly what we need.
Blogs
The Economist: Free Exchange | Banks are safe, say banks
In 2010 Europe’s stress testers had no power to challenge data submitted by banks. Only national regulators had this privilege. Yet national regulators had a clear interest in state-owned or state-recapitalised banks passing the stress tests. Most did. Many questioned how well bank data was scrutinised.
The Economist: Free Exchange | Will housing save America's economy?
Back in February of 2009, Paul Krugman was worrying about an insufficient policy response to the recession and he pondered the question: if America is to muddle through with too little stimulus, then how will growth return?
WSJ: MarketBeat | Falling Oil Prices Finally a Good Thing for Stocks?
Today, oil prices are lower, off about 0.3% at $92.75 a barrel. At the same time, the stock market is edging higher. This marks a small change. In the past few weeks, stocks seemed to track oil prices, viewing crude as a barometer of global growth expectations.
Calculated Risk | Lawler: Closed Home Sales Down, Pending Sales Up in May
Existing home sales for May will be released tomorrow and the Pending Home Sales Index on Wednesday June 29th. Hopefully the NAR will provide an update tomorrow on the timing of the benchmark revisions.
Econlog | Dynamic Free Markets
One interesting post and one interesting news article, seemingly unrelated, but actually quite related: both contain evidence of the dynamic wonders of free, or somewhat free, markets.
Reports
NBER | Financial Protectionism: the First Tests
We provide the first empirical tests for financial protectionism, defined as a nationalistic change in banks’ lending behaviour, as the result of public intervention, which leads domestic banks either to lend less or at higher interest rates to foreigners.
Cato Institute | Cato Institute The Subprime Lending Debacle: Competitive Private Markets Are the Solution, Not the Problem
The United States' market-government hybrid mortgage system is unique in the world. No other nation has such heavy government intervention in housing finance. This hybrid system nurtured the excessively risky loans, financed with too much leverage, that fueled the U.S. housing bubble of the last decade and resulted in the systemic collapse of the global financial system.
