News
CNBC | U.S. Competitiveness Becoming a Tale of Two Economies
The World Eocnomic Forum ranks the U.S. fourth out of 139 countries in its competitiveness survey.
National Journal | How Did 2011 Go So Wrong? America's Two-Speed Recovery
It's not just high gas prices. America has a growth problem and a jobs problem that might be beyond Washington's control.
Market Watch | May existing home sales fall to six-month low
Sales of existing U.S. single-family homes and condos fell 3.8% as activity remains muted even with a slump in prices, according to data released Tuesday.
Market Watch | China growth to cool as credit, trade ebb: Duncan
China’s era of rapid economic growth is drawing to a close, with a great moderation now inevitable, according to economist and author Richard Duncan.
CNBC | High Oil Prices Threaten to Derail Growth: IEA
High crude prices may derail growth in China and India, the two natiosn that have helped the global economy overcome the financial crisis, the International Energy Agency said.
WSJ | Trade Data Suggest Slowdown
Figures released Wednesday by the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, also known as the CPB, showed trade volumes fell 2.5% from March, having risen by 1.1% in that month. Trade flows last fell in September 2010, by 0.6%.
Fiscal Times | Post Office Suspends Retirement Contributions
The financially troubled Postal Service is suspending its employer contribution to the Federal Employee Retirement System.
Econ Comments
Daily Caller | Six steps for jump-starting the U.S. economy
With unemployment stuck at a stubborn 9.1 percent, it's time to finally free American innovation and ingenuity - long held hostage by a regulatory regime which is as great a threat to our prosperity as any foreign regime.
Fox Business | Where is the bottome for the housing market?
You may have seen the recent headline that the housing downturn we are currently in is worse than the one experienced during the Great Depression. According to Case-Shiller data, prices have fallen some 33 percent since the market began its collapse, greater than the 31 percent fall that geban in the late 1920's.
Source | The U.S. Trade Agenda: Comedy, Tragedy, or Thriller?
The U.S. trade agenda, of late, has featured plot twists worthy of a summer blockbuster. After two years of neglect, the beleaguered agenda seemed poised to advance when the Obama administration reworked the free trade agreement with Korea, agreed on an Action Plan for moving ahead with Colombia, and pressed ahead with negotiations for a Trans-Pacific Partnership. It looked like the White House and congress could work together, the three pending FTAs (Panama, too) could pass this summer, and the trade agenda would be free of its partisan rut at last.
Financial Times | Time for common sense on Greece
"Albert Einstein is reported to have said that insanity consists of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. By those standards, the deal with Greece that is about to be agreed looks insane. The only justification, as I argued in a column on May 10, is that it is needed to play for time. This is a bad strategy. Something more radical is required."
Blogs
Cato @ Liberty | Are We Building Enough Housing?
One of the primary reasons the labor market remains weak is that construction activity is relatively low, resulting in a reduced demand for construction workers. My friends in the building industry argue that because housing starts are at historic lows, we are actually not building enough housing.
Heritage Foundation | Why Ethanol and Natural Gas Don’t Deserve Subsidies
Two of the energy subsidy debates in Washington focus on tax credits for the ethanol and natural gas industries. The growing opposition to the $6 billion ethanol blender’s tax credit became quite clear when the Senate voted 73–27 to remove the subsidy—even though the credit is set to expire at the end of the year.
Coordination Problem | It’s Time to Call It a Failure
Recently Mario Rizzo gave us permission to say “we told you so” with respect to the failure of the fiscal and monetary stimulus policies that have been the predominant policy response to the Great Recession. I think he was quite right to do so, and also quite right to note that many of us predicted that stimulus advocates would argue, in return, that it simply wasn’t big enough to do the trick.
Volokh Conspiracty | Many black New Yorkers Vote With Their Feet for the South
In a reversal of historical trends, many black New Yorkers are voting with their feet and moving to the South. In the early twentieth century, hundreds of thousands of southern blacks moved to northern cities in part to escape southern racism and oppressive Jim Crow laws.
Reports
AEI | The State of US Manufacturing
Chairman Casey, Vice Chairman Brady, and other members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you this morning and discuss the U.S. manufacturing sector--a key part of our economy.
CRS | Proposed U.S. – South Korea Free Trade Agreement: Potential National Sector-Specific and State Export Effects
In February 2011, the United States and South Korea finalized negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement. As a result, the Obama Administration is expected to submit implementing legislation to the 112th Congress on the proposed U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA).
