News
Market Watch | Cloud over economy unlikely to lift in July
If the struggling U.S. economy is at a tipping point, the data for July is unlikely to provide a clear idea of whether the direction is up or down.
National Journal | Composition of Super Committee Will Be Key
A key component of the tentative deficit reduction debt-ceiling deal is the creation of a so-called super congressional committee – to be made up of six senators and six House members, with an equal number of Democrats and six Republicans.
Market Watch | U.S. stocks suffer worst week in a year
U.S. stocks slid Friday, sending two major indexes to their worst week in more than a year, as Congress prolonged the uncertainty over the nation’s debt ceiling.
WSJ | Why Canada Is Beating America
It shrank government, and now unemployment and debt are declining.
Econ Comments
Minyanville | An Economy at Stall Speed
There is no way to spin the GDP report that came out last week as anything but very bad. Normally at this time in a recovery we are growing at a much faster clip.
Bloomberg | Manufacturing Weakens From China to U.K.
Manufacturing indexes from Asia to the U.S. to Europe fell in July as demand weakened and the global recovery from recession lost momentum.
Washington Times | EDITORIAL: Obama’s economic collapse
Rosy scenarios defeated by grim reality.
WSJ | Four Ways the Economy Could Grow -- or Shrink
It looked as if the pieces were finally coming together for the U.S. economy in 2011. Instead, they fell apart.
Blogs
WSJ: Real Time Economics | Number of the Week: China’s Population Bust
China’s era as the world’s go-to provider of inexpensive labor may be drawing to a close. Workers are demanding higher wages and low-end manufacturers in coastal areas have in recent years complained of labor shortages.
Calculated Risk | Schedule for Week of July 31st
The key report for this week will be the July employment report to be released on Friday, August 5th. The ISM manufacturing report will be released on Monday, and the ISM non-manufacturing report on Wednesday. Also the automakers report July vehicle sales on Tuesday.
Political Calculations | The U.S. Enters Into Microrecession
Last Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis revised its real GDP data going back to the start of the 2007 recession. Our animated chart below, created with the Make a GIF online app, shows what changed:
Calculated Risk | Problem Banks: Comparing Official and Unofficial Counts
For Q1 2011, the FDIC listed 888 institutions and $390 billion in assets (somewhat less than the unofficial list a month later). The FDIC Q2 2011 Quarterly Banking Profile will be released in a few weeks.
Source | Basic Economics for Financial Journalists and Other Dummies
In recent years, though, I’ve begun to realize that many people are accidentally sympathetic to the Keynesian government-spending-is-stimulus approach. They mistakenly think the theory makes sense because they look at GDP, which measures how national income is spent. They’d be much less prone to shoddy analysis if they instead focused on how national income is earned.
Calculated Risk | Unofficial Problem Bank list increases to 995 Institutions
After eight additions and six removals this week, the Unofficial Problem Bank List includes 995 institutions with assets of $415.4 billion.
WSJ: Real Time Economics | Vital Signs: Fewer Home Vacancies.
Fewer homes in the U.S. are sitting empty than earlier in the year. Residential vacancy rates ticked down during the second quarter from the first quarter as well as the year-ago period, to 9.2% for rental properties and 2.5% for privately owned homes.
Reports
RCM: Wells Fargo | Subpar Economic Growth Defines the Second Quarter
"The economy grew at a sluggish 1.3 percent in the second quarter after growing a mere 0.4 percent in the first quarter. Stagnation in personal consumption expenditures in the second quarter suggests that higher prices played a role in restraining consumer spending."
