News
WSJ | Collateral Damage Could Include Higher Mortgage Rates
Mortgage markets in the U.S., which remain on government life support, could be rattled by the downgrade of the U.S. credit rating, potentially raising borrowing costs for consumers.
CNN: Money | Rating downgrade: Did S&P get it right?
S&P is pessimistic. It points to the reckless debt ceiling debate, which artificially tied the longer term need to reduce the debt with the immediate need to raise the borrowing limit to ensure the United States makes good on all its bills.
Bloomberg | Central Bankers Confront Which Risk Scares Most
Central bankers from the U.S. to China may have to decide which is their worst nightmare: the Great Inflation of the 1970s or Great Depression of the 1930s.
CNN: Money | Moody's: Why we're not downgrading U.S. yet
Moody's said it expects the economy will improve and additional measures to reduce the budget deficit will be in place by 2013. The rating agency said this is why it reiterated its AAA rating for U.S. debt on Aug. 2, when the Senate agreed on a 10-year plan to reduce the deficit by more than $2 trillion.
NYT | Second Recession in U.S. Could Be Worse Than First
If the economy falls back into recession, as many economists are now warning, the bloodletting could be a lot more painful than the last time around.
Fox News | Congress has a shot at passing jobs-creating bills
With the battering debate over the debt ceiling over, the stage is set for Congress to approve and President Barack Obama to sign three big free-trade agreements and the most significant overhaul of the patent system in 60 years.
National Journal | Washington Week Round Table: A Tough Week for the Economy
The economy is the worst it’s been in years. Why and how did we get to this point? Also, with all the infighting in Washington these past 3-months, how did the debt deal come together and how will it effect the 2012 elections?
Econ Comments
Washington Times | MALPASS: Obama downgrade hurts
Act now to lessen impact before real pain starts.
Financial Times | America can fix its inner workings
At a moment of renewed financial market turmoil, a historic downgrade of US government debt and gathering signs that the recovery has stalled, the capacity of Washington to act with deliberation has seemingly collapsed.
Financial Times | Mission impossible: stop another recession
The first half of 2011 showed a slowdown of growth – if not outright contraction – in most advanced economies. Optimists said this was a temporary soft patch. This delusion has been dashed.
Blogs
Econlog | Manufacturing and Reality
The "problem" with manufacturing is mainly productivity growth that permits fewer workers to produce more goods. As workers are freed from having to produce common goods and services, total output expands greatly.
Calculated Risk | Schedule for Week of August 7th
The key reports this week are July Retail Sales on Friday, and the June Trade Balance report on Thursday.
WSJ: Real Time Economics | Making Sense of China’s Economic Statistics.
It used to be that when the U.S. sneezed the rest of the world gets a cold. Now the same is true of China. China is the biggest contributor to global growth, and it’s starting to have an equally important impact on the markets.
Heritage Foundation | Estonia’s Rebound Through Fiscal Discipline: A Message for America?
Estonia possesses a flexible, open economy and investment climate that encourages competition and economic growth. It remains one of the world’s freest economies.
Minyanville | Rise in Food Stamp Receipts May Confirm Economic Crash
The last time we saw an acceleration of this magnitude was in September 2008.
AEI: American | Obama’s European Economic Time Bomb
A wave of defaults is coming. This will badly damage Obama’s reelection chances.
Calculated Risk | Unofficial Problem Bank list declines to 988 Institutions
This is an unofficial list of Problem Banks compiled only from public sources.
Reports
RCM: Wells Fargo | Weekly Economic & Financial Commentary
Manufacturing activity slowed noticeably across the globe in July.
Heritage Foundation | Heritage Foundation U.S. Credit Rating Downgraded: Now They’ve Done It
While not solely to blame, President Obama and his allies are most certainly preeminently to blame. Facing a rapidly growing budget deficit in 2009, President Obama pushed through a massive fiscal stimulus program followed by a succession of lesser efforts. As the anemic state of the economy attests quite clearly, those programs failed miserably—except in raising federal spending and national debt.
CBO | CBO CBO's 2011 Long-Term Projections for Social Security
CBO's first infographic, released in conjunction with CBO's 2011 Long-Term Projections for Social Security: Additional Information, summarizes some of the agency's most recent projections for Social Security and provides background information on the program, including the number of beneficiaries and their distribution (among retired workers, disabled workers, and others), an explanation of how Social Security benefits are calculated, and a history of Social Security legislation since 1935.
