News
CNN: Money | Will free trade create or kill U.S. jobs?
On one side is big business, that believes opening up trade with other countries will boost sales for U.S. firms, allowing them to hire more workers. But unions argue the deals will mean more low-wage competition for U.S. workers, and more factories being moved overseas.
Bloomberg | Japanese Economy Contracts Less Than Estimated on Post-Tsunami Investment
Gross domestic product shrank at an annualized 1.3 percent rate in the three months ended June 30, marking three consecutive quarters of declines, the Cabinet office said today in Tokyo.
National Journal | Buffett: 'Stop Coddling the Super-Rich'
Buffett’s own income and payroll taxes last year amounted to nearly $7 million dollars. “That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income—and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office,” he said. Their tax burdens, he wrote, averaged 36 percent.
NYT | Looking Ahead to Economic Reports This Week
Data this week will include housing starts, import prices and industrial production and capacity utilization for July (Tuesday); the Producer Price Index for July (Wednesday); and weekly jobless claims, the consumer price index, existing home sales and leading economic indicators for July, and the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index for August (Thursday).
National Journal | Gas Still Isn't Cheap, but It Is Cheaper
Gasoline still isn't as cheap as most consumers would like, but it is now cheaper in most states than it was at the beginning of the summer driving season.
Econ Comments
Washington Times | OWENS: Ignoring energy gauge while economy tanks
Obama won’t let Americans tap their own continent’s resources.
WSJ | This Time, Maybe the U.S. Is Japan
It is a comparison that underlines the current plight of the U.S. economy: as bond investors grapple with their new reality—a downgraded U.S. credit rating and two more years of zero-interest rates—they are increasingly looking to Japan for guidance.
Washington Times | ANDREWS: The buck stops with … the Tea Party
Conscientious citizens step up while political class wallows in denial.
Washington Times | EDITORIAL: Kick junkies off welfare
Taxpayers shouldn’t have to subsidize drug addicts.
Washington Times | Washington Times SANDERS: What Obama could do
Ironically, the world crisis has proved one thing: a continuing, overwhelming faith in America’s importance, whether economically or culturally. Proof is “the flight to quality” by investors worldwide into the American republic’s indebtedness, as can be seen by the all-time record low interest rates offered in U.S. Treasury bond auctions.
Blogs
WSJ: Real Time Economics | Consumers Are Miserable, but Still Shopping For Now
Consumers in early August say their view of the U.S. economy is the worst since 1980 — a time covering the only back-to-back recessions in modern history. But consumers shopped at a solid pace in July and into early August.
Calculated Risk | Calculated Risk Unofficial Problem Bank list at 988 Institutions
The total number of institutions on the Unofficial Problem Bank Lists remains unchanged from last week at 988. However, there were two removals and two additions. Aggregate assets declined slightly by $391 million to $411.3 billion.
Café Hayek | Lagniappe
“The fact that the U.S. content of Chinese goods is much higher than for imports as a whole is mainly due to higher retail and wholesale margins on consumer electronics and clothing than on most other goods and services.”
Reports
RCM: Wells Fargo | RCM: Wells Fargo Weekly Economic & Financial Commentary
In what was one of the most volatile weeks on Wall Street since traders and speculators first gathered under the old buttonwood tree, economic data actually showed improvements in the economy that diminish the odds of recession.
