News
Bloomberg | Economy Not Double-Dipping Yet as Production-to-Consumer Spending Increase
Some of the gloom that settled over the U.S. economic outlook as stocks and sentiment plunged in recent weeks may soon dissipate as households keep spending and factories keep producing.
National Journal | Farm States Planting Seeds of National Recovery?
Rural areas are healthier than most, but they still need help.
Bloomberg | Oil Climbs in New York as U.S. Fuel Supply Drop Signals Increased Demand
Oil advanced to its highest price in eight trading sessions in New York as investors bet that shrinking fuel stockpiles in the U.S. indicate demand will increase in the world’s biggest crude-consuming nation.
WSJ | Fresh Plan for Europe Crisis
Merkel, Sarkozy Push for Euro Chief, Tighter Budget Controls as Growth Sputters.
NYT | On Economy, Raw Data Gets a Grain of Salt
A growing number of economists say that the government should shift its approach to measuring growth. The current system emphasizes data on spending, but the bureau also collects data on income. In theory the two should match perfectly — a penny spent is a penny earned by someone else.
Econ Comments
Market Watch | China’s economic policy in a league of its own
The Shanghai A-shares index shuddered with other markets around the world while sliding nearly 4% the day after the ratings agency Standard and Poor’s downgraded American sovereign debt in early August.
WSJ | A Tale of Two Downgrades
Standard & Poor's lack of confidence in U.S. performance is risible. The Fed's is not.
BLoomberg | Markets Go From Nightmare to Bad Dream: Vincent R. Reinhart
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, then you probably haven’t been following global financial markets over the past few weeks.
Investors | Editorial: Did Bo (Obama's Dog) Eat The Recovery?
In his first two years, Obama had free rein to get his economic agenda through a heavily Democratic Congress: An $830 billion stimulus, billions more in auto bailouts, mortgage bailouts and cash for clunkers, ObamaCare and Dodd-Frank. None of those packages worked. They produced the worst recovery since the Great Depression. That was true before the Arab Spring, the tsunami, Europe's debt crisis and before Republicans won back the House.
NYT | White Picket Fence? Not So Fast
THE United States spends more than $100 billion annually to subsidize homeowners. Renters get no breaks; homeowners get tons of them.
Blogs
Cato @ Liberty | Ron Paul Talks Sense on Trade
“Countries that you put sanctions on, you are more likely to fight them,” he said. “I say a policy of peace is free trade. Stay out of their internal business.”
Minyanville | Handicapping the Global Economic Recovery
The obvious question must be begged: where do we go from here?
Heritage Foundation | Secretaries of State, Defense Acknowledge Entitlement Spending Crisis
During a joint press event today in Washington, the Secretaries of Defense and State agreed that politicians must tackle the elephant in the room to reduce America’s crushing debt: mandatory spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which account for more than 60 percent of the entire federal budget.
Cato @ Liberty | Americans Are Not Convinced of Top Down Economics
Several recent polls have shown Americans are becoming increasingly skeptical of of Washington’s economic planning capabilities.
Reports
Heritage Foundation | Flashing Red: European Debt Crisis Signals Collapse of Social Welfare State
Europe’s socialist (or “social democratic”) welfare state is collapsing under the load of unsustainable debt. There is no chance European politicians will ever make good on the many costly and unfunded entitlements they have promised their citizens.
RCM: Wells Fargo | Housing Starts Decline in July
Housing starts fell 1.5 percent to a 604,000-unit pace in July from a downwardly revised 613,000-unit pace in June. Single-family starts fell 4.9 percent, while multifamily starts rose for the second consecutive month.
