News
WSJ | OECD Cuts Growth Forecasts
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Thursday slashed its growth forecasts for this year, painting a gloomy picture of the outlook in the world's richest economies and putting pressure on central banks to intervene if there is continuing weakness or signs of recession.
NYT | U.S. Slips to Fifth Place On Competitiveness List
The United States is slipping and emerging markets are improving, but European economies still dominate the list of the most competitive economies in the world, according to a World Economic Forum report released Wednesday.
Bloomberg | Trade Gap Narrows in Bright Spot as U.S. Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Climb
The gap shrank 13.1 percent, the most since February 2009, to $44.8 billion from a revised $51.6 billion shortfall in June, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington.
Econ Comments
WSJ | Economic Plans Unlikely to Deliver a Fix
For all the time spent on the stimulus-versus-austerity debate, the most likely outcome is neither. Lately, U.S. policy makers have shifted from taking a half-step toward austerity to a half-step back toward stimulus.
Washington Times | EDITORIAL: Stimulus Jr.
President Obama can’t shake his stimulus addiction. In his Thursday joint-session speech, he’s expected to announce $300 billion in additional spending, adding to the $4 trillion he’s already borrowed from future generations since taking office.
Washington Times | Why the Stimulus Failed
New research on what actually happened to a trillion dollars.
NYT | Fair Lending and Accountability
The banking industry is complaining loudly in Washington about the growing number of fair-lending investigations started by the Obama administration.
Blogs
Calculated Risk | CBO: An Evaluation of Large-Scale Mortgage Refinancing Programs
Some economists have proposed a large scale mortgage refinancing program for homeowners with loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie, Freddie or the FHA, and who are current on their mortgages but who can't refinance - usually because of Loan-to-values (LTV) much greater than 100%.
Daily Capitalist | Gallup Reports Rich Folks’ Spending Down
Gallup reported today the consumer spending was down for August, but the most distressing statistic was the spending by upper income consumers (incomes of $90,000+) was down:
WSJ: real Time Economcis | Calculating the Oomph From Big Government Refi Effort
How much economic oomph would be produced by a big federal government push to refinance mortgages for borrowers who can’t refinance because their incomes are too low or because their mortgages are bigger than the shrunken value of their homes or because the fees are prohibitive?
Heritage Foundation | Trade Deficit Decrease May Reflect Weak Economy
Historically, decreasing trade deficits are often a sign of economic weakness. When workers are unemployed, they have less money to spend. As a result, fewer goods are imported and the trade deficit may decrease.
Reports
NBER | Why didn't Canada have a banking crisis in 2008
The financial crisis of 2008 engulfed the banking system of the United States and many large European countries. Canada was a notable exception. The Canadian concentrated banking system that had evolved by the end of the twentieth century had absorbed the key sources of systemic risk—the mortgage market and investment banking—and was tightly regulated by one overarching regulator.
