News
WSJ | For Some Companies, No Interest In Interest
A little-noticed provision of last year's financial-overhaul law gave companies something they had long wanted: a way to earn interest on large balances held in bank checking accounts.
Market Watch | U.S. durable-goods orders dip in August
Orders for U.S. durable goods fell slightly in August as demand shrank for motor vehicles and certain large defense goods, the government reported Wednesday.
CNN: Money | Financially-strapped cities cut jobs, services
One of the main factors contributing to the decline in revenue is a drop in property tax collections, which are projected to fall by 3.7% in 2011, the second straight year of declines. Last year's drop of 2.0% was the first year-over-year decline in city property tax revenues in 15 years.
National Journal | The Economic Impact of a Near-Shutdown
Some experts say budget brinkmanship will stir less fear as it grows more routine and yields long-term improvements.
Econ Comments
Washington Times | STEARNS: Sunstein’s dull red-tape shears
Czar’s regulatory pullback allows too much new regulation.
Bloomberg | Five Prescriptions to Heal Economy’s Ills: Laurence Kotlikoff
Desperate times call for creative measures. We’re in desperate times, but we’ve had little creative thinking from the Obama administration on how to fix the economy.
Washington Times | GRISWOLD: Yes to free trade, no to TAA ‘stimulus’
With federal debt piling up by the trillions and the “recovery” stuck in neutral, policymakers in Washington should focus on two overriding objectives: to shrink the public sector and grow the private sector. Trade legislation working its way through Congress offers an opportunity to advance both goals.
Forbes | Social Security is Much Worse Than a Ponzi Scheme
The facts about Social Security are these. Yes, it’s a Ponzi scheme, thus criminally fraudulent (as I’ll explain), but even worse, because it coerces us to be a part of it. Since the scheme began in 1935 the full force of the U.S. government has compelled a growing portion of citizens to suffer by it, such that we all do so by now.
Washington Times | DEMINT: Venture socialism
Obama agenda is about shoveling cash to cronies.
WSJ | The Real Solyndra Scandal
Solar technology has a market niche. It doesn't need subsidies.
AEI | HED: A Tale of Two Economies
It's useful to think of the American economy not as a single entity, but as multiple economies operating at differing levels of dynamism and efficiency.
Blogs
Political Calculations | The Aggregate Distribution of U.S. Household Income in 2010
Here, we clearly see that most of the aggregate income earned by U.S. households in 2010 is to be found between the median household income figure of $49,455 and the mean household income figure of $67,530, which would put you in the neighborhood where Americans households collectively earn well over 50 billion dollars per year.
Atlantic: Megan McArdle | How Much Did GDP Numbers Matter?
The Bureau of Economic Analysis clearly vastly underestimated the depth of the contraction that we experienced during the financial crisis.
Daily Capitalist | Case-Shiller Home Price Index Continues Downward
The truth is more in line with what Bloomberg said and that is that home prices are still falling, the current gains are technical results from the foreclosure problems that lenders have, and that foreclosures will resume and increase shortly and the market will continue to be depressed.
Reports
AEI | The Eurozone Crisis and the US Economy: What Has Gone Wrong?
Recent US stimulus efforts have failed to boost the economy, and this pattern is likely to continue with future proposed stimulus plans.
NBER | Country Size, International Trade, and Aggregate Fluctuations in Granular Economies
We study a multi-country, multi-sector model with heterogeneous firms that are subject to idiosyncratic firm-specific shocks. When the distribution of firm sizes follows a power law with an exponent close to -1, the idiosyncratic shocks to large firms have an impact on aggregate output volatility.
RCM: Wells Fargo | Consumer Confidence Is Still Missing in Action
Consumer confidence was essentially unchanged in September as worries about job availability increased and expectations for income gains deteriorated. Buying plans also took a nasty tumble.
