News
WSJ | Fresh Worries of Recession Grip Europe
Berlusconi Fires Back at Germany, France as Political Tensions Mount.
CNN: Money | Refinancing plan won't help housing market
It might get easier for some homeowners to refinance their mortgages, but that won't do much to help the broader housing market.
Politico | Transportation's future a rocky road
As Congress looks at nontransportation revenue to maintain current spending levels, two ambitious reports sit on the desk of policy experts. One includes a radical idea — that the country should eventually shift to a vehicle miles traveled fee. But some transportation experts said the federal program needs a major shake-up before lawmakers revamp how motorists are charged for road use.
WSJ | Plan Highlights Sharp Political Split
President Barack Obama on Monday went where his Republican White House rivals have so far refused to go. He asserted that Washington should help Americans refinance their mortgages at lower rates.
Fox Business | Home Prices Edge Up Slightly in August
U.S. single-family home prices were unchanged in August, pointing to a market that continued to stabilize but has yet to gain traction, a closely watched survey said Tuesday.
Econ Comments
WSJ | And Baby Makes Seven Billion
Human beings are minds, not mouths.
WSJ | The Phony Success of China's Stimulus
Easy money has delayed Beijing's day of reckoning. Expect to see a lot of bank loans go bad.
Forbes | Why Politicians Lose So Much Money Trying To Pick Winners
The Solyndra scandal offers us a reminder that government isn’t very good at picking winners and shouldn’t try to do it.
Blogs
Marginal Revolution | Italy’s growth disaster
At the risk of sounding like a broken record player, we are not sufficiently thinking through what it means for an advanced society to have basically zero net economic growth for a ten to twenty year period. It’s very possible.
Politico | Poll: Regulations top issue for small businesses
As the White House and Republicans battle over regulations, a new poll finds that small-business owners rank “complying with government regulations” as the most important problem that they face.
Mercatus Center: Neighborhood Effects | Trust Me On This One
Progress depends on the extent of the market, the extent of the market depends on trust, and trust can be facilitated with familiarity with markets.
Reports
NBER | The Fiscal Stimulus of 2009-10: Trade Openness, Fiscal Space and Exchange Rate Adjustment
This paper studies the cross-country variation of the fiscal stimulus and the exchange rate adjustment propagated by the global crisis of 2008-9, identifying the role of economic structure in accounting for the heterogeneity of response.
Mercatus Center | The Economics and Regulation of Bank Overdraft Protection
Available evidence indicates that those who rely on overdraft protection tend to have low credit ratings, use overdraft protection because it is sometimes less expensive, to maintain short-term liquidity needs, and more convenient than available alternatives.
