News
Market Watch | China manufacturing growing slowly, data show
Two closely watched measures of Chinese manufacturing released Tuesday showed the sector growing in October, albeit at a slow rate.
AoL Energy | Gas As The Bridge To The Future
Power companies are switching over from coal to natural gas at an accelerating rate, with potential consequences for both the US emissions profile and the industry's economics.
Politico | Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac executives get big housing bonuses
The Obama administration’s efforts to fix the housing crisis may have fallen well short of helping millions of distressed mortgage holders, but they have led to seven-figure paydays for some top executives at troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Econ Comments
WSJ | A Slow-Growth America Can't Lead the World
After World War II, the U.S. promoted international economic growth through reliance on the market and the incentives it provides. Times have changed.
Washington Post | The U.S. infrastructure argument that crumbles upon examination
For all its shortcomings, U.S. infrastructure is still among the most advanced in the world — if not the most advanced.
Project Syndicate | America’s Economic Stalemate
The United States appears trapped in a dangerous economic stalemate. The refusal by both Republicans and Democrats to give ground on the budget is preventing the government from dealing with its massive fiscal deficit and rapidly rising national debt.
WSJ | More McMansion Subsidies
A backdoor effort to keep Fannie and Freddie in business.
Daily Caller | Why we can’t do big things anymore
It’s impossible to pinpoint exactly when it happened, but we all know why it happened, and it has nothing to do with our capacity for innovation. The culprit is a labyrinth of increasingly complex and confusing federal regulations.
Washington Times | BLANKLEY: Chinese dragon flexes economic muscles
Price of euro bailout might be silence about Beijing’s predatory trade practices.
Investors | Smoking-Gun Document Ties Policy To Housing Crisis
Rewind to 1994. That year, the federal government declared war on an enemy — the racist lender — who officials claimed was to blame for differences in homeownership rate, and launched what would prove the costliest social crusade in U.S. history.
Blogs
AEI: American | Sorry, liberal media, income inequality really is way overblown
My piece merely pointed to several studies that suggest a) income inequality is hardly “exploding,” and b) the past 30 years have hardly been a lost three decades for the American middle class. My response:
Daily Capitalist | Wealth Disparity And Wall Street: The OWSers Are Wrong
One of the main complaints of Occupy Wall Street is of income disparity in the US and the world. This is an idea rooted in economic misconceptions about capitalism which is endemic in our society.
Reuters | Could America turn out worse than Japan?
American policymakers, together with their European counterparts, are realizing something that Japan has been experiencing for a while: It is very difficult to manage well an economy hobbled by structural impediments and balance sheet excesses.
Calculated Risk | Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Serious Delinquency Rates mixed in September
Fannie Mae reported that the Single-Family Serious Delinquency rate declined to 4.00% in September. This is down from 4.03% in August, and down from 4.56% in September of 2010.
Heritage Foundation | Welfare Dependence Keeps Growing
Unfortunately, government welfare spending shows no sign of slowing down. Means-tested welfare spending is the fastest-growing element of government expenditures, and government spending on welfare is projected to cost taxpayers $10.3 trillion over the next decade.
