News
WSJ | EU Could Face 'Deep, Prolonged Recession'
The European Union on Thursday slashed its growth forecast for the 27-nation bloc in the coming year and said it can't exclude the possibility of a "deep and prolonged" recession.
NY Times | Greece Selects Prime Minister After Days of Wrangling
Lucas Papademos, a respected economist with an avuncular style, was named prime minister of Greece on Thursday. He will lead a unity government that has pledged to quickly approve the tough terms of a European aid package and save the country from bankruptcy.
WSJ | Russia to Join WTO
Russia on Thursday won approval from a key committee to join the World Trade Organization, boosting the trade bloc's clout among major world economies and sealing the Kremlin's intentions to open up the economy after 18 years of negotiations.
Washington Times | China mocks U.S. political model
Chinese political and business leaders are increasingly triumphant after two decades of rapid economic growth that lifted unprecedented millions of people out of poverty and turned the nation into an economic superpower, saying their success proves its political and economic system is superior to the Western model.
Market Watch | Foreclosures jump 7% in October from September
Foreclosure activity rose 7% in October compared with September, a sign that lenders are picking up the pace after foreclosure processing problems caused delays, RealtyTrac said Thursday.
WSJ | Home Prices Keep Dropping
U.S. home prices fell in nearly three-quarters of metropolitan areas in the third quarter and the national median price dropped 4.7% as the housing market continued to show weakness.
USA Today | Economy, lack of engineers could hinder U.S. innovation
The federal government's support for R&D, as a share of the U.S. economy, has plummeted by nearly two-thirds since the 1960s, says Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., who has a doctoral degree in physics. The Congressional Research Service estimates the federal government provided $147 billion for R&D last year.
WSJ | Moody's Cuts South Africa Outlook
Gridlock in South Africa's government over how to spur growth and reduce unemployment is straining the budget and spooking investors—a gloomy picture that prompted Moody's Investors Service Inc. to cut its outlook on the debt of the continent's largest economy.
CNN: Money | Global economy at the tipping point
Europe is heading for recession. China is battling its own economic demons. And with the United States also facing problems at home (9% unemployment anyone?), it's hardly in a position to help.
WSJ | New EPA Rules Split Power Industry
The Environmental Protection Agency is set to make final new air-pollution standards for coal-fired power plants by mid-December, sparking disagreement among power companies about how quickly aging coal plants need to be pushed offline.
Econ Comments
Atlantic | I Was Wrong, and So Are You
A libertarian economist retracts a swipe at the left—after discovering that our political leanings leave us more biased than we think.
Washington Times | GHEI: Italy on the brink
Collapse of a bloated European welfare state is inevitable.
RCM | Forget the Wealth Gap, It's the Age/Income Gap
The Census Bureau has just released a supplementary measure of poverty for 2010. It finds that more Americans were in poverty than under the standard measure. Americans aged 65 and older showed the largest increase in poverty rates under the supplemental measure.
Blogs
Econlog | Is the Government an Efficient Charity?
In 1979, households in the bottom quintile received more than 50 percent of all transfer payments. In 2007, similar households received about 35 percent of transfers.
Mercatus Center: Neighborhood Effects | Mayor-Elect Stanton Offers an Excellent Introduction to Public Choice
As Bastiat put it some 150 years ago: “Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.”
Source | What Greg Mankiw's Defenders Missed
Last Wednesday, Greg Mankiw blogged about the students who walked out of his Ec10 class. They have various complaints about it that you can read here.
Atlantic: Megan McArdle | The Financial Folly of Fairness
When I was a young and naive economics writer, I used to write about developing countries a fair amount. Time and again they would make these bizarre and pointless moves, like suddenly and for no apparent reason defaulting on a bunch of debt.
