News
Market Watch | Existing-home sales up 1.4% in October
The National Association of Realtors on Monday said sales rose 1.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million from 4.9 million in September.
CNBC | Economy for 2012 Likely to Grow Just 2.4%: NABE
The U.S. economy will muddle through the next year without a recession, but growth will be too weak to make much of a dent in the unemployment rate, forecasters believe.
CNN: Money | World markets slammed by bond warning
European stocks were getting slammed Monday, after Moody's Investors Service issued a dire warning on French bonds, and Asian markets were dampened by pessimistic remarks made by a high-ranking Chinese official.
Bloomberg | German Growth May Grind to Halt as Region’s Crisis Saps Exports: Economy
The Frankfurt-based central bank cut its 2012 growth forecast to between 0.5 percent and 1 percent from a June prediction of 1.8 percent, and said a “pronounced” period of economic weakness can’t be ruled out if the crisis worsens.
Econ Comments
Politico | Can economy wait til 2012 election?
President Barack Obama has now spent more than two months calling on Congress to pass his $447-billion jobs bill. The president insists it will, “provide our economy with the jolt it really needs right now."
Cato Institute | Unwise to Pin Much Hope on America in Global Free Trade
The clearest indication the administration had little interest in further trade deals was President Obama's quiet rejection of Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell's September offer to give him Trade Promotion Authority, generally accepted as necessary for future trade negotiations to begin, let alone yield results.
Politico | Investors saw super committee failure, Zandi says
Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, said Sunday there'll probably not be a significant financial market reaction to the supercommittee's failure to forge a deficit-reduction deal because expectations have been so low among investors.
Blogs
Calculated Risk | Chicago Fed: Economic activity up slightly in October
Led by improvements in production-related indicators, the Chicago Fed National Activity Index edged up to –0.13 in October from –0.20 in September.
Café Hayek | Your body and Keynesianism
The complex system known as the human body reminded me of macroeconomics–a complex system where correlation is often mistaken for causation, where omitted variables play a crucial role, where aggregates (such as total cholesterol) often mask more than they illuminate, and where policy recommendations often fail to achieve their purported goals without having anyone challenge the received dogma.
Econlog | Dinner with Tim Congdon
Congdon is dismayed by the politics in the U.S. concerning macroeconomic policy. What I think he is finding is that the people who are most concerned with unemployment happen to be the ones who believe that we are in a liquidity trap, and therefore that monetary policy is ineffective.
Reason Foundation | CBO: Stimulus Will Reduce Long Run Economic Performance
The effects of the Stimulus program are being debated, but the fact that the CBO recognizes the potential for all that money dumped into the economy becoming a drag in the long run implies at least their forecasting models recognize spending has to be productive in order for it to really lift the economy.
AEI | It’s Europe’s Economic Growth, Stupid
European policymakers are clinging to the forlorn hope that the eurozone crisis can readily be defused by putting in place national unity governments in Greece and Italy.
WSJ: Real Time Economics | Uptick in Household Income: Trend or Hiccup?
American households saw their income edge up in September from August, according to a new report out Monday, but it isn’t clear whether the uptick , if sustained, would make a difference amid a tepid economic recovery vulnerable to risks at home and abroad.
Café Hayek | The cause of the crisis
One standard narrative of the cause of the financial crisis coming from people generally on the left is that a free-market ideology blinded policy-makers. They foolishly followed a policy of deregulation that allowed banks to run amok. And calls for regulation, such as attempts to regulate the derivative market, were ignored.
NCPA | U.S. Bank Exposure to Europe: De Minimus
These stats and commentary on U.S. bank exposure to European debt were provided by a friend of mine, Michael Durante, a hedge fund guy who specializes in large U.S.
WSJ: Real Time Economics | Secondary Sources: Billionaires and Taxes, Jobs Gap, Call to Central Bank Action
A roundup of economic news from around the Web.
Reports
Wells Fargo | Weekly Economic & Financial Commentary
Economic growth in the fourth quarter appears to be off to a good start. Retail sales rose 0.5 percent in October with nearly broad-based gains. Core retail sales, which exclude autos, food, gasoline and building materials, rose 0.6 percent and are up 5.7 percent on a three-month annualized basis.
