News
CNN: Money | Iran oil targeted by Obama sanctions
When President Obama upped the ante last week in U.S efforts to isolate Iran, he also laid the groundwork for measures that could cut off Iranian oil exports and cause a spike in crude prices.
CNN: Money | S&P downgrades Belgium
The rating change put Belgium's rating down one notch to AA. That's the S&P's fourth-highest rating is still investment grade. But the rating agency warned it is considering further cuts, assigning it a negative outlook.
USA Today | Retailers sue Fed, say debit card fees are still too high
A coalition of retail organizations filed a lawsuit Tuesday charging that the Federal Reserve failed to comply with a law requiring it to reduce fees banks charge retailers when consumers use debit cards.
CNN: Money | Savings rate rises in October
The boost in the savings rate came as incomes rose at a faster clip than spending. Personal income was up 0.4% in October, whereas consumers increased their spending only 0.1 during the month.
Econ Comments
Washington Times | LABRADOR & POMPEO: Era of energy subsidies is over
American consumers, not Congress, should choose best power sources.
Bloomberg | OECD Cuts Growth Forecasts, Blames Euro Crisis
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said growing doubts about the survival of Europe’s monetary union has caused global growth to stall and represents the main risk to the world economy.
RCM | The Root Cause of Market Failure In Higher Education
Any program in which 60% of the graduates failed to find work for two consecutive years would face funding reductions until supply was brought back into balance with demand.
Washington Post | Privatize the nation’s mail delivery
Unfortunately, privatization collides with a belief sometimes deemed reactionary but nowadays characteristic of progressives. The belief is: In government, whatever is should forever be.
AEI | Entitlements not tax cuts widen income gap
What should be done about income inequality? That basic question underlies the arguments hashed out in the supercommittee and promises to be a central issue in the presidential campaign.
Investors.com | In Free Society, Wealth’s A Sign You're Doing Something Right
Billions of people benefited from safe and efficient lighting. Billions more were the ultimate beneficiaries of the computer, and untold billions benefited from healthier lives gained from access to tetracycline.
WSJ | What Housing Risk?
The FHA says there's nothing for taxpayers to worry about. Oh-oh.
Blogs
Daily Capitalist | What You Should Be Thankful For On Thanksgiving 2011
It is always easy to criticize things as we see them today, but we have to see where we came from before we do that.
AEI: American | Why there is a 70 percent chance of a U.S. recession
When year-over-year real GDP growth falls below 2 percent, recession follows within a year 70 percent of the time.
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.
Political Calculations | Lackluster GDP in 2011-Q3, More in 2011-Q4
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis has revised its initial estimate of GDP in the third quarter of GDP downward. We've adjusted our GDP forecast for the fourth quarter of 2011 accordingly.
Calculated Risk | Unofficial Problem Bank list increases to 980 institutions
There were a number of changes to the Unofficial Problem Bank List as the OCC and FDIC released their enforcement actions for the past month this week. As a result, there were seven additions and four removals, which leave the list with 980 institutions with assets of $400.5 billion.
Cato @ Liberty | The Future of Growth
A new analysis warns that the Washington area doesn’t have nearly enough housing for the wave of new workers that will arrive in coming decades.
Reports
NBER | Ending "Too Big To Fail": Government Promises vs. Investor Perceptions
Can a government credibly promise not to bailout firms whose failure would have major negative systemic consequences? Our analysis of Korea's 1997-99 crisis, suggests an answer: No.
CBO | Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Employment and Economic Output from July 2011 Through September 2011
"During the third quarter of calendar year 2011, recipients reported, ARRA funded more than 400,000 full-timeequivalent (FTE) jobs.2 Those reports, however, do not
provide a comprehensive estimate of the law’s impact on U.S. employment, which could be higher or lower than the number of FTE jobs reported, for several reasons."
