News
Market Watch | U.S.-China trade disputes get wider, hotter
Ten years into its tenure as a World Trade Organization member, the planet’s second-largest economy, China, has joined the United States in a game of finger-pointing.
National Journal | A Crude Hit to the Recovery
Simply put, American consumers paid a historically high premium for their gasoline. The economy suffered for it.
CNN: Money | Why Congress can't save the Postal Service
There's one thing that turns some Tea Party Republicans into government-job lovers like their Democratic rivals: Their neighborhood post office.
WSJ | Economic Outlook Slows for the Global Economy
The global economic outlook has deteriorated significantly, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Monday, as it urged the European Central Bank to act decisively to prevent the euro-zone sovereign debt crisis from deepening and possibly dragging the U.S. economy to the brink of recession.
Bloomberg | U.S. Home Prices Decline More Than Forecast
Residential real estate prices dropped more than forecast in the year ended September, showing the industry at the center of the 2008 financial crisis continues to struggle.
Market Watch | Consumer debt declines in third quarter
Consumer debt declined slightly during the third quarter as Americans continued to deleverage in the wake of the housing crisis, according to a study released Monday.
Bloomberg | Euro-Region Economic Confidence Falls to Two-Year Low: Economy
An index of executive and consumer sentiment in the euro area fell to 93.7 from 94.8 in October, the European Commission in Brussels said today. That’s the lowest since November 2009.
Politico | Fitch Ratings: ‘Negative’ outlook for U.S. credit rating
Following the failure of the supercommittee, the U.S. government’s AAA credit rating was placed on a “negative outlook” Monday by Fitch Ratings, indicating a more than 50 percent chance the country gets slapped with another downgrade in the next two years.
NYT | Crisis in Europe Tightens Credit Across the Globe
Europe’s worsening sovereign debt crisis has spread beyond its banks and the spillover now threatens businesses on the Continent and around the world.
USA Today | Donations inch back up after recession decline
Giving totaled $291 billion in 2010, according to the 2011 annual report by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. That's up 3.8% from 2009 and follows two consecutive years of declines.
WSJ | Sweden Maintains Robust Growth
Economic output grew 4.6% in the three months through September, compared with the same period in 2010, the Swedish statistics agency said Tuesday. Economists had expected 3.8% growth.
Econ Comments
Washington Times | ROEMER: Still calling for big government
The threat and fear of tyranny created the idea of America. The authors of the Constitution realized that the power of a central government strong enough to protect our nation from outside threats had to be balanced with clear states’ rights and even clearer individual rights in order to maintain liberty, economic health and national welfare.
Washington Times | EDITORIAL: Debt dumps on Durban
Economic woes threaten cash for climate change.
Cato Institute | Should the Government Narrow the Income Gap?
In 2007, the top 1 percent received 23.5 percent of income according to economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, but only 17.1 percent of income according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Market Watch | 10 reasons the crisis isn’t over
Commentary: There may be a lot more bad news to come.
Blogs
Calculated Risk | Visible Existing Home Inventory declines 17% year-over-year in November
In a few months, the NAR is expect to release revisions for their existing home sales and inventory numbers for the last few years. The sales and inventory revisions will be down.
Cato @ Liberty | Apparently a Little Economics Education Does Work on Congress…
I’ve seen too many times, especially during my service as staff in the Senate, politicians support policies they have to know are harmful. So it always encouraging to see some evidence of Congress taking basic Economics into account.
Café Hayek | Nudging us to death
Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein wrote Nudge, arguing for something they called libertarian paternalism, the idea that government rather than forcing us to do the right thing might “nudge” us in the right direction via program design or tax incentives.
Calculated Risk | New Home Prices: Average Lowest since 2003
As part of the new home sales report, the Census Bureau reported that the average price for new homes fell to the lowest level since September 2003.
Marginal Revolution | Marginal Revolution 6 ideas for the Ash Heap of History
Sadly, bank runs are alive and well. They first resurfaced in the United States with a run on money-market funds and on the so-called shadow banking system in 2008.
Calculated Risk | Dallas Fed Manufacturing Survey shows contraction in November
Texas factory activity decreased in November, according to business executives responding to the Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey.
WSJ: Real Time Economics | WSJ: Real Time Economics OECD Growth Outlook, Country by Country
In its twice-yearly report on the global economic outlook, the OECD lowered its growth forecasts for the world’s largest economies, and said the euro zone has fallen into recession. It also warned that the bloc’s debt crisis, now affecting countries previously seen as safe havens, could “massively escalate economic disruption if not addressed.” Here are some country-by-country highlights:
Reports
NBER | Government Policy and Ownership of Financial Assets
Since World War II, direct stock ownership by households across the globe has largely been replaced by indirect stock ownership by financial institutions. We argue that tax policy is the driving force.
