News
CNN: Money | S&P downgrades 15 banks
Standard and Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of 15 banks Tuesday, after applying new criteria to the world's 37 largest banks.
USA Today | New businesses gamble on the economy
Who would start a business in this economy?
CNN: Money | A French downgrade could derail eurozone rescue
In what would be another blow to Europe's beleaguered rescue fund, there is growing speculation that France will eventually lose its top-tier credit rating.
Market Watch | Third-quarter productivity lowered to 2.3%
U.S. workers were not as productive in the third-quarter as originally believed, according to revised government data.
CNN: Money | Solar power bankruptcies loom as prices collapse
The once high-flying solar power sector is headed for tough times, as a combination of slack demand and massive oversupply is leading to plummeting prices and profits for solar panel makers.
USA Today | Gas prices hit lowest mark since February
Gasoline prices have dropped to their lowest level since Feb. 21 in the government's latest weekly survey.
CNN: Money | Home prices fall to 8-year lows
Home prices dropped 3.9% year-over-year during the three months ended Sept. 30, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller national home price index. On a quarterly basis, prices were slightly higher, squeezing out a 0.1% gain.
Washington Times | GOP seeks to head off NLRB rules
Would speed up organizing process, allow multiple unions.
New York Times | Line Grows Long for Free Meals at U.S. Schools
The number of students receiving subsidized lunches rose to 21 million last school year from 18 million in 2006-7, a 17 percent increase.
WSJ | Bill Eases U.S. Residency for Foreign Skilled Workers
The House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday to make it easier for skilled workers to get green cards, a measure that particularly affects employers who want to hire Chinese and Indian nationals
Econ Comments
WSJ | A Political Solution for the Euro?
Germany is right to demand that the worst-run nations submit to fiscal discipline in exchange for financial aid.
CNN: Money | Consumers feeling rosier about the economy
The Consumer Confidence Index shot up to 56.0 in November from 40.9 the previous month, the Conference Board reported Tuesday, the highest reading since July.
Blogs
NRO: The Corner | A Better Cause for OWS: Old vs. Young
Whether young people realize it or not, the reason most lawmakers won’t touch Medicare is because they know that older Americans vote.
Flowing Data | Four degrees of separation
We found that six degrees actually overstates the number of links between typical pairs of users:
Daily Capitalist | A Note On GDP
The BEA’s numbers, the national income and product accounts (NIPA), are constantly revised to adjust their measurement of the economy. The last revision came out in August and they make some observations about their understanding of the business cycle aside from the data revisions themselves:
Econlog | Credit Rating Agencies and Risk
Suppose that a rating for a security is a measures how far the default option is out of the money. Buyers of securities can make whatever use they like of this measure. But does it help regulators?
Calculated Risk | CoreLogic: 10.7 Million U.S. Properties with Negative Equity in Q3
The top five states combined have an average negative equity ratio of 41.4 percent, while the remaining states have a combined average negative equity ratio of 17.6 percent.
Café Hayek | Important Perspective on Imports
If we were to completely eliminate tariffs on imports, U.S. manufacturers relying on foreign inputs would receive significant benefits, while other U.S. manufacturers competing against imports would be less protected from foreign competition.
Reports
NBER | The Composition and Draw-down of Wealth in Retirement
This paper presents evidence on the resources available to households as they enter retirement. It draws heavily on data collected by the Health and Retirement Study and calculates the "potential additional annuity income" that households could purchase, given their holdings of non-annuitized financial assets at the start of retirement.
CRS | CRS An Overview and Analysis of H.R. 3010, the Regulatory Accountability Act of 2011
This report begins by providing a brief overview of the major requirements of the rulemaking process currently found in statutes, executive orders, and OMB documents, many of which would be changed or enacted into law by the proposed RAA. The report then discusses the RAA's proposed changes to these existing rulemaking requirements, providing a side-by-side comparison of the requirements of the RAA to these existing provisions.
