News
Bloomberg | Global Demand for U.S. Assets Rose $4.8 Billion in October
Net buying of long-term equities, notes and bonds totaled $4.8 billion during the month compared with net purchases of $68.3 billion in September.
WSJ | Euro-Zone Economy Contracts
The euro-zone economy is likely to have contracted in the fourth quarter, although not all of the member economies performed weakly, with Germany's picking up in December.
CNN: Money | Bernanke worries Europe's woes will spill into U.S.
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke told Republican senators on Capitol Hill on Wednesday that he's concerned about European sovereign debt problems spilling over to the U.S. economy, according to senators.
WSJ | Industrial production slips 0.2% in November
Industrial production fell in November on a sharp drop in the automotive segment along with other declines in factory output, the Federal Reserve said Thursday.
WSJ | Europe Strains World's Banks
Borrowing Costs Grow as Some Banks Take Emergency Steps; Euro Sinks Further.
Bloomberg | Manufacturing May Shrink From China to Europe as Demand Weakens: Economy
Manufacturing may contract this month from China to the euro region as global demand slows and Europe’s leaders struggle to contain the worsening debt crisis.
WSJ | A Bubble Down on the Farm?
Farmers like Terry Pratt are a big reason Midwest farmland prices seem to be defying gravity—for now.
Econ Comments
Aol Energy | Wind Industry Nervous As Tax Credit Expiration Date Looms
The production tax credit (PTC) for wind energy--the primary federal financial support mechanism for wind, which rewards developers and investors with 2.2 cents per kWh over 10 years--is set to expire in just about a year, on midnight December 31, 2012.
WSJ | The Euro Zone's Double Failure
Europe needs country-by-country fiscal reforms, not a renewed push for political integration.
Politico | 3 cheers for the '1 percenters'
When the 1 percenters are asked to pay their fair share with a “luxury tax” on their yachts and decide, maybe, they won’t buy a yacht after all, who suffers the most? Those who build, service and provision mega-yachts — skilled workers paid an hourly wage, or small family businesses and local retailers.
Daily Finance | Why Social Security Is Still Falling Apart
Social Security spent $49 billion more in 2010 than it took in as tax collections. By the time 2011 ends, it expects to outspend collections by another $46 billion.
Investors.com | Economic Fairness
What's fair competition is somewhat subjective, but let me suggest a few examples of what's clearly unfair.
Blogs
Cato Institute | Do We Need Big Government?
At what point do we simply cease to be a society of free individuals and instead become little more than wards of the state?
Calculated Risk | The Excess Vacant Housing Supply
Over the last few days, there has been some more discussion on the current number of excess vacant housing units in the United States.
Political Calculations | Revisiting the U.S. Housing Bubble
Once upon a time, we developed a better method for detecting housing bubbles. Today, we're going back to the data mines to do some refinement and to see where things stand today!
Calculated Risk | The American Community Survey and Total Housing Units
It is possible the 2000 Census under counted the total number of housing units - or the 2010 Census over counted the total. Or perhaps the completion data from the Census Bureau is low. But this shows one of the reason it is very difficult to estimate the excess vacant housing supply - an error of over 1 million units is huge.
AEI: The American | Ah, delicious irony
The current Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards create a financial incentive for auto companies to make bigger vehicles that are allowed to meet lower targets, according to a new University of Michigan study.
Calculated Risk | MBA: "Refinance Applications Increase as Rates Drop to 2011 Lows"
The Refinance Index increased 9.3 percent from the previous week to its highest level since November 4, 2011. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 8.2 percent from one week earlier.
NRO: The Corner | When Government Grows, the Economy Shrinks
In the midst of the European debt crisis, economists at the European Central Bank just produced a paper that looks at how growth in the size of government affects economic performance.
NY Times | NY Times The Exaggerated Impact of Bank Transfer Day
The Credit Union National Association now says that about 214,000 people joined credit unions in the month or so of anti-bank fervor this fall, not the 650,000 it originally estimated.
