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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Budget

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Heritage Foundation | Spending Goals for Congress and the President
After a year of unproductive brinksmanship, Congress and the President enter 2012 facing the same intractable budget problems as before: a fourth consecutive deficit expected to be $1 trillion or higher, spending that consumes nearly one-fourth of the economy’s total output, and an entitlement-driven fiscal disaster that has drawn one year of inaction closer.  
CNN Money | U.S. inches closer to 'Europe moment'
Bond yields are slowly creeping up in the United States as the economy improves. But with a yield barely above 2%, the 10-year Treasury is still not that far above its all-time lows.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
WSJ | EU Crisis Road Map: Key Milestones Ahead
European Union finance ministers piled pressure on Greece and its private-sector creditors to do more to ensure that a proposed deal to restructure Greece’s private-sector debt will be enough to put the country back on a firm fiscal footing.
Heritage Foundation | Mr. President: “We Can’t Wait” for the FY 2013 Budget
Right now, when the economy is struggling, annual deficits consistently exceed $1 trillion, and Americans are demanding that Washington govern responsibly, this delay is beyond frustrating.
Marginal Revolution | The pending Greek default
It boils down to what kind of focality the Greek resolution will have.  I’ll stick with my longer-run view that the Eurocrisis can be solved if a) the 17 countries act in a roughly unified way, and b) Italy shows reasonable prospects of growing at about two percent a year or more.
Neighborhood Effects | Pension costs rising in local governments
Long Island villages are contending with increasing contributions to the state pension system. They expect to be billed $1.2 billion this fiscal year for school district employees, public workers, police and firefighters.