News
Bloomberg | China May Invest Tens of Billions of Euros to Assist Europe, Academic Says
China may “move shortly” to help Europe resolve its debt crisis by providing an investment of as much as 100 billion euros ($132 billion), said Yuan Gangming, an economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
FOX News | Consumer borrowing rose $19.3 billion in December
Americans accelerated their borrowing in December for the second straight month, running up more credit card debt and taking out loans to buy cars and attend school.
WSJ | Oil and Gas Boom Lifts U.S. Economy
There is no oil and gas production in Idaho, but that doesn't mean the U.S. energy boom has bypassed this bedroom community west of Boise.
Bloomberg | Tie U.S. Recovery Program to Economy Indicators
According to early forecasts, the U.S. economy should already have recovered from the financial crisis. Despite some recent encouraging news, though, we still don’t know when things will be back to normal.
Gallup | U.S. Economic Confidence Climbs for Fifth Straight Month
Americans' confidence in the economy improved for the fifth month in a row in January, with Gallup's Economic Confidence Index reaching -27, its highest point since May of last year. Americans, however, are not yet as confident as they were a year ago.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Heritage Foundation | The 2012 Index of Dependence on Government
Virtually no issue so dominates the current public policy debate as the future financial health of the U.S. government. Americans are haunted by the specter of enormously growing mountains of debt that suck the economic and social vitality out of this country.
Mercatus Center | Blueprint for Regulatory Reform
Congress is taking a closer look at the balance between the burden and benefits of regulation and what reforms could embed the principles of good regulatory decision-making in agencies.
WSJ | Europe's Carbon Trade War
On Monday, Beijing forbade its carriers from complying with this frequent-flyer-in-reverse scheme. Brussels immediately responded by insisting that noncomplying airlines will face large fines, and even bans on operating in Europe.
Investors | The Burden Of Federal Rules: Our Other Trillion-Dollar Debt
With Obama's delayed 2013 spending budget likely to approach $4 trillion in outlays, it seems apparent that for both spending and regulation, politicians do need to take the federal government's rocks off the lawn of enterprise and job creation.
Heritage Foundation | Average Federal Aid Passes Average Disposable Income
The Index reports Americans who rely on government receive an average $32,748 worth of benefits, surpassing the average American’s disposable personal income of $32,446.
Blogs
WSJ | Falling U.S. Share of Trade Not Due to Competitiveness Problems
New research published by the New York Fed Tuesday argues the U.S. isn’t suffering as badly on the trade front as many now believe.
CATO | Unemployment Insurance Fraud: Chile Has Solution
The Washington Post reports that 90 D.C. city employees and 40 former employees are being investigated for grabbing UI benefits to which they were not entitled. The cost of this fraud has been about $800,000 since 2009.
Calculated Risk | MBA: Refinance activity increases as mortgage rates fall to record low
The Refinance Index increased 9.4 percent from the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 0.1 percent from one week earlier.
Atlantic | Will the Government Put Money Market Funds Out of Business?
Immediately after Lehman Brothers failed, a money market mutual fund called Reserve Primary "broke the buck"--it did not have enough money in its coffers to pay the shareholders what they'd had.
Library of Economics | Break the Buck!
Regulators are completing a controversial proposal to shore up the $2.7 trillion money-market fund industry
