News
Market Watch | Japan's economy shrinks more than expected in Q4
Japan's economy shrank by more than expected in the October-December quarter, as a strong yen and collateral economic damage from flooding in Thailand took their toll.
CNN Money | Bernanke: Housing problems hold back recovery
Lingering problems in the housing market continue to restrain America's economic recovery and limit the effectiveness of Federal Reserve policies, Ben Bernanke said Friday.
WSJ | Rosier View Has Familiar Ring
As optimism mounts that the U.S. economic recovery is at last gaining steam, it is worth remembering that things looked pretty good a year ago, too.
Politico | Three years since meltdown, banks are shackled but stronger
In this evolving era of financial reform, the nation’s too-big-to-fail banks are either at death’s door or destined to become bigger and badder than ever.
WSJ | U.S. Trade Gap Widened in 2011
The U.S. trade deficit widened in December as rising consumer spending and restocking by U.S. businesses led imports to grow faster than exports.
Market Watch | U.K. to avoid recession, growth seen ‘subdued’
Britain will avoid recession in 2012, but economic growth will remain subdued as problems in Europe dampen prospects for recovery, a leading business organization said Monday.
Washington Times | Weak housing has hurt consumer spending
Ben Bernanke says declines in home prices have forced many Americans to cut back sharply on spending and warns that the trend could continue to weigh on the economy for years.
Econ Comments & Analysis
AEI | Shrink the eurozone to save it
With each passing day, Greece's economic and political malaise deepens despite one massive International Monetary Fund-European Union bailout package after another to keep that country afloat.
WSJ | Memo to Mitt: The Safety Net Needs Fixing
In this space last month, I suggested enacting some modest tax cuts and spending increases, sharply targeted at job creation, and coupling that with substantial future deficit reduction—enough to pay the bill many times over.
WSJ | China and America: A Profitable Partnership
Forty years ago this week, leaders from the United States and China broke decades of estrangement and ushered in a new era of relations between the two countries.
Real Clear Markets | Orwellian Doublespeak Dominates Economic Policy
It was the progressive destruction of the English language that prompted coffee to come out of my nose. Without a common understanding of precisely what words mean, rational discourse becomes futile.
CATO | Still a Better Deal: Private Investment vs. Social Security
Opponents of allowing younger workers to privately invest a portion of their Social Security taxes through personal accounts have long pointed to the supposed riskiness of private investment.
WSJ | In Praise of 'Enviropreneurs'
Entrepreneurs are my heroes because of their optimism. Instead of seeing problems, they see opportunities.
WSJ | How Government Coddles the 1%
There's class warfare in the U.S. all right. Good examples can be found at the nation's airports and on its highways.
NY Times | Break Up the Banks? Here’s an Alternative
Bailing out financial institutions deemed “too big to fail” has become wildly unpopular, as people across the political spectrum are now talking about splitting up America’s large banks.
Blogs
Coordination Problem | What the Austrian Business Cycle Theory Can and Cannot Explain
Lars Christensen's post on Rothbard's America's Great Depression over at Market Monetarist serves as a useful reminder about what the Austrian cycle theory can and cannot do.
Political Calculations | China Enters Into Recession
We base that observation upon our analysis of international trade data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau, where we have calculated the year-over-year growth rate in the value of goods and services that the United States has both exported to China and which the U.S. has imported from China.
Calculated Risk | Economic Analysis and Inaccurate Numbers
According to Zillow, 28.6 percent of all single-family homes with mortgages had negative equity in Q3 2011. And according to CoreLogic, "10.7 million, or 22.1 percent, of all residential properties with a mortgage were in negative equity at the end of the third quarter of 2011".
The American | Has Obama lost control of economic expectations—again?
Americans felt worse about their personal finances in early February, even as they saw a light at the end of the tunnel for the jobs market, a survey released on Friday showed.
Library of Economics | Wealth and the Output Gap
Suppose that a foreign government confiscates some of our citizens' assets. Then domestic potential output is not affected. There may be less domestic consumption. But the that would make the output gap larger, not smaller.
Calculated Risk | Unofficial Problem Bank list unchanged at 958 Institutions
This is an unofficial list of Problem Banks compiled only from public sources.
WSJ | Bank Business Loans Rose $6.9 Billion in Latest Week
U.S. banks’ commercial and industrial loans increased $6.9 billion to about $1.360 trillion in the week ended Feb. 1, the latest week for which data are available, the Federal Reserve said Friday.
The American | Occupy Time Machine: Income inequality now back to where it was 15 years ago
The Great Recession dramatically reduced U.S. income inequality, according to a new analysis from the Tax Foundation. In fact, income inequality—at least as measured by the income share of the top 1 percent of earners—is back to where it was in 1996-1997.
