News
Bloomberg | Retail Sales in U.S. Rose in February by Most in Five Months
Retail sales in the U.S. rose in February by the most in five months, reflecting broad-based gains that indicate the world’s largest economy is picking up even as gasoline costs climb.
Market Watch | NFIB small-business index up for sixth month
The National Federation of Independent Business said its optimism index edged up 0.4 points to 94.3, as owners became slightly more pessimistic about the outlook for business conditions but more optimistic about future sales growth.
CNN Money | Retirement scare: 60% of workers have less than $25,000 saved
Concerns about job security and piles of debt have left American workers more pessimistic about retirement than ever.
WSJ | Trade Fight Flares on China Minerals
China's state media warned on Tuesday that U.S. plans to push a case involving rare earths before the World Trade Organization could trigger a backlash and hurt ties.
NY Times | Bank Officials Cited in Churn of Foreclosures
Managers at major banks ignored widespread errors in the foreclosure process, in some cases instructing employees to adopt make-believe titles and speed documents through the system despite internal objections
Econ Comments & Analysis
AEI | The 'Beijing Model' Bubble
The idea that China is practicing a new form of capitalism, and may even be “doing capitalism better than America,” is reaching a fever pitch in policy and business circles.
Washington Times | Red ink on the rise
When it comes to regulations, President Obama’s message to his conservative critics seems to be: Message received. Early last year, he vowed to crack down on overzealous rule-making, noting that the “rules have gotten out of balance” and “have had a chilling effect on growth and jobs.” He’s right - they have.
WSJ | California's Greek Tragedy
Long a harbinger of national trends and an incubator of innovation, cash-strapped California eagerly awaits a temporary revenue surge from Facebook IPO stock options and capital gains. Meanwhile, Stockton may soon become the state's largest city to go bust
Real Clear Markets | Message to China: Trade "Deficits" Are Quite Beautiful
With word that China's economy fell into the "red" last month thanks to a trade "deficit", business journalists predictably used the information as a straw man to proclaim a looming economic slowdown in this rising nation.
NBER | Does Linking Worker Pay to Firm Performance Help the Best Firms Do Even Better?
This paper analyzes the linkages among group incentive methods of compensation, labor practices, worker assessments of workplace culture, turnover, and firm performance in a non-representative sample of companies: firms that applied to the “100 Best Companies to Work For in America” competition from 2005 to 2007.
Blogs
Calculated Risk | Housing: Short Sales increase, Foreclosure Sales down Year-over-year
This will be very useful data over the next several months as we try to track the impact of the mortgage servicer settlement. There are only a few areas where the MLS breaks down monthly sales by foreclosure, short sales and conventional (non-distressed) sale.
Keith Hennessey | Nearly doubling renewable energy generation
Let’s look at my favorite energy graph, produced by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a part of the Department of Energy. It translates all energy usage into a common unit (BTUs) for comparison.
Calculated Risk | Public transportation ridership increases 2.3% in 2011
From the APTA: 10.4 Billion Trips Taken On U.S. Public Transportation In 2011
Marginal Revolution | Counting benefits does not much change the income stagnation story
A third worry is that the income measure used to calculate median family income is too thin. If a growing portion of GDP has gone to employer benefits, that would help middle-class households, but it wouldn’t show up in these income data.
Minyanville | Could This Be a Self-Sustaining Economic Recovery?
Investing is a lot like whaling. Investors are constantly searching for that whale of a stock with the “ambergris factor.” And that is what I was doing last week at Raymond James’ 33rd Annual Institutional Investors Conference in Orlando, Florida.
Atlantic | Free the Banks! The Case for Massive Deregulation of the Financial System
Since the financial crisis of 2008, everybody and their mother has been looking for some way to make sure it doesn't happen again. The responses so far have been woefully inadequate. No one thinks the reforms that have been enacted or are being considered would solve the problem.
