News
Bloomberg | World Bank Cuts China 2012 Growth Outlook on Exports
China’s economic growth may slide to a 13-year low in 2012 as a sluggish world recovery damps export demand and domestic investment and consumption growth decelerate, the World Bank’s latest forecast shows.
Market Watch | ‘Modest to moderate’ economic growth: Beige Book
The U.S. economy continued to grow at a "modest to moderate pace” over the last month, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday in the latest publication of anecdotes.
Bloomberg | ’Fortune 500’ of 1812 Shows U.S. Banks’ Early Influence
Fortune magazine began publishing annual rankings of U.S. corporations by revenue in 1955. Ever since, scholars and forecasters have analyzed changes in the Fortune 500 to help inform their judgments about industry concentration and the relative importance of different sectors of the economy.
Bloomberg | Trade Gap in U.S. Narrows More Than Forecast as Imports Drop
The trade deficit in the U.S. narrowed more than forecast in February as imports fell by the most in three years, reflecting the smallest amount of crude oil purchases in 15 years and a drop-off in demand for Chinese goods.
CNN Money | Watchdog blasts housing program for 'hardest hit'
A federal-state program aimed at helping homeowners in states hardest hit by the mortgage crisis is falling far short of its goals, a federal watchdog said in a report released Thursday.
Bloomberg | Big Banks Needed 485.6 Billion Euros to Meet Basel Capital Rules
The largest global banks would have needed an extra 485.6 billion euros ($638.5 billion) in their core reserves to meet the Basel capital rules had the standards been enforced last June.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Daily Caller | US economic and energy future will be bright if feds don’t turn out the lights
The economy of America’s Rust Belt is showing signs of recovery. Over 37,300 jobs have been added to Ohio’s economy this year. That’s in addition to the 62,500 jobs the Buckeye State gained during 2011 — the fifth-largest increase in the nation.
Washington Times | Bernanke’s fairy tale recession story for kids
It’s an oldie but a goodie for our Federal Reserve chairman. In one of his recent lectures at George Washington University (GWU), Ben S. Bernanke made the self-congratulatory assertion that the “forceful policy response” led by the Federal Reserve in 2008 helped avoid a more serious economic downturn.
NY Post | Leading for the Future: Obama isn’t — this plan does
Excerpts from Rep. Paul Ryan’s remarks Tuesday at the George W. Bush Institute’s conference at the New-York Historical Society.
The American | Want to End Poverty? Legalize Freedom
The American’s editor-in-chief Nick Schulz recently sat down with Robert D. Cooter, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and one of the leading lights in the academic field of law and economics. Professor Cooter is the co-author of an important new book, Solomon’s Knot: How Law Can End the Poverty of Nations, an excerpt of which follows the interview below.
Fortune | America's energy job machine is heating up
Deep-sea drilling and fracking are helping to unearth abundant supplies of oil and gas. The coming energy renaissance could be just the elixir the U.S. economy needs.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Obama’s Ten Worst Energy Policies
In his time in office, President Obama has made some seriously bad proposals and decisions on energy policy, and Americans are paying the price, whether it’s in higher energy costs, wasted tax dollars, or in jobs that have been left on the table. For those who aren’t keeping track, we’ve compiled a list of the President’s ten worst energy policies:
The American | 10 reasons the U.S. economy may be getting ready to tank
While President Obama has been spending his time arguing for higher taxes on wealthier Americans — which would create no jobs, no economic growth, and little debt reduction but achieve a higher level of tax code”fairness” — this has been what’s happening in the U.S. economy
Library of Economics | The Liquidity Crisis Story
A market-based credit system, however, relies on market liquidity and hence ultimately on dealer of last resort to ensure the continued flow of credit. Just as the Fed adapted, in its first fifty years, to the rise of a market-based system of government credit, the Fed's present task is to adapt to the rise of a market-based system of private credit.
The American | Obama’s inequality argument just utterly collapsed
President Barack Obama has a theory of the case, yes he does. For the past 30 years, the living standards of middle-class Americans have gone nowhere even as the overall U.S. economy has grown markedly. The Obama explanation: Wealthier Americans grabbed all the money. Time to raise their taxes for the sake of “fairness.”
National Review | More Great Stuff by Scott Winship on Income Inequality
Scott Winship of the Brookings Institution has another great article about inequality. He starts with a useful visualization of what inequality at the very top looks like and how it varies depending of what your starting point is
