News
Market Watch | Volcker rule deadline is 2014, U.S. says
Big banks will have at least until July 2014 to fully conform to the Volcker rule, the regulation that aims to restrict speculative trades with their own money, bank regulators said Thursday.
WSJ | China Manufacturing Continues Contraction
An initial measure of China's manufacturing activity showed fresh signs of strength in April, but the data indicate the economy is still in sluggish territory and may need a government boost.
USA Today | Economists upping their forecasts for 2012
The U.S. economy will grow faster than expected this year, despite the headwinds of higher gas prices and Europe's financial crisis, according to USA TODAY's quarterly survey of economists.
WSJ | Euro-Zone Crisis Funds Face a Market Test
After months of wrangling, government leaders have assembled a pair of war chests to guard against deepening euro-zone turmoil.
CNN Money | China manufacturing improves slightly
China's manufacturing sector contracted in April, but not as much as in the previous month, according to a preliminary survey of purchasing managers released Monday.
Bloomberg | Companies More Upbeat on U.S. Economy, NABE Survey Shows
Companies are growing more upbeat about the U.S. economy this year and plan to take on more workers as demand improves, a survey showed.
FOX News | Aging workforce strains Social Security, Medicare
An aging population and an economy that has been slow to rebound are straining the long-term finances of Social Security and Medicare, the government's two largest benefit programs.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | Joel Kotkin: The Great California Exodus
'California is God's best moment," says Joel Kotkin. "It's the best place in the world to live." Or at least it used to be.
Real Clear Markets | The Lie That's Bankrupting the Country
As the middle class entitlements yawn wide open to swallow the entire federal budget, it is not an exaggeration to say that this distortion is bankrupting the republic.
WSJ | The Argentine Way of Business
It is never a good idea to agree to blackmail. The extortionist will not be satisfied until the victim is bled dry. Just ask Repsol, the Spanish oil giant. The record of its relationship with the government of Argentina strongly suggests the sovereign-risk equivalent of such a crime.
Washington Times | Where’s the recovery?
April remains a cruel month. New jobless claims are the highest they’ve been since late January, with the four-week average stubbornly hovering around the 375,000 mark. Though we’re technically in a recovery, nobody believes it.
WSJ | Democrats for Keystone
President Obama continues to stand in the way of the Keystone XL pipeline, though increasingly he's standing alone. A growing number of Democrats are rejecting the President's fealty to green interests, aware that it will be an electoral liability this fall.
CATO | Capitalism Will Eliminate Poverty in Africa
The recent recession has reinvigorated anti-capitalists everywhere, not least in Africa. In the continent's economic powerhouse, South Africa, the rhetoric has, perhaps surprisingly, been most ardent. Blade Nzimande, the Minister of Higher Education and Training, said that there were no capitalist ideas that could address the problems that South Africa faces.
Blogs
Calculated Risk | Schedule for Week of April 22nd
The key U.S. economic report for the coming week is the Q1 advance GDP report to be released on Friday. Also New Home sales and the Case-Shiller house price index will be released on Tuesday.
Econ Browser | A ban on oil speculation?
Joseph P. Kennedy II, former Congressional Representative from Massachusetts, and founder, chairman, and president of Citizens Energy Corporation, has a proposal to make energy affordable for all. All we have to do, Kennedy claims, is "bar pure oil speculators entirely from commodity exchanges in the United States."
Neighborhood Effects | The Economy as an Ecosystem
Recently, I’ve been looking at the public choice ways in which the ecology of entrepreneurship can sometimes be interfered with. Just like a natural ecology, entrepreneurial ecologies need to be a bottom-up process. And quite often can be subject to interference from governments.
Calculated Risk | Unofficial Problem Bank list declines to 939 Institutions
Here is the unofficial problem bank list for April 20, 2012.
