News
WSJ | Balanced Budget for Spain's Regions
The Spanish government said Friday that the country's regions posted a balanced budget in the first quarter, a rare piece of good news that the government hopes will bolster confidence in the ailing economy even as fresh signs of strain emerge.
National Journal | Where Is Congress With Appropriations?
Both the House and the Senate appropriations committees are off to strong starts in the appropriations process for fiscal 2013. Will both chambers pass all 12 major bills before the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30? Probably not.
WSJ | Irish Voters Seen Passing European Union Fiscal Pact
Ireland headed to the polls Thursday for a vote on the European Union's fiscal treaty, designed to bring financial stability to the euro zone by binding countries to tougher rules on balancing their budgets.
Bloomberg | U.S. Employers Add 69,000 Jobs, Fewer Than Forecast
The American jobs engine sputtered in May as employers added the fewest workers in a year and the unemployment rate rose, dealing a blow to President Barack Obama’s re-election prospects and raising the odds the Federal Reserve will step in to boost growth.
WSJ | Spain Says It Has Months to Raise Bank-Rescue Funds
Spain's government says it has until at least October to raise the funds it needs for the €19 billion ($23.5 billion) rescue of lender Bankia SA, a move government officials hope will let Madrid pick the right moment to raise funds from financial markets and explore other funding options as it aims to avoid an international bailout.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | California's Casino Budgeting
California's fiscal and governance crisis careens from bad to worse. The latest blow: a 70% increase in the state's projected budget deficit in Gov. Jerry Brown's revised budget, to $16 billion from $9 billion.
Forbes | Austerity With Growth? Easy To Achieve, But Witless Politicians Don't Know How
Now Europe’s leaders say they want “austerity with growth.” Sounds nice. They have no clue as to how to achieve it.
WSJ | Bank-Bailout Lessons
In Europe's endless crisis, the latest focus is Spain's banks. Some €31 billion in deposits fled Spanish lenders in April, the second largest monthly capital flight from Spain in the euro era.
Forbes | The Ugly Truth About Social Security Is Revealed
A recent front page USA Today story inadvertently exposed the lie that is Social Security. Though the article was ostensibly about budget deficits, and how unfunded liabilities of the Social Security variety were not properly being accounted for in deficit calculations (they quadruple taxpayer liability), a staff expert at a liberal think tank shed light on why.
Project Syndicate | Austerity and Debt Realism
Many, if not all, of the world’s most pressing macroeconomic problems relate to the massive overhang of all forms of debt.
Blogs
CATO | Looking at Austerity in Spain
Spain is perhaps the weakest link in the Eurozone after Greece. Almost a quarter of its labor force is unemployed; its banking system is extremely vulnerable and it might collapse anytime; housing prices haven’t yet returned to normalcy after the burst of its real estate bubble; and the economy is in its second recession in two years and it’s expected to contract further in 2012 and maybe even in 2013.
Keith Hennessey | The Obama spending binge
Over Obama’s four budget years, federal spending is on track to rise from $3.52 trillion to $3.58 trillion, an annualized increase of just 0.4%.
