News
CNN Money | Mortgage rates sink to new record low
Mortgage rates have fallen to a new record low, according to Freddie Mac, and the stagnant economy is to blame.
Market Watch | J.P. Morgan loss drives battle over bank rules
Lawmakers quarreled Wednesday with regulators on Capitol Hill over the implications of losses of more than $2 billion by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. last month, and how Washington can ensure a big Lehman-like bank failure doesn’t cause create another financial crisis.
WSJ | Labor Faces New Challenge
Organized labor, reeling from blows to government workers in Wisconsin and California elections, is grappling with the prospect of diminished political clout and fewer members in public-sector unions that have formed the core of the movement's power in recent years.
Market Watch | For Asia, U.S. more vital than Europe: Moody's
If the financial stresses in Europe jump the fence to the U.S., then the impact upon Asia could be greatly magnified, according to the ratings agency Moody's, which looked at various implications if policy markers lose their grip on the euro zone's darkening financial situation.
CNN Money | 10 fastest-growing states
These states experienced the fastest growth rates in 2011, which was a mediocre year for economic expansion across the nation.
FOX Business | Fitch: U.S. Rating Could Suffer in 2013 Without Credible Plan
Fitch Ratings reiterated on Thursday it would cut its sovereign credit rating for the United States next year if Washington cannot come to grips with its deficits and create a "credible" fiscal consolidation plan.
Econ Comments & Analysis
AEI | Who lost Greece?
A relatively insignificant southern European country threatens the very survival of the euro in its present form. How did we get here, and what lessons does Greece hold for the rest of the European periphery?
WSJ | Crony Capitalism and the Crisis of the West
As Greece sinks toward a financial abyss—and Portugal, Italy and Spain sit on the edge—can we in the United States consider ourselves safe?
Real Clear Markets | How the U.S. Can Escape the Pending Economic Black Hole
It has been remarked that bond yields have recently priced in a "Lehman type" event, yet no such event has occurred. But that is to misconstrue both what happened in 2008 and what is going on now.
Washington Times | Failure to stimulate
There’s nothing stimulating about the current state of the global economy. Job creation is on the decline in the United States, and the European Union is in the third year of a worsening debt crisis. Growth is nowhere to be found on either side of the Atlantic.
Bloomberg | Booming Sweden’s Free-Market Solution
Not so long ago, Sweden could claim world leadership in unmitigated Keynesian economics, with a 90 percent marginal tax rate and a welfare state second to none.
WSJ | Hollande's First Step Backward
French President François Hollande made good Wednesday on his campaign pledge to lower France's minimum retirement age to 60 from 62. The 2010 law that lifted the retirement age was Nicolas Sarkozy's most important domestic-policy achievement, and it was sold as a way to keep France's public spending under control amid the Continent's then-burgeoning debt crisis.
NBER | The Evolving Importance of Banks and Securities Markets
This paper examines the evolving importance of banks and securities markets during the process of economic development.
Blogs
The American | Here’s why it feels like the Great Recession never ended
This chart from Action Economics shows three different measures of compensation: average hourly earnings, the employment cost index for wages and salaries, and hourly compensation.
Library of Economics | Do Economists Study Money?
Non-economists often think that "economists study money." The reality, though, is that most academic economists hardly think about money at all.
WSJ | Top Executive CPAs More Worried About Economy
Certified public accountants serving as senior financial officers are more worried about the U.S. economic outlook, according to a study released Thursday.
The American | One important unintended consequence to bigger and bigger government
The more powerful government is, the more incentive there is for special interest groups to influence it for their own, narrow benefit
