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Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Budget

News                                                                                                                             
Market Watch | U.S. must take steps to avoid fiscal cliff: IMF
U.S. lawmakers must remove uncertainty created by the "fiscal cliff," the International Monetary Fund said in a report released Tuesday.
Bloomberg | Euro Area Bought Some Time in Staving Off Breakup, Rogoff Says
European leaders probably bought “a little bit of time” in staving off a euro-area breakup after last week’s summit even as the region remains a long way from stabilization, Harvard University Professor Kenneth Rogoff said.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
WSJ | Slouching Toward Debt Union
On Friday euro-zone leaders agreed—or rather, Angela Merkel conceded—that their joint bailout funds may now be used both to buy up sovereign bonds directly and to start bailing out banks with European funds. "[I]t is imperative to break the vicious circle between banks and sovereigns," the euro group statement reads.
LA Times | The real national security threat: America's debt
Drones, kill lists, computer viruses and administration leaks are all the rage in the current political debate. They indeed merit serious scrutiny at a time when the rules of war, and technologies available for war, are changing fast. That said, these issues are not the foreign policy centerpiece of the 2012 presidential race.
CBO | Status of Discretionary Appropriations: FY 2013 House
Estimates of discretionary budget authority and outlays for fiscal year 2013.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Reason Foundation | Local, State Governments' Assets Causing Budgetary Pains
Like their federal counterpart, states and localities are paying the price of years of profligate spending.  Extravagant spending on programs that are neither the core mission of government nor "inherently governmental" nature is now coming home to roost.