News
WSJ | Portugal's Leader Won't Soften Austerity
Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho vowed to push ahead with the government's plan to revamp the small country's economy despite calls from opposition lawmakers to renegotiate terms of its €78 billion ($97 billion) bailout.
Bloomberg | Samaras Pledges Greek Budget Reforms as Doubts Rise on Goals
Greece’s government will implement reforms to convince the European Union and the International Monetary Fund of the need for more time to reduce the budget deficit as officials confirmed the country will fall short of promised funds from the sale of state assets this year.
WSJ | Madrid Austerity Plan Boosted to $80 Billion
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced new austerity measures Wednesday that should help Madrid cut its budget deficit by €65 billion ($80 billion) through to 2015, and warned the euro-zone's fourth-largest economy may not grow at all next year.
CNN Money | California bankruptcies are only the beginning
San Bernardino became the third California city to file for bankruptcy in the past few weeks ... but it won't be the last.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | As San Bernardino Goes . . .
After the California city of Stockton declared bankruptcy last month, politicians and credit raters assured investors that municipal bonds were still safe and that the city's insolvency presented no systemic risk. Does that script sound familiar? In reality, expensive labor agreements are threatening municipalities across the U.S., though the people who should be most concerned are taxpayers.
CBO | Status of Discretionary Appropriations: FY 2013 House
Estimates of discretionary budget authority and outlays for fiscal year 2013.
Blogs
Think Markets | Hundred Years of Bailouts
After all that’s been said and written about financial crises, it is rare to come across useful insights. Financing Failure. A Century of Bailouts by Vern McKinley documents a major continuity with past policy making. He shows that policies intended to prop up failing companies are nothing new—the same basic pattern has recurred time and again.
