News
CNN Money | IMF warns on U.S. economy
Boost the U.S. economy now and worry about cutting deficits later, the International Monetary Fund recommended Tuesday.
Market Watch | 30-year mortgage rate falls to record low of 3.62%
Mortgage rates are at record lows, with the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage average falling to 3.62% in the week ending July 5 from 3.66% in the prior week, Freddie Mac said Thursday in its weekly report.
CNN Money | Living wills for megabanks released
Regulators took another step toward ending the era of "too big to fail" Tuesday, releasing so-called living wills, guidelines for unwinding nine of the largest banks doing business in the United States.
USA Today | Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz: American Dream now a myth
Once seen as the land of opportunity, the U.S. today is grappling with rising inequality and a political system that benefits the rich at the expense of others, resulting in lower growth and risking the death of the American dream, according to Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.
CNN Money | Rents keep rising, while home prices inch higher
As if record low mortgage rates and beaten down home prices weren't enough to get prospective home buyers off the fence, there's another factor that has made the case for buying even stronger: rising rents.
Market Watch | ISM services reading weakest since January 2010
In another signal of a deteriorating U.S. economy, the services sector grew at its slowest pace since January 2010, according to an index released Thursday.
CNN Money | Manufacturing sector contracts for first time since 2009
U.S. manufacturing slowed sharply in June to a level that indicates the sector is now contracting, marking the end of almost three years of growth in domestic manufacturing.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Real Clear Markets | Private Pensions Evade Honest Accounting
The new infrastructure and student loan bill, to be signed by President Obama on Friday at the White House, will reduce the 10-year deficit by $16 billion, at least according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Of this, $11 billion in deficit reduction is attributable to raising the contributions corporations make to their pension plans.
WSJ | What Life Was Like in 1776
Those Americans, it turns out, had the highest per capita income in the civilized world of their time. They also paid the lowest taxes—and they were determined to keep it that way.
Real Clear Markets | Middle Class Wealth: It's Not As Bad As It Looks
Viewed in context, however, the wealth levels of middle-class Americans are in better shape than these dramatic figures would suggest, though they have not improved markedly over several decades.
Real Clear Markets | Earmark Ban Backfires, and Trade Policy Pays the Price
In an attempt to salvage their deteriorating reputation, lawmakers have cast a wide net over the last few years to catch and quash anything resembling earmarks. While ostensibly ridding the political system of special-interest favoritism, both parties have helped to create a net that is too wide and is currently hobbling sound economic decision-making.
Trib Live | The ‘good-citizen’ economist
What role should economists play on the public-policy front?
Blogs
WSJ | World-Wide Factory Activity, by Country
A global manufacturing slowdown deepened in June, as the U.S. slipped into contractionary territory for the first time since July 2009.
Daily Capitalist | Global Economic Decline Is Here, Now
Today’s U.S. manufacturing report is at the top of a mountain of bad economic news coming out. Whether these data will lead to a “new” recession (as defined by the NBER) remains to be seen, but at the very least the U.S. economy is stagnating, and it is likely to remain that way for some time.
Daily Caller | This Independence Day, we’re more dependent on government than ever before
What do we celebrate on this Independence Day? It’s not just independence from Britain — it’s America’s independent spirit and commitment to free markets. Some call it the American Dream.
National Review | Time to Do the Right Thing: End Sugar Quotas
In recent years we have seen Republicans, with the usual exceptions, vote along party lines against big signature Democratic laws such as the president’s health-care or the stimulus bills. But it’s not enough.
WSJ | Secondary Sources: Inefficient Markets, Fed Can Do More, Education Leveling Off
A roundup of economic news from around the Web.
Daily Capitalist | Two Different Stories About The Economy
To get back to prosperity, we need to let the housing and financial markets heal. We need to stop trying to manipulate the housing market and the financial sector. We have to let banks fail now and then, especially those who lend to fund reckless investments.
WSJ | Recession Now More Likely
There’s no way to sugarcoat it: The already-sluggish U.S. economy is stalling out, stung by doubts about our economic and fiscal future.
Daily Capitalist | Krugman’s Great Illusion
Once upon a time, Krugman would have been classified as a “crank,” someone who believes that wealth is cranked up on printing presses. Today, he is seen as a prophet, a “lonely voice” crying in the wilderness with the message that economic salvation is easy. Repent and be baptized in a flood of inflation, and all will be well.
Northwood | Vincent Ostrom (1919-2012): Political Philosopher of Freedom and Federalism by Richard M. Ebeling
On Friday, June 29, 2012, political scientist, Vincent Ostrom, passed away at the age of 92. Dr. Ostrom was one of the leading experts on the structure and content of American constitutional federalism.
Political Calculations | Forecasting GDP for 2012Q2
Now that the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis has released its third estimate of GDP in the first quarter of 2012, we can now officially project where U.S. GDP for the second quarter of 2012 will be when it is nearly finalized three months from now!
Library of Economics | Adam Smith on U.S. Independence
Here is what Adam Smith wrote in 1776 (in The Wealth of Nations) about the odds that the British government would voluntarily give up control over the 13 colonies.
