News
WSJ | Cities Consider Seizing Mortgages
A handful of local officials in California who say the housing bust is a public blight on their cities may invoke their eminent-domain powers to restructure mortgages as a way to help some borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth.
Washington Times | College grads find big degree of debt, difficulty
The Great Recession sent millions of Americans scurrying back to school to improve their chances of securing jobs. But the difficulty that recent college graduates have had finding work — after taking on unprecedented loads of debt — has sparked a lively debate about whether a college degree opens doors the way it once did in the job market.
FOX News | After weak June, retailers to sweat out summer
Shoppers, worried about jobs and the economy, pulled back on spending in June, slowing sales for most retailers to the weakest pace since 2009. And that could leave merchants on edge, wondering if Americans will spend more when the back-to-school season starts in late July.
WSJ | Home-Equity Loans Pose Looming Threat to Banks
U.S. banks may be hit with a new round of mortgage losses over the next five years as borrowers who took out home-equity loans a decade earlier face increased monthly payments, a regulator warned Thursday.
National Journal | Pace of Recovery More Frustrating Than Jobs Report Will Suggest
The unemployment rate, according to a Friday Labor Department report, was 8.2 percent in June, the same as the previous month but nearly 2 percentage points lower than the recession-era peak reached in October 2009.
WSJ | Firms Sustain Investment in U.S.
Companies around the world are on track to increase their investments in the U.S. during 2012, according to a report Thursday by the United Nations.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | The Sources of the Next American Boom
Three years after the recession was declared officially over, unemployment remains high and there's worry that a new recession is down the road. And yet waiting in the wings for when we get our economic policies in order are a mounting number of stunning discoveries, inventions and technological breakthroughs that could set off a burst of growth and wealth creation as big as any in living memory.
Real Clear Markets | Things Will Get Much Worse Before They Get Better
Way back in May 2012 before a press conference announcing the ECB's decision to hold rates steady, Mario Draghi, European Central Bank (ECB) President, speculated that the Eurozone economy showed "tentative stabilization". This was two months after he commented to a German newspaper that "the worst was over".
Fortune | Is there an upside to a dip in corporate profits?
For the first time since the Great Recession, corporate profits fell during the first three months of this year. While the dip may be small, the $6.4 billion (or 0.3%) decline is significant as it just might inspire a shift in tone within corporate America, which saw profits soar even as joblessness has persisted.
Washington Times | June’s weak numbers could make for a bleak July
By now, you probably have heard that the stock market fell 3.3 percent over the April-to-June period as measured by the S&P 500 because of fears of slowing global growth and uncertainty in Europe.
Blogs
Economist | The doldrums
How long ago seem the promising months of early 2012, when the American economy added jobs at a healthy 225,000 monthly clip. And how disappointing when the labour market slumped back into its now traditional spring-and-summer slump.
Calculated Risk | Consumer Bankruptcy filings Decrease 13 Percent in First Half of 2012
From the American Bankruptcy Institute: Bankruptcy Filings Fall 14 Percent for the First Half of 2012, Commercial Filings Drop 22 Percent
