News
Market Watch | It’s the best of times for U.S. corporations
Looking around in your neighborhood and around the world, you might get the idea that everyone is suffering from our hard times.
FOX News | Survey: Small business optimism sinks in June
The economy and uncertain political climate are taking a toll on small business owners' optimism, making them hesitant to expand.
CNN Money | Economic mobility: Who gets left behind
Most Americans make more than their parents did, but that doesn't mean they're all moving up the economic ladder.
Bloomberg | China’s Import Growth Misses Estimates for June
China’s imports rose less than anticipated in June, pushing the trade surplus to a three-year high and adding pressure on the government to support demand as the global economy slows.
Econ Comments & Analysis
NBER | The Effect of Housing Wealth on College Choice: Evidence from the Housing Boom
The higher education system in the United States is characterized by a large degree of quality heterogeneity, and there is a growing literature suggesting students attending higher quality universities have better educational and labor market outcomes.
WSJ | The Entitlement State—and Zombies
The euro zone's troubles shouldn't be difficult to understand: Pair overspending governments with over-regulated economies and sooner or later the Continent was bound to lose the confidence of the markets.
Reason | Unthinkable, Predictable Disasters
You’d have to be willfully ignorant to be surprised by Greece’s potential exit from the common European currency.
WSJ | Pension Accounting for Dummies
The Government Accounting Standards Board has issued new rules that aim to crystallize government pension liabilities. It failed on that count, but it did succeed, albeit inadvertently, in making the case for defined-contribution plans.
Pew Charitable Trusts | Pursuing the American Dream: Economic Mobility Across Generations
The ideal that all Americans have equality of opportunity regardless of their economic status at birth is the crux of the American Dream and a defining element of our national psyche. This study investigates the health and status of that dream by analyzing economic mobility
Blogs
National Review | All the Ways Businesses Get Special Treats from the Government
Business people love to say how much they cherish free markets, while decrying government interventions that limit entrepreneurship and personal freedom. But the truth is, business people when given a chance happily give up free-markets in exchange for cronyism.
Neighborhood Effects | Progressives and Libertarians Agree: Cronyism Stinks
Despite the ideological miles that separate them, activists in the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements agree on one thing: both condemn the recent bailouts of wealthy and well-connected banks.
National Review | Flip-Flopping: Krugman Edition
As it turns out, Paul Krugman has changed his mind a few times too. For instance, via Tyler Cowen’s Marginal Revolution, I learn that there was a time when Paul Krugman was very alarmist about the level of unfunded liabilities and the illusion of fiscal health of this country.
AEI | A weak recovery with a weak foundation built on credit card debt
A big leap in credit card debt in May. It surged by $8.0 billion, the biggest one month gain since November 2007.
