News
Bloomberg | America’s Energy Seen Adding 3.6 Million Jobs Along With 3% GDP
On the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, about an hour upstream from New Orleans, the outline of Nucor Corp. (NUE)’s new $750 million iron-processing plant is rising between fields of sugar cane and sweet gum trees.
Market Watch | U.S. economy downshifting but not stalled
Call it the 2% (or less) economy: The U.S. is still expanding, but at a lukewarm pace that’s unlikely to heat up before the end of the year.
WSJ | Troubles Abroad Keep Cash Flowing to U.S.
Fears the U.S. will go over the "fiscal cliff" at the end of the year suggest not much has changed in Washington since the debt-ceiling battle hit the struggling economy a year ago.
USA Today | Economists see budget impasse blocking growth
Most economists surveyed by USA TODAY have little faith a divided Congress will adequately address looming tax increases and spending cuts, significantly hampering economic growth well into 2013.
Bloomberg | Hedge Funds Reduce Wagers After Longest-Ever Rally
Hedge funds trimmed bets on a commodity rally for the first time in nine weeks as signs of U.S. growth and speculation that central banks will do more to stimulate economies drove prices to a three-month high.
WSJ | Japan's Economy Slows
The Japanese economy grew at a weaker-than-expected annualized pace of 1.4% in the April-June quarter, as exports slowed and a domestic-demand led recovery showed signs of faltering.
CNN Money | USDA predicts big drop in corn yield
Corn yields are shriveling up as the drought continues to wreak havoc on crops across the Midwest.
FOX News | Sudden gasoline price spikes have experts scrambling for explanation
AAA calls it the steepest one-month climb in gas prices since they started keeping track in 2000.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Washington Times | Obama: Let’s take over every industry
First President Obama said “the private sector is doing fine.” Then he lectured business owners, “you didn’t build that.” Now he wants to extend the government’s auto-industry takeover across the board. Mr. Obama simply cannot understand how the economy can function without government’s firm guiding hand.
Project Syndicate | Europe’s Summer Reading List
In August, Europeans head for the beach. The continent shuts down on the assumption that nothing of consequence will happen until everyone returns, suitably tanned, in September. Never mind the subprime crisis of August 2007 or, closer to home, the European monetary crisis of August 1992: the August holiday is a venerable tradition.
Washington Times | The Social Security Ponzi scheme
As of last year, a married couple earning two average incomes would have paid more into Social Security that they could expect to receive from it. If the man lives to the expected age of 82 and the woman to 85, they would get back $556,000 of the $598,000 they paid into the system over their lives, according to the Urban Institute.
NBER | Has Surface Water Quality Improved Since the Clean Water Act?
On the fortieth anniversary of the Clean Water Act this paper reports the first quantitative assessment of the aggregate trends in water quality in the U.S. using a single standard over the years 1975 to 2011. The analysis suggests that fresh water lakes for the nation as a whole are about at the same quality levels as they were in 1975.
Market Watch | Japan’s economic growth weakens sharply
Japan’s economic growth sharply decelerated in the April-June period as consumption weakened after a solid increase in the preceding quarter and as exporters struggled because of a strong yen.
Blogs
Calculated Risk | Unofficial Problem Bank list increases to 900 Institutions
The list pushed back up to 900 institutions but assets dropped by $780 million to $348.6 billion after three additions and two removals. A year ago, the list held 988 institutions with assets of $411.3 billion.
Calculated Risk | Schedule for Week of August 12th
There are two key housing reports to be released this week: August homebuilder confidence on Wednesday, and July housing starts on Thursday.
