News
CNN Money | No-fee mortgage option is on the way
Lenders would have to offer potential home buyers an option to get mortgages with no fees, under a rule proposed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
NY Times | Skilled Work, Without the Worker
At the Philips Electronics factory on the coast of China, hundreds of workers use their hands and specialized tools to assemble electric shavers. That is the old way.
Market Watch | Libor report calls for tighter U.K. bank controls
Britain’s Financial Services Authority and the Bank of England need to tighten regulation of banks, raise fines for wrongdoing and possibly acquire the authority to fire senior executives, according to a report from Parliament’s Treasury Select Committee following to scandal of Barclays misreporting its interbank lending rates, known as Libor, during the financial crisis.
CNN Money | Mexico's big oil problem
Mexico, one of the largest suppliers of oil to the United States, has a big problem: Its production of crude is falling fast.
Econ Comments & Analysis
AEI | Europe's downward economic and political spiral
The clearest of fault lines are now appearing in Europe's single currency project that has to cast doubt upon the long-run survivability of the Euro in its present form.
WSJ | How Big Government and Big Business Squeeze Entrepreneurs
Wisconsin's Elmer Kilian wants the chance to earn an honest living. So do Nevada's Lissette Waugh, Florida's Silvio Membreno and countless other entrepreneurs who have the drive and ability to put themselves and others to work.
Washington Times | Barack Obama: The welfare king
“They’ll turn us all into beggars ‘cause they’re easier to please.” So goes a Rainmakers song. Beggars also are easier to control. Just ask the drug dealer. It is not compassion that motivates him to give away the first hits of heroin for free; it is the promise of control.
Investors | California Doesn't Exist—It's Now Two States
Driving across California is like going from Mississippi to Massachusetts without crossing a state line. Consider the disconnects:
WSJ | How Utah Avoids the National Economic Funk
Logan, Utah, sometimes looks as though it was preserved in a time capsule. The small city of 50,000, home to Utah State University, is surrounded by the towering, tree-dotted peaks of the Wasatch Range. "Downtown" is a single main street where you can find a movie theater, a bookstore, a few eateries and stores, and a Mormon tabernacle.
Bloomberg | Fannie and Freddie: The Walking Dead
After nearly four years of a zombie existence, the U.S. Treasury Department finally pulled the trigger on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Trib Live | Crowding out private-sector success
There’s a kernel of truth in President Obama’s now-infamous “you didn’t build that” insult to productive Americans. It’s this: Every successful business — every successful life — in modern society requires the help of millions of other people. Each of us depends daily on butchers, brewers, bakers, light-bulb makers — workers and suppliers of countless sorts.
Blogs
Calculated Risk | Unofficial Problem Bank list declines to 899 Institutions
While the latest monthly release of enforcement action activity by the OCC contributed to many changes to the Unofficial Problem Bank List, it finished the week largely unchanged at 899 institutions with assets of $347.5 billion, compared to 900 institutions and assets of $348.6 billion last week.
Daily Finance | Oil Approaches $100 a Barrel
After months in retreat, WTI crude has moved back to near $100 a barrel. Today it trades at $96.27, and over the past several weeks, the trend has been up.
Calculated Risk | Schedule for Week of August 19th
There are two key housing reports to be released this week: July existing home sales on Wednesday, and July new home sales on Thursday.
AEI | Quotation of the day: Should government reduce life-expectancy inequality?
“When I talk to people, I find that they generally agree with, and rarely strongly oppose, forcible government transfers of income from the rich to the poor to reduce income inequality. But when I suggest that the government transfer medical expenditures from women to men to reduce life-expectancy inequality, I get a very different reaction.
