News
Bloomberg | Americans Having Fewer Babies Crimping Consumer Spending
Americans have had fewer babies each year since the 2008 financial meltdown, with births falling to a 12-year low in 2011, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. The low birth rate and reduced immigration resulted in the smallest gain in population since World War II.
USA Today | Gas prices rise for seventh-consecutive week
Gasoline prices rose for the seventh week straight, hitting an average $3.744 a gallon for self-serve regular in the government's weekly survey just released. That's up 2.3 cents since last Monday.
WSJ | Europe Bank Quashes Bond-Buy Talk
The ECB, Backed by Germany, Curbs Yield-Target Speculation and Damps Spain's Push for Purchases.
Bloomberg | Commodities Headed for Bull Market as U.S. Drought Withers Crops
Commodities are poised to enter a bull market led by surging grain futures amid the worst U.S. drought in half a century and on mounting optimism growth in the U.S. and stimulus from China will boost demand.
CNN Money | Consumer agency's spending under fire
The agency responsible for watching over your money is now getting its own finances examined.
WSJ | Amid Acres of Wilting Stalks, Farmers Stand Tall
The mystery is not why we have devastating droughts but how so few Americans are able to produce so much food.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Washington Times | RAHN: Stop global economic malpractice
Most of the major democratic countries are headed for a fiscal cliff because they have been increasing government spending at a rate far higher than economic growth for the past several years.
Investors.com | Recent Evidence Shows Real Capitalism Beats Crony Capitalism
In the span of two weeks we have seen a success of capitalism and a growing failure of state capitalism.
Washington Times | EDITORIAL: Big Brother’s enablers
Absent such a clear legal framework, government authorities can operate without restraint, free to track everyone’s every move. Though the initial intent in such surveillance will be crime-fighting, that can change over time when there’s no third-party oversight.
RCM | Tapping the SPR Is a Bad Idea Every Time
On January 20, 2009, when Mr. Obama was inaugurated, the average price of gasoline was $1.84 per gallon and the price of oil was about $39 for a 42-gallon barrel. On Monday refiners had to pay about $96 for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate and the average price of regular gasoline was $3.72, up from $3.45 a month earlier.
Investors.com | Even '60 Minutes' Misses The Real Story Of The Subprime Disaster
Fact is, subprime mortgages permeated all our credit markets, and as long as home prices were rising, there was no crisis. When the housing bubble burst and home prices started falling in 2006 and 2007, the wheels came off.
Project Syndicate | A Flock of Black Swans
The most worrisome financial threat is that currently over-priced bond markets will crash. In theory, inflation could precipitate a collapse. But this seems unlikely. Default in some euro countries or political dysfunction in the US is a much more likely trigger
WSJ | The Hidden Flaw of 'Energy Efficiency'
Lowering the price of something means more of it will be consumed.
CNN Money | Why oil bulls may get burned
Bullish fund managers are outnumbering bearish ones by five to one, but it's not clear why -- there are more signs that oil prices will retreat than continue to advance.
Blogs
Calculated Risk | Research: Loan-to-income guidelines could have "forestalled much of the housing boom"
The researchers looked at the house bubble and several possible policy responses. It appears the most effective policy - for limiting the bubble - would have been to require lenders to focus more on loan-to-income.
Café Hayek | Taxi Scientism
New York City is considering increasing its legal taxi fleet from 13,000 to 15,000. The 2,000 new cabs would be wheelchair accessible and the sale of the medallions for the right to drive those cabs are expected to raise $1 BILLION in revenue for the city.
