News
CNN Money | Consumers spent 3.3% more in 2011
Consumers opened their wallets last year, spending an average 3.3% more on household expenditures than they did in 2010, according to federal data released Tuesday. Average annual spending rose to$49,705, the first yearly increase since 2008, the height of the Great Recession.
Market Watch | Home prices climb for fourth month in row
U.S. home prices rose in July for the fourth straight month to reach their highest level in nearly two years, according to an index released Tuesday.
Bloomberg | Americans Feeling Better Than in 2009 Amid Skepticism on Obama
Public confidence in the U.S. economy is bolstering President Barack Obama’s re-election chances even as Americans continue to view his stewardship skeptically.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | Dodd-Frank's 'Orderly Liquidation' Is Out of Order
'The tendency of the law must always be to narrow the field of uncertainty." Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote that more than a century ago, but the sentiment runs all the way to our nation's roots. Under our Constitution, the rule of law provides the certainty and transparency necessary to protect individual liberty and support economic growth.
CRS | Energy Policy: Election Year Issues and Legislative Proposals
Energy policy in the United States has focused on three major goals: assuring a secure supply of energy, keeping energy costs low, and protecting the environment. In pursuit of those goals, government programs have been developed to improve the efficiency with which energy is utilized, to promote the domestic production of conventional energy sources, and to develop new energy sources, particularly renewable sources.
NBER | Is U.S. Economic Growth Over? Faltering Innovation Confronts the Six Headwinds
This paper raises basic questions about the process of economic growth. It questions the assumption, nearly universal since Solow’s seminal contributions of the 1950s, that economic growth is a continuous process that will persist forever.
AEI | The Internet doesn't need more regulation
Two cases on data roaming and net neutrality deal with similar economic issues: Will more regulation improve the market for Internet-based communications?
Blogs
Economist | When did Washington change?
Last week, the Census Bureau published new county-level income data, which revealed that seven of the nation's ten richest counties are located in the Washington metropolitan area, a share that has only risen of late.
The Big Picture | The 2012 Recession: Are We There Yet?
It has been almost a year since we predicted a recession. Back in December, we went on to specify the time frame for it to begin: if not by the first quarter of the year, then by mid-2012. But we also said at the time that the recession would not be evident before the end of the year.
