News
WSJ | Swiss Economy Shows Weakness
The Swiss economy has long appeared to be surprisingly resilient to the economic downturn across Europe, but statistics released Tuesday showed that Switzerland is slowing down as well.
Market Watch | ISM factory index contracts for third month
A gauge that measures the strength of the factory sector remained below the 50% mark for the third straight month, stirring fears that a slowdown in manufacturing was lingering, according to a closely followed survey of top executives released Tuesday.
FOX News | Gulf oil platforms are beginning to produce again and refineries are slowly coming back online
Offshore oil platforms are beginning to ramp up production as crews are returning. Refineries are beginning to restart units as power is restored and floodwaters are cleared out.
USA Today | Corporate defaults are on the rise
A: Consumers aren't the only ones choking on debt payments. A growing number of companies also are struggling to keep above water.
WSJ | Manufacturing Contracts as New Orders Show Decline
The U.S. factory sector contracted for the third straight month in August, a worrying sign from a corner of the economy that has been a bright spot in a lackluster recovery.
CNN Money | China needs Europe to get its act together
Activity in China's manufacturing sector slowed dramatically in August -- and weak demand in Europe, its largest trading partner, is at least partially to blame.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Real Clear Markets | Could School Choice Erase the Income Gap?
As the Democratic convention unfolds this week in Charlotte, North Carolina, one of the predictable themes is going to be inequality, the gap between the rich and the poor.
Washington Times | Regulatory reform is job one
The upcoming election presents a referendum on the incumbent Obama administration’s record. Given the ongoing economic malaise, this referendum will focus primarily on the administration’s mishandling of the economy, on taxes and spending, and on massive legislative programs.
WSJ | Food Stamp Nation
The Obama and Romney campaigns spent Tuesday sniping over whether the President deserves an "incomplete" grade, as Mr. Obama put it, for fixing the economy. The more revealing news was the Department of Agriculture report, released on the Friday before Labor Day weekend, that 46,670,373 Americans are now on food stamps.
Washington Times | Economic recovery in name only
So how’s the economic recovery treating you? For many Americans, the answer is, not well. In fact, some may ask: What recovery?
Blogs
CATO | Study from German Economists Shows that Tax Competition and Fiscal Decentralization Limit Income Redistribution
If we want to avoid the kind of Greek-style fiscal collapse implied by this BIS and OECD data, we need some external force to limit the tendency of politicians to over-tax and over-spend.
Economist | The geography of poverty
Economists have probably been debating the uses and abuses of foreign aid since the first denarius was sent to the first Roman imperial province. This week’s Free Exchange looks at the issue through an unusual lens: that of geography.
Library of Economics | Gordon on Growth: A Critique
On Sunday I laid out Robert J. Gordon's reasons for thinking that growth of per capita income in the future for most Americans will be substantially lower than it has been for the last two centuries.
WSJ | Hard to Pass Food-Price Spikes on to Consumers
America’s widest drought since 1956 has killed corn, soybean and wheat crops and raised the risk of higher prices for everything from hamburgers and Coke to cooking oil. But how bad are prices going to get?
Economist | Why not to expect recovery anytime soon
Signs of weakness in advanced economies seem to have taken some by surprise. In America, GDP growth slipped in the second quarter of 2012 to a revised figure of 1.7% after growing at a rate of 2% in the first.
AEI | New evidence that Obama’s Keynesianism has had little positive impact
Economist Daniel Gros compares the U.S. and Europe and finds America’s efforts at Keynesian stimulus have accomplished little. That, even though a) the U.S. has been been running deficits 40% bigger than Europe’s, and b) debt as a share of GDP has risen by 41 percentage points vs. 25 for the eurozone.
Café Hayek | What Barofsky learned
This week’s EconTalk is a conversation with Neil Barofsky, author of Bailout. Barofsky was the first Special Inspector General of the TARP funds–his job was to monitor how the money was spent, prevent fraud if possible and prosecute any criminal behavior surrounding the TARP.
