News
WSJ | World Bank Appoints Chief Economist
The World Bank named Kaushik Basu as its new chief economist, filling one of its top posts with a former senior official in India's government.
USA Today | Survey: U.S. global competitiveness falls again
The United States' ability to compete on the global stage has fallen for the fourth year running as confidence in the country's politicians continues to decline. The finding is from an annual survey from the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Bloomberg | Consumer Comfort Gauge Signals Severe Discontent for Fifth Week
Consumer confidence in the U.S. was little changed last week, hovering near an eight-month low, as Americans struggled with rising gasoline prices and elevated unemployment.
WSJ | Europe Outlook Dims as Bank Meets
The euro zone's economic downturn accelerated during the summer, economic reports Wednesday suggest, raising concerns that even aggressive anticrisis measures from the European Central Bank won't be enough to keep the euro bloc from sliding into a deep recession.
Bloomberg | Services in U.S. Expanded More Than Forecast in August
Service industries in the U.S. expanded in August at a faster pace than forecast, offering support to an economy that lost momentum in the first half of the year.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Real Clear Markets | Better Off Today? Let's Count the Ways We're Not
All weekend, Democratic party leaders kept fumbling their answer to a simple question: Are we better off than we were four years ago? There's a good reason for that: We're not.
FOX News | Federal regs force coal plant closures now, higher rates later, critics warn
The closure of seven coal-fired electric plants in four states could be a sign of things to come as tough new emissions standards threaten to relegate America’s top energy source to the back burner.
National Journal | What Obama Could Have Done to Hasten the Sluggish Recovery
The question Americans should be asking themselves heading into November isn’t, “Are we better off today than we were four years ago?” It’s, “Why aren’t we better off than Sweden?”
AEI | Geithner's view from the top of the bubble
On February 28, 2006, Timothy Geithner— then president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and now secretary of the Treasury—addressed the topic of risk management in the U.S. financial system, in a speech to the Global Association of Risk Professionals in New York.
Blogs
Café Hayek | The Numbers Game
Here’s a pilot for a new project I’ve started–a chartcast–a visual discussion of charts and data. This first episode is a conversation with John Taylor on the economic recovery and how it compares to past recoveries
Library of Economics | Gordon on Growth: Parting Thoughts
I've laid out Robert Gordon's pessimistic thoughts on U.S. growth here and some of my criticisms here. These are my parting thoughts. Some of them are similar to what some of the commenters have said.
Coordination Problem | Is Austrian Economics Empirical? This Month's Cato Unbound
I argue that Austrians are not mere "armchair theorists" and that Austrian methodology, including praxeology, is no barrier to doing good empirical research.
WSJ | Weak Productivity Is Another Bane of Recovery
An upward revision in second-quarter productivity can’t mask a disturbing trend in this recovery: Output per hour worked is growing below its potential and creating a drag on profits, incomes, living standards, and tax receipts.
Heritage Foundation | Food Stamps Part of What Makes America Exceptional, Says the Left
One in seven Americans is on food stamps. According to the left, this high rate of participation is part of what makes America exceptional. So boasts liberal political commentator Alan Colmes in Monday’s Wall Street Journal op-ed “How Democrats Made America Exceptional.”
AEI | Is America more competitive than it was 4 years ago? Nope
Here’s a question Mitt Romney should address to the American people: Is America more competitive than it was four years ago? According to the latest competitiveness report from the World Economic Forum, the answer is “No, it is not.”
Marginal Revolution | Yesterday was an interesting day for development economics
The government of Honduras has signed a deal with private investors for the construction of three privately run cities with their own legal and tax systems.
AEI | Study: U.S. economy hovering just above ‘stall speed,’ vulnerable to new recession
I’ve frequently written about research from the Federal Reserve that finds since 1947 when two-quarter annualized real GDP growth falls below 2%, recession follows within a year 48% of the time. (And when year-over-year real GDP growth falls below 2%, recession follows within a year 70% of the time.
