News
Bloomberg | Greece Austerity Diet Risks 1930s-Style Depression: Euro Credit
Greece is spiraling into the kind of decline the U.S. and Germany endured during the Great Depression, showing the scale of the challenge involved in attempting to regain competitiveness through austerity.
CNN Money | Why debt is a threat to national security
The national debt is not on the official agenda for Monday's presidential debate on foreign policy.
Bloomberg | Asset-Backed Securities May Face Tougher Basel Bank Rules
Banks trading asset-backed securities may face tougher capital requirements and stricter oversight from global supervisors amid concerns that regulation is failing to curb excessive-risk taking.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | Show Them the Money
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan promised that when 49 states squeezed $25 billion out of the nation's five largest banks in February, the money would be used to "provide immediate relief to homeowners." Now comes the rest of the story.
Barrons | Teetering on Another Cliffhanger
The fiscal cliff is not the exclusive reason for corporate America's paralyzing vertigo: A pending "regulatory cliff" also is contributing to dizzying uncertainty that has put the brakes on major investment decisions and, consequently, hiring.
Washington Times | Another housing bailout?
There are glimmers of hope in the housing market. Starts and prices are on the rise — an upbeat signal the likes of which hasn’t been seen in years. Still, the recovery is fragile and could be easily reversed given the huge numbers of homeowners who are underwater, heading into foreclosure, or both.
CATO | Red Tape Is Strangling the Recovery
For years politicians have bickered about the best prescriptions for the economy. From the right, it's lower taxes; from the left, the remedy is stimulus spending and government programs. Lost in the cacophony is one solution to our economic challenges about which both Republicans and Democrats claim to agree: rolling back the rising tide of red tape strangling small businesses.
Blogs
Calculated Risk | Unofficial Problem Bank list declines to 865 Institutions
The OCC released its enforcement actions through mid-September 2012 and the FDIC got back to closing a few banks, which led to many changes to the Unofficial Problem Bank List. For the week, there were nine removals and two additions leaving the list at 865 institutions with assets of $333.2 billion.
AEI | Is inequality really a problem for U.S. economic growth?
Economist Robert Gordon recently wrote a paper in which he asked the provocative question, “Is U.S. economic growth over?” And he identifies income inequality as one of “headwinds” facing the economy
Calculated Risk | Schedule for Week of Oct 21st
The key U.S. economic report for the coming week is the Q3 advance GDP report to be released on Friday. Also New Home sales will be released on Wednesday.
National Review | Welfare Recipients Aren’t the Only Government Dependents
As was noted on the Corner yesterday, total means-tested welfare spending has now reached $1 trillion. That’s a 32 percent increase in the last four year.
Calculated Risk | On Greece: More Austerity, More Recession, More Extremism
The first two articles discuss the rise of extremism in Greece as the country suffers through another year of recession (the unemployment rate in Greece is over 25%). The third article notes that the next tranche of aid is expected by mid-November.
