News
Bloomberg | Retail Sales in U.S. Decrease for First Time in 4 Months
U.S. retail sales fell in October for the first time in four months, partly a reflection of the toll that superstorm Sandy exacted on East Coast residents and merchants.
Market Watch | Business inventories climb 0.7% in September
Inventories at U.S. businesses rose 0.7% in September, compared with a 0.6% rise in August, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Business sales jumped 1.4% in September.
Bloomberg | Bank of America Sued Over $261 Million in Mortgage Bonds
Bank of America Corp., the second- biggest U.S. lender by assets, was sued by investors over $261.2 million worth of residential mortgage-backed securities.
CNN Money | Nearly 50 million Americans in poverty under alternate measure
There were nearly 50 million Americans living in poverty in 2011, under an alternative measure released by the Census Bureau Wednesday.
FOX News | World Bank: Middle class grows by 50 percent in Latin America, Caribbean region
The middle class in Latin America and the Caribbean region grew by 50 percent over the past decade, according to a World Bank report released Tuesday. Higher levels of education, smaller families and more women and urban dwellers entering the work force were among factors contributing to the increase.
Econ Comments & Analysis
The American | Reforming the Housing Transaction
If policymakers truly want to make things better for home buyers, they should look for ways to streamline and modernize the housing transaction itself.
Forbes | Why The Glass-Steagall Myth Persists
The growth of government intervention over the last century was built on the back of a handful of myths. A generation ago, the dominant myth was that free markets had caused the Great Depression, a falsehood ultimately debunked by economists like Milton Friedman. Today, the key myth is that financial deregulation caused the 2008 financial crisis.
Bloomberg | Obama’s Welfare State Needs Republican Guardians
For most of the past century, the U.S. and continental Europe have followed different paths. Social Democrats often ran European governments, which typically taxed and spent a greater share of their national incomes on social programs, such as public health care. The U.S. has been far more conservative.
Forbes | President Obama Doesn't Even Believe His Own Economic Hype
Now that Barack Obama has been re-elected President, he’s going to have to deal with the mess he inherits. That was the chuckle James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal had at the expense of the results last week.
Real Clear Markets | Europe Could Still Blow Up, Let's Not Be Complacent
European leaders, and their suffering peoples, are clearly making real progress in working through the Euro Crisis. However, some observers have lapsed into complacency, assuming that the worst is definitely over.
WSJ | The Business Plan for American Revival
Four years ago, it was said that the incoming Obama administration aspired to the dynamic that existed in Abraham Lincoln's cabinet, where former competitors and antagonists came together to help the country through the Civil War.
Blogs
Calculated Risk | The Recession Probability Chart
One of the most frequent questions I receive via email is: "Is another recession starting?" There are quite a few people who have been calling a recession recently (ECRI has called several recessions since August 2011 or so). They still have time on their most recent calls, but their earlier calls were wrong.
Café Hayek | Tom Palmer on the Origins of State and Government
Why do people have wealth? Charles Dunoyer, an early libertarian sociologist, explained that “there exist in the world only two great parties; that of those who prefer to live from the produce of their labor or of their property, and that of those who prefer to live on the labor or the property of others.” Simply put, makers produce wealth while takers appropriate it.
Calculated Risk | Unofficial Problem Bank list declines to 860 Institutions
CR Note: The first unofficial problem bank list was published in August 2009 with 389 institutions. The number of unofficial problem banks grew steadily and peaked at 1,002 institutions on June 10, 2011. The list has been declining recently.
AEI | What if everything goes wrong — fiscal cliff, hard landing in China, and multiple eurozone exits?
If the United States federal government fails to resolve the fiscal cliff and the other plausible events unfold — including a surge in oil prices caused by escalating Mideast conflict, the rapid departure of six countries from the Eurozone and a significant slow-down of China’s economy
