News
Bloomberg | Euro Leaders Declaring Worst Is Over Turn to Economy Woes
European leaders declaring they’ve gained the upper hand in the three-year-old debt crisis are sharpening efforts to channel a rebound in financial markets to an economic recovery to chip away at soaring unemployment.
Market Watch | The worrisome struggle to grow and add jobs
The world’s largest economy had added an average of just 153,000 jobs a month in each of the past two years. And U.S. growth has jogged along at a lackluster 2% pace since the end of the Great Recession.
Bloomberg | Crop Prices Advance After U.S. Supply Shrinks More Than Expected
Crop prices rose in Chicago, driving corn toward the longest rally since February, as U.S. government estimates showed shrinking stockpiles after the worst drought since the 1930s seared fields across the Midwest.
Market Watch | U.S. retail spending might suffer a blow
Retailers likely racked up decent sales in December, but the bigger question is whether they’ll repeat that performance in January after Americans see how much their paychecks have shrunk.
Bloomberg | Mortgage Bonds Slump as Fed’s Buying Boost Fades: Credit Markets
After posting their worst returns since 1999, government-backed mortgage bonds are starting 2013 with losses on speculation the end of Federal Reserve purchases is in sight and as homeowner refinancing roils the market.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Fortune | The ticking time bomb in bond funds
Wall Street is in the process of turning one of its most plain vanilla investments - and one that average investors have flocked to in recent years because of its perceived safety - into ticking time bombs. Unfortunately, no one should be all that surprised. Wall Street does this all the time.
The American | Skin in the Housing Game
Recourse mortgages with significant down payments will stabilize the housing market, prevent speculative bubbles from forming, and limit taxpayer risk.
Heritage Foundation | The Role of GSEs in the Housing Market
The Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), the major housing government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), hold dominant positions in the U.S. mortgage market.
Blogs
National Journal | Should America Exploit Energy Exports?
How--if at all--should the United States take advantage of fossil-fuel exports?
Economist | Trust us
Economists occasionally worry that they're developing a bit of a bad reputation among the general public, and that this may impair their ability to influence discussions on public policy. This has become an acute concern since the onset of the crisis.
Library of Economics | How to Trust Government Data (or not)
I recommend Russ's recent EconTalk with Morten Jerven. Jerven's forthcoming book, Poor Numbers, shows that GDP estimates in sub-Saharan Africa are fraught with error. Jerven, who visited many statistics offices in the region firsthand, concludes that poorly staffed offices and ever-shifting measurement standards give us reason to doubt the quality of these data.
