News
Bloomberg | Global Growth Glimmers as Manufacturing Picks Up Speed: Economy
China’s manufacturing grew at the fastest pace in two years and euro-area services and factory output shrank less than economists forecast in surveys for January, adding to signs of resilience in the global economy.
National Journal | Recession Pushes States to Make Deep Cuts to Higher-Ed Budgets
Since the recession, 38 states have made steep cuts to funding for higher education. How will graduating high school students make do?
Bloomberg | Consumer Comfort Falls Amid Mounting Concern Over U.S. Economy
Consumer confidence fell last week to its lowest level in more than three months as concern about the U.S. economy mounted.
Market Watch | 30-year mortgage rate rises to 3.42%
The average rate on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 3.42% in the week ending Jan. 24 - the highest rate since late September -- up from 3.38% in the prior week, Freddie Mac said Thursday in its weekly report. Despite the gain, rates remain near record lows.
Bloomberg | Index of Leading Economic Indicators in U.S. Increases 0.5%
The index of U.S. leading indicators rose in December by the most in three months, showing the world’s largest economy is poised to keep growing through the first half of this year.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Atlantic | What Obama Forgot: Economic Growth Is the Only Way to Social Progress
The commentariat has already reached a consensus: In his second inaugural, President Obama gave a stirring, modern statement of equality as a core national value and progressive government as a core instrument to that end.
WSJ | The Myth of a Stagnant Middle Class
A favorite "progressive" trope is that America's middle class has stagnated economically since the 1970s. One version of this claim, made by Robert Reich, President Clinton's labor secretary, is typical: "After three decades of flat wages during which almost all the gains of growth have gone to the very top," he wrote in 2010, "the middle class no longer has the buying power to keep the economy going."
Politico | Championing the freedom to export
A noisy argument has broken out in Washington over whether to permit the export of liquefied natural gas beyond today’s modest levels. New production methods have greatly increased North American natural gas production, and this boom is projected to continue for several decades. Surging supplies have depressed domestic prices, and much higher prices abroad have made the notion of exporting LNG attractive.
Washington Post | Keystone XL is coming back
President Obama ejected the Keystone XL oil pipeline this time last year, a result that Canada had every reason to be dismayed by, as did Americans whom the project would have employed. The issue is coming back, and the president has even less reason to nix the project than he did last time.
Blogs
WSJ | Kansas City Fed Reports Contracting Manufacturing
Factory activity in the Plains states is still contracting this month, according to a regional Federal Reserve bank report released Thursday.
Economist | Looking better
When Barack Obama was sworn in four years ago, the economic figures were terrifying. A financial crisis and a savage recession were in full swing, and house foreclosures were soaring.
WSJ | Slow Economic Growth Is the ‘New Normal’ – Fannie Mae
The gradual but below-potential economic growth seen in 2012 is likely to continue in 2013 and into 2014, according to a new report from Fannie Mae
Café Hayek | America’s Middle-Class: Doing Better than Ever
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Carpe Diem’s Mark Perry and I offer evidence against the frequently heard trope that America’s middle-class has stagnated economically since the 1970s.
