News
Fox Business | Proof the Fed is Juicing the Markets
Charles Brady, senior editor of the FOX Business Network, has put together a remarkable chart that clearly shows the Federal Reserve’s monetary easing policies are not going into the U.S. economy, but instead into the stock market.
CNN Money | Why America's middle class is losing ground
When Debbie Bruister buys a gallon of milk at her local Kroger supermarket, she pays $3.69, up 70 cents from what she paid last year.
Market Watch | ISM services-company index climbs in February
U.S. service-sector companies grew at a slightly faster pace in February and expanded for the 39th straight month, according to the Institute for Supply Management.
Bloomberg | Euro-Area Services Output Contracts Less Than Estimated
Euro-area services output shrank less than initially estimated in February, adding to signs the currency bloc’s economy may be beginning to emerge from a recession.
Market Watch | U.S. home prices extend gains in January
U.S. home prices advanced by 0.7% in January to stretch the year-on-year advance to 9.7% -- the largest year-on-year gain since April 2006, according to CoreLogic.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Market Watch | Fed's Powell: Ending too big to fail to take years
Efforts by federal regulators to find ways to manage financial institutions so they are not too big to fail will take years and success is not assured, said Federal Reserve Board Governor Jerome Powell on Monday.
Mercatus | Helping the Poor Without Hurting the Recovery
The president’s recent proposal to increase the minimum wage to $9.00 is not the way to help low-income households. Raising the minimum wage is more likely to increase unemployment for some of the least skilled American workers and further impede a historically slow recovery. Research from the Mercatus Center shows that regulatory reform would help low-income families without causing more unemployment or slowing the recovery.
Washington Times | Locking in the homeowner
It is estimated that up to a quarter of all American households still owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. Many of these people have been able to refinance their home loans with much lower interest rates, but that does not solve the problem because they have a balance sheet problem rather than a cash-flow problem.
Real Clear Markets | The Ongoing, Hideous Lie About 'Victimized' Mortgage Holders
On its most recent magazine cover with the "The Great American Housing Rebound" as the title, Bloomberg BusinessWeek featured characters that, as the New York Post put it, were "drawn to look like minorities." Perhaps eager to make a lot of noise, Ryan Chittum of the Columbia Journalism Review responded that "minority borrowers were disproportionately victimized in the bubble. But BusinessWeek here has them on the cover bathing in housing-ATM cash, implying that they're going to create another bubble. That's not okay."
Mercatus | Expanding Medicaid: The Conflicting Incentives Facing States
Recent decisions by individual states concerning the Affordable Care Act (ACA)’s now-optional Medicaid expansion have been much in the news of late. Today the Mercatus Center is publishing my comprehensive study of the conflicting incentives facing states as they make their choices about expansion.
Blogs
CATO | Keystone XL Passes Another Hurdle
On Friday, the State Department released its draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the Keystone XL pipeline. It could not have been much worse for pipeline opponents.
Heritage Foundation | Morning Bell: Busting 5 Myths About the Minimum Wage
While President Obama and other proponents of a higher minimum wage want you to visualize that single parent, the truth is that a burger-flipping teenager or college student with a part-time job paints a much more accurate picture of the minimum wage in America.
Calculated Risk | CoreLogic: House Prices up 9.7% Year-over-year in January
Home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased on a year-over-year basis by 9.7 percent in January 2013 compared to January 2012. This change represents the biggest increase since April 2006 and the 11th consecutive monthly increase in home prices nationally.
