News
Market Watch | FHFA house price index climbs 0.7% in February
U.S. home prices rose 0.7% on a seasonally adjusted basis in February, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said Tuesday. In the 12 months ended in February, home prices were up 7.1%, though they are still 13.6% below the index's April 2007 peak.
Bloomberg | Euro-Area April Manufacturing, Services Contract
Euro-area services and factory output shrank for a 15th month in April as the currency bloc struggled to emerge from a recession, adding to pressure on the European Central Bank to do more to boost growth.
CNN Money | China manufacturing expansion slows
Factory activity in China grew at a slower pace in April, the latest in a series of data points indicating weakness in the world's second largest economy.
Market Watch | U.S. flash PMI signals slowdown
The U.S. flash manufacturing purchasing managers index fell to a 52.0 reading in April from 54.6 in March, Markit said Tuesday.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | Home Sales See Growing Pains
Arthur Patterson received an unusual request from a real-estate agent in February: Would he consider selling his two-bedroom townhouse in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood to a buyer ready to place an offer—even though the home wasn't on the market?
Mercatus | Liberalism and Cronyism: Two Rival Political and Economic Systems
Political and economic systems either allow exchange and resource allocation to take place through mutual agreement under a system of liberalism, or force them to take place under a system of cronyism in which some people have the power to direct the activities of others.
Heritage Foundation | Congress Should Reprioritize Highway Trust Fund Money to Improve Mobility
The federal Highway Trust Fund (HTF) faces serious funding shortfalls in fiscal year (FY) 2015 and beyond, in large part due to funding demands from an expanding array of projects other than general purpose roads.
Blogs
Neighborhood Effects | Is an economically freer society a more tolerant society?
Last week was a difficult one. It’s not clear what motivated the heinous acts in Boston but it seems safe to say that intolerance played some role. New research published by Niclas Berggrenn and Therese Nilsson in the journal Kyklos suggests one way to make the world a better, more tolerant place
