News
FOX Business | U.S. Service Sector Growth Heats Up in July
The pace of growth in the U.S. services sector accelerated in July, picking up from a three-year low as new orders surged to their highest level in five months, an industry report showed on Monday.
Bloomberg | Euro-Area July Services Output Contracts Less Than Estimated
Euro-area services output shrank at a slower pace than initially estimated in July, adding to evidence the economy is gathering strength to pull out of a record-long recession.
Market Watch | Oppenheimer fined $1.4 mln for oversight failure
Brokerage firm Oppenheimer and Co. was fined $1.4 million on Monday by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for "failing to monitor patterns of suspicious activity associated with penny stock trades," according to regulators.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Real Clear Markets | July Unemployment: Ben & Barack Poison the Economy
The July "Employment Situation" report that came out on Friday provided evidence that our economy is being poisoned by the monetary machinations of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and the tax and regulatory depredations of President Obama.
Forbes | How Does President Obama's Economic Recovery Compare To Those Of Other Presidents?
President Obama is on a national economic policy speaking tour, with a series of speeches across the country on finally getting the economy growing again, now in his fifth year in office. It is a subject long overdue.
Washington Times | The paper recovery
This sounds like good news. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that the unemployment rate dropped from 7.6 percent to 7.4 percent in July as the economy expanded with 162,000 jobs. If that sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is.
CNN Money | Does college still pay off?
Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University, America's largest public university, answers the question of whether a college education is worth its high cost.
Real Clear Markets | Cities Seizing Mortgages Is a Shortsighted Idea
A number of cities around the country are openly considering using their power of eminent domain to seize mortgages instead of property. The idea is for the city to step into situations where homeowners are deeply underwater in their houses, owing much more than the houses are now worth. The city would pay the fair market price to the mortgage holder which would be less than the current value of the house because of the high probability that such borrowers will default.
Blogs
Economist | Future prospects
“Prospect theory” is an important contribution to the study of economics. It challenges some of the fundamental assumptions that economists have made concerning human behaviour.
Market Watch | State pension assets fell 1% in 2011-12
Total assets in the nation’s state government pension systems fell by about 1% in the fiscal year that ended in June 2012, to a total of $2.52 trillion, according to a report issued today by the Census Bureau. Investment gains by the pension funds and contributions to those funds were outstripped by payouts to retirees, as the aging of the boomer demographic bulge fueled more worker retirements.
WSJ | Why Hasn’t Loan Growth Generated Economic Growth? China’s Central Bank Explains
For economists, the hot topic is why China’s growth is so much lower than its expansion of credit. Money supply has notched increases of close to 15% year-over-year in recent months, but economic growth for the second quarter was only half that rate.
Politico | Cantor says real problem is entitlements, not sequestration
House Republicans are open to rolling back the sequestration this fall in exchange for cuts to entitlement programs, Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Sunday.
