News
National Journal | Food-Stamp Dilemma: Eating on $3.37 a Day
Elizabeth Webster wakes up every morning at 5:30 to get her two daughters ready for school. If there’s enough left of the $440 the family receives each month from the food-stamp program, her daughters have fruit or vegetables in their lunches.
FOX Business | Despite Recovering Economies, Consumers Still Frugal
Consumers are sticking to frugal shopping habits developed in the recession even as developed economies show signs of recovery, suggesting some behavior changes could be permanent, industry executives say.
Bloomberg | Consumer Comfort in U.S. Stabilizes After Falling for Four Weeks
Consumer confidence stabilized last week after four consecutive declines even as Americans’ views of the economy dimmed.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Washington Times | A plea to Congress: Save the economy
Congress is back in town after the August recess with an agenda full of tough issues to address before year’s end. The issue that should be highest on the list — the one most Americans want to see fixed more than anything else — is the U.S. economy. As we move toward the end of the year, we need to focus on boosting our continued economic recovery by removing legal blocks to entrepreneurship, innovation and job creation.
WSJ | How to Create Another Housing Crisis
Government policies to promote homeownership should aim to decrease mortgage defaults, not increase them. They can do so by requiring the lender to bear some of the risk of loss, by requiring the borrower to make a substantial down payment, or both. Yet late last month federal regulators proposed rules that would gut both requirements.
CNN Money | Foreclosure crisis is drawing to a close
The number of new foreclosure filings in August hit its lowest level in nearly eight years, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed properties.
WSJ | The Vital Link of Education and Prosperity
Only 32% of U.S. high-school students are proficient in math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. When the NAEP results are put on the scale of the Program on International Student Assessment (PISA), the world's best source of information on student achievement, the comparable proficiency rates in math are 45% in Germany, 49% in Canada, and 63% in Singapore, the highest performing independent nation.
Forbes | Does America's Shrinking Private Sector Signal Capitalism's Unmaking?
After decades of stability, the private sector’s share of America’s economy has notably declined lately. In four of the last five years, it has hit, what otherwise would have been, all-time lows. Even more disturbing are projections this decline will continue, and what the ramifications this could have for U.S. prosperity.
MSN Money | Cheap money or not, the Fed can't win
Whether the Federal Reserve decides to ‘taper’ its money-printing on Sept. 18 or wait until later, the market will take a hit. It’s best to watch from the sidelines.
Blogs
Market Watch | Foreclosure filings down 34% from August 2012
The numbers of troubled U.S. homeowners plunged over the past year, with fewer in the foreclosure process as the housing market continued to rebound, according to data released Thursday by RealtyTrac, an online foreclosure marketplace.
