News
Bloomberg | Consumer Spending in U.S. Climbs 0.3% as Incomes Pick Up
Household purchases, which account for about 70 percent of the economy, climbed 0.3 percent after a revised 0.2 percent advance in July that was more than previously estimated.
FoxBusiness | Consumer Sentiment Falls to 5-Month Low
The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's final reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment slipped to 77.5 in September from 82.1 in August - the lowest final reading since April.
Bloomberg | Euro-Area Confidence Increases as Recovery Takes Hold
An index of executive and consumer sentiment rose for a fifth month to 96.9 from a revised 95.3 in August, the European Commission in Brussels said today. That beat the median estimate of 96 in a Bloomberg survey of 26 economists.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | Some Economic Data Face Budget Ax
Federal Agencies Move to Cut Scope of Reports Amid Budget Squeeze.
Bloomberg | Three Unlearned Lessons From the Financial Crisis
The financial crisis was devastating; we haven’t ended the problems associated with “too big to fail” financial institutions; and we must force the biggest banks to break up -- or risk dire consequences.
Blogs
The Economist | Did slavery make economic sense?
Of course any account of the economic effect of slavery should note the effect of treating human beings as capital equipment. The direct impact on the utility of the slaves themselves of this condition represented a terrible economic cost.
The Economist | Fiddling the data
Up until around 2004, the net global trade balance was negative. Some people put this down to underreporting of investment income. But since then, the global trade balance has been positive.
