News
Politico | U.S. carbon emissions keep falling
The U.S. energy sector’s carbon dioxide emissions fell last year to their lowest level in almost two decades, continuing a trend that has both supporters and opponents of President Barack Obama’s climate policies claiming to be vindicated.
Bloomberg | Construction Spending in U.S. Increases for Fifth Straight Month
Construction spending in the U.S. rose in August for a fifth consecutive month, propelled by the strongest outlays on homebuilding in five years.
FOX News | US existing home sales drop 1.9 percent in September due to higher mortgage rates, prices
Americans bought fewer existing homes in September than the previous month, held back by higher mortgage rates and rising prices.
CNN Money | 2 numbers that could cause another shutdown
Forget a grand bargain. Most people will be relieved if Congress can just agree on funding for fiscal year 2014, which started three weeks ago.
Bloomberg | Lockheed Forecasts Higher Profit as Net Income Rises 16%
Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT), the biggest U.S. government contractor, raised its full-year forecast as third-quarter profit jumped 16 percent, defying Pentagon budget cuts.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | Treasury's Latest Financial Power Grab
On Friday, Prudential Financial Inc. dropped its fight against being designated as a "systemically important financial institution" by the Treasury Department's Financial Stability Oversight Council. When the oversight council in June named Prudential and AIG as " SIFIs, " it marked the first time in American history that federal government would directly regulate the solvency of state-licensed insurers as to all lines of insurance.
Washington Times | Solving the financial crisis by causing another
The House Financial Services Committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Maxine Waters, recently scolded bankers in the industry’s flagship newspaper, the American Banker. The op-ed, titled “How to prevent another financial crisis,” underscores how difficult it will be. She, like many hard-left Democrats, clings to the false narrative that insufficient regulation, greed and risky private-sector behavior caused the crisis and that Washington should continue to prop up the housing market.
Market Watch | U.S. economy faces host of big new problems
The end of the latest kerfuffle in Washington marks the beginning of new problems for the U.S. economy.
CATO | Five Lessons from the Shutdown
Greece is now suffering through a very deep recession, with record unemployment and unimaginably harsh economic conditions. To make matters worse, there’s not much light at the end of the tunnel.
Blogs
WSJ | U.S. Economic Mobility Improving Very Slowly
A new report by Opportunity Nation, a network of over 250 nonprofit, business and other organizations, analyzed 16 economic and demographic indicators and found that America’s overall “Opportunity Score” — a broad measure of economic mobility — is now 50.9, barely higher than 50 in 2012 and 49.59 in 2011.
