News
CNN Money | Chinese markets cheer bold reform plan
Enthusiasm swept through Chinese markets Monday as investors cheered the release of an ambitious blueprint that will guide economic reforms in China over the next decade.
Politico | House GOP 2014 agenda starts with blank slate
Last Thursday, a group of House Republicans filed into Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s Capitol office suite and received a blank piece of paper labeled “Agenda 2014.”
CNN Money | Will saving $1.8M for retirement be enough?
Even if your hoped-for 8% annualized returns pan out, your nest egg will be less impressive. Assuming 3% inflation and a safe 4% initial withdrawal rate, you'd have annual pretax income in retirement equivalent to $26,300 in today's dollars -- not exactly opulent.
Market Watch | Home-builder confidence pauses, misses estimate
A gauge of home-builder confidence paused this month, as a reading on views for upcoming sales slightly declined, according to a report released Monday.
National Journal | Battle Lines Drawn in Growing Patent-Reform War
Patent reform earned some of the most attention it has attracted in years on Capitol Hill, as lawmakers, large tech firms, and start-up innovators sparred last week over a wonky provision of a sweeping House bill aiming to curtail predatory litigation practices.
CNN Money | JPMorgan reaches $4.5 billion settlement with mortgage investors
JPMorgan announced a $4.5 billion settlement Friday with institutional investors who suffered losses on mortgage securities purchased from the bank in the run-up to the financial crisis.
Bloomberg | Fed Largess Aids U.S. Financial Strength BofA Deems Unrivaled
Five years after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke dropped U.S. interest rates toward zero to end the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, America’s financial markets have become the envy of the world.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | Bond Investors Should Brace for Higher Rates
After a sharp selloff hit the bond market earlier this year, investors have gotten a reprieve: The Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, a widely watched benchmark tracking total returns on government and corporate bonds, was down as much as 3.9% for the year at the start of September. As of last week, it was down only 1.8%.
Real Clear Markets | In Economics, Doing the Right Thing Is Evil
Last month the U.S. criticized Germany for exporting too many goods and not consuming enough as part of the same report in which it criticized China over maintaining the value of its currency instead of encouraging it to appreciate. This week, the European Commission criticized Germany again for its trade surplus and for its low level of consumption. The idea seems to be that if only Germany pursued a different economic and trade policy, other countries would benefit.
Washington Times | There’s another train wreck headed for the White House
Do you think the Obamacare rollout raises important questions about government mandates, confusion, penalties and just how well bureaucrats can manage complicated issues? It’s not the only one. There are a number of similarities between Obamacare and an energy mandate known as the “renewable fuel standard.”
WSJ | Big Ethanol Finally Loses
It's not often that the ethanol lobby suffers a policy setback in Washington, but it got its head handed to it Friday. The Environmental Protection Agency announced that for the first time it is lowering the federal mandate that dictates how much ethanol must be blended into the nation's gasoline. It's about time. It's been about time from the moment the ethanol mandate came to life in the 1970s.
Blogs
WSJ | Number of the Week: U.S. Producing More Oil Than It Imports
137,000: How many more barrels a day the U.S. produced than it imported in the week ending Nov. 8.
WSJ | Why Stronger Summer GDP Is Horrible News
Horrible news: gross domestic product growth over the summer may have been even stronger than we first thought.
WSJ | Vital Signs: The World’s Glass Looks Half Empty
According to a survey of 11,000 companies done by data provider Markit, a net 33% of companies expect their business activity levels will rise in the next 12 months. That’s up from 30% thinking that in June but still far below the levels seen earlier in the recovery. The global results suggest “weak economic growth,” the report said.
