News
Market Watch | Philadelphia Fed index slows to 6.5 in November
The Philadelphia Fed's manufacturing index slowed to a reading of 6.5 in November from 19.8 in October. Economists polled by MarketWatch expected a reading of 14.5.
Bloomberg | Euro-Area Factory Production Accelerates as China Cools
Euro-area manufacturing expanded for a fifth month in November, as Germany continued to drive the 17-nation currency bloc’s gradual recovery from a record-long recession.
Market Watch | U.S. Markit flash PMI rebounds in November
Markit's U.S. index of manufacturing purchasing managers rose to 54.3 in a preliminary November reading, an eight-month high, from a final reading of 51.8 in October, according to data released Thursday.
Bloomberg | Americans Recover Home Equity at Record Pace: Mortgages
The number of Americans who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth fell at the fastest pace on record in the third quarter as prices rose, a sign supply shortages may ease as more owners are able to sell.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Politico | Farm bill talks intensify
Farm bill talks intensified Wednesday night even as a new report showed that food stamp expenditures are already beginning to fall as a share of the economy — a downward decline that’s expected to accelerate over the next five years.
WSJ | Worse Than ObamaCare
No question, it's tough on Barack Obama. But what about the rest of us? For many Americans, the Obama leadership meltdown began five years ago.
Forbes | Why Most Rich 1 Percenters Would Give Anything To Be Among The 99%
If the Democrats are not (electorally) washed away by a tsunami of voter outrage over Obamacare, they will no doubt seek to make “growing inequality” the principal issue in the 2014 elections. So, let’s apply a little unconventional logic to the subject of inequality.
Politico | Why We Need Fannie and Freddie
With their recent earnings announcements, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have now repaid all but about $4 billion of the $189 federal bailout that kept the two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) afloat after the financial meltdown five years ago.
Blogs
Library of Economics | European Union, which steps forward?
An almost invariable mantra of European politics is that Europe needs "an ever closer Union". Political centralization is commonly considered the only way out of the crisis - meaning, first of all, centralization of fiscal policies, as an all-powerful Brussels should be able to (a) put order in the balance sheets of profligate member states (the stick) and (b) put an end to the tax competition that endangers fiscal revenues of high taxed member states (the carrot).
Café Hayek | Pseudo-Economics
People who have no exposure to the economic way of thinking typically think that they understand sufficiently the logic of markets to comment critically upon real-world market processes. As frustrating as this reality is – with its incessant outpouring of wrongheaded diagnoses and demands for this or that government intervention – it’s a reality that ain’t gonna go away.
