News
Market Watch | Fannie Mae reports $8.7 billion profit
Fannie Mae reported an $8.7 billion profit during the third quarter and will make an $8.6 billion dividend payment to the U.S. Treasury later this year, leaving the company close to making taxpayers whole on their massive investment in the company over the past five years.
Politico | The farm bill: A Dickens tale
There’s a touch of Dickens to the farm bill these days: The best of times, the worst of times, we are all going direct to Heaven, we are all going direct the other way.
Bloomberg | Economy in U.S. Expands at a 2.8% Rate on Inventories
Household purchases and business spending on equipment slowed in the third quarter, even as a buildup in inventories unexpectedly boosted the pace of economic growth in the U.S.
Market Watch | 30-year-mortgage rate rises to 4.16%
The average rate for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 4.16% in the week that ended Nov. 7 from 4.10% in the prior week, according to a Thursday report from Freddie Mac
WSJ | OPEC Expects North American Shale Oil Output to Jump
Two years after dismissing North America's shale-oil boom as "marginal," OPEC changed its tune Thursday, acknowledging new extraction technology in the country could sharply cut the need for the group's own oil.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Forbes | Why Capitalism? Allan Meltzer On Why South Korea Thrives While North Korea Starves
A continuation of my interview with Carnegie Mellon Professor, Allan Meltzer about his book Why Capitalism? which is based on his very popular MBA course, Capitalism. He reflects on why students from South Korea are so much more able to understand the benefits of the free-market system.
Fortune | Is China serious about reform?
Top Communist Party leaders are expected to discuss corruption and the environment at an upcoming retreat. But actions speak louder than words.
Mercatus | Gov't Shutdown Unlikely to Have Long-Term Economic Effect
Over the next two days the Bureau of Economic Analysis will release the first estimate of GDP growth for the third quarter of 2013, while the Bureau of Labor Statistics will issue the employment report for the month of October. Mercatus Center senior research fellow Keith Hall--a former commissioner at the Bureau of Labor Statistics--previews how last month's government shutdown could affect the upcoming BLS jobs numbers and future GDP growth.
NBER | The Joint Cross Section of Stocks and Options
Stocks with large increases in call implied volatilities over the previous month tend to have high future returns while stocks with large increases in put implied volatilities over the previous month tend to have low future returns.
Blogs
WSJ | Alternative Poverty Rate Stuck at 16%
America’s poverty rate showed little change in 2012 from the year before, according to a supplemental measure compiled by the Census Bureau.
WSJ | Home Prices Rise in Most U.S. Metro Areas
Median home prices rose in most U.S. metropolitan areas in the third quarter, and several breakout markets had double digit increases—a development that has eroded home affordability in several hot markets in California.
CATO | The Sickness of Government
People shouldn’t be surprised about the botched roll-out of Obamacare and all the damaging effects of the law that are now generating headlines. Over the decades, federal efforts to subsidize and manipulate the economy have failed over and over again.
WSJ | Economists React: ‘Some Concerning Undertones’ in GDP Gain
The U.S. economy had somewhat more pep in the previous quarter than expected amid solid gains in construction, but weakness in consumer spending and business capex, alongside a large (and largely unintentional) build in inventories and the government shutdown, will weigh on growth in the current quarter.
