News
National Journal | Does the President Alone Have the Power to Heal the Economy?
Two years ago, President Obama declared to the residents of an eastern Las Vegas neighborhood, "We can't wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job. Where they won't act, I will." Weeks earlier, GOP lawmakers had blocked Obama's $447 billion American Jobs Act.
FOX News | After last month’s shopping frenzy, Louisiana governor looks to strip food stamps from abusers
The Louisiana governor's office said Wednesday night that it would strip food stamp benefits from anyone who took advantage of an EBT card malfunction that in some cases caused an all-out shopping frenzy in some stores across the state, The Advocate reported.
Market Watch | Consumer sentiment hits lowest level since 2011
A gauge of consumer sentiment fell this month to the lowest level in almost two years, surprising economists who had expected sunnier views now that the government shutdown is over, according to data released Friday.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | Fracking, Poverty and the New Liberal Gentry
The transformation of American liberalism over the past half-century is nowhere more apparent than in the disputes now roiling a relatively obscure section of upstate New York. In 1965, as part of his "war on poverty," President Lyndon Johnson created the Appalachian Regional Commission. Among the areas to be served by the commission were the Southern Tier counties of New York state, including Broome, Tioga and Chemung. The commission's central aim was to "Increase job opportunities and per capita income in Appalachia to reach parity with the nation."
Forbes | First We Must Adopt A Flat Tax, Then Need To Return To The Gold Standard
Between 2000 and 2010, the number of countries which adopted some kind of “flat tax” income tax system expanded from nine to over forty.
Fortune | Europe likely to get worse before it gets better
Slashing interest rates won't be enough to fend off Europe's deflationary demons for very long. The surprising move by the European Central Bank Thursday to decrease refinancing and marginal lending rates in the eurozone is the economic equivalent of giving Tylenol to a patient suffering from the flu -- it might lower the fever, but it's no cure.
Real Clear Markets | Obamacare Isn't President Obama's Only Broken Promise
We are five years out from one of the worst financial crashes since the Great Depression. During the crash several banks were identified as "too big to fail" and Congress approved $700 billion to bail them out. Shortly after passage of the bank bailout, the Obama Administration stepped up the populist rhetoric in anticipation of an extreme power grab over the private sector.
Blogs
Economist | What can we learn from the Depression?
Since the start of what some now call the “Great Recession” in 2007, economists have been unable to avoid comparing it with the Depression of the early 1930s. For some, the comparisons are explicit. Economists like Paul Krugman and Barry Eichengreen have drawn parallels between the two slumps. Olivier Blanchard, chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), warned several times over the last few years that the world risked falling into a new “Great Depression”.
