News
CNN Money | Home building surges
Builders rushed to start homes in November, with that key measure of the housing recovery enjoying a huge one-month jump.
WSJ | New Mortgages to Get Pricier Next Year
Consumers can expect to pay more to get a mortgage next year, the result of changes meant to reduce the role that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play in the market.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Weekly Standard | Subsidizing Rich and Poor
There is a vintage Corvette parked on the street nearby, a 1977 canary yellow model in perfect condition. The NADA Blue Book says it’s worth around $15,000.
Real Clear Markets | The Obama Administration Has Run Out of Ideas
For more than two years, Congress, the insurance industry and insurance consumers have been waiting for the report of the Federal Insurance Office (FIO)-an agency set up within the Treasury Department by the Dodd-Frank Act.
Fortune | The Volcker Rule: Complexity trumps common sense
Great sound bites often make for bad policy, because things that seem wonderful and simple in the abstract frequently turn out to be hideously complicated when you try to apply them in real life. That's my takeaway from the Volcker Rule, which was unveiled in mid-December after five different federal financial regulatory agencies -- another example of real-world complexity -- finally signed off on it.
WSJ | Bloomberg's Real Antipoverty Record
In November 2011, a domestic violence survivor named Joyce B. took her four children and left an abusive partner. Unemployed and now homeless, she turned to New York City for help.
Real Clear Markets | What You Missed Amid the Volcker Rule's Finalization
Last week, as all eyes were fixed on the finalization of the Volcker Rule, another long-awaited Dodd-Frank document was released.
American Spectator | Of 'Equality' and Other Ancient Frauds
The minimum wage fracas emerging in politics highlights the mother of all political fracases: the one titled, Who Gets What? Anybody surprised to see the question emerge in early 21st-century America must have been doodling on the history book cover when -- just for example -- the French Revolution heaved into sight. Who started and carried on the revolution?
CBO | The 2013 Long-Term Projections for Social Security: Additional Information
Social Security is the federal government’s largest single program. Of the 58 million people who currently receive Social Security benefits, about 70 percent are retired workers or their spouses and children, and another 11 percent are survivors of deceased workers; all of those beneficiaries receive payments through Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI).
Blogs
Library of Economics | How Big of a Deal Is Social Security?
The issue, of course, is not whether the government can make Social Security solvent: lower benefits, higher taxes, or means-testing would all do the trick. The issue, rather, is how big these adjustments would have to be.
WSJ | Low Inflation Tests World's Central Banks
Inflation is slowing across the developed world despite ultralow interest rates and unprecedented money-printing campaigns, posing a dilemma for the Federal Reserve and other major central banks as they plot their next policy moves.
