General Economics

News                                                                                                                             
Politico | New debate over 'working poor'
Most have no reported earnings, and without added job training or workfare slots, the change could spell real hardship in today’s economy.
National Journal | The End of Government as We Know It
Whatever happened to Johnny Whitmire? The answer is tied to a new book on digital-age innovations to improve government.
Bloomberg | Austerity on Trial With U.S. Versus Europe Amid New Evidence
Global policy makers and economists are staging a retrial of austerity as new evidence arises.
MarketWatch | U.S. economy below trend in March, index shows
The U.S. economy ran below trend potential in March, according to the Chicago Fed national activity index released Monday. In March, the index swung to -0.23 from an upwardly revised +0.76 in February.
CNBC | Data Shift to Lift US Economy by 3%
The U.S. economy will officially become 3 percent bigger in July as part of a shake-up that will for the first time see government statistics take into account 21st century components such as film royalties and spending on research and development.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Politico | The drive for all-American energy independence
Our energy and geopolitical landscape is vastly different from just ten years ago. We are witnessing an energy renaissance largely driven by technological advances and the uniquely American spirit of entrepreneurship.
Washington Post | The end of macro magic
The trust in macroeconomic magic has shattered. This saps optimism and promotes spending restraint. Scholarly disagreements multiply.
WSJ | Seven Lessons for Fixing an Economy
What can we learn from the past few years on how to speed a recovery? Above all: Be pragmatic, not moralistic.
NBER | Aging and Pension Reform: Extending the Retirement Age and Human Capital Formation
This paper addresses three important adjustments channels to dampen these detrimental effects of ageing: investing abroad, endogenous human capital formation and increasing the retirement age.
AEI | Battle of the econ pundits
Economics isn’t science, at least not like chemistry or physics. It’s hard to run controlled economic experiments. The behavior of people is a lot tougher to analyze and predict than that of water molecules.
Cato Institute | Chained CPI Won’t Fix Entitlements
However, most economists agree that traditional CPI measures don’t accurately account for the way people really live.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
The Economist | What success looks like
This year will be awful. Next year, however, should be less so.
WSJ: Real Economics | Number of the Week: How Big an Effect From Slower Growth?
Slow economic growth has large cumulative effects, though not quite as big as claimed by two Harvard economists in their response to a critique this week.

Health Care

News                                                                                                                             
Fox Business | Medical Care Slowdown Hits Companies
As the clock ticks down to the start of a U.S. healthcare overhaul, companies from device makers to hospital chains have been surprised to see Americans make even fewer trips to the doctor's office.

Monetary

News                                                                                                                             
CNBC | Why Fed, ECB’s ‘Great Job’ Is Not Moving Global Economy
Excessively tight fiscal policies in the U.S. and in the euro area are depressing economic growth and employment in nearly two-thirds of the industrialized world.
Bloomberg | Bernanke Jackson Hole Absence Contrasts With Greenspan Adulation
Ben S. Bernanke, will be skipping the final Jackson Hole conference of his second term as chairman because of a personal scheduling conflict, a Fed spokeswoman who asked not to be identified said yesterday.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Barron's | A Deflationary Wave
Commodities send a deflationary signal that's being corroborated by TIPS -- the Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities.

Taxes

News                                                                                                                             
Politico | Poll: Put brakes on gas tax
Two-thirds of Americans oppose increasing gas taxes, even if it means the revenue would go toward improving roads and bridges, a new polls shows.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
WSJ | The Internet Sales Tax Rush
Harry Reid and Wal-Mart hope nobody will notice their online revenue raid.
RCM | The U.S. Already Has Cyprus-Style Taxes
People should push back against these sneaky wealth taxes and design public policies that encourage financial independence. If we don't, the last days of our constitutional experiment are approaching faster than most people think.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Heritage Foundation | Morning Bell: Internet Sales Tax Is a State Money Grab
Why are states so eager to collect taxes on Internet sales? In short, because they could grab money from other states.

Employment

News                                                                                                                             
CNN Money | Toyota to bring 750 jobs to Kentucky
Toyota will move some of its Lexus production to its plant in Georgetown, Ky. -- a move which is expected to create 750 new jobs, the company announced Friday.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
RCM | America's Low Labor Participation Rate: Now For the Really Bad News
America's jobs figures reveal more than high unemployment, they show a declining productive capacity.
Washington Times | EDITORIAL: Revising labor law
The makeup of the U.S. workforce and labor market has changed dramatically over the past 75 years; federal labor law, not so much.

Budget

News                                                                                                                             
Bloomberg | Spain Has EU’s Largest Deficit, Undermining Rajoy Pickup
Rajoy is bidding for more time from EU peers to reorder public finances as he aims to end a six-year economic crisis, aided by the European Central Bank’s pledge to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
CNN Money | More bad news for student loan borrowers
College debt may have once been the good kind of debt, but the scale has grown so big that in many cases it has become more burdensome than helpful.