General Economics

News                                                                                                                             
CNN Money | Income, spending both up
Both personal income and spending by consumers grew modestly in March, according to the government's latest reading out Monday.
Bloomberg | Euro-Area Economic Confidence Falls More Than Forecast
Economic confidence in the euro area decreased more than economists forecast in April as the 17- nation currency bloc struggled to emerge from a recession and the bailout of Cyprus renewed debt-crisis concerns.
Washington Times | U.S. shows shale technology to the world; foreigners learn techniques, but have long way to go
Oil companies from China, Norway, Japan and other nations are investing billions of dollars in U.S. shale projects so they can learn how to extract oil and gas from bedrock and use those technologies to tap into the large and mostly undeveloped shale deposits outside the U.S.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Bloomberg | Refereeing the Reinhart-Rogoff Debate
The discovery of an error in an influential research paper by Harvard University economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff has sparked an academic firestorm. It’s time to sort through the wreckage.
WSJ | Uncertainty Is the Enemy of Recovery
Anyone hoping for signs of a healthy economic recovery was disappointed by lower-than-expected GDP growth for the first quarter of 2013—a mere 2.5%, far short of the forecast 3.2%. Meanwhile, the stock market continues to soar, hitting record levels in recent weeks. It's a striking disconnect, and one that is discouraging and confusing for Americans as they seek to earn a living and save for the future.
Washington Post | The twilight of entitlement
We are passing through something more than a period of disappointing economic growth and increasing political polarization. What’s happening is more powerful: the collapse of “entitlement.” By this, I do not mean primarily cuts in specific government benefits, most prominently Social Security, but the demise of a broader mind-set — attitudes and beliefs — that, in one form or another, has gripped Americans since the 1960s.
Washington Times | Gloomy prospects
Barack Obama has been president for 51 months, and America is still waiting for that change he told us to hope for. The latest economic indicators continue to point in the wrong direction: Durable-goods orders are falling, growth in factory output is sluggish and optimism is dissolving.
FOX Business | Why Americans are Miserable and Broke
Want to know why the gap between the haves and the have-nots keeps growing? Because the haves live within their means. They don’t waste their hard-earned money on all the crap that Americans spend billions, maybe even trillions, on each year.  
AEI | The upside of economic pessimism
The disappointing first-quarter GDP report dashed hopes that 2013 might prove a breakout year for the U.S. economy. Even worse, the same-old-same-old anemic results provide another disturbing data point for gloomy New Normal theorists.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Economist | A stiffening headwind
An outbreak of disappointing American economic data is raising fears of a return of the "spring swoon". For a fourth year running, the American economy seemed to sprint out of the gates in January and February only to lose pace by April.

Health Care

News                                                                                                                             
CNN Money | Health care spending growth is at a record low. Here's the catch.
After years of scary, rocket-like growth, America's health care spending has slowed to record lows. That much we know for certain.

Monetary

News                                                                                                                             
CNN Money | If not now, when will ECB cut rates?
Stuck in recession, with inflation rates tumbling and unemployment rising, the eurozone looks set to get its first cut in interest rates in 10 months this week.
Bloomberg | Ebbing Inflation Means More Easy Money
Slowing inflation is giving central bankers scope to provide the world economy with more liquidity and lower interest rates for longer, all in the name of price stability.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Washington Times | Austerity, IMF-style
Along with the cherry blossoms, hordes of bureaucrats descended on Washington for the spring meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Economist | Can the Fed offset contractionary fiscal policy?
Mike Konczal writes that 2013 is shaping up to be a grand experiment, testing an important macroeconomic proposition: that expansionary monetary policy can offset fiscal cuts.

Taxes

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
AEI | PPL: Exposing the flaws of the foreign tax credit
On February 20 the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in PPL v. Commissioner. The Court will decide in the next fewmonths whether a windfall tax imposed by the United Kingdom on privatized utilities in 1997 falls within the category of ‘‘income, war profits, and excess profits taxes'' that qualify for the foreign tax credit under section 901.

Employment

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Calculated Risk | Public and Private Sector Payroll Jobs: Bush and Obama
With public sector jobs down over the last several years (Federal, State and local layoffs), several readers have asked if I could update the graphs comparing public and private sector job losses (or added) for President George W. Bush's two terms (following the stock market bust), and for President Obama tenure in office so far (following the housing bust and financial crisis).

Budget

News                                                                                                                             
Politico | Democrats ask: What debt crisis?
The two parties are miles apart on how to cut the deficit and national debt: Republicans want to slash spending even more. Democrats want to raise revenue.
National Journal | A Playbook for Undoing the Sequester
When Congress voted last week to give the FAA more flexibility with its cuts, it set off a race among other special interests to push for exemptions.
Bloomberg | Market’s $20 Trillion Yielding 1% Shows Austerity Mistaken
At a time when politicians are squeezing budgets to cut borrowing, the bond market is clamoring for more debt, pushing yields on almost $20 trillion of government securities to less than 1 percent.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
CNN Money | When will the debt ceiling need to be raised?
If you enjoy the spectacle of lawmakers fruitlessly fighting over the budget, then you're in luck. Congress is expected to have even more time to chase its tail this summer before it must do something concrete -- raise the country's legal debt limit.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Library of Economics | Budget Cuts Seem to Work
Washington Post blogger Mike Konzcal writes that we now have a test of monetary vs. fiscal policy. According to him, fiscal policy won. That is, fiscal policy is more potent and monetary policy is impotent. In fact the very data he cites show the opposite.