General Economics

News                                                                                                                             
FOX Business | U.S. Service Sector Growth Heats Up in July
The pace of growth in the U.S. services sector accelerated in July, picking up from a three-year low as new orders surged to their highest level in five months, an industry report showed on Monday.
Bloomberg | Euro-Area July Services Output Contracts Less Than Estimated
Euro-area services output shrank at a slower pace than initially estimated in July, adding to evidence the economy is gathering strength to pull out of a record-long recession.
Market Watch | Oppenheimer fined $1.4 mln for oversight failure
Brokerage firm Oppenheimer and Co. was fined $1.4 million on Monday by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for "failing to monitor patterns of suspicious activity associated with penny stock trades," according to regulators.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Real Clear Markets | July Unemployment: Ben & Barack Poison the Economy
The July "Employment Situation" report that came out on Friday provided evidence that our economy is being poisoned by the monetary machinations of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and the tax and regulatory depredations of President Obama.
Forbes | How Does President Obama's Economic Recovery Compare To Those Of Other Presidents?
President Obama is on a national economic policy speaking tour, with a series of speeches across the country on finally getting the economy growing again, now in his fifth year in office.  It is a subject long overdue.
Washington Times | The paper recovery
This sounds like good news. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that the unemployment rate dropped from 7.6 percent to 7.4 percent in July as the economy expanded with 162,000 jobs. If that sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is.
CNN Money | Does college still pay off?
Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University, America's largest public university, answers the question of whether a college education is worth its high cost.
Real Clear Markets | Cities Seizing Mortgages Is a Shortsighted Idea
A number of cities around the country are openly considering using their power of eminent domain to seize mortgages instead of property. The idea is for the city to step into situations where homeowners are deeply underwater in their houses, owing much more than the houses are now worth. The city would pay the fair market price to the mortgage holder which would be less than the current value of the house because of the high probability that such borrowers will default.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Economist | Future prospects
“Prospect theory” is an important contribution to the study of economics. It challenges some of the fundamental assumptions that economists have made concerning human behaviour.
Market Watch | State pension assets fell 1% in 2011-12
Total assets in the nation’s state government pension systems fell by about 1% in the fiscal year that ended in June 2012, to a total of $2.52 trillion, according to a report issued today by the Census Bureau. Investment gains by the pension funds and contributions to those funds were outstripped by payouts to retirees, as the aging of the boomer demographic bulge fueled more worker retirements.
WSJ | Why Hasn’t Loan Growth Generated Economic Growth? China’s Central Bank Explains
For economists, the hot topic is why China’s growth is so much lower than its expansion of credit. Money supply has notched increases of close to 15% year-over-year in recent months, but economic growth for the second quarter was only half that rate.
Politico | Cantor says real problem is entitlements, not sequestration
House Republicans are open to rolling back the sequestration this fall in exchange for cuts to entitlement programs, Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Sunday.

Health Care

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
WSJ | Congress's ObamaCare Exemption
To adapt H.L. Mencken, nobody ever went broke underestimating the cynicism and self-dealing of the American political class. Witness their ad-libbed decision, at the 11th hour and on the basis of no legal authority, to create a special exemption for themselves from the ObamaCare health coverage that everybody else is mandated to buy.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
CATO | Free Trade in Medical Services? Bring It On!
The NY Times has a long article about the U.S. medical system, in which it notes how much cheaper things are abroad. I’ll leave it to my colleague Michael Cannon and others to comment on the accuracy of the piece, if they see anything worth commenting on.  
Heritage Foundation | Not So Fast: Congress Is Still in an Obamacare Trap
News broke late last evening about the debate playing out over Obamacare and whether members of Congress and their staffs will get special treatment.

Monetary

News                                                                                                                             
CNBC | Fed tapering will be for wrong reason: El-Erian
A tapering of the Federal Reserve's $85-billion-a-month bond-buying program this year is "almost a given," but there won't be enough economic growth to justify the reduction, Pimco's Mohamed El-Erian told CNBC on Thursday.

Taxes

News                                                                                                                             
National Journal | Dave Camp’s Senate Flirtation Puts Tax Reform on Ice
If the Ways and Means chairman thought a tax-code overhaul was possible this year or next, he wouldn’t be considering a job in the upper chamber.

Employment

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
NY Post | Job gains slow
I hate to sound happy over the fact that the July employment numbers came in well below Wall Street expectations because, well, just because I predicted that would happen.
Fortune | July's jobs bummer: Want fries with that?
July's report on the state of America's job market, released Friday, marked the 34th month in a row in which the economy created jobs at a slow and steady clip. This is better news than very few or no jobs created at all, but it's best to judge by quality vs. quantity.

Budget

News                                                                                                                             
Politico | Senate restores nearly $6 billion for agencies targeted by House
A draft Senate bill would restore close to $6 billion for environmental, arts and Western lands agencies targeted for deep appropriations cuts under the House Republican alternative.
CNN Money | Washington's budget brawl: 8 things you need to know
When Congress returns from its five-week summer break in September, lawmakers will face some make-or-break fiscal issues that they have once again left to the last minute.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
WSJ | Furloughed Fed Workers Boost Underemployment
The number of federal employees working part time but who would prefer full-time jobs more than tripled in the past year, a figure that shows the underlying effect of across-the-board budget cuts on the labor market.
CATO | Now Let’s Try Real Student Aid Reform
The U.S. Senate and House have passed a student loan bill President Obama will almost certainly sign. Bipartisanship lives! But don’t get too excited. Heck, don’t get excited at all: The bill will only deliver minor tweaks to a system that needs elimination, not a screw or two turned a little harder.
WSJ | Vital Signs Chart: Incomes Still 8% Below 2002 Peak
U.S. incomes remain far below prerecession levels. Real median household income rose a seasonally adjusted 0.7% in June from May, according to a study of census data.
CATO | Grand Bargains and Budget Battles
The “Grand Bargain” refers to a yet-to-be-realized agreement between Republicans and Democrats to put the federal government’s finances on a more stable trajectory in which both sides capitulate on long-standing policy positions.