General Economics

News                                                                                                                             
Bloomberg | Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Increased at Slower Pace
Residential real-estate prices increased in June at a slower pace, a sign the rate of improvement in the housing market is cooling.
MSN Money | Food prices heading higher
In recent weeks, I've been talking a lot about the specter of inflation. Most of this has to with the Federal Reserve, the banking system, and other high-finance issues. But there's another source of inflation bubbling up that'll hit every man, woman, and child in this country: Higher food prices.
Bloomberg | Consumer Confidence Index in U.S. Increases to 81.5
Confidence among U.S. consumers unexpectedly increased in August as Americans grew more optimistic about the prospects for the world’s largest economy.
Bloomberg | America Resilient Five Years After Great Recession
Ethan Harris, former chief U.S. economist at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., recalls packing his family photos and top research into a suitcase five years ago on the Friday before the company went under.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
WSJ | Public Colleges Boost Economic Growth
The U.S. makes up less than a tenth of the world's population, but we have more than three-fourths of the world's greatest colleges and universities. Students from all over the world flock to America to obtain college degrees, and as we compete with other nations, America's dominance in this area is a tremendous asset. But affordable, public higher education is quickly disappearing—with grave consequences for the nation's future.
WSJ | Biggest Changes in a Decade Greet Students
Millions of students heading back to school are finding significant changes in the curriculum and battles over how teachers are evaluated, as the biggest revamps of U.S. public education in a decade work their way into classrooms.
Bloomberg | Don’t Blame the Fed for Asia’s Problems
It’s time to set our clocks back in Asia. (ADXY) Not to 1997, as many are recommending, but to 1994.
Mercatus | An Economy Buried by Regulations
A recent news report outlined the rather staggering growth in federal regulations over the years. RegData, a tool developed by myself and colleague Omar Al-Ubaydli for the Mercatus Center, documents how many regulatory restrictions have been put in place by the federal government.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Market Watch | See the cities where home-price growth is cooling the most
Some cities are seeing  moderation in the home prices that have been racing higher for months, according to data released Tuesday morning.
CNBC | The 5% recovery: Why most are still in recession
How strong the economic recovery has been since the Great Recession ended in 2009 probably depends on viewpoint.

Health Care

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Mercatus | Disability Insurance Trust Fund Nears Insolvency
This week’s charts show total receipts, expenditures, and assets left in the Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) trust fund. Data from the 2013 Trustees Report show that the disability fund is currently predicted to be three years from insolvency.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Heritage Foundation | Obamacare Quiz for Employers
In a new paper, Heritage’s Alyene Senger explains how “Obamacare will impose new health coverage costs, the employer mandate, compliance regulations, and new taxes on all businesses.”

Monetary

News                                                                                                                             
CNN Money | Four downsides of a chattier Fed
When Ben Bernanke finishes his term in January, one of his key legacies will be a more talkative Federal Reserve.
Market Watch | Fed's Williams: Hard to return policy to normal
It will be a challenge to adjust monetary policy back to normal, said John Williams, the president of the San Francisco Fed Bank, on Tuesday.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
WSJ | The Danger of an All-Powerful Federal Reserve
Interest rates make the headlines, but the Federal Reserve's most important role is going to be the gargantuan systemic financial regulator. The really big question is whether and how the Fed will pursue a "macroprudential" policy.
CNBC | Lessons learned from the Fed’s $745 billion mistake
Have the Fed's massive interventions to keep down long-term interest rates failed to neutralize expectations driving the bond market behavior?

Taxes

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
CRS | Federal Excise Taxes: An Introduction and General Analysis
This report provides an introduction and general analysis of excise taxes.

Employment

News                                                                                                                             
Politico | Barbara Boxer pushes $10 minimum wage
Sen. Barbara Boxer thinks minimum wage should be raised to be about $10 an hour to help close the ever-growing gap between the working poor and the rich and to promote a healthy nation.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Real Clear Markets | How Far Are We From Full Employment?
The economy has expanded in all but one calendar quarter since the recovery began. Unfortunately, progress in pushing down the unemployment rate and improving worker compensation has been modest.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
WSJ | A Good Omen For Jobless Rate
Consumers think the labor market is improving this month and that could move the Federal Reserve closer to tapering its bond-buying program.
WSJ | Stuck Working Part-Time? Blame the Economy
More than four years after the recession ended, nearly a fifth of American workers are part-timers, well above normal levels. More than 8 million people are working part-time because they can’t find full-time jobs. That’s given rise to fears of deep, structural shifts in the U.S. labor market due to technology, globalization or perhaps the new health care law, which will require companies to provide health insurance to full-time employees.

Budget

News                                                                                                                             
Market Watch | U.S. to hit debt limit in mid-October, Lew says
The U.S. government will hit the debt ceiling and be unable to borrow money to pay its bills in the middle of October unless Congress votes to increase the federal debt ceiling, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Monday.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
National Journal | Fiscal Fights Looming, Can Simpson-Bowles Group Get Congress to Move?
Fix the Debt effort has the cash to make campaigns difficult for uncompromising members. If only it would use it effectively.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Market Watch | Short-term deals on budget, debt ceiling now more likely: analyst
The Treasury Department’s fresh estimate that it will hit the debt limit in mid-October increases the likelihood that Congress will kick the can down the road for a few months, said Stan Collender, a budget expert, in a blog post Tuesday.