General Economics

News                                                                                                                             
FOX Business | Pending Home Sales Fall in October
Contracts to buy previously owned U.S. homes fell for a fifth straight month in October, hitting a 10-month low and adding to signs of cooling in the housing market.
Washington Times | Obama administration nears trade agreement with Asia
The Obama administration is close to completing a major trade agreement with a handful of Asian countries, including Japan.
FOX Business | Economists Cut 4Q U.S. Economic Forecasts
Economists trimmed their forecasts for U.S. economic growth in the final quarter of the year and the first three months of 2014 but predicted a slightly higher rate of job growth over the next four quarters.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Real Clear Markets | The New Corporatism In American Capitalism
The recent release of Nobel Laureate Edmund Phelps' book Mass Flourishing (2013) may be serendipitous, but Phelps' analytic insights definitely add critical perspective on the recent firestorm of business associations' criticism against Tea Party-backed congressional Republicans blamed for the October partial shutdown of the Federal government.
Politico | A Tale of Two Purple States
Republican and Democratic strategists are anxiously awaiting the final results of the excruciatingly close Virginia attorney general’s race, where votes are still being counted. Republicans are already dejected about losing the governor’s mansion in Richmond, and giving up the AG spot would mean that every statewide office in Virginia is now held by a Democrat for the first time in four decades. But the GOP should take heart and learn an important lesson heading into 2014 by comparing its failure in the Old Dominion to what has transpired in neighboring North Carolina, another battleground state that, politically, shares Virginia’s reddish-purple hue.
Real Clear Markets | China's Growth Is In Peril, As Is Its Economy
It has been only a few years since China was widely regarded as an unstoppable economic colossus. For three decades, its economy grew about 10 percent annually; China seemed to be gliding through the global economic storm. Well, maybe not. Many economists - Chinese and foreign - think China's economic model is unworkable.
Real Clear Markets | A Shale Gas Boom In Its Infancy Signals Positive Growth
In the summer of 2013, Liberty - a combined cycle power plant in Pennsylvania- placed an order with Siemens Energy for a delivery of two power blocks. The order, which has a total value of approximately $400 million, includes two H-class gas turbines, two steam turbines, two generators and two heat recovery steam generators, as well as electrical equipment and control systems.
AEI | Stop blaming 'market failure'
Even as the American economy continues to struggle in the Great Recession’s aftermath, Americans continue to blame President George W. Bush and the Republicans for causing the worst economic catastrophe since the Great Depression.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
WSJ | Why Are Colleges Seeing Anemic Tuition Growth?
Anemic net tuition growth is plaguing nearly half of the nation’s colleges, according to a Moody’s Investors Service survey released today. The report spells more hard times ahead for a growing segment of the nation’s schools, which are enduring the first significant and prolonged drop in the number of high school graduates in decades.
The Economist | Economic hazards
The danger for the rest of us from his death, said the BBC’s controversial "That Was the Week" last Saturday, is not that policies will be consciously changed. The danger is rather “that the world liberal movement, which he led, may now become blurred." Nowhere could this risk be greater, because more easily blurrable, than in Mr Johnson‘s unsought surrogate task of world economic leadership.
Library of Economics | GDP: A Bad Measure of Well-Being
Picture this: The U.S. government finally sells the Postal Service. As with other functions moved from the government to the private sector, the privatized post office does what the government did for about half the cost. So, with prices correspondingly lower, people spend roughly half as much as before on mail--which frees them to spend the difference on other desirable things.
WSJ | World Trade Volume up in Third Quarter
The volume of world trade rose in September and in the third quarter, a sign that the global economy is picking up.

Health Care

News                                                                                                                             
National Journal | Companies Expect More to Opt Into Employer-Provided Insurance
Businesses expect over the next year to increase workers' premium contributions, hike the cost of covering family members, and shift them to high-deductible health plans, The Wall Street Journal reports.
WSJ | Companies Prepare to Pass More Health Costs to Workers
Companies are bracing for an influx of participants in their insurance plans due to the health-care overhaul, adding to pressure to shift more of the cost of coverage to employees.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Washington Times | Health care accountability
When the going gets tough, politicians usually get going, looking for the tall grass. Only Democrats voted for Obamacare, and now millions of Americans are coming to grips with the consequences. The millions must find a replacement insurance policy they can afford.
National Journal | Does the IRS Have the Muscle to Enforce Obamacare?
The Internal Revenue Service role in implementing and enforcing Obamacare is the biggest increase in the agency's responsibilities in decades, The Washington Post reports.
Mercatus | No Grounds for Claim That Affordable Care Act Lowers Health care Costs
Public support for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has plummeted now that the oft-repeated claim that “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it” is widely understood to be untrue. Despite previous assurances, millions of Americans are now grappling with ACA-triggered cancellations of their health insurance policies. 

Blogs                                                                                                                             
Market Watch | ‘We don’t need to start over’ on Obamacare: No. 2 House Democrat Hoyer
The No. 2 House Democrat says there’s no need to “start over” on President Barack Obama’s troubled health-care law despite problems with its rollout.

Monetary

News                                                                                                                             
National Journal | Cash Is Dead. Are Credit Cards Next?
It looks like a credit card. It's the size of a credit card. It swipes in credit card machines. But it holds the information of up to eight of your debit, credit, rewards, or gift cards. And you can switch between cards by simply pressing a button.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Bloomberg | Taper Isn’t Tightening as Bonds See No Rate Boost Until ’15
The $11.7 trillion Treasury market is betting on history not repeating as the Federal Reserve moves closer to reducing its unprecedented stimulus.
WSJ | Regulators, Divided Over 'Volcker Rule,' Weigh Going It Alone
Bank regulators are considering passing the 'Volcker rule' without the blessing of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which has been pushing for 11th-hour changes ahead of a year-end deadline to finalize the regulation, according to people familiar with the process.

Taxes

News                                                                                                                             
CNN Money | Highest property taxes in America
If you don't want to grind your teeth at night over your property tax bill, steer clear of Manhattan's New York suburbs and those in northern New Jersey.

Employment

News                                                                                                                             
CNBC | Employment slips for MBA grads: Poll
Fewer business school graduates report landing jobs this year, and it appears that employers are continuing to scale back bonuses and other incentives.

Econ Comments & Analysis                                                                                            
Mercatus | Government-Financed Employment and the Real Private Sector in the 50 States
In 2012, public-sector employment made up more than 16 percent of the US labor market. Direct government employment fails to capture the full impact of government spending on state labor markets.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
WSJ | Most States See Jobless Rate Fall, Even Amid Big Jump in DC
The unemployment rate fell last month in 28 states despite the national figure increasing for the first time since May, the Labor Department said Friday. Missouri and South Carolina registered the largest monthly decline in rates, each down 0.4 percentage point.

Budget

News                                                                                                                             
National Journal | House GOP Prepares Fallback Plan for Budget Deadlines
As the budget conference committee continues to work toward an agreement that would set spending levels for the remainder of this fiscal year and fiscal 2015, House Republicans are contemplating a fallback plan: a short-term continuing resolution that would fund the government through April 15 and buy budget negotiators more time to strike a long-term deal.

Blogs                                                                                                                             
CATO | Congress Should Stand Firm on Spending Caps
Rumors abound that budget negotiators are nearing a possible deal to reverse spending cuts required under the 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA).