News
FOX Business | JPMorgan Kicks Off 4Q Bank Earnings With a Beat
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) disclosed a 7.3% slowdown in fourth-quarter profits on Tuesday, but managed to surpass forecasts thanks to lower loan-loss reserves that helped offset slumping investment-bank revenue.
CNN Money | Retail sales edge higher in December
This holiday season wasn't the Christmas miracle that retailers were hoping for, but sales were slightly higher in December.
Market Watch | NFIB small-business optimism index rises
The small-business optimism index of a trade group rose 1.4 points to 93.9 in December, according to data released Tuesday.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Fortune | The unspoken underside of emerging markets: personal security
If you were offered an attractive job in Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, or another high-potential emerging market, would you take it? Or would you think seriously about whether you really wanted to bring your family there, and wonder if you'd be able to sleep at night worrying about their safety?
WSJ | America's Dwindling Economic Freedom
World economic freedom has reached record levels, according to the 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, released Tuesday by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal. But after seven straight years of decline, the U.S. has dropped out of the top 10 most economically free countries.
Investors | New Mortgage Rules Another Empty Obama Promise
Misregulation: The president's new consumer credit czar is doing a victory lap in the media over new mortgage rules, which go into effect this week. He claims they'll stop another crisis. What a screaming joke.
Washington Times | Why is America losing its economic freedom?
For generations, people worldwide who yearn for freedom have looked to the United States. Here, every citizen can speak his mind, pursue his passion and exercise other God-given liberties that are unjustly denied many others around the globe.
Market Watch | U.S. economy can stand on its own, forecaster says
With household and federal balance sheets in better shape, the U.S. economy is increasingly able to stand on its own and will be able to shrug off the effect of somewhat higher interest rates this year, says Avery Shenfeld, winner of the December Forecaster of the Month award.
AEI | Europe’s outlook in 2014
An unhealthy sense of complacency about Europe’s economic and political outlook pervades European policymaking circles. It does so despite the fact that the European periphery’s economy is still very depressed, which is driving a disturbing political divide between the euro’s southern and northern member countries.
Blogs
WSJ | More Detailed Data on Income, Growth and Spending Coming This Year
The Commerce Department will roll out several new reports this year to measure the U.S. economy with more detail at the local and industry level.
Heritage Foundation | Paul Ryan: Government Traps the Poor
How to boost the poor out of the “poverty trap?” Stop letting the government keep them there, Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) says.
WSJ | Half of U.S. Counties Haven’t Recovered From Recession
About half of the nation’s 3,069 county economies are still short of their prerecession economic output, reflecting the uneven economic recovery, according to a new report from the National Association of Counties.
