News
CNN Money | Natural gas at record highs during cold snap
Prices for natural gas and propane hit record highs this week as temperatures plummet in many parts of the country.
FOX Business | U.S. Oil Jumps to Highest Level this Year on New Pipeline
Oil rose more than a dollar on Wednesday to settle at its highest price this year on the startup of a new major pipeline, expected to help eliminate a bottleneck that has depressed the U.S. futures for three years, and on expectations that frigid weather in the Northeast would prompt strong demand for heating fuel.
CNN Money | Michigan governor offers $350 million for Detroit pensions
Michigan's governor proposed Wednesday that the state provide up to $350 million to help Detroit exit bankruptcy and protect city pensions.
Bloomberg | Sales Climb as U.S. Housing Market Adjusts to Rates: Economy
Sales of previously owned homes climbed in December for the first time in five months, capping the best year since 2006 and indicating the real-estate market is starting to adjust to higher borrowing costs.
Market Watch | Leading economic index edges up 0.1% in December
The leading economic index for the U.S. rose 0.1% in December to 99.4, marking the sixth gain in a row, the Conference Board said Thursday.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Bloomberg | Obama Recovery Fails to Resonate as Americans Left Behind
Just as the world’s largest economy is finally getting better, the public’s opinion of President Barack Obama’s handling of it is getting worse.
Forbes | The Divided And Troubled State Of California
It’s a New Legislative Year. That means it’s time for California Governor Jerry Brown to give his “State of the State” address. Undoubtedly, Brown along with his California Democrats and their supportive media will claim that California is in good shape. The truth, however, is that California is facing real problems and is deeply divided economically and politically.
Washington Times | Obama’s sequestration alarmism was dead wrong
President Obama’s bogus promises, predictions and claims are legendary, but perhaps you’ve forgotten his “sky is falling” forecast about the $85 billion budget sequestration.
Fiscal Times | The 5-Decade Plan for a Successful Retirement
A Morningstar report released last month got a lot of attention: It claimed that retirement savers relying on common financial planning assumptions and rules of thumb could be building a nest egg as much as 20 percent larger than what they actually need.
WSJ | New Data Muddle Debate on Economic Mobility
The odds of a child moving up the economic ladder have remained about the same for the past three decades, according to a comprehensive new study that contradicts the narrative in Washington that economic mobility has declined in recent years.
Blogs
Washington Post | 10 startling facts about global wealth inequality
On Monday, Oxfam published a startling report showing that the richest 85 people in the world are worth more than the poorest 3.5 billion.
WSJ | When Thinking about Retirement, Beware the Averages
When contemplating all those stories, charts and advice columns about how financially prepared Americans are for retirement: Beware the averages.
Heritage Foundation | Does Inequality Hurt Innovation or Entrepreneurship?
When you’re fixated on a particular problem, it’s easy to see the problem everywhere. Much of the political left is currently obsessed with income inequality, to the exclusion of job creation, economic mobility, or economic freedom. That means they see the consequences of income inequality in some unlikely places.
Café Hayek | Price Controls as A Tool to Fight Poverty
As I wrote somewhere earlier (I cannot now find the link), most economists, I’m sure, would correctly regard a policy of government mandated price-ceilings on the goods and services bought disproportionately by the poor to be a disastrous means of raising the real incomes of the poor.
