News
CNN Money | 7 setbacks for the middle class
Five years into his presidency, Barack Obama is still falling short of his number one goal: to fix the economy for the middle class.
CNN Money | Jack Lew: U.S. could grow by 3% this year
The U.S. economy is off to such a good start in 2014 that annual growth could hit 3% for the first time since 2005, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said Thursday.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Market Watch | U.S. goal: Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee
U.S. economic strategy resembles the famed rope-a-dope. America absorbed ferocious punishment in the current economic downturn. Despite weaknesses, it remains capable of dominance. U.S. strategic superiority may allow it to maintain its geopolitical and economic advantage.
Bloomberg | Contagion Spreads in Emerging Markets as Crises Grow
The worst selloff in emerging-market currencies in five years is beginning to reveal the extent of the fallout from the Federal Reserve’s tapering of monetary stimulus, compounded by political and financial instability.
FOX News | Despite rise in inequality, climbing the economic ladder hasn't gotten harder since the 1970s
Young Americans from low-income families are as likely to move into the ranks of the affluent today as those born in the 1970s, according to a report by several top academic experts on inequality.
FOX Business | Will Inventory Kill Housing's Recovery?
The housing market has been on a steady recovery, but there is one major obstacle that could potentially slow down its momentum: tight inventory.
Real Clear Markets | Orwell Lives, As Recession Is Redefined As Recovery
It is becoming more obvious by the month, even by the day, that standards for economic comparison are being as devalued as any debased currency. You see it everywhere and in nearly every form of account. Where growth used to be common, it is now seen as nothing more than a wellspring of hope, drawn to in times of less sober analysis as nothing more than a warm memory of better days gone by.
Washington Times | The income-inequality excuse doesn’t cut it
Throughout his economically troubled presidency, Barack Obama has had as a governing strategy political distraction: blaming his failures on others in an attempt to convince enough Americans that he’s not at all responsible for an underperforming, jobless economy.
AEI | Retirees aren't headed for the poor house
There is a widespread perception that most Americans are inadequately prepared for retirement. The story pushed by pundits and policy makers is that the shift over the past 30 years from defined-benefit pensions to defined-contribution savings plans such as 401(k)s has dramatically reduced retirement income to supplement the benefits provided by Social Security.
Blogs
WSJ | Another Look at China’s GDP Numbers
Did Thursday’s surprise fall in one of China’s purchasing manager indexes give you pause about the pace of Chinese economic growth? Some indices had already said that China’s economy was doing worse than advertised.
WSJ | Existing Home Sales Approach a New Normal
Higher mortgage rates, weather and few homes on the market hurt sales of existing homes at the end of 2013. Sales increased 1.0% in December, to an annual rate of 4.87 million, below economists’ expectations, and the November sales pace was revised down to 4.82 million.
CATO | Should Free Traders Support Free Trade Agreements?
With the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations allegedly near completion, the transatlantic talks kicking into higher gear, and debate in Congress over U.S. trade policy objectives about to intensify, 2014 is shaping up to be the most consequential year for the trade agenda in a long time. Whether real free traders should rejoice over these developments depends on the emerging details, as well as the ability to avoid making the perfect the enemy of the good.
