News
Bloomberg | Builders in U.S. Begin Work on Fewer Houses Than Forecast
The pace of U.S. home construction declined more than forecast in January, indicating an unusually harsh winter probably played a role in slowing projects.
Bloomberg | Waning Mortgage Refinancings Make New Deals Safer, Moody’s Says
A trend of fewer homeowners refinancing their mortgages as interest rates climb is helping to curb sales of home-loan bonds without government backing. It’s also making new notes being issued safer, according to Moody’s Investors Service.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Real Clear Markets | 1% v. 99%? No, It's Affluent, Squeezed, and Entrenched Poverty
The inequality debate is dominated by binary thinking. Scholars typically worry about the gap between rich and poor, the ‘haves' and ‘have nots' or - most recently - between ‘the 99% and the 1%.'
Reason | Why It’s So Hard to Figure Out What the Stimulus Did
Five years after the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the biggest fiscal stimulus in the nation’s history, the debate over its success hasn’t changed very much.
Market Watch | Crash of 2014: Like 1929, you’ll never hear it coming
Imagine, you’re in the exciting new 21st century. Civilization still exists on Planet Earth. Wall Street’s still in business. But you’re still asking: Why can’t we hear the next crash? Are we deaf? No. The warnings are always long and loud. So why can’t we “hear” them? In fact, it’ll get worse. Here’s why ...
CATO | Welfare, Here and Abroad
How bad have things become? The British newspaper the Telegraph recently looked at the growth in welfare spending in industrialized nations and found that such spending (including health-care and pension programs) had grown faster in the United States since 2000 than in any country in Europe except Ireland, Spain, and Portugal.
Blogs
WSJ | Tech Gains Won’t Offset Future Growth Slowdown, Argues Economist
For Robert Gordon, an economics professor at Northwestern University, the U.S. economy’s best days, economically speaking, are in its past.
Library of Economics | Bastiat just rolled over in his grave
The Administration has released a report defending the ARRA program, and it's every bit as embarrassing as you might expect.
