News
Bloomberg | Consumer Comfort in U.S. Climbs to Highest Level in Eight Months
Consumer confidence rose last week to its highest level since August as Americans were more upbeat about being able to provide for their families than at any time in six years.
CNN Money | Obama fails to secure breakthrough in Japan trade talks
The unwieldy trade pact is a major priority for the Obama administration, but progress has stalled after 20 rounds of negotiations spread over a period of years have failed to produce a consensus.
Bloomberg | Orders for Durable Goods Poured Into U.S. Factories in March
Orders for durable goods poured into American factories in March, setting up manufacturing as one of the central drivers of a rebound in economic growth during the second quarter.
Market Watch | 30-year-mortgage rate rises to 4.33%
The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 4.33% in the week that ended April 24 from 4.27% in the prior week, according to a Thursday report from federally controlled mortgage-buyer Freddie Mac
Econ Comments & Analysis
Washington Times | Protectionists blocking trade with Asia
The White House had hoped to use the president’s visit to Tokyo this week to announce a breakthrough in trade talks, as Mr. Obama embarks on a four-nation tour of Asia. Now it appears that won’t happen. “A stalemate continues,” said Japanese economics minister Akira Amari, according to Reuters.
WSJ | Telling Students to Earn Less
The federal student loan program is becoming so costly to taxpayers that even President Obama is pretending to fix it. Readers will recall Mr. Obama as the man who has spent much of his Presidency expanding this program, creating new ways for borrowers to avoid repayment, and then campaigning about these dubious achievements on campuses nationwide.
Investors | The Left's Advice Would Bring A Second Great Depression
One oddity of the current economic debate is that the more Barack Obama's incompetent income-redistribution policies have failed, the more the left calls for more government-intervention policies to correct for the deficiencies of the earlier rounds.
Mercatus | An Analysis of Global HFT Regulation: Motivations, Market Failures, and Alternative Outcomes
Recent market events like the “flash crash” of 2010, algorithmic failures at Knight Capital, and the release of Michael Lewis’s book Flash Boys (2014)—with his claims that markets are “rigged”—have heightened scrutiny of high-frequency trading (HFT) and increased demands for more aggressive regulation. However, HFT has several empirically demonstrated benefits, and the current, largely qualitative arguments against it call for careful scrutiny of proposed regulations.
AEI | A new housing bubble?
Even though the recent financial crisis is barely in the rearview mirror, risk is starting to build once again in both the U.S. mortgage and housing markets.
Blogs
WSJ | World Trade Weakens in Early 2014
Each month, the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis–also known as the CPB–aggregates measures of imports and exports for 96 countries around the world, plus sub-Saharan Africa. It provides the most up-to-date measure of trade flows available, which has a close correlation with global economic growth.
Library of Economics | There's only one sensible way to measure economic inequality
Consumption is the bedrock upon which essentially all of economics is built. We assume that all economic activity is aimed at creating consumption (defined broadly to include the value of leisure time, and non-market factors such as clean air.) Of course one could raise objections to this view, but as we'll see if you don't at least start with consumption, you are likely to reach absurd conclusions.
