News
FOX Business | Buying a Home Could Become Easier for Some
The Federal Housing Finance Agency acknowledged on Tuesday what many frustrated mortgage applicants have been saying for several years – credit terms have become so stringent that many deserving applicants are getting rejected.
Bloomberg | Recession-Baby Millennials Shun Stocks After U.S. Slump: Economy
“They thought that this was an incredibly risky proposition,” said O’Shaughnessy, 29, of O’Shaughnessy Asset Management in Stamford, Connecticut, which has about $7 billion under management. “I found pretty universal skepticism.” He plans to publish a book this year on young people’s finances.
WSJ | Obama to Speed Infrastructure Permits, Highlight Highway Funding Squeeze
President Barack Obama on Wednesday will announce plans to speed up permits for building roads, bridges and other infrastructure, part of a broader effort to highlight the administration's focus on transportation as a highway trust fund runs dry.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Alhambra Investment Partners | Best Way' To Create Systemic Poverty
The primary argument in favor of “aggregate demand” policies, or at least attempts at demand-side “stimulus”, amounts to putting more money into the economy as spending. You hear it all the time, as in give money to people that do not have it now and they will spend it, thus creating a “pump priming” that stirs the economic engine as a whole to full health and circulation. In other words, spending begets more spending, and then investment and so on.
Politico | Sallie Mae agrees to $97M settlement over servicemembers’ student loans interest rates
Student loan servicer Sallie Mae and formerly affiliated companies have agreed to pay a total of $97 million to settle claims that it charged members of the military too much interest on their loans — and the Education Department will review whether additional federal action, including termination of its contract with Sallie Mae, is necessary.
Fortune | Where can the middle class actually afford to buy a home?
Buying a home is still cheap relative to renting in much of the country, but for the middle class living in America's most desirable cities, homeownership is a pipe dream.
Washington Times | Obamanomics: It’s not working
This time it was in a political speech in Los Angeles to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, in which he claimed that since 2007, the GOP had mounted hundreds of filibusters to block legislation that would have helped the middle class.
WSJ | Stopping Keystone Ensures More Railroad Tank-Car Spills
The Keystone XL Pipeline got another nail in its coffin Monday, in the form of a Senate energy vote that excluded the pipeline issue. But Keystone was already near death thanks to the Obama's administration's recent decision to ignore the evidence of a definitive government study—and instead keep listening to environmentalists' dubious claims. The upshot will be more political fires in Washington caused by train derailments in the absence of a pipeline to transport oil more safely.
Fortune | The bigger beef between Tim Geithner and his critics
Former Mitt Romney adviser Glenn Hubbard claims that Tim Geithner's book contains false information on Romney's tax plans. But the bigger point of contention between the two has to do with saving struggling homeowners during the financial crisis.
CATO | Inequality Myths
From President Obama to Paul Krugman, ThomasPiketty to Elizabeth Warren, the Left has adopted “inequality” as the cause of the day. They paint a picture of a new Gilded Age in which a hereditary American gentry becomes ever richer, while the vast majority of Americans toil away in near-Dickensianpoverty. It’s a compelling political narrative, one that can be used to advance any number of policy proposals, from higher taxes to increases in the minimum wage.
Blogs
WSJ | U.S. Economy Contracted In First Quarter, Latest Figures Show
A couple weeks ago, the Commerce Department said U.S. economic output expanded at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.1% in the first three months of the year. A near-stall for the economy, for sure, but at least it wasn’t worse.
Market Watch | New Fannie, Freddie goals may boost Wells Fargo, J.P. Morgan Chase, analysts say
New guidelines for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will support Wells Fargo, J.P. Morgan Chase and other lenders, with a regulator directing the federally controlled mortgage-finance giants to support credit access and curb banks’ exposure to mortgage risk, analysts noted Wednesday.
WSJ | Drop in Food Stamp Enrollment Picks Up Steam
The number of Americans receiving food stamps is now falling at a faster clip, with more than 1.2 million people moving out of the program between October and February, according to federal data.
Library of Economics | Shall we obey unjust regulations?
"One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws," so goes the old, venerable quote by Martin Luther King. But what about unjust regulations? Typically businesses play by the rules. Some of them play with the rules, by engaging in the political process.
