News
Politico | Cap and trade lives on through the states
Nine Northeastern states already take part in a regional trading network that puts an economic price on their power plants’ carbon output, while California has a carbon trading system that is linked with Quebec. The Northeastern states saw their power plants’ carbon emissions drop more than 40 percent from 2005 to 2012, the trading network told EPA in December — without any of cap-and-trade critics’ apocalyptic expectations for such a system.
Bloomberg | Euro-Area Economic Confidence Climbs More Than Expected in May
Economic confidence in the 18-nation euro area increased more than forecast in May, as the European Central Bank considers taking action next month to avert the risk of deflation and spur growth.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Real Clear Markets | Get Ready For the Subprime Mortgage Crack-Up 2.0
In 1991 community advocate Gail Cincotta, in testimony before the Senate Banking committee stated: "Lenders will respond to the most conservative standards unless [the GSEs] are aggressive and convincing in their efforts to expand historically narrow underwriting." The next year Congress imposed affordable housing mandates on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Washington Times | ‘O’ is for Obama’s overregulation
It has always the intention of the Obama administration to remake the American economy, and, in doing so, remake American society at large. Nowhere has this been more evident than in its use of executive branch power — through regulations, executive orders and task force operations — to target industries (and the segments of society that they serve) and bring them to heel to do what the administration wants.
Market Watch | China acquiring recklessly, just as Japan did in 1980s
In a country where almost any pair of people disagree on something, Israel’s biggest food producer, Tnuva, has been a pillar of consensus.
WSJ | Are We Underestimating America's Fracking Boom?
Start with exotic Nazi technology, take a detour with South African apartheidists, and add a bit role for Iranian imams. What you have is—what else? —one of the most improbable and important American business stories of the past decade.
Investors | Why Does Washington Still Suffer From Fatal Conceit Of Central Planning?
F.A. Hayek won the Nobel prize in economics in part because of his prescient warning about what he called "the fatal conceit," of intellectuals, who tend to believe that they are capable of centrally planning life for everyone.
NBER | The Economic Stimulus Payments of 2008 and the Aggregate Demand for Consumption
Using a survey of households in the Nielsen Consumer Panel and the randomized timing of disbursement of the 2008 Economic Stimulus Payments, we find that a household’s spending rose by ten percent the week it received a Payment and remained high cumulating to 1.5–3.8 percent of spending over three months.
Blogs
Market Watch | Robert Shiller: Falling mortgage rates may ‘stimulate’ home sales
Mortgage rates have dropped so much this year – falling about one-third of a percentage point — that the low levels could “stimulate” the housing market, Nobel Prize-winning economist and home-price expert Robert Shiller said Tuesday.
Fortune | A Kickstarter for real estate gets a big boost
Fundrise, a crowdfunding platform that gives neighborhood residents a stake in what gets built, secures a $31 million round from some tech and real estate heavy hitters.
Heritage Foundation | The Economic History Lessons We Never Learned
Are conservatives going to allow liberals to rewrite the history of the Great Recession, just as they so successfully did in writing the fictitious account of the Great Depression, which now appears in almost every American history text?
