News
FOX News | Rent or buy? Economist explains why owning a home still beats renting
Whether to rent or buy a home is one of the toughest choices for young people these days. A recent Deutsche Bank study compared renting vs. the cost of owning a home in 54 cities.
CNN Money | Summer drivers to get a break on gas
April was a bad month at the pump for drivers, but prices could be lower by the time summer driving season kicks off at the end of this month.
CNN Money | Office Depot to close at least 400 stores
Office Depot will close at least 400 U.S. stores, shedding more than 20% of the stores it now operates in the U.S. after its merger with rival OfficeMax.
Bloomberg | Growing Exports Shrink U.S. Trade Gap as Global Demand Stirs
The biggest gain in U.S. exports in nine months helped narrow the trade deficit in March, pointing to a revival of global demand that will help the world’s largest economy strengthen.
Market Watch | U.S. home prices climb 1.4% in March: CoreLogic
U.S. home prices grew 1.4% in March to take the year-over-year gain to 11.1%, CoreLogic said Tuesday.
CNBC | US economy: Blame misaligned policies, not structural flaws
Investors need not worry about naysayers' myriad structural flaws of American economy. Some of these problems do exist, most are fanciful, but none are currently responsible for America's Mediterranean style output gap.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Fortune | Housing still a weak investment, bond fund manager says
Your house is a terrible investment, and it's getting worse. Of course, that's good news for home shoppers. Prices are likely to fall from here.
Forbes | As The Obama Era Ages, Scapegoating Mounts
The greatest editorialist of our age, Joseph Rago of the Wall Street Journal, is at it again. Over the weekend, Rago profiled two investors in Philadelphia who are resisting government pressure to admit that they did something wrong when trading in the electricity marketplace. The investors’ case is that everything they did was transparently legal. The feds don’t care—if they apply pressure, they want a settlement.
Washington Times | Obama’s interstate highway-robbery scheme
The White House is far from done with the promised “fundamental transformation” of society. Secret courts issue general warrants enabling the government to listen to every telephone call and read every email. Drones take to the skies to monitor everyone below, and still the administration is not satisfied. President Obama’s transportation reauthorization bill, released last week, would demolish one of the greatest American accomplishments of the 20th century in a way that will create one more opportunity to spy.
Fortune | What public pensions should (and shouldn't) disclose about their private equity investments
America's public pension systems invest billions of dollars into private equity and venture capital funds each year, typically disclosing such commitments during open board meetings. After that, however, the veil of secrecy begins to descend. In most cases, public pensions never disclose how each fund performs, instead reporting only aggregate portfolio returns.
Mercatus | While Regulatory Spending and Output Increase, Economic Analysis of Regulations is Often Incomplete
Federal regulatory agencies consume enormous amounts of time and resources in producing approximately 3,000 final regulations each year. Agencies have seen sizable increases in their budgets in the last several years, as they have added thousands of new rules and requirements to the books. Unfortunately, the evidence suggests that these increases have not necessarily meant resources have been used well.
Blogs
WSJ | U.S. Trade With Russia Grows in March Despite Ukraine Crisis
Rising U.S.-Russian tensions over the continued disorder in Ukraine didn’t derail trade between the two Cold War rivals in March, the same month Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula.
Library of Economics | The economy should be "left alone to sort things out" during a recession
Broadly speaking, there are three approaches to stabilization policies and business cycles
