News
Market Watch | China premier vows no hard landing for economy
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang vowed that his nation's economy will not suffer a so-called "hard landing," according to comments carried by the state-run Xinhua News Agency.
Market Watch | U.S. leading economic index rises 0.5% in May
Signaling that economic growth could pick up in coming months, the leading economic index for the U.S. rose 0.5% in May to 101.7, the Conference Board said Thursday.
Daily Signal | Economic Crisis Survival: Germany Shows That Preparation Is Key
Germany is one example. Reunification meant great opportunity for Germany, but it also meant a prolonged period of economic weakness. The fiscal and structural reforms lawmakers made in response continue to pay dividends to this day.
Econ Comments & Analysis
National Review | An Increasingly Expensive Chicken in Every Pot
The idea of economic tradeoffs is strangely difficult to grasp for policymakers and the public alike. Rising home prices are frequently treated as though they were an unmitigated good, which they are — if you already own a home. If you’re looking to buy a home, rising home prices are an expense. But homeowners — older, wealthier, more likely to vote — are politically more powerful than prospective buyers, who are generally younger, less wealthy, and less likely to vote.
WSJ | Immigration Reform Can't Wait
When I learned that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor had lost his Republican primary, my heart sank. Not simply because I think he is an intelligent and talented member of Congress, or because I worry about the future of the Republican Party.
WSJ | Why the U.S. Needs to Lift the Ban on Oil Exports
The U.S. has, with minor exceptions, banned the export of crude oil since the early 1970s. For most of the following decades this did not matter, as U.S. appetite for imported oil seemed insatiable. But it matters now, and it will matter more in the years ahead. While it may seem paradoxical, exporting U.S. crude will increase, not reduce, domestic oil supplies and lower, not raise, domestic gasoline prices.
Real Clear Markets | What Is the Federal Government Hiding About Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
At present the United States is embroiled in litigation with Fairholme Funds over the so-called Third Amendment to the Senior Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement (SPSPA) that it entered into on August 17, 2012.
Heritage Foundation | Why Is Federal Housing Policy Fixated on 30-Year Fixed-Rate Mortgages?
Robust mortgage financing exists in virtually every developed nation in the world without the degree of government involvement found in the U.S. While the U.S. homeownership rate is about average among developed nations, U.S. citizens typically pay among the highest interest rates in the industrialized world. Still, many groups argue that eliminating the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would imperil mortgage financing in the U.S.
Blogs
WSJ | Four Rules of Thumb to Gauge How Oil Prices Hit the Economy
A story in today’s Journal shows the U.S. may be more insulated from the hazards of the international oil market than in the past. But rising oil prices still have ripple effects on the U.S. economy. Here are some handy rules of thumb we worked out with Deutsche Bank chief U.S. economist Joseph LaVorgna to monitor how this could play out.
CBO | CBO's Projections of GDP Per Capita
After CBO participates in Congressional hearings, the Members of the Committees before which we have testified often send us questions that they did not have time to ask during the hearings themselves. Our answers to such “questions for the record” are ultimately included in the reported proceedings for those hearings.
CATO | Debunking the Induced-Demand Myth
“Building bigger roads actually makes traffic worse,” asserts Wired magazine. “The reason you’re stuck in traffic isn’t all these jerks around you who don’t know how to drive,” says writer Adam Mann; “it’s just the road that you’re all driving on.” If only we had fewer roads, he implies, we would have less congestion.
NY Times | Detroit Rolls Out New Model: A Hybrid Pension Plan
In the face of Detroit’s tumultuous bankruptcy proceedings, in which multiple parties are quarreling to protect their interests, the city and its unions have quietly negotiated a scaled-back pension plan that could serve as a model for other troubled governments.
