News
WSJ | U.S. June Auto Sales Keep Climbing
Low interest rates and a brighter economic outlook drove U.S. new-vehicle sales higher for most major auto makers in June, allaying worries of a market slowdown and setting the industry up for a strong second half.
Econ Comments & Analysis
FOX News | Washington's bad policies stunt job growth
Thursday, the Labor Department is expected to report the economy added 211,000 jobs in May. In line with the pace so far this year, that is far short of what is needed to keep up with population growth and genuinely reduce unemployment.
Investors | Correcting The President: The Free Market Works
A couple of years ago, President Obama, speaking on the economy, told an audience in Kansas: "The market will take care of everything, they tell us. ... But here's the problem: It doesn't work. It has never worked. ... I mean, understand, it's not as if we haven't tried this theory."
WSJ | 'Mixed-Income' Housing Won't Spur Upward Mobility
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has made the production of "affordable housing"—the political term for subsidized construction or rentals—a centerpiece of his progressive mayoralty. His goal is much more ambitious than additional housing for families with low and moderate incomes. Instead his priority is to ensure that people in different income groups live in the same neighborhoods, using zoning in particular. "Economic diversity," states the city's plan to build or preserve 200,000 affordable units, "must be a cornerstone of housing development."
Real Clear Markets | We're Stuck With Fannie & Freddie, So Let's Neuter Them
The model of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as "GSEs" (government-sponsored enterprises) was a profound mistake. Virtually everybody agrees with that. In retrospect, it was also an obvious mistake. Just imagine anybody wanting to hyper-leverage half the mortgage market on the taxpayers' credit card, so the profits were private and the losses public, create an enormous credit risk concentration in Washington DC, and inevitably curry political favor by increasing risk.
CATO | Tenure Isn’t the Problem, Government Is
Tenure takes a lot of abuse from a lot of well-intentioned people. Ensconced in a top-down education system in which kids and dollars primarily flow to schools based on home addresses, tenure is a considerable inefficiency. But tenure itself is not the problem; the system is.
Blogs
WSJ | GDP is Down, But What Do Payrolls Say About A New Recession Risk?
U.S. gross domestic product shrank by 2.9% in the first quarter of 2014, by far the worst quarter since the recovery began in mid-2009. But GDP is only one indicator to monitor if the U.S. is slipping into renewed recession. So far the monthly jobs report is one of the key pieces of evidence that the expansion will continue.
WSJ | Fed Research Paper: Rise in Partisan Conflict is a Drag on the U.S. Economy
Partisan political bickering is driving up government budget deficits and holding down job creation, business investment and overall U.S. economic growth, according to new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
