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Economy

Reason.tv: Give Us Liberty? Q&A with Dick Armey & Matt Kibbe of Freedom Works

Here’s a post with two Tea Party supporters, one of whom was once Republican majority leader in Congress. There are differences between the Tea Party movement and libertarianism, but simarities, too. Here’s a description from Reason accompanying the video: Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK7j4bBqhtY Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is the latest victim of the Tea Party insurgency that’s…

Unemployment Rate Rises in August

The unemployment rate rose to 9.6% in August. Although private payrolls increased, they did so by an amount too meager to prevent an increase in unemployment. There’s no better time to reduce government’s twin burdens of taxation and regulation. See, Unemployment Rate Rises in August.

Foreclosures creep higher – JSOnline

A preliminary count by Madison-based ForeclosureAlarm.com showed 2,511 filings in courts around the state last month, compared with 2,484 in August 2009…. Russell Kashian, a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater professor who tracks foreclosures in the state, put the blame on the job situation. “You aren’t going to see a real improvement in foreclosures unless you see…

Carmen Reinhart Warns That Economic Recovery Could Be Slow – NYTimes.com

At the recent meeting of federal bankers in Wyoming, there was sobering news: Ms. Reinhart’s paper drew upon research she conducted with the Harvard economist Kenneth S. Rogoff for their book “This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly,” published last year by Princeton University Press. Her husband, Vincent R. Reinhart, a former director…

Second-Quarter GDP Growth Revised Downward – WSJ.com

The U.S. economy grew more sluggish than initially estimated in the second quarter, and corporate profits nearly dried up, further evidence that the recovery is losing steam. Gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced, rose at an annualized seasonally adjusted rate of 1.6% from April to June, the Commerce Department said…

Sorman: The Financial Crisis Seen [Clearly] Through Free-Market Eyes

Guy Sorman of City Journal writes at length in the Dallas Morning News about the financial crisis: As in the 1930s and 1970s, so today: Crises are a serious problem, but misguided economic policy makes them worse. After the 1930s, only war production could overcome the negative economic consequences of the New Deal. After the…

Those Who Paved the Way

Over at Economics21, James Capretta assessed the American economy through a Mid-Year Update. Capretta’s assessment relied on Office of Management and Budget projections: The numbers are eye-popping. The budget deficit in 2010 is expected to set a record at $1.471 trillion – or 10% of GDP. In 2011, the administration projects the deficit will again…

The Recovery Was An Illusion But That’s A Good Thing — Forbes

Sy Harding, in Forbes: Yes, the economic recovery was an illusion. So let’s not talk of double-dips. Let’s face the reality that the real economy’s first dip is still underway, that the real economy is still scraping along a bottom. That’s not a bad thing. It’s better than the thought that the economy recovered but…

LaToya Egwuekwe’s Decline: The Geography of a Recession

Journalist and blogger LaToya Egwuekwe created a depiction of the recession entitled, The Decline: The Geography of a Recession that is as powerful for being so startling. Here’s that depiction, showing the spread of the recession through the increase in unemployment across America: Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ssIhiD8kKM. Sad and astonishing in its subject, this is a video…

June jobs report reveals recession’s still-tight hold on [Wisconsin] state

The report’s findings confirm one thing, and suggest a second. First, regardless of the different solutions economists have for remedying our troubled economy, there’s general agreement that difficult conditions persist. Second, although the state is seeing hard times, not every community will feel the same hardships. Unemployment is not uniformly distributed across the state. Some…