On June 14, the House Committee on Financial Services held a hearing on the Dodd-Frank legislation and the problem of “too big to fail” financial institutions.
On June 14, the Census Bureau released new data on business ownership. It finds that more than half of all businesses are home-based.
Also on June 14, the journal Democracy published a symposium on fostering entrepreneurship.
On June 13, the Council on Competitiveness published a report on improving manufacturing competitiveness based on a survey of university presidents and national lab directors.
In a June 10 commentary, Morgan Stanley said that it believe the current economic slowdown is just a brief soft patch. It’s optimistic about a growth rebound due to strong motor vehicle sales that will lead to increased production, declining gasoline prices, and continuation of an easy money policy by the Fed.
On June 10, University of Chicago economist Raghu Rajan posted a commentary suggesting that low interest rates are holding back growth because it greatly reduces interest income for savers, which causes them to reduce consumption.
In a June 9 commentary, Stanford economist John Taylor argued that the end of monetary and fiscal stimulus is not responsible for the economic slowdown. He didn’t say what is responsible.
On June 7, the Census Bureau released new data on minority-owned businesses. Between 2002 and 2007, growth in the number of such firms was double the rate for all businesses.
A June 6 working paper from the European Central Bank examined the relationship between consumer confidence surveys and consumption spending, a key determinant of short-run growth.
On May 24, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development created a new website devoted to comparing its member countries on various measures of happiness.
Bruce Bartlett is an American historian and columnist who focuses on the intersection between politics and economics. He blogs daily and writes a weekly column at The Fiscal Times. Bartlett has written for Forbes Magazine and Creators Syndicate, and his work is informed by many years in government, including as a senior policy analyst in the Reagan White House. He is the author of seven books including the New York Times best-seller, Imposter: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy (Doubleday, 2006).
