Maybe things aren’t as awful as we thought? Kind of an OK week for the stock market, in part reacting to nondismal news. Companies are borrowing again . New unemployment claims are down . The U.S. trade deficit is narrowing .
Austan Goolsbee is now head of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Thank goodness, because Christina Romer was really dragging her feet on the dilemma of state income apportionment .
Engines of destruction. So happy to see someone call BS on the “small businesses are the engines of growth” myth.
A pinch of Basel III. The suspense is killing me! We’re rooting for higher common equity requirements. Aren’t we? Wait, unless that will hurt lending, as some banks argue . But it won’t, say the markets . Anyway, it all starts this weekend (and it will end in tiers ).
Speaking of Europe. Who says Germany’s economy isn’t growing fast enough? Why, pretty soon, you’ll be able to legally ride a bus from one city to another !
