Jason's G-Reader @GReaderTweets

EconLog -- Final Notes on The Nazi Officer’s Wife: This is the last in my posts on The Nazi Officer’s Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust. (The first three are here, here, and here.) Sometimes what Edith Hahn Beer calls “personal… dlvr.it/TCdt2j

EconLog -- Are low wages a competitive advantage in trade?: I suspect that the average American assumes that low wage countries have a competitive advantage in international trade. Economists often rebut that argument using Ricardian trade theory. But… dlvr.it/TCdt23

EconLog -- Economists and Price Spikes: Economists frequently react to events differently than most people. Often, critics of economists will say something like “sure, it’s easy for you to say that because of the position you are in, but if you were in… dlvr.it/TCdt13

EconLog -- Protectionism’s Bad Economic History: Protectionism is currently in vogue, gaining support from both the left and the right. This isn’t the first time. As protectionism’s popularity ebbs and flows, it remains a constant presence. Each… dlvr.it/TCdsys

EconLog -- Mandates vs. Deregulation: In a recent Bloomberg column, Tyler Cowen discussed the difficulties involved in paring back regulation: The basic paradox is this: Government regulations are embedded in a large, unwieldy and complex set of… dlvr.it/TCdsdT

EconLog -- The Supply Web: I’m reading J. Doyne Farmer’s recent book, Making Sense of Chaos, for a discussion I’ll be involved in next week. On page 53, Farmer makes a good point, writing: Though we often refer to pieces of the production network as… dlvr.it/TCdsdL

EconLog -- Teaching About Entrepreneurship: [Editor’s note: In her previous post, Temnick talked about how she teaches her students about human capital.] Economics teachers never fail to miss introducing their students to the Factors of Production.… dlvr.it/TCdscz

EconLog -- Are Price-Gouging Laws Communist?: The Economist argues that those calling price-gouging laws “communist” are wrong. Three-fourths (at least) of American states, whether dominated by Democratic or Republican governments, have them on the books… dlvr.it/TCdscY

EconLog -- Moral Parity and Emergent Morality: This is my second of two posts on Matt Zwolinski’s criticism of the moral parity thesis, looking at the second (and to me, more interesting) objection to moral parity. To Zwolinski, the “basic problem” with… dlvr.it/TCdsbv

EconLog -- Why Housing is Important: Noah Smith has a post that advocates policy reforms to encourage more construction of housing.  At one point he makes the following observation: Housing policy is incredibly tough in America — and in most other… dlvr.it/TCdsZp

Calculated Risk -- Housing Starts Decreased to 1.238 million Annual Rate in July: From the Census Bureau: Permits, Starts and Completions Housing Starts: Privately-owned housing starts in July were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,238,000.… dlvr.it/TCdsYh

Calculated Risk -- Friday: Housing Starts: Note: Mortgage rates are from MortgageNewsDaily.com and are for top tier scenarios. Thursday: • At 8:30 AM ET, Housing Starts for July. The consensus is for 1.342 million SAAR, down from 1.353 million… dlvr.it/TCdsXr

Calculated Risk -- Realtor.com Reports Active Inventory Up 35.5% YoY: What this means: On a weekly basis, Realtor.com reports the year-over-year change in active inventory and new listings. On a monthly basis, they report total… dlvr.it/TCdsWM

Calculated Risk -- MBA: Mortgage Delinquencies Increased in Q2 2024: Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: MBA: Mortgage Delinquencies Increased in Q2 2024 A brief excerpt: From the MBA: Mortgage Delinquencies Increase in the Second… dlvr.it/TCdsSz

Calculated Risk -- NAHB: Builder Confidence Declined in August: The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported the housing market index (HMI) was at 39, down from 41 last month. Any number below 50 indicates that more builders view sales… dlvr.it/TCds87

Calculated Risk -- Industrial Production Decreased 0.6% in July: From the Fed: Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization Industrial production fell 0.6 percent in July after increasing 0.3 percent in June. Early July shutdowns concentrated in the… dlvr.it/TCds7q

Calculated Risk -- Retail Sales Increased 1.0% in July: On a monthly basis, retail sales increased 1.0% from June to July (seasonally adjusted), and sales were up 2.7 percent from July 2023. From the Census Bureau report: Advance estimates of U.S.… dlvr.it/TCds7N

Calculated Risk -- Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims Decrease to 227,000: The DOL reported: In the week ending August 10, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 227,000, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week's revised… dlvr.it/TCds6c

Calculated Risk -- Thursday: Retail Sales, Unemployment Claims, Industrial Production, Homebuilder Survey: Note: Mortgage rates are from MortgageNewsDaily.com and are for top tier scenarios. Thursday: • At 8:30 AM ET, The initial weekly… dlvr.it/TCds5t

Calculated Risk -- Cleveland Fed: Median CPI increased 0.3% and Trimmed-mean CPI increased 0.2% in July: The Cleveland Fed released the median CPI and the trimmed-mean CPI. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, the median Consumer Price… dlvr.it/TCds4z