From GovExec.com:
Special counsel finds GSA chief violated Hatch Act
By Daniel Pulliam dpulliam@govexec.com May 23, 2007
A report from the federal agency that investigates allegations of illegal political activity in the government has concluded that Lurita Doan, the head of the General Services Administration, violated the Hatch Act.
Nominal gasoline prices are at an all time high. However, in real terms, April prices were not the highest. May prices might be, depending on how you calculate it (hard to figure it out since May’s CPI is not yet out). From the Washington Post:
In an earlier post on investment, I made the assertion that housing permits led housing starts. This assertion was contested by a number of observers (GWG, rana, spencer, CalculatedRisk). I’ve decided to revisit this question, since clearly, the best characterization of the stylized facts takes on heightened importance given the yesterday’s release, as discussed by Bloomberg:
The results of the Wall Street Journal’s recent survey of forecasts were discussed in an article with the curious title “The Economy Is Clawing Back, but Not Much”.
The March trade figures are in at BEA, and many are surprised. Bloomberg reports:
In previous posts I’ve discussed some of the estimates of aggregate trade elasticities. Some new work presented at a recent IMF conference on Chinese trade suggests that we may need to revise some of our views on the efficacy of yuan appreciation for inducing expenditure switching.
There’s been a flurry of discussion about nonresidential investment in the wake of Paul Krugman’s column (purchase required) on the subject. See commentary at Economists View and Brad Delong.
I thought that it was proper and fitting to evaluate the state of affairs in Iraq four years after President Bush declared the end of major military combat operations in Iraq.
An assessment of real and financial integration, co-authored by Yin-Wong Cheung (University of California at Santa Cruz Economics), Menzie D. Chinn (University of Wisconsin at Madison La Follette School and Economics) and Eiji Fujii (Tsukuba University, Graduate School).