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Weekend Must Reads

Washington, Jul 13 -

Wall Street Journal: Housing Reform Breakout

The House GOP moves to revive the private home mortgage market. 

New York Times: Diverging Debate at Fed on When to End Stimulus

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday that the Fed was likely to extend the centerpiece of its campaign to bolster the economy — keeping short-term interest rates close to zero — even as it prepares to wind down another key stimulus program that faces mounting internal opposition.

Washington Examiner: Costs spiral for CFPB’s lavish new headquarters as Congress fumes

Renovation costs for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new headquarters building have doubled, soaring from $55 million to $95 million.  Such costs are at least twice the typical renovation expenses for the most luxurious commercial office space available in downtown Washington, DC, according to architectural experts.

Washington Post: Fed leaders knew they were blowing it at their last meeting, and other tidbits from the FOMC minutes

The Federal Reserve released minutes of its June 18-19 meeting Wednesday afternoon. You may remember the meeting itself as a humdinger. There was no substantive policy change, but the reaction to Chairman Bernanke’s press conference afterward, where he discussed the Fed’s likely pathway toward ending its program of quantitative easing, prompted a huge global selloff of stock and bond markets (and a week of Fed officials trying to walk back any perception that the Fed will be raising interest rates anytime soon).

CNBC: Mortgage Rates Rising, But There Are Plenty of Alternatives for Home Buyers

Rising rates are a worry: 30-year fixed rate mortgages have gone from 3.5 percent to about 4.5 percent in the past month. That's not great, but concerns that the housing recovery may be choked off by this is a bit premature.

Mercatus Center: Regulation, Growth and Labor Market Recovery

It has now been a full four years since the end of the Great Recession. Unfortunately, the US labor market is far from recovery. We are looking at a decade before the labor market is close to being fully recovered. Our primary focus should be on encouraging the economic growth that we need to push our labor market into full recovery mode.

An article highlighting Rep. Bill Huizenga’s Small Business Mergers, Acquisitions, Sales and Brokerage Simplification Act of 2013