Monday round up: Feldstein advocates a weak dollar; Kadlec sees monetary reform taking shape; Ben Stein blames supply-side economics for deficits.

From The WSJ, conservative Keynesian Martin Feldstein of Harvard argues the weak dollar is helping the US economy.

On Forbes, Charles Kadlec reports the beginning of global monetary reform is taking shape.

Also at Forbes, Ralph Benko sees the political landscape turning back towards free markets.

On CBS News, commentator Ben Stein blames supply-side economics for the deficit. (Ben’s father, Herb, was Nixon’s chief economist when the US left the gold standard.)




At Forbes, John Tamny hammers conservatives for not cutting government more.

On CNBC, John Carney suggests President Obama may have won the larger strategic contest behind the debt ceiling debate.

From Australia’s Brisbane Times, Peter Hartcher suggests the US dollar’s reserve status is responsible for the debt crisis.

In The San Antonio Express-News, T.R. Fehrenbach notes the importance of sound money (h/t: Benko).

Bloomberg reports George Soros predicting a financial crisis that will partially disband the eurozone (h/t: Free Banking):



In The NYT, Harvard’s Greg Mankiw, an advisor to Mitt Romney, defends Ben Bernanke’s monetary record.

On TGSN, Ralph Benko notes Adam Smith’s support for fractional reserve banking.

From COAL, Paul Krugman uses median family income to downplay the Reagan record.

Wednesday round up: Kudlow predicts the market will stabilize; Goldman on Greece; American Principles buys ads promoting the gold standard.

From NRO, Larry Kudlow predicts the stock market will stabilize.

At Asia Times, David Goldman recommends expelling Greece from the eurozone.

On Politico, Ben Smith reports American Principles in Action buying Iowa ad time to promote the gold standard and its new Gold Standard Solution webpage:




The WSJ notes the Obama Administration attempting to downplay the anti-growth elements of its agenda.

At TGSN, Ralph Benko discusses the Wizard of Oz and William Jennings Bryan.

On The Kudlow Report, David Malpass assesses the economy:



At Fox News, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (WI) advocates to pro-growth measures, but ignores the dollar.

On NRO’s Corner, Brian Bolduc outlines Gov. Rick Perry’s (TX) recent economic speech.

At International Liberty, Dan Mitchell defends Grover Norquist on tax policy.

From TGSN, Lew Lehrman advises Newt Gingrich to adopt the gold standard as an issue:



On his blog, Republican economist Donald Marron disputes John Taylor’s endorsement of the possibility of five percent growth.

At Forbes, Yaron Brook and Don Watkins refute the idea of the wealth as a pie to be divided by society.

From the Huffington Post, Peter Goodman argues executive pay is soaring while worker pay stagnates.

Monday updates.

At Bloomberg, AEI’s Kevin Hassett challenges C. Fred Bergsten’s case for revaluing the yuan.

NRO’s editorial board explains the flaws in forcing China to revalue.

On CNBC, Song Seng Wun discusses China’s pledge to buy Greek debt and help stabilize the euro:



In The WSJ, Donald Luskin notes the twin threats of a currency-induced trade war and rising tax rates.

On his blog, China basher Paul Krugman claims mutual currency devaluation accomplishes little.

At Café Hayek, Don Boudreaux notes that if China’s currency is undervalued, it amounts to subsidy to American consumers.

On Daily Markets, Mark Perry suggests worker productivity, not the yuan’s price, is why manufacturing jobs declined. (H/T: Café Hayek)

The NYT reports corporations are borrowing cheap but refraining from spending until the economy improves:


At The Sacramento Bee, Robert Higgs of the Independent Institute posits the recession isn’t rooted in declining demand.

Sure, consumer spending accounts for approximately 70 percent of America's gross domestic product, and increases in consumer spending would provide the economy with an immediate boost. But a drop in consumer spending is not what ails the economy. In fact, as a percentage of GDP, consumer spending actually increased during the downturn, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis reports - from approximately 69.2 percent of GDP in the fourth quarter (October-December) of 2007 to approximately 71 percent of GDP in the April-June quarter of 2009.

So the conventional wisdom - that a sharp decline in consumer spending caused the economy's downturn - is wrong.

What did cause the downturn? The answer is: a sharp decline in private investment.

At Forbes, John Tamny argues saving – deferred consumption – is the root of economic progress.

On CNBC, Dan Mitchell debates tax rates.



Also in The Journal, Jeffrey Collins reviews a new Adam Smith biography.

Smith constructed his masterpiece on a few ingenious insights into the workings of a commercial economy. Where his contemporaries calculated national wealth in terms of gold or agricultural output, Smith measured "opulence" by the flow of consumable goods. The division of labor would accelerate the production of goods, he argued, and render manufacture ever more efficient. The division of labor itself was best determined by markets of self-interested individuals. Markets, in turn, operated best when freed of regulation and interference, thus allowing the value and price of both commodities and labor to align themselves.

Friday round up.

On The Kudlow Report, John Rutledge debates China currency policy.



The WSJ editorializes that U.S. CPI and interest rates have been kept down, and the trade deficit elevated, by China's yuan sterilization policy, not its dollar peg.

At cnn.com, Paul R. LaMonica observes rising commodity prices and suggests stagflation.

Australia's Catallaxy Files comments on Brian Domitrovic's Econoclasts and Jude Wanniski.

At The WSJ, Kimberly Strassel suggests the President's stance on tax rates will hurt Democrats up in November.

The WSJ argues the best response to rising poverty is economic growth, and that focus on inequality is counterproductive.

On Fiscal Times, Bruce Bartlett suggests the Bush tax cuts did no economic good.

The Adam Smith Institute offers a primer by Dr. Eamonn Butler on Austrian economics.