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    America’s Regulatory Competiveness Continues to Lag

    According to the World Bank’s just-released Doing Business 2013—which looks into various reform measures to rank 185 economies on the ease of doing business—the United States continues to trail Singapore, Hong Kong, and New Zealand. The only surprise is that the U.S. didn’t drop further in the rankings. According to … More

    Morning Bell: Heritage Experts Analyze Final Presidential Debate

    Last night’s debate between President Obama and Governor Romney was supposed to focus on foreign policy. It turned into a wide-ranging conversation on everything from the Middle East to American teachers. Heritage Foundation experts were live blogging analysis throughout the night. Below are some highlights from their reactions. Join us … More

    Chinese Money Mysteries Solved

    The Wall Street Journal this week observed that money is leaving China. It has been doing so off and on since the economic crisis began, and during the last 18 months the amount of gross outflow may have been as much as $300 billion. This, however, sounds more important than … More

    Debate 2012: Seven New Claims—True or False Quiz

    The second presidential debate was full of claims about the economy, taxes, and regulation. Many of the top 10 true and false claims made during the first debate were repeated during the second. But there were also new claims warranting a closer look. We’ve selected seven new claims in this … More

    Wells Fargo Mortgage Suit: Using Existing Powers to Confront Housing Problems

    Last week, Wells Fargo, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, was sued by the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan for allegedly defrauding the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). This is just the latest proof that additional regulation of major banks’ mortgage lending is not needed. As a series of recently filed lawsuits shows, … More

    Morning Bell: Heritage Experts Analyze Second Presidential Debate

    During last night’s debate between President Obama and former Governor Mitt Romney, Heritage’s policy experts were live-blogging their analysis of the ideas discussed. Below are some of the highlights of our experts’ reactions to the major points made. Join us today at 11 a.m. ET for a Google hangout as … More

    Chart of the Week: Avoiding Taxmageddon Is Not a Tax Cut

    On January 1, 2013 nearly $500 billion in tax hikes will go into effect. In other words, “Taxmageddon.” Separating truth from fiction in politics, however, is not as clear, as The Heritage Foundation’s Curtis Dubay and Romina Boccia point out in last week’s analysis of the vice presidential debate: About … More

    What Caused Drop in Unemployment Insurance Claims?

    The news that new Unemployment Insurance (UI) claims dropped sharply to 339,000 last week has raised eyebrows—and aroused suspicion the Department of Labor had massaged the numbers. In truth, there is both more and less to this story than meets the eye. The numbers are incomplete, but because of bureaucratic … More

    The Odd September Unemployment Rate: When Good Surveys Produce False Results

    What’s behind the seemingly sudden drop in the unemployment rate? While the economy stumbles along, no one would expect a sudden jump in employment. Job growth has averaged about 100,000 per month over the past six months, roughly consistent with other economic indicators suggesting slow growth. But the Labor Department … More

    Morning Bell: Anemic Job Growth Continues

    Job growth continues to sputter—this morning’s jobs report shows that 12.1 million Americans are still out of work. Going against other economic indicators, the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent. Economists are already looking into the drop, saying it seems to be a statistical fluke, because it doesn’t match up … More