Mitt Romney is predicting he could reduce unemployment to 6% in four years, but Jeffrey Miron says the U.S. needs to boost the economy at a faster pace

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Opinion: How to get fast GDP growth

Cuba’s government is taking steps to address the country’s housing crisis, brought on by a struggling economy and years of storm damage and neglect.

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VIDEO: Cuba’s crumbling housing crisis

The juice maker Pom poked a big stick in the eye of the Federal Trade Commission this week. The FTC and the marketer of pomegranate juice have been locked in a legal battle since the agency accused the company of over-hyping the health benefits of its juice and related products. Earlier this week, an administrative court judge slammed Pom for failing to back up claims in some of its advertisements, specifically about the products’ ability to treat or prevent heart disease, prostate cancer and erectile dysfunction. Read full article > >

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Pom tests limits of FTC power with ad campaign

China has turned to the World Trade Organization to help block U.S. tariffs on 22 types of Chinese products, including solar panels, pipes for oil wells, coated paper and steel wheel hubs. The Chinese appeal to the WTO takes aim at the U.S. Commerce Department, which has recently imposed stiff duties on Chinese products. The department has cited Chinese subsidies, especially those funneled through state-owned enterprises, that it says give Chinese firms an edge over American competitors. Read full article > >

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China asks WTO to block U.S. tariffs

President Obama on Thursday nominated Allison M. Macfarlane, a professor of environmental science and policy at George Mason University, to be the next chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Macfarlane, a geologist by training, served as a member of the White House Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, which examined nuclear waste disposal. Read full article > >

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Obama nominates George Mason professor Allison M. Macfarlane as NRC chairman

Over at FT Alphaville, Cardiff Garcia passes along this striking stat from Credit Suisse: Vehicle purchases by consumers alone accounted for 30% of all the GDP growth in the last two quarters. Cars are, ahem, driving the recovery. But will it continue? Auto analysts are expecting another record month of car sales in May: TrueCar.com announced today that it was predicting the highest monthly level of vehicle sales since 2007, up 32 percent since this time last year. Read full article > >

Originally posted here:
Auto sales are propping up the U.S. economy

Say at the end of 2012, Congress can’t strike a budget deal and we reach the dread “fiscal cliff.” Taxes go up, spending gets slashed. Would the U.S. economy fall into recession? The Congressional Budget Office sure thinks so . But Ryan Avent wonders why the Federal Reserve couldn’t just step in. Read full article > >

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Why can’t the Fed just prevent the ‘fiscal cliff’?

The UK economy shrank by 0.3% in the first three months of the year, more than previously estimated, revised figures show.

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Economy shrank more than thought

Regional leaders meeting in Brussels failed to signal concrete steps to stimulate the economy or resolve the competing agendas of the German chancellor and the French president.

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Euro Zone Crisis Boils as Leaders Argue, Failing at Pact

Last week I was looking at a pile of smartphones I’d recently been given to review. The devices were virtually indistinguishable from one another. Slab after slab, no keyboards, no color. Just black blocks with shiny touch screens, maybe a few buttons dotted along the side. Some had fake metal rings that wrapped around the body of the phone, a kind of mimic of the iPhone’s metal antenna. Some went for a matte finish instead of high gloss. All were familiar, and all were uninspired. Read full article > >

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Uninspiring by design

When Mark Zuckerberg’s stated mission to connect and empower people collides with Wall Street’s actual mission, which is to empower and enrich the well-connected, guess which mission prevails? Wall Street’s, hands down. That’s the lesson we can take from the debacle of Facebook’s initial public stock offering. Read full article > >

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In Facebook IPO debacle, Wall Street prevails

Dean Obeidallah says the candidates would like to sell themselves as super heroes for the economy. The truth is not that simple, and voters know it

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Opinion: No ‘Avenger’ in sight for U.S.

Dean Obeidallah says the candidates would like to sell themselves as super heroes for the economy. The truth is not that simple, and voters know it

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Opinion: No ‘Avenger’ in sight for U.S.

At EU summit discussing economy.

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Hollande, Merkel Showdown Expected

Bank of England policymakers voted by 8-1 this month against pumping more money into the economy, but the decision was “finely balanced” for some.

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Bank eyed case for more stimulus