On the 4th quarter GDP report:
Felix Salmon is thinking Goldilocks.
On Chinese sanctions:
Macro Man is succinct: "protectionism=bad". Jonathon Dingel claims, however, that the sanctions are "authorized under WTO rules, so the US action is not a blatant act of protectionism."
In a somewhat related vein, there was some reaction to Wednesday's Wall Street Journal front page article highlighting Alan Blinder's second thoughts about free trade. In short...
He thinks the U.S. education system must be revamped so it prepares workers for jobs that can't easily go overseas, and is contemplating changes to the tax code that would reward companies that produce jobs that stay in the U.S.
... and Andrew Samwick is not impressed.
On subprime lending:
Free exchange, from the Economist, links to Austin Goolsbee making good sense, and then adds some good sense its own:
There seem to be some cases of abuse in the subprime market... But it's not clear that this has been very widespread. Even in a very bad subprime market, the overwhelming majority of homeowners will continue to make their payments, benefitting (one presumes) from the ability to own a home and build some equity.
And keith at Housing Panic links to comforting comments from Bloomberg:
"The contagion isn't that big a problem,'' [head of Bears Stearns' mortgage business Tom] Marano said. "I don't see the risk as being that significant at this point.''
On the Chairman's testimony: Macro Man is not impressed.