What is Going on in the Economy Other Than the Regulation Overhaul

Here are some of the top economic stories from today and last week that aren’t about financial sector regulation:

• US recession a boon for foreign banks

• SEC charges former Countrywide mortgage lending CEO with insider trading

• Our debt to GDP ratio is starting to look like Japan during the Lost Decade—and that’s a bad thing (see our Avoiding an American Lost Decade study)

• IMF predicts a 2.5% drop in US economy for 2009

• Civil war at the Fed? Governors start pressuring rate increased to head off inflation

• Ezra Kiein wonders why economists are such powerful figures today, though if you consider that some of history’s most influential economic theorists were also philosophers, sociologists, and academics of various arts, the connection isn’t that hard to make

• Housing development projects increased 17.2% in May

• May Economic Summary in Graphs (Calculated Risk)