Almost anyone can buy a home these days, thanks to specialty mortgages that lower the financial threshold for admission into the hot real estate market.

The W. P. Carey School’s top economists weighed in on conditions in Arizona and across the nation at the Annual Economic Outlook Luncheon.

The general consensus on Arizona’s economic outlook for the second half of 2013 is this: Arizona, like the nation, is likely to continue growing, but slowly. In some areas of the economy -- like jobs -- we’ll have to get used to a new normal.

As analysts debate the possibility of a double dip in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), many would argue that the economy cannot move into a sustainable recovery without improvement in housing.

Output of the national economy in the second quarter (Q2) of the year grew at an inflation adjusted annualized pace of 1.3 percent. While the Q2 rise in GDP was an improvement over the 0.4 percent increase in Q1, the gain was the second weakest since the recovery began in mid-year 2009.

Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius received the W. P. Carey School’s 2011 Lawrence R. Klein Award for Blue Chip Forecast Accuracy in a ceremony on October 20, 2011.

The U.S. economic recovery is anemic. Unemployment is high, and housing is depressed. Gyrations in the stock market leave investors dizzy. But in these difficult times there is cause for optimism, from the standpoint of both individual investors and the U.S.

A sharp surge in inventories helped U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grow by 3.0 percent in the final quarter of 2011, according to the latest figures from the U. S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The "big danger" facing Europe today is not the collapse of the Eurozone, but the drift toward a more centralized fiscal union, according to Nobel Prize Laureate and Regents Professor Edward C. Prescott. He spoke at an executive forum held June 9 at the Shanghai National Accounting Institute.

In this video, three leading economists discuss fiscal policy, including the Federal Reserve’s dual mandate, the “Taylor Rule,” the 2009 stimulus package, the efficacy of temporary tax rebates and the financial crises in Europe.